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Putting an IzPack-generated installer in a Mac OS X bundle

The IzPack Java Installer Generator allows to build cross-platform installers. In this article, we will see how to build a Mac OS X bundle for your installers.

Mac OS X provides a first-class support for the Java platform. An IzPack-generated installer Jar can be run by simply double-clicking on the Jar icon. However, an application bundle gives a more Mac-ish look to your installer. Fortunately, this is extremely simple to do. In fact, it is not any more complicated than for any other Java application

Mac OS X comes with the Jar Bundler which is located at /Developer/Application/Java Tools. Once you have opened the Jar Bundler application, the first things to tweak are to use a Mac-style menu bar and provide a customized icon. Mac OS X uses a special format called ICNS which embed graphics at different sizes. You can use the ICNS Creator of the Developers Tools to compose your own icon. Let me suggest to use the one provided with IzPack and that you can simply drag and drop to the Jar Bundler:

The next step is to add the installer Jar. This is as simple as dragging the Jar to the Additional Files and Resources list of the Classpath and Files tab. You can then get back to the Build Information tab. You need to set the main class here, so click on the Browse button, select the installer Jar then pick the main class:

You can now take a look at the Properties tab and optionally add a copyright text in the Get-Info String field. That's it! You can now use the Create button and obtain the bundle

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