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Usually Maven is my build tool of choice and for Java front-ends I sometimes still build a front-end application using ANT, Swing with Oracle’s JDK 8u202, and JDK 8’s Java Packager, but don’t tell anyone…
Over time, as I wanted to move forward with some more lightweight front-ends, I started building JavaFX applications.
Of course, I don’t want to lock customers into JDK maintenance contracts. For backend software and servers, where the customer usually has their own runtime architecture, that’s easy, but for GUIs, I generally don’t want to ship a full JDK anymore, I want to use modular Java, ship a JDK of my choice, and provide a proper build system for it all.
So that’s it, I use the following components and software:
Open Java FX (https://openjfx.io/)
Building with Gradle
Eclipse (2022-09)
A free JDK
Besides all these good reasons, I also want to be faster at creating front-ends and creating nice user interfaces is easier than with Java Swing, I think.
My front-end applications are based on other Maven projects whose builds I install in my local Maven repository.
Some of them use open source libraries that are not perfectly modularized and I assume they never will be. I also don’t want to modularize every project in my library toolset, even if they are modules used by different projects.
Sooner or later you might run into the modularization jungle anyway and problems when, for example, the same module names are used for different modules. It seems that jakarta.activation is such a prominent case where the same module name was used for the API and the implementation.
There may also be other stumbling blocks encountered when trying to create modularized applications.
I know I could probably solve everything properly by excluding certain JARs from the Maven dependencies and going through each one, but at the end of the day I just don’t want to spend time doing that, so I decided to create two Gradle build scripts that apply to modular and non-modular projects.
Modular
First, let’s have a look at the modular version of the build-script build.gradle. See the in-line comments for explanations:.
buildscript {
ext {
// Variables if any
//commonsVersion = ‘1.0.0’
}
repositories {
mavenLocal()
mavenCentral()
}
}
plugins {
// Stuff we need
id ‘java’
id ‘org.javamodularity.moduleplugin’ version “1.8.12”
id ‘application’
id ‘org.openjfx.javafxplugin’ version ‘0.0.13’
// We use the Badass JLink Plugin from Serban Iordache
// to build modular applications!
id ‘org.beryx.jlink’ version ‘2.25.0’
}
apply plugin: ‘java’
// Does some integration to eclipse, including linking Java FX SDK
apply plugin: ‘eclipse’
jar {
baseName = ‘autumo-europa-client’
version = ‘1.0.0’
}
repositories {
mavenLocal()
mavenCentral()
}
targetCompatibility = “17”
sourceCompatibility = “11”
project.description = “autumo Europa – Secure Communication.”
project.ext.buildDate = new Date()
project.version = “1.0.0”
dependencies {
implementation “ch.autumo.commons:autumo-commons:1.0.0”
implementation ‘org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-api:2.17.1’
implementation ‘org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core:2.17.1’
implementation ‘org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-slf4j-impl:2.17.1’
implementation ‘org.apache.commons:commons-lang3:3.12.0’
}
javafx {
version = “19”
// Found by eclipse
modules = [ ‘javafx.controls’, ‘javafx.fxml’ ]
}
application {
mainModule = ‘ch.autumo.europa.client’
mainClass = ‘ch.autumo.europa.client.EuropaClient’
}
run {
jvmArgs = [‘-Djdk.gtk.version=2’]
}
// JLink for modular projects
jlink {
// Some default options
options = [‘–strip-debug’, ‘–compress’, ‘2’, ‘–no-header-files’, ‘–no-man-pages’]
launcher {
name = ‘Europa Client’
jvmArgs = [‘-Djdk.gtk.version=2’]
}
// Does some magic to log4j JARs that don’t want to merge
forceMerge(‘log4j-api’)
// Pack it!
