What's the best way to distribute Java applica

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?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

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.)