Packaging and Distribution of Java Program

Question

I need a way to package and distribute a Java program to a remote device. Web Start is not ideal as it only distributes Jars and requires Web Server. I need to distribute and run scripts during the installation and need some other types of files.

Answer 1

I use maven religiously for packaging and distributing java programs. I typically only use it to push to a single location (my server), but it is a rather flexible tool. In particular the deploy plugin is what I use to do the push.

However, if you want something that can be used as an installer to package a whole bunch of prerequisites alongside your application, take a look at IzPack.

Answer 2

I see that there was a discussion on this issue before: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3767/what-is-the-best-choice-for-building-windows-installers