Using batch file to run a jar file - java

I found a way to set the classpath for the resource file. I am using a batch file to run my JAR. I have set the path like this
echo off
cd..
set BASEDIR=E:\SampleSourceCode
java -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -cp %BASEDIR%\lib\*;%BASEDIR%\data\;%BASEDIR%\resources\ com.example.main.Main
But now when I do any changes to the contents of the resource folder (properties file), the GUI does not recognize the database from the data folder. How do I proceed?

I think you're asking:
Q: If I change the contents of an external properties file, will a running Java process automatically update the property files originally read from the file?
A: No, it won't.
The general solution is:
Modify the property in your program
Have your program re-write the external properties file

the best way to set a library to execute a .jar file that requires outside resources, is simple use the following batch file:
javaw -Djava.library.path=<path to library> -jar <name>.jar
in this way, anything that you change will still be accepted as long as it occurs in your path to library.(or in the jar itself.)

Related

Problems about distribution of java project

I am completely new to programming and I am now doing a project that I need to read a specific XML file in java. My code is using the absolute path of the file I need but I have to distribute the project to somewhere. That required XML file will not be in the project folder but in another folder which I will distribute with the JAR file of the project. Is it possible for it to get that path if I don't know where the user will put my program and the folder containing the XML file?
The program is supposed to run on Windows.
You have different possible solutions:
pass the file location as parameter to the main method (if you have a main method)
set an system property with the location of the file (you can do that with the -D option on the java command, with the syntax -Dproperty=value)
set an environment variable (with export command in linux)
put the file in the classpath and retrieve it with getResourceAsStream
access the file from an external server exposing it via HTTP

How to refer to a properties file in a batch file

I'm trying to run my Java program using a batch file, I'm able to run it properly. However, when I run the batch file after inserting the code to read a properties file from the Java program, I'm getting the following error.
Can't find bundle for base name app1, locale en_US
Actually i have a conf folder under which I have this properties folder, then I came to know that I need to keep this conf folder in the class path. But I have actually added it as class folder using Eclipse. However, I'm getting the same error. Please let me know what exactly I need to do for running the Java program using batch file. Using Eclipse I'm able to run the properly.
Thanks,
Balaji.
From the comments your batch script:
#echo off
java -Djava.ext.dirs=lib -classpath ./bin com.myapp.app1.demoprogram
pause
Notice how the /conf/ directory is not listed on the classpath. The easiest way to get it there is to just add it to the -classpath argument being passed to the JVM. Something closer to:
#echo off
java -Djava.ext.dirs=lib -classpath ./bin;./conf com.myapp.app1.demoprogram
pause
This is assuming that /conf/ is in the same directory as bin. You might have to do some tweaking to get the setup to work for you application, but the root problem is that while you added the /conf/ folder to the project classpath in eclipse, you need to do the same thing for the batch script so the JVM can find it

How to get location of runnable .jar File when run from GNOME

I am developing a small Java application using Swing, that is supposed to run on Windows/Linux and MacOS.
Eventually it will ship as a runnable jar with some config files in the same folder. To load them I need the path to the folder the jar is stored in within the program.
There are already a couple of threads like this one or this one.
My problem is, that all the solutions discussed there work fine, when I run the program from within eclipse or call the runnable jar from a terminal like so:
java -jar /path/to/jar/jarfile.jar
However when I click on the jar file in Cinnamon or Gnome (which is what most of the users will know to do), I do not get the correct paths. (MacOS users report the same issue)
Here is what I've tried so far and what the output is when run via double click (all those display the desired path when run from eclipse or a terminal):
ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader().getResource(".").getPath()
Output: file:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-common/jre/lib/ext/pulse-java.jar!/
SomeClass.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().getPath();
Output: ./
System.getProperty("user.dir");
Output: /home/myusername
Is there any other way to do it or am I doing something wrong when exporting the jar? Any help would be appreciated!
Cheers
Nick
Make it simple, and use a startup script (.bat/.sh file) to run your application. This startup script will get the path of its own location in the filesystem, and pass it as an argument or system property to the Java application. This has the additional advantage of being able to pass other arguments, like the size of the heap, etc.
On windows, %~dp0 is the path of the directory containing the executed bat file. On Unix, you can use $(dirname $0).
You could store all config files as resources in a jar, and copy them to files in home.dir + ".AppName/".
Painful as it is, the Preferences API, Preferences.systemNodeForPackage, seems the wisest alternative, if there is little structured config data. There is an inputStream method for import; your initial config template could be a resource in the jar.
Just get the class path using System.getProperty("java.class.path") and scan it for your ".jar" name. Note that path separators are OS dependent (File.pathSeparator)

