Getdown on Mac OS X 10.11.2 with Oracle Java using JavaAppLauncher

[Jacob Anawalt]

Hi,

I was able to get an updater setup using Getdown for Windows and have just switched over to getting things going on the Mac, a platform I'm out of touch on. I started out by testing with Bang Howdy, but when I try to launch it, it says:

To open "Bang Howdy" you need to install the legacy Java SE 6 runtime.

Click "More Info..." to visit the legacy Java SE 6 download website.

Since Getdown works on 1.5+ and Bang Howdy claims the same I suspect this is a workable solution, but I wanted my users to be able to use the Oracle JRE on newer Mac OS versions and I've been interested in bumping up my JVM Version to at least 1.7, so I needed another solution. I found a long but informative blog post by David Clunie that helped point me in the right direction [0]

These are the steps I took to get a copy of Bang Howdy, and my app, running under the Java 1.8.0_45 64 bit version installed on this system.

1. Downloaded AppConverter [1] and copied it's Info.plist and JavaAppLauncher to the appropriate locations in the Bang Howdy Copy (BHC)

2. Moved Contents/Resources/Java to Contents/Java

3. Modified Info.plist's non-Java arguments to be what they are in the JavaApplicationStub version.

4. Modified Info.plist's Java arguments mapping them to the new locations

    a. Java/MainClass -> JVMMainClassName com.threerings.getdown.launcher.GetDown

    b. Java/ClassPath/0 -> not needed, it adds all in Contents/Java

    c. Java/VMOptions -> JVMOptions/0 -Dappdir=$APP_ROOT/Contents/Java

    d. WorkingDirectory -> Key didn't exist or seem to be needed. -Duser.dir didn't seem to do the right thing either.

Hopefully I didn't skip anything. After that I was able to launch Bang Howdy and my app and use the Oracle JVM. I only have one Mac to test on so I don't know how well it works across different versions and Java installs. I might end up switching to the universalJavaApplicationStub. [2]

There are still a couple of glitches I'd like to sort out. First Bang Howdy triggered the signed code message. I'd like to skip that without code signing if possible, or sign the App Bundle if it isn't possible. Second after getdown is done it launches the program in a new JVM so my launcher icon goes from the App Bundle one to the coffee cup. I'd like to avoid that but I'm having trouble with -Ddirect=true, I'll post about that in a minute.

[0] http://dclunie.blogspot.com/2014/10/keeping-up-with-mac-java-bundling-into.html

[1] http://www195.pair.com/mik3hall/index.html#appconverter

[2] https://github.com/tofi86/universalJavaApplicationStub