One can use eclipse to build a runnable.app application.
Once you have your application developed to release, define a eclipse run configure that you use to test out your application. The run profile shall be configured the way application startup script is configured.
Once you are ready for creating your application, follow following steps:
- From eclipse file menu, choose export
A dialogue box ask for type, then choose Mac OS X application - This will start an export dialogue box.
- Choose your run profile – this will automatically fill few boxes
- Type name of the application
- Choose the folder location where app is created
- Go to next page – since you have the run profile, it fills all the necessary library. If there are specific file or jar that you need to include, you can do it to bundle
- Go to next page and add signature
- Click done
You have your application built and can be deployed anywhere in the Mac and start.
Caveats:
When you use eclipse to build your application, the export widget uses your eclipse environment as a build environment. Therefore, the Java runtime environments are based on the eclipse runtime environments. Here you want to build and run environment to be your actual runtime environment of your clients. If you thing all your clients be in Java 1.6, then you shall have your eclipse environment be Java 1.6.