Class not being created when running from jar

Question

Hi all,
Tech info first:
IDE: Sun Java Studio Enterprise 8
Plaform: windows xp
I have created a Swing app, that connects to a com port(using the RXTXcomm). now, when I run the app in the IDE, everything is fine and dandy, but, when I run the jar file, the application loads, but the class in the app which deals with the com port is not created. here is the code:
    private static void createAndShowGUI() {
        //Make sure we have nice window decorations.
        JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);
        Main receiver = new Main();
        receiver.getPropertiesFromFile();
        //Create and set up the window.
        frame = new JFrame("R�FILOG RFID Empf�nger");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.setContentPane(receiver.mainPanel);
        frame.setJMenuBar(receiver.createMenuBar());
        frame.addWindowListener(receiver);
        frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
        //Display the window.
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
        portListener = new RFIDReaderComm(receiver, "COM3");
        portListener.getConfiguration();        
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        //Schedule a job for the event-dispatching thread:
        //creating and showing this application's GUI.
        javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                createAndShowGUI();   
portListener in the createAndShowGUI() function is an interface level parameter and is the class that is not being created. There is no error message.
If I move the two lines that deal with the port listener before the frame.pack() line, then the GUI is not even loaded, and when I view the processes in the task manager, the process starts and then quits without anything becoming visible. So from this I guess there is a problem with creating the class when running from a jar, but without any error messages, I have not a clue where to start...can anyone help?
thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Well, some more info, so maybe someone can come up with some tips for me...this is really important, and any help is greatly appreciated.
This is obviously a classpath problem. After running the my jar file with java -jar I finally got the error NoClassDefFoundError
Kind of obvious I suppose. But, I cannot seem to get the two jar files I need into the classpath. I have tried the following:
Updating my computers CLASSPATH with the relevant paths - not working
Trying to get the Sun Java Studio Enterprise to build the required jar files into the final package - cannot get this to work
Tried updating the manifest.mf in the following way:
Created a text file Manifest.txt with the lines:
Class-Path: RXTXcomm.jar
Class-Path: BrowserLauncher2-10rc4.jar
ran the command (in the same directory as Manifest.txt):
jar cfm RUFILOGScanner.jar Manifest.txt classes/*.class
but this does not work either. When I run: jar tf RUFILOGScanner.jar all I get is:
META-INF/
META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
classes/
classes/CRCCalculator.class
classes/Main$1.class
classes/Main.class
classes/RFIDReaderComm.class
classes/URLDialog$1.class
classes/URLDialog$2.class
classes/URLDialog.class
the classes I want added are not there. Plus, (I think this is because I am running SE8) the manifest.mf is not in a folder called META-INF. In fact, I have no folder called META-INF. Is this significant?
Please, can anyone help me?