Question

I have to write a java application which I’m putting together using eclipse and it relies on open source code. This application needs to be self-contained, meaning that I’m supposed to create a jar file that has no external dependencies.

I can use the open source code when I reference the jar files in the project’s build path, but the idea is to have the actual source code as part of the eclipse project, side-by-side with my code.

The source code can be found here: http://hc.apache.org/, but when I import an existing file system into my project I can’t quite get things to work. The packages end up with the wrong names, breaking references, and I can’t do anything. Notice that the folder containing the source code has this structure:

 httpcomponents-client-4.2.3\
    src\
    httpmime\
    httpclient-osgi
    httpclient-contrib
    httpclient-cache
    httpclient-benchmark
    httpclient
    fluent-hc

each of those subfolders has src/main/java/org/apache subfolders.

Can someone please explain how to do this? Am I supposed to import everything one java file at a time?

Answer 1

Use a tool like OneJar, FatJar, JarJar, etc. to create a single-jar application.

As Charlie mentioned, the Maven Shade plugin is another choice, particularly if you’re already using Maven. If you’re not, consider it or another transitive dependency management tool.

^{Some tool should be used, IMO, and it’s more important the more dependencies you have.}

Alternatively you could use a jar class loader and include the jar file in your artifact.

I would most definitely not include the source of dependencies in your own project.