CheerpJ for education

CheerpJ runs Java teaching material and course software in the browser, on the Chromebooks and iPads students already use. The original material stays as it is, and students open it in a browser tab.

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Schools and universities we work with

The Java applications CheerpJ runs in education

CheerpJ is a complete Java runtime, built from OpenJDK and compiled to WebAssembly. It runs your compiled applications as they are, including third-party and obfuscated code, on Java 8, 11, 17 and 21, with Java 25 in preview.

That includes Oracle applications with Java clients, such as Oracle Forms, Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle Discoverer, as well as other vendors’ applications and the ones your own developers built.

Applets

Simulations and interactive exercises built as applets run in modern browsers again.

Java Web Start applications

Course and lab software launched through Java Web Start opens from a browser tab.

Desktop applications

Swing and AWT teaching tools, such as visualisers and lab software, run in the browser as they are.

Java libraries

Students can write and run Java in the browser for programming courses, as they do on Hebbian’s platform.

What works in the browser

Files

Users upload files to the application, and files it saves arrive as browser downloads.

Printing

The application prints through the browser.

Copy and paste

Copy and paste work inside the application, and with other applications when you turn it on.

Networking

HTTP requests go through the browser. TCP and UDP connections go through Tailscale, with the control server on your own network.

Windows and keyboard

Applications keep their multiple windows, and their keyboard shortcuts pass through the browser.

Audio

Applications play sound through the browser.

For your security review

The browser sandbox

The application runs inside the browser’s sandbox, under the same security model as your other web applications, and reaches files and the network only through browser APIs and their permissions.

Hosted on your own servers

CheerpJ is a set of static files you host on your own web servers, including on segregated and air-gapped networks.

Updates from one place

You update CheerpJ and the application on your servers, and staff get the new version the next time they open it.

Bringing Java simulations back to the classroom

How PhET Interactive Simulations put its legacy Java simulations back in front of students on Chromebooks and iPads, without rewriting them.

Case study

57 legacy Java simulations back on Chromebooks and iPads

PhET Interactive Simulations at the University of Colorado Boulder provides over 150 research-based simulations for teaching science and maths, as free educational resources. As schools moved to Chromebooks and iPads, teachers lost access to the ones built in Java, and rewriting them in HTML5 was costly and slow. With CheerpJ, PhET published browser versions of 57 legacy Java simulations.

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Talk to us

Tell us about your teaching material and the devices your students use, and we’ll help you plan the next step.

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Try the extensions

The CheerpJ browser extensions let you try your applets in Chrome or Edge.

Get the browser extensions

Build with Java for the browser.

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