I currently have a Java Applet which contains a method callfromjs(). Javascript calls this method from the applet so that I don't have to deal with the clunky applet GUI, and then I can create the responses on the DOM easily from javascript.

The problem is that the browser hangs while first loading the applet. To get around this, I figured I could use AJAX. The AJAX calls a PHP file which contains callfromjs(). The problem is that the request returns because it's PHP, and it doesn't wait for callfromjs() to retrieve the content.

On to my questions:

1. Is there a better way to handle this?
2. If this method seems ok, how can I force the request not to return until the javascript is finished calling the method from the applet?