Creating Fat JARs for JavaFX Applications

A FAT JAR is a type of Java application distribution where a single JAR contains all other dependencies, so no additional file is required to run the JAR besides the Java Virtual Machine.

For any Java maven based application, creating a FAR JAR could be solved by using Maven Shade Plugin. However, creating FAT Jars using JavaFX may be a challenge because JavaFX uses modules.

Fortunately this subject was intensely discussed in the WEB, and a good explanation and a solution was provided by Jose Pereda in this StackOverflow response.

In this post I want to briefly share the steps to make a FAT JAR and post an example on my github so I can point others to check the example.

How to create a FAT JAR for a JavaFX application?

1- Create a main class that will run your application. This class must have the main method and call your actual application static launch method;

2- Add the Shade Plugin to your project. For those using Gradle notice that Jose Pereda also provided an answer about it in Stack Overflow;

3- In the shade plugin configuration make sure you are setting the Main class to be the one created in step 1.

That's basically all you need. If i is not clear you can check my sample project in github. The three files, App.java, Main.java and pom.xml can be checked below.

	package org.fxapps.javafx.fatjar;
	import javafx.animation.Animation;
	import javafx.animation.FadeTransition;
	import javafx.application.Application;
	import javafx.scene.Scene;
	import javafx.scene.control.Label;
	import javafx.scene.effect.InnerShadow;
	import javafx.scene.layout.StackPane;
	import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
	import javafx.scene.text.Font;
	import javafx.scene.text.FontWeight;
	import javafx.stage.Stage;
	import javafx.stage.StageStyle;
	import javafx.util.Duration;
	public class App extends Application {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
	launch();
	}
	@Override
	public void start(Stage stage) throws Exception {
	var lblHello = new Label("Hello World!");
	var fd = new FadeTransition(Duration.millis(900), lblHello);
	// Label Setup
	lblHello.setFont(Font.font(Font.getDefault().getFamily(), FontWeight.BOLD, 60));
	lblHello.setEffect(new InnerShadow());
	lblHello.setTextFill(Color.GOLD);
	lblHello.setOnMouseClicked(e -> System.exit(0));
	// Animation Setup
	fd.setAutoReverse(true);
	fd.setFromValue(1.0);
	fd.setToValue(0.2);
	fd.setCycleCount(Animation.INDEFINITE);
	fd.play();
	stage.setScene(new Scene(new StackPane(lblHello)));
	stage.initStyle(StageStyle.UNDECORATED);
	stage.show();
	}
	}

view raw App.java hosted with ❤ by GitHub

	package org.fxapps.javafx.fatjar;
	// This is the Main used by the shade plugin.
	public class Main {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
	App.main(args);
	}
	}

view raw Main.java hosted with ❤ by GitHub

	<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
	<groupId>org.fxapps.javafx.fatjar</groupId>
	<artifactId>fatjar-javafx</artifactId>
	<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
	<name>Fat Jar JavaFX</name>
	<description>Project to build a JavaFX 11+ Fat JAR.</description>
	<properties>
	<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
	<maven.compiler.release>11</maven.compiler.release>
	<maven.compiler.source>11</maven.compiler.source>
	<maven.compiler.target>11</maven.compiler.target>
	<javafx.version>11.0.2</javafx.version>
	<javafx.plugin.version>0.0.4</javafx.plugin.version>
	<main.class>org.fxapps.javafx.fatjar.Main</main.class>
	</properties>
	<dependencies>
	<dependency>
	<groupId>org.openjfx</groupId>
	<artifactId>javafx-base</artifactId>
	<version>${javafx.version}</version>
	</dependency>
	<dependency>
	<groupId>org.openjfx</groupId>
	<artifactId>javafx-graphics</artifactId>
	<version>${javafx.version}</version>
	</dependency>
	<dependency>
	<groupId>org.openjfx</groupId>
	<artifactId>javafx-controls</artifactId>
	<version>${javafx.version}</version>
	</dependency>
	</dependencies>
	<build>
	<plugins>
	<plugin>
	<groupId>org.openjfx</groupId>
	<artifactId>javafx-maven-plugin</artifactId>
	<version>${javafx.plugin.version}</version>
	<configuration>
	<mainClass>${main.class}</mainClass>
	</configuration>
	</plugin>
	<plugin>
	<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
	<artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
	<version>3.2.0</version>
	<executions>
	<execution>
	<phase>package</phase>
	<goals>
	<goal>shade</goal>
	</goals>
	<configuration>
	<transformers>
	<transformer
	implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ManifestResourceTransformer">
	<mainClass>${main.class}</mainClass>
	</transformer>
	</transformers>
	</configuration>
	</execution>
	</executions>
	</plugin>
	</plugins>
	</build>
	</project>

view raw pom.xml hosted with ❤ by GitHub