Re: browser screen capture with java applet
mikeyjudkins@yahoo.com wrote:
All this is possible. What is the purpose of it?
I am exploring the idea of developing a web-based service aimed at web
designers/developers which allows you to view your page design within
multiple browsers and platforms to ease cross platform design
headaches. The closest thing to this right now is a site called
browsershots.org. There are also a number of more intricate pay
services aimed at enterprise level use. But there are some issues with
these and also areas in which I think my model would be differentiated
and in many cases better than the above services. Anyway the purpose of
the applet would be to do the job of the actual image capturing on each
"target" browser and then to send this image back to the server for the
requestor to see.
All that could be done from within a webstarted application*,
and it will be easier to deploy, and lower maintenance.
* Except perhaps for determining the shape/size of
current browser window - if that's relevant. A Java applet
could ask via JS for the size of the content area of a
browser window.
Can you also specify minimum Java version?
Each target browser would be run by a host (in a distributed network)
who would have received in advance precise instructions for running the
applet which does the screen capture. I think that would address the
minimum Java version.
Once Java hit version 1.3 - the WebStart files allow you
to specify a minimum Java version to run the app., Java
WebStart takes care of prompting the user to download/install
it - then runs the app.
What about the browser make/version?
(I'm guessing yes to the former, no to the latter,
but will only know when you answer the question
above..)
It would require that the applet support a wide range of browsers and
platforms (Mac, Windows, Linux, with the full range of modern browsers)
as this is pivital to the concept of the service.
This is where you are going to run into problems with the applet.
Is it expected to be up and running in a separate browser
window to the target window?
You mentioned frames, so the other possibility is to embed
the applet in a hidden frame and the content page in a different
frame. But frames and cross-domain(?) web pages are a
nightmare in themselves, let alone throwing applets into the mix.
Will a screenshot of 'the entire screen' serve the purpose
of your end users (this decreases the complexity of determining
what to get a screencapture of), or did you want to trim it to
just the rendered area? If trimmed, would user interaction
be considered reasonable (e.g. "drag a 'crop box' around
the image of your page")?
My background is with front end design/PHP/Perl, but not so much the
Java side. So, pending some more investigation, I may be looking for an
applet developer to assist. I was considering checking elance, but, if
any of this sounds interesting, Im open to collaboration. Im sure
someone out there already has 90% of the work done already.
I doubt there is any money to be had from this, in itself
(In case that is where you wanted to take it). It would
seem there are already too many free services about that
offer something similar or other services that are
'good enough for the purpose'.
As another trend, developers of HTML are tending (slowly)
to move toward more valid (semantically marked-up) HTML
with simple styles that are kept in CSS files stored externally
(so they can be hidden form old browsers) and also validated.
As that progresses, the motivation to 'check it in a dozen
browsers' becomes ever less.
Andrew T.