Java file access

At the moment, in my java program, I am accessing a file that is in the project folder. When I'm loading the file its path is "./src/package/package/file.txt". When I build the program into an executable it dosen't work.
I would prefer the files to be outside of the .jar, but in the same folder, how would I got about this?
Samishal
You can use a relative path if they are in the same folder, such as ./file.txt. That should carry over even with a compiled JAR.
Otherwise, if you're going to be using the same machine and are confident of the placement of the files, you could use an absolute path, however I don't recommend it.
You can use Class.getResourceAsStream to get the InputStream. It works for jar package too. It is not possible to access the file in jar file using File API directly.
InputStream ins = Class.getResourceAsStream("/gigadot/exp/resource.properties");
More details at http://blog.gigadot.net/2010/10/loading-classpath-resources.html
Because the relative path is relative to where your command prompt is when you execute the program, not from where the program lives.
You somehow need to tell the program where to find resources. Most people use a .sh/.bat script to figure out where the script itself lives, and either pass -D flags or set the classpath based on that location.
as a note, I $0 gives you the script as it was run on the command line in linux (it could be relative or absolute), and you can use dirname from there to find it's directory, and alter the java command line.
in windows %~dp0 gives you the directory of the batch script which was run, and you can use that to form your java command line.

How to make a distributable batch file of my jar

Hi I have created a java application and created a jar file. Then I created a batch file eg-> startup.bat The contents of this file is java -jar MyApp.jar
Now if I double click the batch file then my java application works because both the jar file and batch file belong to same directory. Now I copied the batch file to desktop and run then My application did not run.
Also I want My batch file automatically set the class path.
How to create a batch file with all the above feature
Thanks
Sunil Kumar Sahoo
If the jar is an executable JAR (which it seems to be from your example), you should be able to just double-click the JAR file. If this does not work, you shoud associate the java executable as the program with which to open a file with the .jar extension. See Tools > Folder Options > File Types from an explorer window.
In order that a program be "distributable", it would normally be packaged (i.e. the JAR file and startup scripts) in some ZIP archive and then extracted to a folder on a user's PC. Your startup script should provide a relative path to the JAR file. For example if you have organized the contents of your ZIP into lib and bin folders:
MyProject
+--- lib (contains jars)
+--- bin (contains .bat script)
In this case, the startup.bat file should reference the Jar as:
%JAVA_HOME\bin\java -jar ..\lib\myapp.jar
This requires that any users:
Have a JRE installed on their system (unless you package that up as well)
Have java on their path or a JAVA_HOME environment variable set
The problem is that the batch file doesn't know where the jar is, it is looking relatively from its own path. You could copy the jar file to your desktop, too.
If just want an icon on your desktop, make a shortcut to the batch file rather than a copy.
Aslo if you application is quite complex (size more than 1+GByte) - you can distribute it with jre included.
Because it's a bit long to copy in here, I'd suggest that you have a look at what Squirrel SQL does. And you'll have a very nice cross-db tool as an extra bonus ;-)
They enable the tool to be started in two possible ways:
by starting the jar itself, classpath info will then be fetched from the manifest file (see here for the details, look up download extensions). In that case, after unzipping the hierarchy of files as explained by other posters, just make a shortcut on the desktop and you're all set
with a batch file. You'll see that the batchfile solution is quite complicated, especially the construction of the classpath.
So I'd go with the first solution.
I understand that you would like to distribute your application to multiple machines? A (very) simple solution would be to create a zip/tar/whatever archive that has all the needed jars (including MyApp.jar) and the startup script.
In the script you can use the -cp option to set the classpath to the jars:
java -cp needed.jar:needed2.jar -jar MyApp.jar
As said above, making a shortcut to the desktop is a better option than copying the script itself.

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