JSmooth: Java Executable Wrapper

JSmooth is a Java Executable Wrapper. It creates native Windows launchers (standard .exe) for your java applications. It makes java deployment much smoother and user-friendly, as it is able to find any installed Java VM by itself.

When no VM is available, the wrapper can automatically download and install a suitable JVM, or simply display a message or redirect the user to a web site.

JSmooth provides a variety of wrappers for your java application, each of them having their own behaviour: Choose your flavour!

Features

Smooth User Experience

• Your users see and use a standard windows Exe binary. No more technical explanation on .jar, on javaw association, etc.

• Several GUI, console, and Windows Service wrappers are available!

• The JSmooth EXE launchers are smart: They know how to swiftly search for any Java Environement installed on a computer, and determine which best suits the requirements of your application. If no VM is found, it's OK as well, your end-users are in good hands with jsmooth: the wrappers can redirect them to a web page, or even better, they can propose the user to automatically download and install a Java Environment.

Flexible automatic Java VM detection

• Detects the location of any Sun JVM installed. The wrappers use several strategies to detect all the JVM available on a computer, using windows registry, environment variables, windows path.

• Detects and uses Microsoft's JView (for 1.0 and 1.1 Java applications), if available.

• The JVM search sequence is fully customizable using the GUI. You can force the executable to search in the path first, and in the registry last, or in JAVA_HOME first. We have all the flavours!

• Sometimes it's more convenient to bundle a JRE with your application. JSmooth can deal with that too, you just need to define in which folder the JRE is expected. It falls back nicely to a standard JVM search if the JRE is not where it should be.

• Specify which versions of the JVM are compatible with your software. You can set a minimum version, but also a maximum JVM version.

Graphical User Interface

• A Swing-based project editor allows you to easily configure the executable binary for your software. All the parameters are configured with a GUI, just click and compile the project.

• Associate an icon to your executable, using a .ICO, .PNG, or .GIF file (automatic color reduction is done if necessary).

Application configuration

• Easy java properties configuration: specify the tag=value pairs you want the wrappers to pass to your java application.

• You can easely pass environment variables from the system: just define the java properties to pass to your application, and use the standard Windows %VARIABLE% syntax.

• Pass special variables that are not available to Java program, such as the executable path and name, and even the Windows computer name.

• Specify all the classpath configuration, adding .jar, .zip, or directories, with an intuitive GUI.

• Want to modify the current directory used by your Java application? The wrappers will handle this for you.

Wrappers

• Provided with several exe wrappers skeletons, for GUI or for console-base application.
• If none of the provided wrappers pleases you, just create your own ! It's open-source and easy to plug in the jsmooth framework!