IntelliJ GUI Designer Maven Executable JAR Export

Question

I'm using IntelliJ IDEA's GUI designer and Maven as build system. When I build the executable JAR file via this answer, the build succeeds. However, it throws an exception when launched via the command java -jar MyApplication.jar:

    Exception in thread "main" java.awt.IllegalComponentStateException: contentPane cannot be set to null.
            at javax.swing.JRootPane.setContentPane(JRootPane.java:621)
            at javax.swing.JFrame.setContentPane(JFrame.java:698)
...

The affected code line is the following:

setContentPane(panel);

When ran from source in IntelliJ, it works fine however Maven doesn't seem to properly build the JAR file. After all, IntelliJ does "magic" by linking to a .form file for keeping .java source code files clean from GUI code.

I also found a possible solution which involves adding a special plugin to the pom.xml file that seems to enable build support for IntelliJ's GUI designer here. So I ran mvn clean compile assembly:single again, it didn't have any errors however nothing changed.

If I do a mvn deploy, the plugin throws the following error:

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.codehaus.mojo:ideauidesigner-maven-plugin:1.0-beta-1:javac2 (default) on project MyApplication: Execution default of goal org.codehaus.mojo:ideauidesigner-maven-plugin:1.0-beta-1:javac2 failed: 16257 -> [Help 1]
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch.
[ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
[ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/PluginExecutionException

Here is my pom.xml:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>groupId</groupId>
    <artifactId>MyApplication</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <dependencies>
        <!-- Apache Commons Lang -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-lang</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-lang</artifactId>
            <version>2.6</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Jsoup HTML parser -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.jsoup</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsoup</artifactId>
            <version>1.8.3</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Apache Commons IO -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-io</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
            <version>2.4</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Apache Commons Validator -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-validator</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-validator</artifactId>
            <version>1.4.0</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <archive>
                        <manifest>
                            <mainClass>com.example.MyApplication
                            </mainClass>
                        </manifest>
                        <manifestEntries>
                            <Built-By>BullyWiiPlaza</Built-By>
                        </manifestEntries>
                    </archive>
                    <descriptorRefs>
                        <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
                    </descriptorRefs>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.3</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.8</source>
                    <target>1.8</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>

            <!-- IDEA Gui Designer Plugin -->
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                <artifactId>ideauidesigner-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.0-beta-1</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>javac2</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>

                <configuration>
                    <fork>true</fork>
                    <debug>true</debug>
                    <failOnError>true</failOnError>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

What is wrong? How do I properly export an executable JAR file using Maven in combination with IntelliJ's GUI designer?

@André: Not sure but recently I no longer had this problem and it all worked seemlessly — BullyWiiPlaza, Feb 01 '16 at 12:49
Seems like the problem is lambda expressions. If I remove all lambda expressions in my application, it deploys.... — André, Feb 01 '16 at 14:00
Per @André 's comment, see: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32135018/lambda-expressions-and-java-1-8-in-ideauidesigner — sumitsu, Apr 26 '17 at 13:56
If anyone else is having the error with javac2 and the answer from jorichard doesnt work, try making sure you dont have any lambdas in your source code. This worked for me after jorichard 's answer didnt. — Jacob Buelow, Feb 27 '19 at 16:51

Stanisław Chmiela · Answer 1 · 2016-06-03T09:12:20.287

That happens because Maven doesn't really know how to compile GUI created with IntelliJ GUI Designer. That's why you have to explicitly instruct IntelliJ to generate all the code it understands and Maven doesn't.

To do this go to GUI Designer settings and change the Generate GUI into value to Java Source files. From now on IntelliJ will include all the code responsible for setting UI up in the class itself and all the external tools, like Maven, Eclipse will work properly.

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 26 '17 at 19:07

I had the same problem using IntelliJ IDEA 2017.1.5 but I was able to get it working with Maven. I created a GitHub repository with the updated plugin source code here.

First, clone the project.

In the ideauidesigner-maven-plugin-master folder, run the install-intellij-libs.sh script to install the IntelliJ libraries into your local maven repository:

./install-intellij-libs.sh <path to your IntelliJ directory>

Here is also a batch file (install-intellij-libs.bat) for Windows:

SET INTELLIJ_HOME=C:\Program Files\JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA 173.3188.16 REM Edit this to match your path!
CALL mvn install:install-file -Dfile="%INTELLIJ_HOME%\lib\javac2.jar" -DgroupId=com.intellij -DartifactId=javac2 -Dversion=17.1.5 -Dpackaging=jar
CALL mvn install:install-file -Dfile="%INTELLIJ_HOME%\lib\asm-all.jar" -DgroupId=com.intellij -DartifactId=asm-all -Dversion=17.1.5 -Dpackaging=jar
CALL mvn install:install-file -Dfile="%INTELLIJ_HOME%\lib\forms_rt.jar" -DgroupId=com.intellij -DartifactId=forms_rt -Dversion=17.1.5 -Dpackaging=jar

Then install your new plugin by running the following:

mvn install

Now you're done with setting up your environment.

