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How to create a jar file for a web application using Netbeans IDE 8.0

I did a Web Application using Netbeans IDE 8.0 in JAVA platform. The project consists of JSP's, Servlets and normal .java files. I would like to deploy the project as a simple jar file to the client so that they can execute the jar file and use the application. I am trying to generate jar file using Netbeans with the given resources but there were no proper resources for this. When I tried one of the sources provided, a war file is created rather than a jar file.
So, please help me in converting my web application into a jar file. Also, please let me know why a war file is created for my application rather than a jar file. Also, let me know how to execute war file.

Java applications use jar files and java web-applications use war files. JAR (Java ARchive) is a package file format typically used to aggregate many Java class files and associated metadata and resources (text, images, etc.) into one file to distribute application software or libraries on the Java platform. WAR file (Web application ARchive) is a JAR file used to distribute a collection of JavaServer Pages, Java Servlets, Java classes, XML files, tag libraries, static web pages (HTML and related files) and other resources that together constitute a web application. Since the structure of a web application is very much different from a typical java standalone application you need to deploy it into a war file. To run a WAR file you need a java EE based server like apache tomcat, jboss, glassfish etc. Steps required to run the war file are (One of the solutions possible, although there are many other -as pointed out by boris):-
1.Start the web server;
2.Deploy the war file to the web server;
3.Visit JSP pages or servlets in the browser by entering thier links to their path.
see this link for more details on deploying war :- deploy war file in tomcat server

What are java web application deployment formats?

WAR file is one of the common ways to deploy a java web application. What other deployments formats available for Java Web Applications? What are the differences between them?

Besides WAR, the enterprise applications can be wrapped within the so called "enterprise archive", which extension is ear. Here's a list of the archive types, in which the different pieces of a web-application are wrapped.
JAR: EJB modules which contain enterprise java beans class files and EJB deployment descriptor are packed as JAR file(s) with .jar extenstion
WAR: Web modules which contains Servlet class files, JSP Files, supporting files, GIF and HTML files are packaged as JAR file with .war (web achive) extension
EAR: All above files(.jar and .war) are packaged as JAR file with .ear ( enterprise archive) extension and deployed into Application Server. Contains also third party libraries. Has a special directory called APP-INF that contains the application.xml file descriptor.

Difference between jar and war in Java

What is the difference between a .jar and a .war file?
Is it only the file extension or is there something more?

From Java Tips: Difference between ear jar and war files:
These files are simply zipped files
using the java jar tool. These files are
created for different purposes. Here
is the description of these files:
.jar files: The .jar files contain
libraries, resources and
accessories files like property files.
.war files: The war file contains
the web application that can be
deployed on any servlet/jsp
container. The .war file contains jsp,
html, javascript and other files
necessary for the development of web
applications.
Official Sun/Oracle descriptions:
The J2EETM Tutorial: Web Application Archives
The Java Archive (JAR) File Format: The Basics
Wikipedia articles:
WAR file format (Sun)
JAR file

WAR stands for Web application ARchive
JAR stands for Java ARchive

A .war file has a specific structure in terms of where certain files will be. Other than that, yes, it's just a .jar.

You add web components to a J2EE application in a package called a web application archive (WAR), which is a JAR similar to the package used for Java class libraries. A WAR usually contains other resources besides web components, including:
Server-side utility classes (database beans, shopping carts, and so on).
Static web resources (HTML, image, and sound files, and so on)
Client-side classes (applets and utility classes)
A WAR has a specific hierarchical directory structure. The top-level directory of a WAR is the document root of the application. The document root is where JSP pages, client-side classes and archives, and static web resources are stored.
(source)
So a .war is a .jar, but it contains web application components and is laid out according to a specific structure. A .war is designed to be deployed to a web application server such as Tomcat or Jetty or a Java EE server such as JBoss or Glassfish.

A .war file is a Web Application Archive which runs inside an application server while a .jar is Java Application Archive that runs a desktop application on a user's machine.

A war file is a special jar file that is used to package a web application to make it easy to deploy it on an application server. The content of the war file must follow a defined structure.

.jar and .war are both zipped archived files.
Both can have the optional META-INF/MANIFEST.MF manifest file which hold informative information like versioning, and instructional attributes like classpath and main-class for the JVM that will execute it.
.war file - Web Application Archive intended to be execute inside a 'Servlet Container' and may include other jar files (at WEB-INF/lib directory) compiled classes (at WEB-INF/classes (servlet goes there too)) .jsp files images, files etc.
All WAR content that is there in order to create a self-contained module.

war and jar are archives for java files. war is web archive and they are running on web server. jar is java archive.

