Chrome dropped Java support

Question

I use Java applets in my application, today I surprisingly saw the redirect from my page and the next message from java

In details I've read about Chrome dropping 'NPAPI' support

Recently, Google has revised their plans and now state that they plan to completely remove NPAPI by late 2015. As it is unclear if these dates will be further extended or not, we strongly recommend Java users consider alternatives to Chrome as soon as possible. Instead, we recommend Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari as longer-term options. As of April 2015, starting with Chrome Version 42, Google has added an additional step to configuring NPAPI based plugins like Java to run — see the section Enabling NPAPI in Chrome Version 42 and later below.

So will it be handled by Java somehow or it is the death of my applet in the next year ?

Crowl

Hate to break it to you, but applets have been dead for a long time now. This is just the final nail in the already rotting coffin. Consider deploying as a packaged executable instead. Sadly, that's our only real option for now. – Affixation

This is a question to ask Oracle; all anyone on SO could do is speculate. – Guardroom

Your only options are converting your applet to a chrome app (which can still be native but not java) or finding support to get java compiled under pnacl. – Mathamathe

You can use java webstart to launch an applet outside the browser. – Metallic

@Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen, how can I call launched using webstart applet's java methods from browser ? – Crowl

I do not understand your question. – Metallic

I mean from web page (javascript) now we are able to call java methods. But If we'll use webstart, then, I suppose, applet runs as single OS application and we have to use some other method of communication (f.e. from our server send some data to clients applet(which will listen on some port). Am I right? – Crowl

Answer 1

As of Chrome Version 42, an additional configuration step is required to continue using NPAPI plugins.

In your URL bar, enter: chrome://flags/#enable-npapi Click the Enable link for the Enable NPAPI configuration option. Click the Relaunch button that now appears at the bottom of the configuration page.

Chemism

Answer 2

So will it be handled by Java somehow ..

If they found a way, that would be a bug in Chrome (that would quickly be fixed).

..or it is the death of my applet in the next year ?

Yep. Not that they were really that 'healthy' for a long time now.

Cobham

Answer 3

Java applets are not dead. There are a lot of intranet web applications that use them, for instance, for digital signature with applet-javascript-web page interaction. Other option is migration to Firefox.

Thymelaeaceous

Answer 4

I saw a demonstration that A Plugin written in Pepper API (PPAPI) can launch an executable and communicate with it. Oracle says at here " This change does not affect Web Start applications, it only impacts applets." But the problem is that browser downloads jnlp file but doesn't launch it. User has to click that jnlp file (of course .jnlp file association should be OK).

I think Oracle write a plugin to launch Web Start application and communicate with it for sending cookie etc. If It is written Applets can convert to Web Start applications with less effort.

Anthracosilicosis