Java packaging tools - alternatives for jsmooth, launch4j, onejar

Question

I have used these three open source tools for packaging my java apps, but they all look like abandon-ware now. All three are very good pieces of software. What are the options now? (or is using Java for desktop app development no longer a "hot" market for app developers to build & maintain these tools?).

1) exe wrapper: jsmooth - no new development in 2.5 years - does not support 64 bit. launch4j - no new development in over a year, supports 64 bit, but you can't sign the exe created by launch4j, so I prefer jsmooth, but it does not support 64 bit.

2) onejar: It works, but there has been no new development or web site update in more than 2.5 years. So, just want to switch to something that's supported / have a backup plan if it suddenly breaks with a new build of Java.

Thanks Edgar

Answer 1

Have you tried IzPack (http://izpack.org/)?

Answer 2

Did you check IzPack? This is a great piece of software to create cross-platform installers:

IzPack is an installers generator for the Java platform. It produces lightweight installers that can be run on any operating system where a Java virtual machine is available. Depending on the operating system, it can be launched by a double-click or a simple 'java -jar installer.jar' on a shell. The most common use is to distribute applications for the Java platform, but you can also use it for other kinds of projects. The main benefit of IzPack is that it provides a clean and unique way of distributing a project to users using different operating systems.

Some really famous companies and projects use it for many years (Sun Microsystems, JBoss/RedHat, the Scala language project, some ObjectWeb/OW2 projects, XWiki and many more). If it's good for them, it should be good for you :)

Answer 3

Maven 2 provides the ability to create a jar which contains all the dependencies as part of its assembly plugin. This combined with the jar plugin configuration of the manifest file (and specifically setting Main-class to the Class with main) is all you need to do basic packaging.

To some extent Java web start is now considered the better way to distribute Java applications and Maven 2's assembly capability combined with web start gets you everything you need without going via the exe route.