Comments on jpackage (JEP 343)

[Rachel Greenham]

(Sorry for non-threading, i read the digest)

As you've been lacking feedback from people using the jpackage EA 
builds, here's mine FWIW.

I've been quiet because it's been working well enough for us. That said, 
our needs and process probably simplify matters in that:

1. We're only producing Windows installers
2. We've been lucky in having patient clients during this post-webstart, 
post-javapackager disruption.
3. We were happy to modify our versioning to match Windows standards
4. Our application is non-modular
5. We do it in three steps: jlink to make a JRE, then jpackage to make 
an app image, then jpackage again to make both an exe and msi installer 
based on that image. (client slow to reply which one they'd actually 
prefer!) Not trying to do everything in one step.

Since the fix that made new versions of our app correctly replace older 
ones I've mostly just been testing new EA builds to make sure they don't 
break it! They do sometimes, usually because of changes in the parameter 
names, and of course we lost our Inno Setup customisations. I haven't 
yet made any attempt to customise the EXE setup installer since then.

Would be nice:

1. For it to use the supplied app icon for the installer, or be able to 
supply another specifically for the installer. For it to be shown in the 
installer in some fashion. Other exe customisations of straightforward 
branding and/or flags to control what questions they're asked would be 
very nice.
2. For it to be able to sign the installer in the fashion of, or 
actually using, signtool. (Ideally internalised as installing signtool 
itself is a pain.) Currently that's an extra step after the installers 
are built

But I can wait for them, I want it in a release so I can use it via 
ToolProvider rather than execing an external JDK. All the while it's the 
way it is it massively complicates the build.

Later would-be-nices, not for this desktop app, but ability to use it to 
package background service-type apps, as a service for windows, using 
launchd for osx, and systemd for linux.

-- 
Rachel