Bundling a JRE with an application?

Question

I've been debating whether or not to bundle a JRE with my application. I've listed some reasons below why I think it would be useful, but I'm also hesitant to do this because it makes the app much larger.

Why I think it would be useful:

1. Right now the app is run by running a batch file (well, a shortcut to a batch file, it is run via a batch file). It just calls java -jar XXX, which requires Java to be in the path, which is not always the case.

2. We're a small team and not fully running on Java 7 (there are some strange errors we are trying to debug still). If a user has Java 7, they may have an unpleasant software experience - this is not good for us. Packaging a specific version of the JRE ensure we've fully tested on it.

3. We support 32 and 64 bit Windows platforms. When the user downloads the software, they choose 32 or 64-bit, but this is asking which version of Java are they using. Most users don't know if 32-bit java is installed on their 64-bit platform, and it can be confusing to download 32-bit even though their OS is 64-bit.

There are some good reasons why not to package it though:

1. If a security hole is in Java or other significant updates are made to the JRE, we need to distribute a new version of our app with a new Java version. We are generally updating our app every couple of weeks, so I'm not too concerned about this one right now.

2. The app will now be much larger because it includes a packaged JRE.

Can anyone provide some guidance as to whether or not (based on these requirements) they think it is a good idea to package the JRE? If not, what are some alternatives to just hoping that java is in the path (and more importantly if it's not, it is possible our users may not know how to add it).

Answer 1

I would suggest to NOT bundle the JRE although I often see it as a common practice.

Instead I would either use webstart (can be used offline as well) or some other installer or pacakge manager solution that ensures that Java is installed including the correct version. This will widely depend on the operating system you expect to run on.

Going down the way of including Java begs the question what else you want to include, just to be sure... which will lead you to the whole operating system and everything needed thought to the end.

I would also suggest to closely look into what types of users will install the app and adapt to that and make some sort of estimate on how capable they will be.

Answer 2

1. Java Web Start. The JRE will be on the path.
2. For version control, see Java Web Start - Runtime Versioning & particularly Earlier Version.
3. JWS can partition resources between a 64 bit & 32 bit JRE.

So, 'bad idea to bundle JRE'. Use web-start instead.