Closed. This question is opinion-based. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it can be answered with facts and citations by editing this post.
Closed 8 years ago.
Improve this question
Java is one of my programming languages of choice. I always run into the problem though of distributing my application to end-users.
Giving a user a JAR is not always as user friendly as I would like and using Java WebStart requires that I maintain a web server.
What's the best way to distribute a Java application? What if the Java application needs to install artifacts to the user's computer? Are there any good Java installation/packaging systems out there?
There are a variety of solutions, depending on your distribution requirements.
Just use a jar. This assumes that the user has the the correct java version installed, otherwise the user will get "class-file format version" exceptions. This is fine for internal distribution inside a company.
Use launch4j and an installer like NSIS. This gives you a lot more control, although the user can still do stupid stuff like un-installing the java runtime. This is probably the most popular approach, and what I currently use.
Use Webstart. This also assumes that the user has the correct java version installed, but it's a lot easier to get going. My experience is that this is fine for tightly controlled intranet environments, but becomes a pain with larger deployments because it has some many weird failures. It may get better with the new plug-in technology in Java 1.7.
Use a native-code compiler like Excelsior JET and distribute as a executable, or wrap it up in an installer. Expensive, and it generally ties you to a slightly older version of java, and there is some pain with dynamic class-loading, but its very effective for large-scale deployment where you need to minimise your support hassles.
advanced installer makes it easy to package java apps as windows executables, and it's quite flexible in the way you can set it up. I've found that for distributing java applications to windows clients, this is the easiest way to go.
JSmooth is a simple program that takes your jar and wraps it up in a standard windows executable file. It comes with a simple GUI that allows you to configure the required JVM, bundle it with the application or provide an option to download it if it's not already installed. You can send the exe file as is or zip it with possible dependencies (or let the program download the extra dependencies from the net on startup). It's also free, as in beer and speech, which may (or may not) be a good thing.
If it's a real GUI-having end user application you should ignore the lanaguage in which you wrote the program (Java) and use a native installer for each of your chosen platforms. Mac folks want a .dmg and on windows a .msi or a .exe installer is the way to go. On Windows I prefer NSIS from NullSoft only because it's less objectionable than InstallShield or InstallAnywhere. On OSX you can count on the JVM already being there. On Windows you'll need to check and install it for them if necessary. Linux people won't run Java GUI applications, and the few that will, know what to do with an executable .jar.
It depends on how sophisticated your target users are. In most cases you want to isolate them from the fact that you are running a Java-based app. Give them with a native installer that does the right thing (create start menu entries, launchers, register with add/remove programs, etc.) and already bundles a Java runtime (so the user does not need to know or care about it). I would like to suggest our cross platform installation tool, BitRock InstallBuilder. Although it is not Java-based, it is commonly used to package Java applications. It can be easily integrated with Ant and you can build Windows installers from Unix/Linux/Mac and the other way around. Because the generated installers are native, they do not require a self-extraction step or a JRE to be already present in the target system, which means smaller installers and saves you some headaches. I also would like to mention we have free licenses for open source projects
Although I haven't used NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Installer System) myself, there are install scripts that will check whether or not the required JRE is installed on the target system.
Many sample scripts are available from the Code Examples and Real World Installers pages, such as:
Java Launcher with automatic JRE installation
Simple Java Runtime Download Script
(Please note that I haven't actually used any of the scripts, so please don't take it as an endorsement.)
executable files are best but they are platform limited i.e. use gcj : http://gcc.gnu.org/java/ for linux to produce executables and use launch4j : http://launch4j.sourceforge.net/ to produce windows executables.
To package on linux you can use any rpm or deb packager. For win32 try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullsoft_Scriptable_Install_System
I needed a way to package my project and its dependencies into a single jar file.
I found what I needed using the Maven2 Assembly plugin: Maven2 Assembly plugin
This appears to duplicate the functionality of one-jar, but requires no additional configuration to get it going.
For simple Java apps I like to use Jar's. It is very simple to distribute one file that a user can just click on (Windows), or
java -jar jarname.jar
IMHO, jar is the way to go when simplicity is a main requirement.
I develop eclipse RCP applications. Normally to start an eclipse application an executable launcher is included. I include the java virtual machine inside the application folder in a /jre sub directory to ensure that the right java version will be used.
Then we package with Inno Setup for installation on the user's machine.
What's the best way to distribute a
Java application? What if the Java
application needs to install artifacts
to the user's computer? Are there any
good Java installation/packaging
systems out there?
In my experience (from evaluating a number of options), install4j is a good solution. It creates native installers for any platform, and is specifically geared towards installing Java apps. For details, see "Features" on its website.
install4j is a commercial tool, though. Especially if your needs are relatively simple (just distribute an application and install some artifacts), many other good options exist, including free ones (like izPack or the already mentioned Lauch4j). But you asked for the best way, and to my current knowledge install4j is the one, especially for distributing larger or more complicated Java (EE) apps.
The best answer depends on the platform. For deployment on Windows, I have had good results using a combination of one-jar and launch4j. It did take a little while to set up my build environment properly (ant scripts, mostly) but now it's fairly painless.
Well from my point of view the superior distribution mechanism is to use something like ClickOnce, or WebStart technology. You just deploy the version to the server and it gets automatically to the clients when the version is released.
Also the Eclipse RCP platform contains UpdateManager that does what WebStart do, but also much more.
