CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javauser-interfacecommand-linejar
Jae Carr
Jae Carr

Reputation: 1225

Double click .jar file to launch it in command line

I'm trying to make one of my command line utilities a little more user friendly. Most of my co-workers don't mind using the utility as a CLI, but navigating to it is a bit of a pain (to them). I'd rather not go to every computer and set up a shortcut in their CLI so:

Is there a way to make a .jar file launch a command line utility into a command prompt (preferably PowerShell?) I tried searching Google and Stack Overflow but am having a hard time making headway... Any direction would be much appreciated.

I somehow imagine this using Desktop, but am not sure how that would work.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 4205

Answers (3)

Sri Harsha Chilakapati
Sri Harsha Chilakapati

Reputation: 11940

Maybe you need to make a swing based console to redirect output and input. Here are the links I found in a simple web search. (I've never used these before)

And an open source project here at Swing-Console.

EDIT:

Another option. What if you distribute your application with a run-me.bat file?

@echo off
java -jar my-console-app.jar

You can also change the title.

Upvotes: 9

bn.
bn.

Reputation: 7929

You have at least two options.

Make an executable jar file.

An example on Windows would look something like this:

mkdir temp
cd temp

for %f in (..\dist\lib\*.jar) do @jar xf %f

jar xf ..\dist\YourJar.jar 

jar cfe YourJar.jar com.something.Main *.*

You can read more about the jar archive tool here: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/tooldocs/windows/jar.html

This is a lot easier with Maven. See the Maven shade plug-in here: https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-shade-plugin/

Make a Java Web Start application

For an overview, take a look at this: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/deployment/webstart/

For a step by step guide, take a look at this: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/javaws/developersguide/contents.html

Upvotes: 0

Anickyan
Anickyan

Reputation: 414

You should reassociate jar files with java.exe instead of javaw.exe. javaw is the non-CLI version of Java, but launching it with java.exe instead should do the trick.

This is how to do that(provided you have administrative rights):

assoc .jar=jarfileterm
ftype jarfileterm="PATH\TO\JRE\bin\java.exe" -jar "%1" %*

Of course, replace PATH\TO\JRE with the correct path. After doing this, double-clicking a .jar file should open a CLI.

Upvotes: 0

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