How can I extract data from a Java applet (inside the browser)

Well, well, here we go...

We have a java applet running on a regular browser (ff4+ or ie5+).

I do NOT have access to the java code / servlet. Nor even to the server.

I NEED to send/retrieve data from this applet. This means i must emulate an user onto it by clicking buttons and filling form's textboxes and also r开发者_StackOverfloweturn data (after server response) wich ll be inside textboxes.

So the technologies avaibles to be used are C, VB, .NET (webbrowser object mainly), PHP (cUrl avaible), JavaScript, Sniffing the browser/server communication using Fiddler.

We really need this. But if thats impossible so we may have to know also. The data is owned by my company so no copyrigth is inflicted.

Also i'm open to non traditional solution such as saving the html as an image and then retrieve the data using some OCR software...

Well so any suggestion or pointing directions would be gratefully appreciated.

Thx

Paulo Bueno.

Having to emulate a user browsing is wrought with problems and i would suggest an alternate route, if its feasible. These are the steps I would take:

1. Grab the applet class or jar from my cache (anyone accessing the page / applet can do this).
2. Decompile the code into Java source (Using jad or other preferred tool)
3. Review the process with which the applet communicates to the service
4. Write an application to submit my data to the service that the applet connects to and handle any responses just as the applet would.

You can run any applet without a browser using the "appletviewer" that is shipped in a JRE. This way it is possible but not practicable to read and send fake input with http://code.google.com/p/windowlicker/ to control the SWING GUI.

But within a regular browser environment with access to the code you would rather do this:

using the "scriptable" and "mayscript" attributes/elements in your object tag. standard browser JREs include a "plugin.jar" that contains the needed function to do this job. This interface lets Java-Applet code communicate vice versa to Javascript, from wich you can do whatever you want (i.e. ajax request)

this topic is rather complex, so check out what google tells us:

http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/applets/_APPLET_MAYSCRIPT.html http://www.raditha.com/java/javascript.php

Using this interface is a real pain, so i suggest to implement HTTPRequests within your applet to tell the PHP server whatever you want to tell it.

regards, Michael

I do NOT have access to the java code / servlet. Nor even to the server.

Emm... It is quite unusual situation. If you have the applet, of course, you should have access to its src files to modify :)

I NEED to send/retrieve data from this applet. This means i must emulate an user onto it by clicking buttons and filling form's textboxes and also return data (after server response) wich ll be inside textboxes.

Anyway, to "emulate" user you can use the Robot object but still it will demand you to modify the applet code to make it support some additional functionality... As I can remember, JS etc cannot control Java Applet from the outside commands unless the applet does contain JS supported functionality for web page interaction... But still you say you don't have any access to the applet src so there is no information does the applet support netscape.javascript or not and how it support it so it is quite unclear... So I must ask do you have any docs of this applet?

Comming around the question text and getting back to the question title itself which says

"How can I extract data from a Java applet (inside the browser)"

I may suppose to say that To extract data from Java Applet you can use netscape lib which supports Java Applet and JS interaction example, docs. That is the most optimal way in this case

Good luck

Might not be too difficult to de-compile/change/compile again the applet unless it is obfuscated. I use JAD. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31353/is-jad-the-best-java-decompiler

If you must get your data by interacting with the java applet instead of reverse engineering it, check out FEST (Fixtures for Easy Software Testing). FEST is designed for testing Java Swing GUIs by simulating user interaction, but you can easily use it to automate your applet as well.

Check out the documentation page on testing applets to get started.