Thread: JavaFX in Netbeans using Maven: some issues taking over a poject

I inherited a project that was using Ant in Netbeans and was last worked on over a year ago. Development is on a Mac, with the aim of deploying to Mac, Linux and Windows.

The last compiled JAR file can run with a recipe like this:

`%java -Djava.library.path=$HOME/Downloads/javafx-sdk-17.0.9/lib -jar /Users/philip/Downloads/genesis2.jar`

If I run it with a newer JavaFX SDK, javafx-sdk-20.0.2 also works. However if I use v21, I get a spew of exceptions like

Exception in thread "JavaFX Application Thread" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: 'long com.sun.glass.ui.mac.MacAccessible._createGlassAcc essible()'

I tried to set up a build environment but Netbeans objected to setting it up with Ant, whether I opened the existing project or tried to start from scratch, because the existing Java platform does not support JavaFX. I tried using the OpenJDK but the interface for changing the Java platform was broken.

So: give up on that and change to using Maven.

That sort of worked but I could bet get a build that would run with the same recipe:

`% java -Djava.library.path=$HOME/Downloads/javafx-sdk-21/lib target/Genesis2JavaFX-2.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
Error: Could not find or load main class target.Genesis2JavaFX-2.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: target.Genesis2JavaFX-2.0-SNAPSHOT.jar`

I found out how to package all dependencies and that does run, after fixing a few things. For example, whenever there was code like

X.getClass().getResource(Y);

I changed it to

X.getClass().getClassLoader().getResource(Y);

I am not sure why this worked in the former build but not now.

Another issue. The Ant build was able to create a JAR file that preserved the subdirectory structure whereas with Maven, I could only find a way to package all resources at the top-level:

`<resources>
<resource>
<directory>src/main/java/org/h3abionet/genesis/view</directory>
</resource>
<resource>
<directory>src/main/java/org/h3abionet/genesis/image</directory>
</resource>
<resource>
<directory>src/main/java/org/h3abionet/genesis/help</directory>
</resource>
<resource>
<directory>src/main/java/org/h3abionet/genesis/css</directory>
</resource>
</resources>
`

To make all this work, I had to change all references to directory structure to current directory, e.g. change

view/AdmixtureOptions.fxml

to

view/Main.fxml

etc. throughout the code.

If I inspect the contents of the JAR file, the earlier build does preserve the directory structure.

Questions:
1. Is there a way I can configure Maven in pom.xml to preserve the directory structure when copying resources (non-code files) to JAR?
2. Is there a way in Netbeans using Maven to create a JAR file that can run on the command line with a pointer to a library as the old Ant build did?
3. Are there any pointers to best practice in using Maven + Netbean for JavAFX projects?

PS: some pointers to how to format code or scripts not in Java would be helpful too…

--- Update ---

That sort of worked but I could bet get a build that would run with the same recipe:

Should be

That sort of worked but I could *not* get a build that would run with the same recipe:

Seems that this forum dislikes my browsers as some features liked editing posts are broken.

A few answers. Here is how to add a path to place resources in the JAR file (in pom.xml):

<build>
<resources>
<resource>
<directory>src/main/java/org/h3abionet/genesis/view</directory>
<targetPath>org/h3abionet/genesis/view</targetPath>
</resource>
</build>

To run the command line with a specific JavaFX library this is the basic recipe, assuming you have put the lib directory of a downloaded JavaFX library in /usr/local/lib/:

JARF=pathtojar/jarfile.jar
LIB=/usr/local/lib/JavaFX-21/
MODS=javafx.controls,javafx.fxml
java --module-path $LIB --add-modules $MODS -jar $JARF

To create a JAR file that can be run with a pointer to a library (similar to your old Ant build), you can use the maven-assembly-plugin to create an uber-jar or executable jar.

Here's an example configuration for creating an executable JAR:
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.3.0</version>
<configuration>
<archive>
<manifest>
<mainClass>your.main.class.Main</mainClass>
</manifest>
</archive>
<descriptorRefs>
<descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
</descriptorRefs>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>make-assembly</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>single</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>

This is the optimised code for your query as far as I know for further assistance you may visit https://www.programminghomeworkhelp.com/netbeans/ there you will find an expert who can solve your queries.