jpackage {
// Could be taken from command line, here it is defined statically
// project.findProperty(‘installerOs’)
// (example: -PinstallerOs=mac)
targetPlatformName = ‘mac’
// Resource directory for native package overrides,
// you can do lots of magic here too…
resourceDir = file(‘package/’)
if (targetPlatformName == ‘mac’) { // we are on mac
targetPlatform(“mac”) {
// Use downloaded Eclipse Temurin JDK
jdkHome = ‘/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/temurin-17.jdk/Contents/Home’
// Use another local JDK
//jdkHome = ‘/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-17.0.2.jdk/Contents/Home’
}
installerType = ‘pkg’ // we want to have macOS PKG
}
if (targetPlatformName == ‘win’) { // we are on Windows
targetPlatform(“win”) {
jdkHome = ‘C:/Applications/JDKs/Adoptium/temurin-17.jdk’
}
installerType = ‘exe’
}
if (targetPlatformName == ‘linux’) { // we are on linux
targetPlatform(“linux”) {
}
installerType = ‘deb’
}
// Add jpackage-specific options
installerOptions = [
‘–name’, ‘Europa-Client’, // installer name
‘–description’, project.description,
‘–copyright’, ‘Copyrigth 2022 autumo GmbH’,
‘–vendor’, ‘autumo GmbH’
]
// We also could take the installer type from comand line
// installerType = project.findProperty(‘installerType’)
// We would pass this from the command line
// (example: -PinstallerType=msi)
// Add platform-specific options for the target image and for jpackage
if (installerType == ‘pkg’) {
imageOptions += [‘–icon’, ‘src/main/resources/icon.icns’]
installerOptions += [
‘–license-file’, ‘package/LICENSE-OS-Installer.txt’
]
}
if (installerType == ‘exe’) {
imageOptions += [‘–icon’, ‘src/main/resources/icon.ico’]
installerOptions += [
// ‘–win-per-user-install’, // Install only for current user
// ‘–win-console’, // Shows what Java outputs to the console
‘–win-dir-chooser’,
‘–win-menu’, ‘–win-shortcut’
]
}
if (installerType in [‘deb’, ‘rpm’]) {
imageOptions += [‘–icon’, ‘src/main/resources/icon_256x256.png’]
installerOptions += [
‘–linux-menu-group’, ‘Network’,
‘–linux-shortcut’
]
}
if (installerType == ‘deb’) {
installerOptions += [
‘–linux-deb-maintainer’, ‘info@autumo.ch’
]
}
if (installerType == ‘rpm’) {
installerOptions += [
‘–linux-rpm-license-type’, ‘GPLv3’
]
}
}
}
jpackage {
// Could be used for pre-checks;
// e.g., are certain command line arguments defined?
doFirst {
// project.findProperty(‘installerOs’)
// (example: -PinstallerOs=mac)
// project.getProperty(‘installerOs’) // throws exception if its missing
// project.getProperty(‘installerType’) // throws exception if its missing
}
}
Non-Modular
When it comes to building non-modular JavaFX applications, we use the “The Badass Runtime Plugin” instead the “The Badass JLink Plugin” from Serban Iordache.
The build-script build.gradle for the non-modular version looks like this; see comments for explanations:
buildscript {
ext {
}
repositories {
mavenLocal()
mavenCentral()
}
}
plugins {
// Stuff we need
id ‘java’
id ‘application’
id ‘org.openjfx.javafxplugin’ version ‘0.0.13’
// We use the Badass Runtime Plugin from Serban Iordache
// to build modular applications!
id ‘org.beryx.runtime’ version ‘1.13.0’
}
apply plugin: ‘java’
// Does some integration to eclipse, including linking Java FX SDK
apply plugin: ‘eclipse’
jar {
baseName = ‘autumo-documents-ui’
version = ‘1.0.0’
}
repositories {
mavenLocal()
mavenCentral()
}
targetCompatibility = “17”
sourceCompatibility = “8”
project.description = “The documetns viewer shows the ability of the autumo documents component to extract any file for indexing.”
project.ext.buildDate = new Date()
project.version = “1.0.0”
javafx {
version = “19”
modules = [ ‘javafx.controls’, ‘javafx.fxml’, ‘javafx.web’ ]
// I want to specifially define where the JavaFX SDK is
sdk = ‘/Users/Mike/Library/Java/javafx-sdk-19’ // on mac
//sdk = ‘C:/Applications/JavaFX/javafx-sdk-19’ // on windows
}
configurations {
// In case of conflicts I could exclude modules
//all*.exclude group: ‘xml-apis’
}
dependencies {
implementation “ch.autumo.commons:autumo-commons:1.0.0”
implementation “ch.autumo.beetroot:autumo-beetroot:1.3.3”
implementation “ch.autumo.search:autumo-search:1.0.0”
implementation “ch.autumo.documents:autumo-documents:1.0.0”
implementation “org.apache.poi:poi:5.2.3”
implementation “org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml:5.2.3”
implementation “org.apache.poi:poi-scratchpad:5.2.3”
implementation “org.apache.tika:tika-core:2.6.0”
implementation “org.apache.tika:tika-parsers-standard-package:2.6.0”
implementation “org.apache.pdfbox:pdfbox:2.0.27”
implementation “org.apache.pdfbox:preflight:2.0.27”
implementation “commons-dbutils:commons-dbutils:2.0-SNAPSHOT”
implementation “org.jsoup:jsoup:1.15.3”
implementation “com.google.zxing:core:3.5.0”
implementation “com.google.zxing:javase:3.5.0”
implementation “com.zaxxer:HikariCP:5.0.1”
implementation “org.apache.lucene:lucene-core:9.4.0”
implementation “org.apache.lucene:lucene-queryparser:9.4.0”
implementation “org.apache.lucene:lucene-highlighter:9.4.0”
implementation “org.apache.lucene:lucene-analyzers-common:8.11.2”
implementation “org.apache.lucene:lucene-analyzers-phonetic:8.11.2”
//implementation(files(‘lib/afile.jar’)) // no local files needed
}
application {
mainClass = ‘ch.autumo.documents.ui.Main’
}
run {
jvmArgs = [‘-Djdk.gtk.version=2’]
}
// Runtime for non-modular projects
runtime {
// Some default options
options = [‘–strip-debug’, ‘–compress’, ‘2’, ‘–no-header-files’, ‘–no-man-pages’]
// The modules !
