jQuery and Java applets

Question

I'm working on a project where we're using a Java applet for part of the UI (a map, specifically), but building the rest of the UI around the applet in HTML/JavaScript, communicating with the applet through LiveConnect/NPAPI. A little bizarre, I know, but let's presume that setup is not under discussion. I started out planning on using jQuery as my JavaScript framework, but I've run into two issues.

Issue the first:

Selecting the applet doesn't provide access to the applet's methods.

Java:

public class MyApplet extends JApplet {
  // ...
  public String foo() { return "foo!"; }
}

JavaScript:

var applet = $("#applet-id");
alert(applet.foo());

Running the above JavaScript results in

$("#applet-id").foo is not a function

This is in contrast to Prototype, where the analogous code does work:

var applet = $("applet-id");
alert(applet.foo());

So...where'd the applet methods go?

Issue the second:

There's a known problem with jQuery and applets in Firefox 2: http://www.pengoworks.com/workshop/jquery/bug_applet/jquery_applet_bug.htm

It's a long shot, but does anybody know of a workaround? I suspect this problem isn't fixable, which will mean switching to Prototype.

Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

For the first issue, how about trying

alert( $("#applet-id")[0].foo() );

For the second issue here is a thread with a possible workaround.

Quoting the workaround

// Prevent memory leaks in IE
// And  prevent errors on refresh with events  like mouseover in other  browsers
// Window isn't included so as not to unbind existing unload events
jQuery(window).bind("unload",
function() {
        jQuery("*").add(document).unbind();
});

change that code to:

// Window isn't included so as not to unbind existing unload events
jQuery(window).bind("unload",
function() {
        jQuery("*:not('applet, object')").add(document).unbind();
});