Runnable jar File for JavaFX App with Maven

Unlike Java Swing or AWT GUI applications, a JavaFX application needs a litte more tweaking to generate a fat jar that contains all dependencies and that can be run as a stand-alone application.

I used to use the maven assembly plugin to generate runnable jars. I’m pretty sure it’s possible but I could not find a setup that works for JavaFX Apps.

Instead, came up with the following setup, using the maven-shade-plugin and the javafx-maven-plugin:

1. First, we need a main class that does not exend from javafx.application.Application. We introduce a small helper class that delegates to the real application class:

   public class Launcher {
   
       public static void main(String[] args) {
           DrRenameApplication.main(args);
       }
   }
   

   The real main class:

   public class DrRenameApplication extends Application {
   
       public static void main(String[] args) {
           launch(args);
       }
   }
   

2. Next, the Maven Shade plugin:

    <plugin>
      <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>3.2.4</version>
      <executions>
        <execution>
          <phase>package</phase>
          <goals>
            <goal>shade</goal>
          </goals>
          <configuration>
            <outputFile>shade/DrRename-${project.version}.jar</outputFile>
            <transformers>
              <transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ManifestResourceTransformer">
                <mainClass>com.github.drrename.Launcher</mainClass>
              </transformer>
            </transformers>
          </configuration>
        </execution>
      </executions>
    </plugin>
   

3. The Maven plugin for JavaFX:

    <plugin>
      <groupId>org.openjfx</groupId>
      <artifactId>javafx-maven-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>0.0.8</version>
      <configuration>
        <mainClass>com.github.drrename.DrRenameApplication</mainClass>
      </configuration>
    </plugin>
   

4. Done! you can now trigger a Maven install, which will generate the runnable jar file during the build.

References:

• openjfx samples
• samples pom
• cross platform
• centerkey.com
• stackoverflow