JavaFX Ant Task Reference

The following items comprise the main JavaFX Ant tasks:

• <fx:csstobin>

  Used to convert CSS files to binary format for faster processing. See also Section 5.4, "Stylesheet Conversion."

• <fx:deploy>

  Used to assemble the application package for redistribution. By default, the deploy task will generate the base application package, but it can also generate self-contained application packages if requested. See also Section 5.7, "Run the Deploy Task or Command."

• <fx:jar>

  Used to create one or more application JAR files. See also Section 5.5, "Create the Main Application JAR File."

• <fx:signjar>

  Used when the application needs a digital signature. See also Section 5.6, "Sign the JAR Files."

Items are in alphabetical order.

---

<fx:csstobin>

Description

Converts a set of CSS files into binary form (BSS).

Parent Elements

None.

Parameters

Parameters Accepted as Nested Elements

• <fx:fileset>

<fx:csstobin> Task Usage Examples

Example 1   Convert CSS Files to Binary

This example converts all CSS files in the output tree to binary form.

<fx:csstobin outdir="build/classes">
    <fileset dir="build/classes" includes="**/*.css"/>
</fx:csstobin>

---

<fx:deploy>

Description

Generates a package for both web deployment and standalone applications. The package includes a set of JAR files, a JNLP file, and an HTML file.

Parent Elements

None.

Parameters

Parameters Accepted as Nested Elements

• <fx:platform>

• <fx:preferences>

• <fx:application>

• <fx:permissions>

• <fx:template>

• <fx:callbacks>

• <fx:info>

• <fx:resources>

<fx:deploy> Task Usage Examples

Example 1   Minimal <fx:deploy> Task

This is a simple example of an <fx:deploy> Ant task. It generates an HTML file and JNLP file into the web-dist directory and uses "Fish" as the prefix for the generated files.

<fx:deploy width="600" height="400"
        outdir="web-dist" outfile="Fish" 
        offlineAllowed="false">
    <fx:info title="Sample application"/>
    <fx:application refid="myapp"/>
    <fx:resources refid="myresources"/>
</fx:deploy>  

Example 2   <fx:deploy> Task for an Application with a Preloader

The following Ant task creates a redistributable package for a simple application with a preloader. Details about the application and its resources are defined in the <fx:application> and <resource> elements in the task.

Note that the location of the output package is defined by the outdir attribute of the <fx:deploy> task. New files are generated using the name prefix specified in the outfile attribute. As a result of execution of this task, the following files are created in the web-dist folder:

• preloader.jar

• helloworld.jar

• App.jnlp

• App.html

Note: By default, the deployment package uses auxiliary files from java.com to support web deployment. This is the preferred way, because it enables the application to always use the best way to deploy on the web. However, if you want to test your application in a closed network then you can include these files into your application package. To do this, pass includeDT="true" as an attribute in the <fx:deploy> Ant task.

<fx:deploy width="600" height="400"
        outdir="web-dist" outfile="App">
    <fx:info title="Sample application"/>
    <fx:application name="SampleApp" 
            mainClass="testapp.MainApp"
            preloaderClass="testpreloader.Preloader">
        <fx:param name="testVariable" value="10"/>
    </fx:application>
    <fx:resources>
        <fx:fileset requiredFor="preloader" dir="dist">
            <include name="preloader.jar"/>
        </fx:fileset>
        <fx:fileset dir="dist">
            <include name="helloworld.jar"/>
        </fx:fileset>
    </fx:resources>
</fx:deploy>

---

<fx:jar>

Description

Packages a JavaFX application into a JAR file. The set of files to be included is defined by nested <fx:fileset> parameters. The <fx:jar> task also embeds a JAR manifest into the JAR file.

In addition to creating a JAR archive, this task also:

• Embeds the JavaFX launcher, which detects the presence of JavaFX Runtime, sets up the environment, and executes the application.

• Embeds the fallback AWT applet, to be used if JavaFX is not available.

• Creates a manifest in the JAR file.

The resulting JAR file supports launching by double-clicking.

Parent Elements

None.

Parameters

Parameters Accepted as Nested Elements

• <fx:platform>

• <fx:fileset>

• <fx:application>

• <fx:info>

• <fx:resources>

<fx:jar> Usage Examples

See Example 12-2 and the following example.

Example 1   <fx:jar> Ant Task for a Simple Application

This example shows how to use the <fx:jar> Ant task to create the main application JAR file for a simple application without a custom preloader. The resulting JAR file performs the following two actions:

• Starts test.MyApplication with all resources needed on the classpath when launched as java -jar application.jar or by double-clicking the JAR file.

• Automatically detects the location of JavaFX Runtime and prompts the user to install it if it is not available, or reports if the platform is not supported.

<!-- Expect definition of JavaFX ant tasks is already imported -->
 
<fx:jar destfile="dist/application.jar">
    <!-- Details about application -->
    <fx:application name="Sample JavaFX application"
            mainClass="test.MyApplication"/>
 
    <!-- Define what auxilary resources are needed -->
    <fx:resources>
        <fx:fileset dir="dist" includes="lib/*.jar"/>
    </fx:resources>
            
    <!-- What to include into result jar file?
         Everything in the build tree -->
    <fileset dir="build/classes"/>
 
    <!-- Customize jar manifest (optional) -->
    <manifest>
        <attribute name="Implementation-Vendor" value="Samples Team"/>
        <attribute name="Implementation-Version" value="1.0"/>
    </manifest>
</fx:jar>   

---

<fx:signjar>

Description

Digitally signs an application JAR file with a certificate.

Signs the JAR file as BLOB. In other words, instead of every entry being signed separately, the JAR file is signed as a single binary object.

This is a new signing method in JavaFX. For traditional signing, the standard Ant signjar task should be used.

Parent Elements

None.

Parameters

*Note that:

<fx:signjar jar="path/to/jar/folder/jarname" .../>

is simply a convenience syntax for the following:

<fx:signjar ...>
    <fileset dir="path/to/jar/folder" file="jarname"/> 
</fx:signjar>

Parameters Accepted as Nested Elements

• <fx:fileset>

<fx:signjar> Usage Examples

Example 1   Sign JAR Files

The following snippet of Ant code shows how to sign JAR files using the new sign as BLOB technique.

<fx:signjar destdir="dist"
        keyStore="sampleKeystore.jks" storePass="****"
        alias="javafx" keyPass="****">
    <fileset dir='dist/*.jar'/>
</fx:signjar>