Thread: Distribution of Application

Hello,

I have complited my project and it is time to distribute it to my friends. But there are some things that i don't know. First, i thought that i will distribute .jar file which netbeans create. But i used third party API to write my project. So to run the .jar file it needs third pary API's library in the same directory with .jar file. Because of this i can't just give the jar file. I need to give one .jxl file with the jar file. It is not good to tell eveyone don't delete .jxl, it does not work etc. What should i do ? This is the first time that i will distribute an application, i need some suggestions.

I did some research and found; .jar files can be converted to .exe files. What you think about this proccess ? Do you advise that ? I have no idea about it ! Actually no idea about all this stuff.

Are you able to execute your program from the one jar file and have the code in that jar file find the classes in the other jar file? If not, do you know about the Class-Path: record for the manifest file?

First i am using netbeans. When click the jar file in project's dist folder, it runs. But if i copy the jar file, paste another location it is not working. However if i copy the jxl.jar api file also in the same directory it runs. So as you see your question's answer is depends on the situation. I don't have any experience about this subject. I can't give a clear answer to you. I hope you understand my situation. Let's say it is not working with just one jar file. What should i do ? After wrote this message, i will also do research about this ...

So, if I understand correctly, when you place the program.jar and jxl.jar into the same folder then the application works. If that is the case I would just have the distribution be a folder containing the two .jar files. If you wanted to you could zip the folder but that won't really do anything. As for creating a .exe go ahead and check out JSmooth. There are plenty of other programs like JSmooth as well if you don't like what you see.

I am testing these programs too. I will give feedback about that...

Finally i distributed my project, i converted it .exe with using Excelsior JET. But if i want to use it for CMS it is very expensive. For now i am satisfied.

@KevinWorkman
Can you explain why are you thinking in that way ? Because, after i distributed the my project, i need to add update option to my project. It will check the version of the program and if needed it will update the program. I have no idea about that, i started reading today. As i see, .jar files can be updated even while it is working. So does JAVA's update feature work for my application which is converted .jar from .exe ? If it does not, i suppose i need to use .jar file instead of .exe