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JDeploy – Deploy desktop Java apps as native bundles on Mac, Linux, and Windows

jdeploy.com

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Re: JDeploy – Deploy desktop Java apps as native bundles on Mac, Linux, and Windows

#21

Post by SeanLuke »

victor106 wrote: post #17
shannah78 wrote: post #2

This is a passion project of mine to make it easier to deploy Java desktop apps. I'm very happy with the result, as IMO, the process is orders of magnitudes simpler than what we had before. Some features include: - Native installers for Mac, Windows, and Linux - Build native bundles for all platforms from any platform (e.g. You don't need Mac to make a Mac app. You don't need Windows to make a Windows app, etc..) - A…

This looks very cool. What Java framework(Swing, FX etc) would you recommend for a desktop Java app?

In my opinion, JavaFX is the Duke Nukem Forever of UI toolkits. It was supposed to be a "modern" replacement for Swing, ultimately blooming into a full-featured, rich GUI library. But it's now almost 15 years since JavaFX was introduced, and Swing is still much more capable and flexible. I would pick Swing over JavaFX in a heartbeat for a new app right now.

Re: JDeploy – Deploy desktop Java apps as native bundles on Mac, Linux, and Windows

#23

Post by ta988 »

brianguertin wrote: post #20
victor106 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This looks very cool. What Java framework(Swing, FX etc) would you recommend for a desktop Java app?

There's an exciting desktop port of https://developer.android.com/jetpack/compose done by Jetbrains: https://github.com/JetBrains/compose-jb

It is exciting but even less there than JavaFX unfortunately. That's the problem with most UI systems, they evolve really fast in the beginning and show great promises, then the real difficulties arise and you have users that start to want a stable API.

Re: JDeploy – Deploy desktop Java apps as native bundles on Mac, Linux, and Windows

#27

Post by Ingon »

SeanLuke wrote: post #21
victor106 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This looks very cool. What Java framework(Swing, FX etc) would you recommend for a desktop Java app?

In my opinion, JavaFX is the Duke Nukem Forever of UI toolkits. It was supposed to be a "modern" replacement for Swing, ultimately blooming into a full-featured, rich GUI library. But it's now almost 15 years since JavaFX was introduced, and Swing is still much more capable and flexible. I would pick Swing over JavaFX in a heartbeat for a new app right now.

Also, Swing is just there, so for a simple app you don’t need to figure out dependencies or how to fit JavaFX into maven/gradle.

Re: JDeploy – Deploy desktop Java apps as native bundles on Mac, Linux, and Windows

#28

Post by shannah78 »

Tommabeeng wrote: post #22

This is incredible. I’ve got two JavaFX apps to try this out with this week. Figuring out Mac codesigning for JavaFX apps was a pita.

Cool! Ping me when you get around to it. I'm still trying to put together some more samples for the homepage if you're willing to let me post them there.

Re: JDeploy – Deploy desktop Java apps as native bundles on Mac, Linux, and Windows

#29

Post by shannah78 »

exabrial wrote: post #26

This actually serves an immediate need for us... we recently wrote a quite nice JavaFX desktop app to take care of some redundant data processing stuff and api pinging nonsense. Second coming of JNLP it looks like

Glad to hear! Please share them when you post them. Looking for more samples for the homepage.

> Second coming of JNLP it looks like

Yeah. JNLP always still felt a bit second class to me. The move to native bundles was, all in all, a good step, but the process was always too cumbersome.

Re: JDeploy – Deploy desktop Java apps as native bundles on Mac, Linux, and Windows

#30

Post by tmilard »

shannah78 wrote: post #5
rmjill wrote: post #4

This looks like magic. Not sure how it generates native packages for multiple platforms without running on all of them.

The launcher, which is written in Go and C, is precompiled, so it can be reused in all apps. This means that, unlike jpackage, which requires you to build the Windows installer on Windows, the Mac installer on Mac, etc..., you can build for any platform from any platform. The idea is to fulfill the promise of WORA all the way to deployment. Everything is built and configured in a cross-platform way, and then is deplo…

Thanks Shannah for the tool. I have always thought oracle was so uncool (and shooting in its own foot) not investing in better and easier deployment tool...

I really will definitely try it out for my free-visit builder installer. If it works well like some have said, boy you saved my day ♥. Love

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