Any workaround to getting Copy/Paste working in JDK 7 AWT Applet on Mac?

Question

Since Apple forced the update to JDK 7 on Mac, old AWT applets no longer support copy/paste. For example, if you visit:

Simple AWT Textfield Example

you cann

Answer 1

Here is a great and very detailed walk-through to do it the official Java way using their policy tool:

http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/resources/InstructionsCopyPaste/

Here is a quick summary of the instructions:

1. in Terminal.app type "policytool" and hit [Enter]
2. dismiss any error message and choose "Save" from the "File" menu
3. save as ".java.policy" (with a preceding dot) in your user's home directory
4. click "Add Policy Entry" and then "Add Permission"
5. choose "AWTPermission" as the permission and "accessClipboard" as the target
6. click "OK", then "Done"
7. choose "Save" again, then "Exit" from the "File" menu
8. restart your browser (or your computer if copy/paste still doesn't work)

Answer 2

Until they fix the bug, I've found that signing the applet allows copy/paste to work.

Answer 3

Oracle released Java 6 Update 24 in February 2011 to remedy 21 vulnerabilities: Announcement

As part of this security release, the ability to copy & paste from a computer's clipboard into a Java applet has been disabled.

To fix this issue there are 2 solutions:

1. Create a digital signature for the applet.
2. Work around: If you do not want to work with the digital signature, add to your java.policy file the following line: permission java.awt.AWTPermission "accessClipboard"