If you've ever needed to deploy Java applets, you may have found the
information on best practices scattered, inconsistent, and unreliable.
Applet-Fu is a small JavaScript library that makes it easy to deploy
applets by taking advantage of Web standards and features already
supported by mainstream browsers.

Applet-Fu solves four important problems when deploying Java applets in
hetergeneous environments:

(1) Eliminates "Click to Activate" message in Internet Explorer.
    See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eolas
 
(2) Specifies minimum Java plugin version, and
    uses the browser's own built-in mechanism for installing it if needed.

(3) Enables interactive fallback content to be displayed in the event that
    the Java plugin is not functional.

(4) Uses the <object> tag, which replaces the deprecated
    <applet> tag in HTML 4.

Usage: applet_fu.run({attribute1:value1, attribute2:value2, ...},
                     {parameter1:value1, parameter2:value2, ...},
                     minimumVersion, fallbackContent);

For example, to run an a 550x320 applet from the jar file 'myapplet.jar'
using the class 'com.example.MyApplet' with a startup
parameter 'foo=bar', a minimum JVM version of 1.4.2, and an image
called 'no-java.png' as fallback content, use the following:

applet_fu.run(
  {'width':'550','height':'320'},
  {
    'archive':'myapplet.jar',
    'code':'com/example/MyApplet.class',
    'foo':'bar'
  },
  '1.4.2',
  '<img src="/no-java.png" />'
);

Compatibility:

Applet-Fu has been tested on:
-  Microsoft Internet Explorer 6/7/8 (Windows);
-  Firefox 2/3 (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux);
-  Safari 3 (Mac OS X);
-  Google Chrome (Windows);
-  Opera 9 (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux);
-  Java 1.4/1.5/1.6.

Browsers, operating systems, and the Java plugin are each offered in
numerous incremental revisions ("minor revisions"). As such, it is
impossible to guarantee the effectiveness of this method with every
combination of minor revision. 

If you find a problem with Applet-Fu, please consider submitting a bug
report to:

http://github.com/metamolecular/applet-fu/issues