You can't do applets in a form in the way I think you mean. Instead, the applet IS the form. That is, instead of defining HTML form data, define the form's controls using AWT (Swing requires the
Java plugin, so avoid that if you can. It's a 5+MB download and very rude to users).
Note that an unsigned applet can't simply do
JDBC calls to talk to the database. Firstly because the Java Sandbox forbids it and secondly because chances very high are that the JDBC driver will use a TCP/IP channel that someone's firewall won't allow. There's a trick called "HTTP tunneling" to get around that - the applet sends/recieves internal HTTP requests to a
JSP or servlet - or for that matter, even a CGI - and the server-side code does the actual database I/O.
I recommend you visit a bookstore, since while straightforward, the process is a little too invovled to describe here.
The secret of how to be miserable is to constantly expect things are going to happen the way that they are "supposed" to happen.
You can have faith, which carries the understanding that you may be disappointed. Then there's being a willfully-blind idiot, which virtually guarantees it.