How do I automatically upgrade Java applications during startup?

I deployed a Java 1.6 application (~ 30) on several machines and started it as a Windows service

My main problem is maintaining these deployed artifacts: if I develop a new version of this application, I don't want to manually redeploy it on each machine

Ideally, when the windows service starts, it checks the remote server for updates and, if found, upgrades the application Please note that it is acceptable to restart the service after upgrading

This mechanism can be compared with Maven snapshot verification: if a newer version of the snapshot version exists on the remote repository, Maven downloads it before running the version Note that the application itself will be deployed in the Maven repository (nexus in our example), so the nexus instance will be updated and checked

My technical solution is to implement such an automatic application update?

Please don't hesitate to ask me for more details about technical information or context

thank you.

Editor: as described by Peter Lawley, I can use Java Web start However, how can JWs be integrated in a Java application running as a Windows service?

Solution

I'll look at Java Web start