modules = [‘java.naming’, ‘jdk.charsets’, ‘java.xml’, ‘javafx.controls’, ‘javafx.fxml’, ‘javafx.web’, ‘java.sql’ ]
// Pack it!
jpackage {
// Could be taken from command line, here it is defined statically
// project.findProperty(‘installerOs’)
// (example: -PinstallerOs=mac)
targetPlatformName = ‘mac’
// The app name
imageName = ‘autumo Documents Viewer’
jvmArgs = [‘-Djdk.gtk.version=2’]
// Resource directory for native package overrides,
// you can do lots of magic here too…
resourceDir = file(‘package/’)
if (targetPlatformName == ‘mac’) {
targetPlatform(“mac”) {
// Use downloaded Bellsoft Liberica JDK with JavaFX bundled!
jdkHome = ‘/Volumes/Fastdrive/Development/JDKs/Bellsoft/mac/jdk-17.0.5-full.jdk’
// We also could directly download a JDK
//jdkHome = jdkDownload(“https://download.java.net/java/GA/jdk17.0.1/2a2082e5a09d4267845be086888add4f/12/GPL/openjdk-17.0.1_macos-x64_bin.tar.gz”)
}
installerType = ‘pkg’
}
if (targetPlatformName == ‘win’) {
targetPlatform(“win”) {
jdkHome = ‘C:/Applications/JDKs/Bellsoft/jdk-17.0.5-full’
}
installerType = ‘exe’
}
if (targetPlatformName == ‘linux’) {
targetPlatform(“linux”) {
}
installerType = ‘deb’
}
// Add jpackage-specific options
installerOptions = [
‘–name’, ‘autumo-Documents-Viewer’, // installer name
‘–description’, project.description,
‘–copyright’, ‘Copyright 2022 autumo GmbH’,
‘–vendor’, ‘autumo GmbH’
]
// We also could take the installer type from comand line
// installerType = project.findProperty(‘installerType’)
// We would pass this from the command line
// (example: -PinstallerType=msi)
if (installerType == ‘pkg’) {
imageOptions += [‘–icon’, ‘src/main/resources/icon.icns’]
installerOptions += [
‘–license-file’, ‘package/LICENSE-OS-Installer.txt’
]
}
if (installerType == ‘exe’) {
imageOptions += [‘–icon’, ‘src/main/resources/icon.ico’]
installerOptions += [
// ‘–win-per-user-install’, // Install only for current user
// ‘–win-console’, // Shows what Java outputs to the console
‘–win-dir-chooser’,
‘–win-menu’, ‘–win-shortcut’
]
}
if (installerType in [‘deb’, ‘rpm’]) {
imageOptions += [‘–icon’, ‘src/main/resources/icon_256x256.png’]
installerOptions += [
‘–linux-menu-group’, ‘Utility’,
‘–linux-shortcut’
]
}
if (installerType == ‘deb’) {
installerOptions += [
‘–linux-deb-maintainer’, ‘info@autumo.ch’
]
}
if (installerType == ‘rpm’) {
installerOptions += [
‘–linux-rpm-license-type’, ‘GPLv3’
]
}
}
}
jpackage {
// Could be used for pre-checks;
// e.g., are certain command line arguments defined?
doFirst {
// project.findProperty(‘installerOs’)
// (example: -PinstallerOs=mac)
// project.getProperty(‘installerOs’) // throws exception if its missing
// project.getProperty(‘installerType’) // throws exception if its missing
}
}
Does it work?
Yes it does, and it works on all platforms!
I’m pretty sure there are still things “under the hood” in the build scripts that I don’t quite understand, but the above scripts work and I can build modular and non-modular JavaFX applications with a JDK of my choice.
The day is saved, you might want to use these scripts as templates! Enjoy.
References
Some more references to this article:
The Badass JLink Plugin: https://badass-jlink-plugin.beryx.org
The Badass Runtime Plugin: https://badass-runtime-plugin.beryx.org
Bellsoft’s Liberica JDK: https://bell-sw.com/libericajdk
Ecipse/Adoptium Temurin JDK: https://adoptium.net
Open Java FX: https://openjfx.io
Eclipse IDE: https://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages
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