KB-207 – Core Java Build and Signed Deployment¶

Knowledge Base ID: KB-207
Project: BLACK ERP
Version: 1.0
Status: Superseded
Last Update: 2026-06-26
Superseded By: KB-208 – Core Development Lifecycle

1. Purpose¶

This document records the investigation performed while validating the correct deployment procedure for ADempiere Core modifications.

It is retained as historical documentation.

The certified deployment process is now documented in:

KB-208 – Core Development Lifecycle

2. Initial Assumption¶

During the first deployment attempts, it was believed that updating the runtime consisted of:

Compiling Java.
Generating Adempiere.jar.
Copying the generated JAR into Tomcat.

Testing demonstrated that this assumption was incomplete.

3. Engineering Findings¶

The investigation confirmed the following:

clientDistribute successfully generates a compiled Adempiere.jar.
This artifact is intended as an intermediate build artifact.
It is not the final production runtime.
The production runtime contains additional packaged modules that are merged during the installation build.
Production libraries must be generated using setupALib.

The runtime generation process performs additional packaging operations beyond digital signing.

4. Runtime Packaging¶

The certified runtime generation process:

Creates packages.jar
Generates AdempiereOriginal.jar
Produces the final signed Adempiere.jar
Preserves packaged runtime modules
Preserves runtime metadata

These steps are mandatory before deployment.

5. Lessons Learned¶

The MX VAT Cash Basis implementation produced several important findings.

Replacing the runtime using only the artifact generated by clientDistribute caused:

Missing packaged runtime components
Missing manufacturing classes
Missing warehouse classes
Missing fixed asset classes
Runtime inconsistencies

The investigation demonstrated that the production runtime is larger than the compilation artifact because it incorporates additional packaged modules.

6. Historical Errors Observed¶

During the investigation the following errors were observed:

ClassNotFoundException
Missing ModelValidators
Missing packaged modules
SHA-256 digest errors after modifying signed JARs directly
Runtime inconsistencies caused by incomplete deployment

These findings led to the certification of the official deployment lifecycle.

7. Certified Process¶

The official procedure is documented in: