Why bother converting Java applets to JavaScript?

Java applets for web applications have become outdated and clumsy, requiring the user-install of Java, updated security certificates, and use of specific browers. Thousands of web sites depending upon these applets are no longer functional. By converting Java applets to JavaScript, we can regain the functionality of these resources, returning these web pages to active service to education and science.

This website was created to demonstrate and archive the applets from some of our earliest efforts that we successfully converted to JavaScript without need for extenstive rewriting of the Java code or starting de novo back in 2015-2018. Note that due to incremental changes in the underlying code, some of them are not up to current standards. Still, we hope you find them interesting and useful. They are not "ported" to JavaScript. They are not recreated in JavaScript. The JavaScript "applets" are created in parallel with standard Eclipse-based Java development, along with their Java counterparts. In the end, we have the original functional Java applet or stand-alone application, and we have its virtually identical JavaScript counterpart, with all the layout, events, and functionality of the original. One of the most powerful and important features of Java -- reflection (the loading of classes on the fly, only as needed) -- is fully preserved, providing the modularity necessary for complex web application development.


Converted applets, sorted by: Name first


Get In Touch

SwingJS is a project of the Bob Hanson's research group at St. Olaf College, in Northfield, Minnesota, as part of the AFLOW Project. If you have thoughts/questions about SwingJS, need assistance with SwingJS, or you have an applet you would like us to convert, just shoot us an email. We'd love to hear from you!