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I need some pointers to relevant information.

I'm trying to generate a Mac application bundle that contains a Java program. For Java 6 this is fairly easy.

But as far as I know, Java is no longer included with OS X, and in particular there is no guarantee that Java 7 is installed on a user's Mac computer.

Googling only brings confusion. There are hundreds of web pages that tell you how to deploy Java on a Mac, and there are dozens of tools that help you generate the application bundes. The problem is that most of these were written for creating applications that use Java 6. I have not yet found relevant information that I can use with Java 7.

So,

  • Where can I find information about how to deploy Java 7 applications on a Mac?
  • Is it possible to include the Java 7 VM in the application bundle, or do the users have to dowload and install it separately?
oz1cz
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  • What sort of app is this? If it's for an internal app of some sort, it should be feasible to just require users to install the Oracle Java runtime. If it's for a wide-audience app, just target Java 6 for the time being. (OS X will still automatically install that for you the first time a Java app is run on a system, and that's about the extent of "giving a crap about the JRE" regular users can achieve, if even that.) Also, [this SO answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/11169740/41655) has some links that might be relevant. – millimoose Nov 05 '12 at 14:49
  • It's an app for a wide audience. I checked the SO answer you refer to, and it does indeed seem relevant. The problem is that even a bundled OpenJDK JRE relies on the JavaNativeFoundation which is not part of OpenJDK. So there's still a dependency to an Apple library. – oz1cz Nov 08 '12 at 15:12
  • Hm. I do have that framework around under /System/Library, but it's entirely possible the 1.7 installer put it there. (Unfortunately this kind of limits how much I can test my ideas.) Maybe it's possible to embed the official VM analogously to the OpenJDK? Or at least reuse the JavaNativeFoundation framework. (Generally, it seems that now that Windows 8 is out, making a wide audience Java app is painting yourself into a corner.) – millimoose Nov 08 '12 at 16:52
  • Yeah, I'm afraid you're right about Java being a dead end. – oz1cz Nov 09 '12 at 08:41

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