Which files other than .jar needed for making an installer - java

I had completed building a .jar file for me project (media player), it is also running successfully with command line java -jar mediaplayer.jar.
But now i need to make an installer, so what all files do I need for making an installer, do i need to bundle the lib files also with the installer.
also when i launch my .jar file with Java Web Start, it says "Unable to launch application"

You definitely need to bundle both your mediaplayer.jar and the libraries in your classpath. You will also need to generate a native executable file that will at least do java -jar mediaplayer.jar.
Usually native launchers also check if Java is installed on the target machine and help user to install it if it is not.

Related

jpackage install to directory with read/write/excecute access on linux?

On windows, you can achieve this by using --win-per-user-install and the msi installer installs to directories like %LOCAL_APP_DATA%/<app-name>. This directory has read write access for other programs by default. I want to use the equivalent for linux. So what is the equivalent for %LOCAL_APP_DATA%/ for linux, having read write permissions by default, and how do I tell jpackage to make the installer install there?
I am packaging a jar file which manages the update of the application's files and installs them from the server. All this is done in the same directory where it is installed. I cannot change the code in this jar file, so any java code solutions can't be done. I need to achieve this using jpackage.

How to execute .exe from within runnable jar file

I am working on a Java desktop application and want to execute an .exe file upon some user action.
I want to package the .exe inside the executable jar so that I have to ship just one item to my customer/user. But so far I have not been able to execute an .exe file which is packaged inside the jar.
One more input, the .exe in turn uses a bunch of .dll, .xml and .exe files (total 12 files), so I need to package all of them to make this work. Is this possible in java or should I use another language to achieve this?
I chose java because I want to support Mac platform also. So with these .exe and .dll files (for Win), I need to package and execute a bunch of Unix executable files and dylib files also (for Mac).
What would be the best way to achieve this?
I can think of 2 ways:
Make one Java executable app and dynamically execute exe or Unix executable file depending on platform it is running. The problem here is executing the files which are packaged within the jar.
Make separate applications for Win and Mac. In this case, which languages should I use?
Thanks much for the help!
Applications are packaged very differently on windows and mac. For the Windows version I would recommend you to distribute an installation program (see IzPack for instance) that will unpack the jar and the exe in the application directory (I don't believe you can directly execute an exe that's in a jar file). A MacOS application is actually a directory with a certain structure, so in your case, the said directory could contain both the jar and the exe.

Java application installer for MacOS

I'm new at Java for Mac developement and I spent a lot of time finding a way how to create an installer. It's strange but it's not too much information about it. All the ways lead to using of JavaAppLauncher. (I use appbundler-1.0.jar and Ant to build .app) But I faced a following problem.
JavaAppLauncher sets working directory to user folder. My application consists of several jar files, resources and configuration files. All of them located in Contents/Java inside the .app structure. I use relative paths to them, relative to the executable jar with Main class.
I googled 2 discussions only, where someone asked how to set the working directory inside the .app bundle. Threre is a way to sed -Duser.dir JVM option in plist file of .app bundle. I tried this and it behaves strange. When I use "new File(".").getAbsolutePath()" - it shows the directory I pointed in -Duser.dir parameter, but when I try to create file on disk or read file from disk - it still goes to the user folder as it was by default.
May be someone knows what is wrong there?
Or is there any better way to create a java application bundle for Mac?
Thank you, guys.
Use JarSplice to create OS X app bundle. Compile all your jars and resources into one jar file and export as mac .app file.
Deploying Java Applications can be a pain if your application has multiple jars and native libraries. There are the options of using Java Web Start or Java Applets however these are not always suitable.
Executable Jars are an option, however if your project has multiple jars or native files then it can be tricky to use this option.
JarSplice attempts to solve this issue by allowing you to merge all your jars and native files into one, easy to use executable jar file.
Features:
Creates a single executable fat jar via an easy to use GUI.
Automatically extracts only the native files needed for the OS the jar is running on.
Automatically cleans up any extracted native files after the application quits.
Add VM arguments on jar creation which removes the need to enter them via the command line.
Optionally create a Shell Script (.sh) launcher for Linux with embedded fat jar.
Optionally create an OS X App Bundle (.app) for running your application.
Optionally create a Windows Application (*.exe) for running your application.
This is the best cross-platform installer creator i have found yet. You can get the java executable from here

Provide/Export executable file to client

I just completed working on a client's tool, which uses Jfreechart jar, and dll and a lib file for JNI interface. Now I would like to export/ provide a executable file to client, I tried to click on java project folder and export Java>Runnable Jar file (extract required libraries into generated JAR) , a Jar file is exported with some Warnings. However, we are not able to run the file on client's machine. How can I fix this, obviously I don't want to provide complete Java project and ask client to run from and IDE. Please provide me inputs.
Since Java is a cross-platform environment, it doesn't really have "executable files" like EXEs or anything. Instead, you run your .jar file with the Java runtime. For example:
C:\>java.exe MyProgram.jar
Of course some operating systems will just do this for you once the Java runtime is installed.
There are some programs to convert .JAR to .EXE, but I believe they just compile a thin wrapper that calls into the Java runtime.

jar to exe convert problem

hi i converted my jar file into an exe using jsmooth but when i install it, it shows an error like java not found.
Please help me, how can I add the jre to my exe wrapper so this problem is solved.
It is trying to get the java installation to run your application, where it might be searching in JAVA_HOME, So if the JAVA_HOME is not set in the machine where you installing your application then try to install the java and set the JAVA_HOME as a pre-requisite of your installation.
I don't believe JSmooth can actually bundle a JRE with the exe. What you can do is tell JSmooth where to expect the JRE when running the exe (as in the same folder the exe is run from). If you do this you simply need to zip the exe and a JRE up, and distribute that.
The end user would unzip this, and the resulting folder would contain your exe and the JRE. Since JSmooth knows where to look relative your exe, it can find the JRE.
i have use it using launch4j
follow the following steps
1-create project directory called e.g:project
2-copy the runnable jar file to it
3-copy the jre directory to it u can rename it or keep name as it e.g i will call myjre
run launch4j program :
1- fill the basic tap with required information .
2- go to JRE tap there is a field called (bundle JRE path ) write "myjre" add min Jar virsion 1,6 it will case you an error if you do not fill this fields
and then click run button to generate exe file , you have to remember to keep the myjre directory with along side with executable exe file
e.g the application directory should contains :
1- [you app name].exe
2-myjre
in this description you can run your application with no care if jre is installed in a machine or not and become portable
Good Luck , feel free to contact me for more details

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