How do you deploy a stand alone app/game in java

Question

I have a few questions regarding creating a stand alone app for java.
1) What is the best way to deploy it? how would I create the exe, etc. I've read that you can create executable jars but this doesn't seem like something that would be user friendly
2) Is there a way to deploy the game/app with it's own JVM so the hosts machine doesn't have to have it installed? How would I go about doing this?
3) How would I run the app in full screen? What libraries are available?
Any other advice/comments welcome.

Answer 1

@morgair: There are plenty of good reasons for using Java to develop software, even when you only plan on targeting Windows. As good as Java distribution is there is no way to guarantee that they a) have Java installed and more likely b) have the version you target installed. Telling a user that they need to go to a second website in order to download and install more software is a huge turn off.
Most PC users have no experience with a .jar so when they download it they just don't know what to do (even if all they need to do is double-click just like a .exe). Giving out an executable .jar is another turnoff.
sarcasteak wrote:
1) What is the best way to deploy it? how would I create the exe, etc. I've read that you can create executable jars but this doesn't seem like something that would be user friendlyIn terms of the .exe, Java does not create .exe's. There are some java to native compilers that will turn your java code into a natice .exe that will run on it's own or with a bundled library. However they are either old, buggy and badly supported, or extremely expensive (googling Java native compiler should give you some good results). There are also plenty 'java to exe' pieces of software. Rather then compiling the java code to native code they wrap the .jar up inside a .exe. When you run the .exe it unpacks the .jar and runs it. To the user it looks like a .exe, however it's still just an executable jar and still requires Java to be pre-installed on their machine in order to run (although some can offer custom error messages if Java is not found).
If Java is setup, then executable jars are essentially act the same as exe's. For creating them, if you are using NetBeans then they are already available in the project/dist folder after you build. You can also do it on the command line but I never need to so I don't know how. However as a tutorial [this site looks promising|http://neptune.netcomp.monash.edu.au/javahelp/howto/jar.htm].
I personally use a small .exe which I built using the D programming language. It reads from a text file in the same directory and executes each line in turn. Typically all the text file contains is 'java -jar MyProg.jar'. This way my .jars for the user looks like a .exe.
Instead of a .exe you could also use a .bat. There are also some .bat to .exe converters online, although I haven't tried any of them so use at your own risk.
sarcasteak wrote:
2) Is there a way to deploy the game/app with it's own JVM so the hosts machine doesn't have to have it installed? How would I go about doing this?Yes, you are allowed to redistribute the Sun Java runtime. Just zip up the JRE on your machine and include it with the app/game. You'll also need to ensure that whatever starts the jar uses your unzipped JRE and not the JRE on their machine. The exe I described above also allows this by having the text file contain something like: './my_jre/bin/java -jar MyProg.jar'.
But first you should also take a look at the license restrictions, they should be in the JREs directory. For example you must redistribute the complete JRE which is a problem if your app is just a few megabytes (when zipped the runtime is usually over 30mb). There are probably plenty of topics on this forum which already discuss redistribution of the JRE.
sarcasteak wrote:
3) How would I run the app in full screen? What libraries are available?If it's an app then it should be approximately:
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setExtendedState(JFrame.MAXIMIZED_BOTH);or;
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setExtendedState(frame.getExtendedState() | JFrame.MAXIMIZED_BOTH);However if you want a proper full screen then you need to use the [Full-Screen exclusive mode|http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/extra/fullscreen/exclusivemode.html], approximately:
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment().getDefaultScreenDevice().setFullScreenWindow( frame );I've also heard plenty of people recommend using java web-start for desktop java apps. Personally I've never used it, but it's something you might want to research.
Edited by: jl235 on Jun 22, 2009 3:03 AM