Do java actions in Oozie need to be provided within a jar file?

Question

Do I need to place my java classes in some jar that goes to the lib/ directory in the root of the workflow definition, or is there another way to use the classes outside of a jar?

Answer 1

Java actions in Oozie are run in a Map Reduce job, so yes the classes do need to be wrapped in a jar.

They do not need to be placed in the lib directory though, they can exist in the shared library folder (oozie.libpath).