VLCJ without installing VLC

Question

I'd like to ship a self-contained java app using vlcj and read the SAQs (http://code.google.com/p/vlcj/wiki/SAQ) which suggested this was possible if one ships all of the shared objects or DLL's for libvlc and the vlc plugins needed. Could someone please help with how this might be practically done? Thanks, D

Collis

Answer 1

I have done this. What I did was package the dll's and plugin's directory with the app. I placed it in the lib directory.

I then added the path to the VLCj libraries to the command line arguments -Djna.library.path={Application Location}/lib

Directory contents

lib
-- libblc.dll
-- libvlc5.dll
-- {etc}
/plugins
   /3dnow
   /access
   {etc}

The trick is that you have to be careful what target OS you are shooting for. I limited the app to use Windows only. To use multiple operating systems, you have to carefully select the correct native libraries.

Hope that helps.

Rosyrot

Yes. Setting the System property("jna.library.path" ...} will have the same effect as passing it as a VM argument. I chose to use the VM arg approach to allow my application be to installed anywhere. – Rosyrot

To use variables for the path, you could keep it simple and add a variable to your script. For instance, start by creating a .bat file. First line setups up the variable, then the second calls the program. Simple enough. And yes, my solution is working in production. Another solution would be what I used. I used Install4J to package the app. It handled inserting the VM arguments. – Rosyrot