The Java Tutorials have been written for JDK 8. Examples and practices described in this page don't take advantage of improvements introduced in later releases and might use technology no longer available.
See Java Language Changes for a summary of updated language features in Java SE 9 and subsequent releases.
See JDK Release Notes for information about new features, enhancements, and removed or deprecated options for all JDK releases.
A self-contained application consists of a single, installable bundle that contains your application and a copy of the JRE needed to run the application. When the application is installed, it behaves the in the same way as any native application. Providing users with a self-contained application avoids the security issues related to running an application in a browser.
You can customize a self-contained application by providing your own icons. File associations can be set up so when a user opens a file that your application can handle, your application is started automatically. Multiple entry points are supported so you can deliver a suite of applications in a single self-contained application bundle.
Self-contained applications can be packaged using the Java Packaging tools. The javapackager command creates the bundle for self-contained applications from the command line. NetBeans can also be used to created self-contained application bundles. This lesson describes how to use Ant tasks to create the bundles.
For more information about self-contained applications, see Self-Contained Application Packaging in the Java Platform, Standard Edition Deployment Guide.
For information about Ant tasks for Java packaging, see JavaFX Ant Tasks, which are used for packaging Java SE and JavaFX applications.
For information about the javapackager command, see
Java Deployment Tools.