Basicly both compressed archives. war is used for web application with a specific directory structure.

A JAR file extension is .jar and is created with jar command from command prompt (like javac command is executed). Generally, a JAR file contains Java related resources like libraries, classes etc.JAR file is like winzip file except that Jar files are platform independent.
A WAR file is simply a JAR file but contains only Web related Java files like Servlets, JSP, HTML.
To execute a WAR file, a Web server or Web container is required, for example, Tomcat or Weblogic or Websphere. To execute a JAR file, simple JDK is enough.

War : For web-applications
Jar : For desktop applications
OR
War : Working on browser
Jar : Working on machine

War -
distribute Java-based web applications. A WAR has the same file
structure as a JAR file, which is a single compressed file that
contains multiple files bundled inside it.
Jar -
The .jar files contain libraries, resources and accessories files
like property files.
WAR files are used to combine JSPs, servlets, Java class files, XML
files, javascript libraries, JAR libraries, static web pages, and any
other resources needed to run the application.

Jar:- jar contain only .class
war:- war contain html, js, css and .class also jsp and servlets pages

JAR files allow to package multiple files in order to use it as a library, plugin, or any kind of application. On the other hand, WAR files are used only for web applications.
JAR can be created with any desired structure. In contrast, WAR has a predefined structure with WEB-INF and META-INF directories.
A JAR file allows Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to deploy an entire application including the classes and the associated resources in a single request. On the other hand, a WAR file allows testing and deploying a web application easily.

Also, using an embedded container, you can run a JAR file directly whitouh setting up a web server like when running your java app with spring boot. However, for a WAR file, you need to set up first a web server like Tomcat for example.

WAR vs EAR for web application with no EJB?

I have a Java EE web application that does not make use of EJBs. I am targeting Jetty/Tomcat for deployment some of the time and thus need a WAR packaging. However, I am also target JBoss and Websphere some of the time.
My understanding is that full-blown Java EE application servers can take either EAR or WAR formats. When would I use one over the other and why? I understand they are both standard compressed file formats and I have read 10 different snippets that try to explain them (including this one), but am no closer to understanding the pros and cons of each.

If you have only web modules - use WAR file.
If you have different Java EE modules - use EAR. Though you can deliver only web modules in EAR - there is no point in doing this (and you will need to do more complex deployment configuration)

The crucial point is if you need anything provided in an EAR file (which may contain said WAR file). If so, then it makes sense to deploy as an EAR.
It can also wire up some of the configuration you need to do manually in Tomcat etc. A typical example is the URL bound to the web application, where you need to override the default heuristic with a container specific configuration file for a WAR, but you can put it directly in the EAR configuration file.
Also, during development WARs can frequently be hotdeployed directly in exploded form, where EARs must be unpacked and deployed. For Glassfish from Eclipse the difference is quite noticeable.

In J2EE application, modules are packaged as EAR, JAR and WAR based on their functionality
If You are using only Servlet, JSP, GIF and HTML files. Then use .WAR
WAR:(Web ARchive) Web modules which contain Servlet class files, JSP
Files, supporting files, GIF and HTML files are packaged as JAR file
with .war (web archive) extension.
If you are using different different JAVA EE modules like (EJB + Servlet, JSP, GIF and HTML files + Other technology). Then use .EAR
EAR: (Enterprise ARchive) All above files (.jar and .war) are packaged
as JAR file with .ear (enterprise archive) extension and deployed into
Application Server.

When releasing a java spring web application, what are the steps to deploy/release?

If I make a spring mvc application, what are the things I have to do to deploy the application? (say its a commercial application)
What options do I have? Do all applications compress the classes into a .war file?
/WEB-INF/web.xml, appname-servlet.xml, etc.
/WEB-INF/jsp/*.*
/WEB-INF/appname.war ???

Done correctly, the build process will create a war which can be dropped into any servlet container (Tomcat, Jetty, Glassfish).
If you use external source files, those would have to be configured.
If you use advanced features provided by the servlet container, the server would have to configured as well.

Spring application is no different from any java web application when deploying. but generally the only thing I have to do is flip the order of test spring config with the actual one.

Any IDE could create the WAR file for you. As you've said the configuration xml files go to /WEB-INF folder and jsp files (by default) to /WEB-INF/jsp/. You also need to put all required jar files in /WEB-INF/lib folder. Compiled classes will go to /WEB-INF/classes, but let the IDE do that for you.
The war file shouldn't be in the /WEB-INF folder. In Tomcat for example you need to copy it to the webapps folder.