How to use Spring Boot build plugin with JavaFX app - maven

Question

I used Netbeans to generate a template for my JavaFX app. It generated a POM.xml and the build section seems excessively complicated. Furthermore, it unpacks ALL the dependencies every time i compile the project and it takes like 3 minutes every time. Here is the relevant section of the POM.xml file :
<parent>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
<version>2.0.4.RELEASE</version>
</parent>
<organization>
<name>MDenis</name>
</organization>
<dependencies>
<!--SPRING-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-logging</artifactId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-jdbc</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-orm</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
</dependency>
<!--HIBERNATE-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.validation</groupId>
<artifactId>validation-api</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
<version>6.0.10.Final</version>
</dependency>
<!--HSQLDB-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hsqldb</groupId>
<artifactId>hsqldb</artifactId>
</dependency>
<!--LOMBOK-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
<artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
</dependency>
<!--LOG4J2-->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-log4j2</artifactId>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.6</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>unpack-dependencies</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>unpack-dependencies</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<excludeScope>system</excludeScope>
<excludeGroupIds>junit,org.mockito,org.hamcrest</excludeGroupIds>
<outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/classes</outputDirectory>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>unpack-dependencies</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>exec</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<executable>${java.home}/../bin/javapackager</executable>
<arguments>
<argument>-createjar</argument>
<argument>-nocss2bin</argument>
<argument>-appclass</argument>
<argument>${mainClass}</argument>
<argument>-srcdir</argument>
<argument>${project.build.directory}/classes</argument>
<argument>-outdir</argument>
<argument>${project.build.directory}</argument>
<argument>-outfile</argument>
<argument>${project.build.finalName}.jar</argument>
</arguments>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>default-cli</id>
<goals>
<goal>exec</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<executable>${java.home}/bin/java</executable>
<commandlineArgs>${runfx.args}</commandlineArgs>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.1</version>
<configuration>
<source>1.8</source>
<target>1.8</target>
<compilerArguments>
<bootclasspath>${sun.boot.class.path}${path.separator}${java.home}/lib/jfxrt.jar</bootclasspath>
</compilerArguments>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.16</version>
<configuration>
<additionalClasspathElements>
<additionalClasspathElement>${java.home}/lib/jfxrt.jar</additionalClasspathElement>
</additionalClasspathElements>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
This is my first JavaFX project, in my other projects i just use this build section and everything works fine :
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<goals>
<goal>repackage</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
However, when trying to use it with this project, i get the following error :
The parameters 'executable' for goal org.codehaus.mojo:exec-maven-plugin:1.2.1:exec are missing or invalid
Why won't this work with a JavaFX project? It seems like it wants to execute goals that are not even in my POM file.
EDIT
I do see that goal in the effective POM tab but I don't know enough about Maven to make sense of it, I can't change anything in the effective section anyway. Anyone knows how to make the Spring Boot plugin work with a JavaFX desktop app?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Answer 1

You need to refactor the pom file. The configuration must go outside of the executions, like this:
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>unpack-dependencies</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>exec</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<executable>${java.home}/../bin/javapackager</executable>
<arguments>
<argument>-createjar</argument>
<argument>-nocss2bin</argument>
<argument>-appclass</argument>
<argument>${mainClass}</argument>
<argument>-srcdir</argument>
<argument>${project.build.directory}/classes</argument>
<argument>-outdir</argument>
<argument>${project.build.directory}</argument>
<argument>-outfile</argument>
<argument>${project.build.finalName}.jar</argument>
</arguments>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>default-cli</id>
<goals>
<goal>exec</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
<configuration>
<executable>${java.home}/bin/java</executable>
<commandlineArgs>${runfx.args}</commandlineArgs>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Answer 2

I finally managed to make this work without unpacking the dependencies every time i compile. I used the de.felixroske.jfxsupport.AbstractJavaFxApplicationSupport class to extend my main class from, put launch(args); in the main method, and I now have the following code in the build section of the POM.XML file :
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
</executions>
<configuration>
<executable>${java.home}/bin/java</executable>
<commandlineArgs>${runfx.args}</commandlineArgs>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<goals>
<goal>repackage</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>