In your actual project, edit the plugin's version in your pom.xml to this:

<version>1.0-beta-2-17.1.5</version>

Also add the following dependencies:

 <dependency>
  <groupId>com.intellij</groupId>
  <artifactId>javac2</artifactId>
  <version>LATEST</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>com.intellij</groupId>
  <artifactId>forms_rt</artifactId>
  <version>LATEST</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>com.intellij</groupId>
  <artifactId>asm-all</artifactId>
  <version>LATEST</version>
</dependency>

Now building should work correctly with UI designer forms.

I'd like to thank you and the original maintainer of the sources for the compatibility fixes for newer IntelliJ-Versions. After compiling it under Windows 8 (and hopefully 10) I'm able to use lambdas again, when working with the IntelliJ-GUI-Editor and the maven-plugin. — JackLeEmmerdeur, Sep 27 '17 at 08:03
Works. One strange thing though is that after running `mvn package` `IntelliJ` will throw the following exception when you try to run your project using the IDE: `Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/intellij/uiDesigner/core/Spacer` How come and how to avoid this exception? Rebuilding via `Build` -> `Rebuild Project` is a fix but why does the plugin cause the missing class? — BullyWiiPlaza, Oct 26 '17 at 19:09

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 07 '20 at 17:55

I had the same problem but I think I found a much easier solution:

In IntelliJ go into File -> Settings -> Editor -> GUI Designer and do the following setting:
- Generate UI into: Java source code
- Enable Automatically copy form runtime classes...

Add the following dependncy into yout maven pom.xml:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.intellij</groupId>
    <artifactId>forms_rt</artifactId>
    <version>7.0.3</version>
</dependency>

Additionally add to your pom.xml an assembly plugin snippet which could look like this example:

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <phase>package</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>single</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <configuration>
                            <finalName>testUiClient</finalName>
                            <appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
                            <archive>
                                <manifest>
                                    <mainClass>
                                        my.personal.MainClass
                                    </mainClass>
                                </manifest>
                                <manifestEntries>
                                    <Multi-Release>true</Multi-Release>
                                    <Class-Path>.</Class-Path>
                                </manifestEntries>
                            </archive>
                            <descriptorRefs>
                                <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
                            </descriptorRefs>
                        </configuration>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

That should do it - it works at least for me. Just let me know if it works also for you :-)

How can I apply this solution for Gitlab CI/CD please ? I followed your answer, but unfortunately, It does not work. I have the same error message as the OP, before the fix. Thanks in advance. — rchrd, Nov 03 '21 at 14:35

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 20 '21 at 17:50

The answer by @jorichard may be simplifed and made CI friendly - so no local installation of any IDE is required and all configuration and dependency management is done by Maven.

The plugin org.codehaus.mojo:ideauidesigner-maven-plugin:1.0-beta-1 has 2 dependencies on the code provided by Jetbrains via com.intellij:javac2:7.0.3 and com.intellij:forms_rt:7.0.3 (both last updated in 2008). These have not been directly updated since, but have modern equivalents hosted by Jetbrains in their own repositories.

All there is to be done is to overwrite the plugin dependencies. In this configuration (which is working for me) I updated to jetbrains libraries in version 212.5284.40, or latest at the time of writing, corresponding to Intellij IDEA 2021.2.2.

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
            <artifactId>ideauidesigner-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>1.0-beta-1</version>
            <dependencies>
                <dependency>
                    <groupId>com.jetbrains.intellij.java</groupId>
                    <artifactId>java-compiler-ant-tasks</artifactId>
                    <version>212.5284.40</version>
                </dependency>
                <dependency>
                    <groupId>com.jetbrains.intellij.java</groupId>
                    <artifactId>java-gui-forms-rt</artifactId>
                    <version>212.5284.40</version>
                </dependency>
            </dependencies>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>javac2</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
            <configuration>
                <fork>true</fork>
                <debug>true</debug>
                <failOnError>true</failOnError>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

<pluginRepositories>
    <pluginRepository>
        <id>intellij-repository</id>
        <url>https://www.jetbrains.com/intellij-repository/releases</url>
    </pluginRepository>
    <pluginRepository>
        <id>intellij-third-party</id>
        <url>https://cache-redirector.jetbrains.com/intellij-dependencies</url>
    </pluginRepository>
</pluginRepositories>

IntelliJ GUI Designer Maven Executable JAR Export

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