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Putting a browser in your app?

We typically use a ton of html -- which is undeniably good. But when trying to bust out of the browser to elude browser constraints, people seem to be most receptive to tossing aside the browser's cross-platform benefits and settle for a Visual Basic app with a MS Internet Control hosting the html mark-up when needed. When it comes to deadlines and promised/proven tech, I can see why.

I've been wanting to duplicate this sort of functionality from within a Java stand-alone (not something hacked to an external app/browser or something written in another language, pref'bly), and have only turned up three solutions. There's the ICE Browser (http://www.icesoft.no/), which seems to be the most mature solution, but it seems to carry a nice hefty "private corp" license tag -- which loses out to the MS IC every time. The second is Sun's own HotJava browser (http://java.sun.com/products/hotjava/3.0/), which, as far as I can tell, never made it past version 3 (somewhat on par with NS 3.0) several years ago. The HotJava HTML Component Bean looks like it would have been perfect, but it was discontinued several versions before the browser itself and is no longer available for download.

The final answer is to roll my own outta Swing, which I've hacked around on a bit. Needless to say, a HotJava Bean, especially on par with HotJava 3.0, would be so much better I can't put it into words. Someone recently mentioned an AWT atop OpenGL as a neat way to lose all your free time; this looks like another. :(

Anyhow, anyone else facing similar trouble getting MS IC-like functionality into a cross-platform app? Better yet, any suggestions for solutions? I'm afraid until I can find a good replacement, most apps that have html content are stuck in VB land! Ack! :^)

Thanks for the help,

Ruffin Bailey

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email@hidden | Database Management Systems Group
TPMC.com contractor | NOAA Coastal Services Center
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