How to Package and Deploy Eclipse Java Application

Question

Before I begin, I'm new to eclipse, please keep that in mind when replying. :)

Here is the situation, I have built an java application that has some dependencies (~10 of them). I would like to easily package this application up and deploy it as a single file to a CD or usb drive.

My question is there doesn't seem to be any "nice" wizard to search the project, grab the dependencies and setup the classpath on the target computer. Seems to me I have to do this manually.

Is there a better way. Something simple, easy and straight forward. A link to a tutorial on this would be great.

Seems to me that this should be a built-in feature to eclipse. Deployment of a web application seems easy enough, but not a java application.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Have a look at the Fat Jar Plug-In.

Answer 2

That's because desktop deployment isn't well defined.

You are heading into release issues which is a huge can of worms.

I assume you have some form of version control like SVN or git? If so check out maven with the release plugin and maven-assembly-plugin

It'll take a lot of work to setup, but once you get it going you'll be cross linking and deploying distribution packages in no time!

Plus you'll have access to the vast maven repos on the web right now