Java Client-WebStart Incremental Build

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There are many ways you can deploy WebObjects JavaClient applications. One of the ways to do it is through WebStart. You could manually create a WebStart app, but WebObjects can also do it for you, taking care of JNLP creation, jar organization, and many WebStart nasty bits.

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There is a problem however. The WOLips incremental builder will not automatically create the required jar of your client-side classes and place it in the project.woa/Contents/WebServerResources/Java/ directory as is required by a WebObjects WebStart Java Client application.

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Without the client classes placed in WebServerResources, Eclipse's built-in Run... command will not work properly as the client application will not have access to its classes and WebObjects will silently fall-back to EOGenericRecord. This causes the confusing condition of the application launching and likely not generating any errors, but not working correctly either.

author	version	line-number	content
		1	There are many ways you can deploy WebObjects JavaClient applications. One of the ways to do it is through WebStart. You could manually create a WebStart app, but WebObjects can also do it for you, taking care of JNLP creation, jar organization, and many WebStart nasty bits.
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		3	There is a problem however. The WOLips incremental builder will not automatically create the required jar of your client-side classes and place it in the project.woa/Contents/WebServerResources/Java/ directory as is required by a WebObjects WebStart Java Client application.
		4
		5	Without the client classes placed in WebServerResources, Eclipse's built-in Run... command will not work properly as the client application will not have access to its classes and WebObjects will silently fall-back to EOGenericRecord. This causes the confusing condition of the application launching and likely not generating any errors, but not working correctly either.
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		7	Below are the steps for adding an additional "Ant Builder" to your project to generate and place the required jar in the right location.
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		9	1. Create a "javaclientbuild.xml" file in the root of your project, with the following as its contents:
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		11	{{code}}
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		13	<project name="javaclient" default="javaclient" basedir=".">
		14	<target name="setProps">
		15	<property file="${user.home}${file.separator}build.properties"/>
		16	<property file="build.properties"/>
		17	<property file="${user.home}${file.separator}Library${file.separator}wobuild.properties"/>
		18	<condition property="wo.properties.check.failed">
		19	<not>
		20	<and>
		21	<isset property="wo.wosystemroot"/>
		22	<isset property="wo.wolocalroot"/>
		23	</and>
		24	</not>
		25	</condition>
		26	<fail message="Could not find ${user.home}${file.separator}Library${file.separator}wobuild.properties." if="wo.properties.check.failed"/>
		27	</target>
		28	<target name="javaclient" depends="setProps">
		29	<mkdir dir="build/${project.name}.woa/Contents/WebServerResources/Java"/>
		30	<jar basedir="${classes.dir}" includes="/client//.class,/common//.class"
		31	jarfile="build/${project.name}.woa/Contents/WebServerResources/Java/${project.name}.jar">
		32	</jar>
		33	</target>
		34	</project>
		35
		36	{{/code}}
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		38	1. Right-Click on your project, and select Properties.
		39	1. Click on "Builders" on the left side.
		40	[[image:Picture 2.png]]

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