JavaFx 2.0 application referencing external jars

Question

I\'m developing a JavaFx 2.0 application using Netbeans 7. The main application references another class library project added by rightclicking the \'Libraries\' folder and

Answer 1

You need to tell the fx:jar task what your classpath dependencies are:

<fxjar destfile="${jfx.deployment.dir}/${jfx.deployment.jar}" applicationClass="${main.class}" >
      <fileset dir="${build.classes.dir}"/>
      <manifest>
        <attribute name="Implementation-Vendor" value="${application.vendor}"/>
        <attribute name="Implementation-Title" value="${application.title}"/>
        <attribute name="Implementation-Version" value="1.0"/>
      </manifest>

      <!-- Setup the classpath for the generated .jar here -->
      <fx:resources>
        <fx:fileset type="jar" dir="lib" includes="MyLib.jar"/>
      </fx:resources>
</fxjar>

You also need to use fx:resources tag in your fx:deploy task instead of just resources. That should resolve the last two problems left in your answer.

Answer 2

In Netbeans, under project => properties => Build => Packaging, did you check "Copy Dependent Libraries" ?

Answer 3

Found a working solution by myself.

All the external libraries in the dist/lin folder had a size of 0kb. So the exception was correct, of course.

To get my application running I did the following in the project's jfx-impl.xml:

Add the classpath to manifest.mf

<fxjar destfile="${jfx.deployment.dir}/${jfx.deployment.jar}" applicationClass="${main.class}" >
             <fileset dir="${build.classes.dir}"/>
              <manifest>
               <attribute name="Implementation-Vendor" value="${application.vendor}"/>
               <attribute name="Implementation-Title" value="${application.title}"/>
<!-- NEW -->   <attribute name="Class-Path" value="${jar.classpath}"/> <!-- NEW -->
               <attribute name="Implementation-Version" value="1.0"/>
              </manifest>
    </fxjar>

Create an output dir for web deployment

<property name="jfx.deployment.web.dir" location="${jfx.deployment.dir}/web" />
<mkdir dir="${jfx.deployment.web.dir}" />

Set output dir for fxdeploy task

<fxdeploy width="${jfx.applet.width}" height="${jfx.applet.height}"
              outdir="${jfx.deployment.web.dir}" <!-- NEW DIR -->
              embedJNLP="true"
              outfile="${application.title}">
        <info title="${application.title}"
              vendor="${application.vendor}"/>
        <application name="${application.title}"
                     appclass="${main.class}"/>
        <resources type="eager">
           <fileset dir="${jfx.deployment.web.dir}"> <!-- NEW DIR -->
              <include name="${jfx.deployment.jar}"/>
              <include name="lib/*.jar"/>
              <exclude name="**/jfxrt.jar"/>
           </fileset>
        </resources>
</fxdeploy>

Now, I can deploy my desktop application and execute ist via doubleclick from windows explorer or by entering

java -jar TestApp.jar

There still exists some issue with the content of my newly created web-dir.

1. The TestApp.jar ist not copied zo dist/web
2. The referenced external jars are not copied to dist/web

This is fine for me and will be fixed some time later.

Hope this helps anyone else.