Advanced features of Applet creation.

 In the page on Applet creation we gave a method for turning a GeoGebra activity into an applet. It gives the "preferred method" for creating an applet where each activity is turned into a single html page with the GeoGebra activity file encoded into the applet tag and the GeoGebra jar file obtained from the server at geogebra.org<.  That method is preferred and it is generally the best method.  However there are times we want use other options.  This page looks at three options:

1. Have the html page use local jar files rather than calling back to the central server.
2. Have the html page get the GeoGebra activity from a separate file rather than from the applet tag.
3. Connect several activities in a single html page with switching done by tabs.
   

We could also create the files in such a way that we can run them locally, without an Internet connection.  (You were warned that this is for advanced users.)

Practically, there are two things that we want to do differently:

1)    Instead of using the main GeoGebra server, the web page calls local jar files.

2)    Instead of using the ggbBase64 encoding in the hmtl file, we use a ggb file.

Start creating the web page as before.  Now save the activity as a ggb file in the same folder.

Now we want to make local copies of the jar files that our web page retrieved from

http://www.geogebra.org/webstart/4.0/

 That location actually redirects in a number of different directions depending on the variety of GeoGebra that is being used.  We will go to

http://www.geogebra.org/webstart/4.0/unpacked/

Here we find copies of the 10 jar files referred to in the html page, along with a version file and one jar file we did not use.  Save each jar file to the MyApplet folder.

From a practical point of view this means that there are now 12 files to deal with, 10 jar files and two more that are specific to our particular activity.

It also makes changes to three key lines of the html file.

The codebase has gone from "http://www.geogebra.org/webstart/4.0/">" to "./".

The line that began
param
has been replaced with a line that uses
param.

The line with the image for the loading gif has been deleted.

The multiple file method lets you run without the Internet.  It is obviously a hassle and should only be used when being able to run without the Internet is worth the hassle.  It also makes it easier to modify either the web page or the ggb construction.  It should be noted that the GeoGebra activity is encoded in the ggbBase64 line, so that line can be copied and pasted from one html file to another. 

 Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license, Mike May, S.J. maymk@slu.edu