Name: jk109818 Date: 02/20/2002


FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
1.3.1-b24, mixed mode
1.4.0-b92, mixed mode
plus the appropriate Plug-in's:
CAFEEFAC-0013-0001...
CAFEEFAC-0014-0001...

FULL OPERATING SYSTEM VERSION :
NT 4.0 SP6

ADDITIONAL OPERATING SYSTEMS :
Windows 2000 SP2
Windows XP
SuSE Linux 7.1
Windows 98


EXTRA RELEVANT SYSTEM CONFIGURATION :
Applets are embedded in various HTML pages, loaded from
webserver on our embedded devices.
The Applets play an important role in the webbased UI of our
device.
We just ported them from Java1.1/awt to Java2/Swing.
The Applets/JAR's always include some 10KBytes of classes
necessary to communicate our protocols over Sockets.
Some devices have fast Internet access, some are mounted to
remote locations, where they access Internet via very slow
connections.
For each device there are only a couple of users, sometimes
within an Intranet only, sometimes scattered all over the
world.



A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
Before Java2 Plug-in has loaded the Applet... one has to
watch a grey box (with
Opera it's a cream-white box and with Netscape+Java1.4 the
grey box can be turned into a BOXBGCOLOR-box after a few
moments). After that finally the GUI can appear.
Every time they switch to another or the same HTML page with
another or the same Applet the same thing starts all over.

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
1. Install Java2 JRE / Plug-in
2. request HTML-page with Java2-Applet
3. see grey (Opera: cream-white) box and wait for
BOXBGCOLOR-box (only Netscape) to appear instead of original
box and wait for GUI or image or ... to be finally
displayed.

see for example:
http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/1.4/demos/plugin/jfc/Jav
a2D/Java2Demo.html


EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
For us it is not a feature we can use to see the progress of
loading an applet.

An acceptable alternative from our point of view would be:
==========================================================

Optional:
---------
Add a tab to the Plug-in Control Panel, where the user can
customize this grey-box-feature (e.g. background color,
foreground color, progressbar, message etc. and buttons to
turn this on and off and back to default).

Absolute MUST:
--------------
applet-parameters where one can define the things described
in the above paragraph
you might say, it's already possible, BUT if you load a page
with Applet in a browser with the latest plugin 1.4 you get
a grey box at first, then the box changes as defined for
BOXBGCOLOR etc.
for our users this means flickering eyes every other minute
when they switch to another page and back - and the feeling
of waiting for the grey box to be filled...

This bug can be reproduced always.

CUSTOMER WORKAROUND :
we are working on it, but not there yet.
currently we test this workaround:

- use dummy applet implementing Runnable, painting
everything white and start actual Applet from its run-method
- define BOXBGCOLOR and the other parameters for message and
progressbar etc. all with same color
(Review ID: 139916)
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