JDK incubator: Using jpackage

Starting from version 14, the JDK contains a new module: jdk.incubator. This new module contains a couple of experimental tools and features.
Usually, Java applications are delivered as jar file. In some cases, it could be useful to provide an installer instead. The tool jpackage does just that.

In this post a very simple JavaFX application is built and then packaged as an Apple disc image (dmg file) using jpackage.

The sample project

The sample application can be found here

Build the project

The project is built using maven.

Packaging

After the project is built successfully, we can package it using the following command from the root folder of the test-project:

jpackage --name test-project --input . --main-jar target/java-14-incubator-test-0.0.1.jar --module-path /Users/martinbaumer/Downloads/javafx-sdk-11.0.2/lib --add-modules javafx.controls,java.desktop

The jpackage tools comes with a couple of arguments:

• –name sets the name of the resulting file
• –input points to the path that will be input to the image
• –main-jar points to the jar file
• –module-path points to the path to the JavaFX SDK
• –add-modules sets the modules that are required to run the app

When jpackage is finished, a new dmg file is created in the project’s root folder. The file is opened instantly.

The application can be dragged and dropped to the Application folder. Done!