Right click menu broken when running JAR file

Question

I have a Java app which puts an icon in the systray with a right click menu. When I run this from the IDE (NetBeans) it works correctly. But when I build it, and run the JAR file it puts the icon in the systray but when I right click on it, it has no context menu.

Here is some code. Any help appreciated. I checked the Platform version and the console version of Java and they both appear to be the same.

package abaxis;

import java.awt.AWTException;
import java.awt.Image;
import java.awt.MenuItem;
import java.awt.PopupMenu;
import java.awt.SystemTray;
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import java.awt.TrayIcon;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.swing.JFrame;

public class Systray
{
    private TrayIcon trayIcon = null;
private Image databaseimage;
private Image databaseDisconnectedImage;
public PopupMenu popup;
private ActionListener exitListener;
private ActionListener settingsListener;
private ActionListener connectListener;
private ActionListener disconnectListener;
private static Systray instance;
private static Abaxis abaxis = null;

private SystemTray tray;

private MenuItem connectItem;
private MenuItem settingsItem; 
private MenuItem exitItem;
private MenuItem disconnectItem;

public Systray() 
{
    // create a action listener to listen for default action executed on the tray icon
    exitListener = new ActionListener() {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) 
        {
            System.exit(0);
        }
    };
    settingsListener = new ActionListener() {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) 
        {
            //New Jframe.
            JFrame settingsJFrame = new AbaxisSettingsForm();
            settingsJFrame.setVisible(true);
        }
    };
    connectListener = new ActionListener() {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) 
        {
            //Start the application.
            abaxis.connect();
            setConnectedItems();
        }
    };
    disconnectListener = new ActionListener() {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) 
        {
            //Discconect the application.
            abaxis.disconnect();
            setDisconnectedItems();
        }
    };
}

public static Systray getSystray()
{
    if(instance == null)
    {
        instance = new Systray();
        instance.init();
    }
    return instance;
}

public void init()
{
    // get the SystemTray instance
    tray = SystemTray.getSystemTray();
    // load Images
        databaseimage = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage(getClass().getResource("/images/database.png"));
        databaseDisconnectedImage = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage(getClass().getResource("/images/database_delete.png"));
    // create a popup menu
    this.popup = new PopupMenu();

    // create menu item for the default action
    connectItem = new MenuItem("Connect");
    connectItem.addActionListener(connectListener);
    settingsItem = new MenuItem("Settings");
    settingsItem.addActionListener(settingsListener);
    exitItem = new MenuItem("Exit");
    exitItem.addActionListener(exitListener);
    disconnectItem = new MenuItem("Disconnect");
    disconnectItem.addActionListener(disconnectListener);       

    // set the TrayIcon properties
    //trayIcon.addActionListener(exitListener);
    // construct a TrayIcon
    trayIcon = new TrayIcon( databaseimage, "Abaxis", this.popup );
    // add the tray image
    try 
    {
        tray.add(trayIcon);
    } 
    catch (AWTException e) 
    {
        System.err.println(e);
    }

    try 
    {
        abaxis = Abaxis.start();
    } 
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        System.out.println(e.getMessage());
    }

    if(abaxis.isConnected())
    {
        //Set all the stuff if its connected.
        setConnectedItems();
    } 
    else
    {
        //Set all the stuff if its disconnected.
        setDisconnectedItems();
    }
}

private void setConnectedItems()
{
    this.popup.removeAll();
    this.popup.add(disconnectItem);
    this.popup.add(settingsItem);
    this.popup.add(exitItem);
    this.updateImage(databaseimage);

}

private void setDisconnectedItems()
{
    this.popup.removeAll();
    this.popup.add(connectItem);
    this.popup.add(settingsItem);
    this.popup.add(exitItem);
    this.updateImage(databaseDisconnectedImage);
}

public void updateImage(Image x)
{
    if (this.trayIcon != null) 
    {
         this.trayIcon.setImage(x);
    }
}

}

Thanks i managed to find that it was a problem with a missing jar. But the jar file appears to be in the lib folder. So i don't know why its having a winge. Stacktrace:

java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: no rxtxSerial in java.library.path thrown while loading gnu.io.RXTXCommDriver
    Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: no rxtxSerial in java.library.path
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Runtime.loadLibrary0(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.System.loadLibrary(Unknown Source)
    at gnu.io.CommPortIdentifier.<clinit>(CommPortIdentifier.java:123)
    at abaxis.Abaxis.connectToBloodMachine(Abaxis.java:114)
    at abaxis.Abaxis.connect(Abaxis.java:90)
    at abaxis.Abaxis.init(Abaxis.java:76)
    at abaxis.Abaxis.start(Abaxis.java:53)
    at abaxis.Systray.init(Systray.java:141)
    at abaxis.Systray.getSystray(Systray.java:88)
    at abaxis.Abaxis.main(Abaxis.java:279)

Answer 1

RXTX works with drivers that depend on the OS it's running. These drivers are provided with RXTX library and they are:

• librxtxSerial.so and librxtxParallel.so for Linux.
• librxtxSerial.dll and librxtxParallel.dll for Windows.
• librxtxSerial.jnilib for Mac

This link has the instructions to properly install these drivers and this question: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: no rxtxSerial in java.library.path has several workarounds to solve this kind of exception.

However all of them assume that you have access to %JAVA_HOME% path or you know where the drivers are located which is fine if you're working on your computer but it's not ok if you need to distribute your app. If this is the case, just copy the driver files in the same folder where your jar is placed. You have to see something like this to know it's working properly:

Stable Library
=========================================
Native lib Version = RXTX-2.1-7
Java lib Version   = RXTX-2.1-7

Update

Recently I've noticed that Linux doesn't include the current working directory in java.library.path property. Consequently if you simply add librxtxSerial.so into app folder you still get UnsatisfiedLinkError. Once again, you can set this property when you run the application through command line like this:

java -jar -Djava.library.path=/path/to/lib

Or you can use a hacky approach explained here: Setting "java.library.path" programmatically. This approach is unsafe and I don't recommend it if you have access to implement another workaround, but I've tried this and it works:

String javaLibraryPath = System.getProperty("java.library.path");

if(!javaLibraryPath.contains(File.pathSeparator + "." + File.pathSeparator)){

    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(javaLibraryPath).append(File.pathSeparator).append(".");
    // The line above appends "." (current directory) to the library path
    // Of course 'rxtxSerial.so' must be placed in the current directory

    System.setProperty("java.library.path", sb.toString());

    try {
        Field sysPathsField = ClassLoader.class.getDeclaredField("sys_paths");
        sysPathsField.setAccessible(true);
        sysPathsField.set(null, null);// Setting this field to null will force a reevaluation of 
                                      // the library path as soon as loadLibrary() is called

    } catch (NoSuchFieldException | SecurityException | IllegalArgumentException | IllegalAccessException ex) {
        ex.printStackTrace();
    }
}