Since I am using Maven2 for building, the deployment is just a piece of cake: copy the built jar to the location on the server, update the jnlp file if needed and you are done.
installanywhere is good but expensive one - i have not found (as) good free one
I would zip the jar file along with other dependent jars, configuration files and documentation along with a run.bat/run.sh. End user should be able unzip it to any location and edit the run.bat if required (It should run without editing in most of the cases).
An installer may be useful if you want to create entries in start menu, desktop, system tray etc.
As a user I prefer unzip and run kind of installation (no start menu entries please). However People outside IT industry may have different preferences. So if the application is largely targeted for developers zip-run.bat route and applications for general public may be installed using a installer.
I want to use Linux grep in my java program for searching, because grep's performance is satisfying. But I don't want to call it with Runtime.getRuntime().exec() command from operating system. Therefore I downloaded grep-2.9 source code but now I don't know how I can integrate that code to my java app. Is there any way to use grep or other linux commands directly, not from OS?
I think you should better try this:Grep4J
Another possible alternative is to use groovy they have grep supported by the language library
Both of approaches are better then running linux specific utilities from Java.
Hope this helps
I had created a Java Swing Application, I want to run my applications, in all System, Suppose if a System, does not have JRE, then i have to install JRE using Installer in program without aware of the user knowledgeable that the JRE is installed.
There were a few projects for doing this, but from what I can see they all fizzled out - bottom line seems to be that you need a JRE - especially for swing
The best solution is not to try and install anything silently, but instead to assist the user to install Java. Oracle's deployJava.js was designed to do just that, before embedding applets or launching Java Web Start applications.
While on the subject of JWS, it is also a good choice for installing/running & updating Java rich client (e.g. Swing) apps. on platforms that support Java.
You can generate an EXE out of your Java source but you will still need the JVM to run it on the destination System. So its not real native.
There is no workaround for running non native class files reliably or really at all without the JRE.
I would like to know if there is any way that I could build a very simple GUI app (it doesn't even have to look good) that will run on a fresh install of Windows Vista and OS X with no other installations needed by the user. I would perfer not to use Java (just out of personal programming preference). I will use it though, if it is the only way. Specically, I am wondering if I can write a swing app with Scala or Groovy and run in on windows without them having to install anything. Sorry if this is a silly question, I am a Obj-C developer by trade.
You can pack the Scala jars into your own, which should work as long as Java is installed (which it usually is on a 3rd party vendor install of Vista or OS X). If you use Java web start, no installations are needed beyond Java itself. Plus, if you're going to install your own code, why not just copy along the Scala jars also?
If you really mean a fresh install--nothing but what the OS provides--then no, I don't think so.
Edit: You do always have javascript on the browser(s). I assume this won't cut it for what you want?
If you really, really don't want to install anything (or carry anything in your app), then write the application as a web app (possibly a javascript app). Then any user can run that UI from any machine with a decent browser. But then, this will require that you host the app somewhere.
If that is not an option, you can develop your app to as a single html/xhtml file containing a self-contained, self-modifiable javascript application (like TiddlyWiki which I use a lot). Then the user user can download on it on his machine, point his browser to it and voila.
If you combine javascript with HTML5 (and assuming the user has a HTML5 compliant browser like safari), your application can use localStorage to keep its state in the user's machine (thus no longer needing to be self-modifiable to save state as TiddlyWiki does.)
But this would break your rule of not downloading anything on the user's host machine. It is a chicken-and-egg problem that has no solution since each OS implements its own set of application libraries. For multi-platform support, you must use a layer that abstracts out differences between operating systems, be it a vm (like JVM, Ruby or Mono) or a set of libraries (Qt, Gnome).
As far as i know you won't be able to accomplish that with no other installations needed by the user. If you violate this restriction, mono (with gtk#) is a good choice.
Scala and Groovy will have the same deployment issues as Java; all of these require a JVM to be installed. You generally have to first install the JVM (which is not included with Windows) and then install your program. Java is included in OS X, however.
It is possible to use Ruby or Python and one of the cross platform libraries (like wxWidgets) and compile these to an executable file that includes the entire set of runtime libraries (e.g. all of ruby and python).
REAL Studio (formally REALbasic) certainly meets this requirement. It creates native applications that have no external dependencies for OS X and Windows (plus Linux).
In theory you could write a .net application using Mono that it should run without issues on any other one with the .net runtime environment installed.
But I'm not sure if it will work on practice.
I've had some success with XulRunner
There's also a couple of recommendations from these questions I asked
Building Cross Platform app - recommendation
Building XUL app a-la SongBird
XULRunner is pretty cool once you get into it, but it's a tad confusing at first (I thought).. the folks on the mozilla google groups are really nice and helpful though!
Are there any existing solutions for remote execution of commands on a windows server from Java natively? psexec.exe is not an option since the java application has to be cross platform.
Even a preexisting solution using Java RM would be sufficient.
Currently, I'm using an SSH client library to ssh through java into a Windows server that's running the cygwin SSH daemon. Sadly the SSH daemon has some issues when it comes to quoting commands that go into a CMD (as opposed to bash) shell.
It'll require some work, but the remoting library in Hudson has very good support for running commands and doing file operations over the network on remote computers.
see https://jenkins.io/projects/remoting/ (you'll have to dive into the code)
Check out the Java RDP Client. Not really out of the box, but with little digging you should be able to trim it down to what you need.
Since it uses getopt, I would assume it's GPL'd.