npm error when trying to publish to github

[jamcgee313]

Hello,
I'm a very novice user who is running into the following error when trying to publish the swing-maven template to a github repository. From what I read, I shouldn't need to worry about having npm on my machine as it's included in jdeploy. Am I missing something?

Here's the output of the error message.
log.txt

[shannah]

Can you describe your steps? E.g. Are you using the jdeploy desktop app? Or did you install jdeploy with npm, and you're using jdeploy CLI? Or something else?

[jamcgee313]

shannah,

Thank you for responding.

I'm using the jdeploy desktop gui. Just trying to work through the "Hello World" stage with the jdeploy developer manual and these forum posts to learn how to use jdeploy. I've developed a couple java swing apps in the past with netbeans but trying to learn how to deploy one that is easily updateable which jdeploy seems to be the tool for the job. I'm also in the middle of trying to learn another ide (eclipse) due to new security regs with my employer(they don't like netbeans now for some reason). I installed jdeploy via the .exe from the download page. I have no experience with npm or CLI so I've not tried to use them here. I'm also a newbie to github, but, using the jdeploy gui, I was able to create the github source and release repositories with jdeploy using the "create new project" process. I used the "swing java maven starter template." I opened eclipse ide and imported as a maven project. I verified I could run the sample app in eclipse. I then used the jdeploy gui publish button. When I tried the "create release on github" button, I got a 404 page that opened in my browser from github, but nothing seems to have happened when I look at the repositories directly on github. When I try the "publish anyway" button, it runs through the process which ends in the error included in the log. txt I sent previously.

I'm sure there's something simple on my end I'm missing. I've got a perfect storm going on(trying to learn a new ide(eclipse), remote repository use(github), and jdeploy all at the same time) so I'm hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction.

jamcgee

[shannah]

The issue appears to be with the jdeploy maven plugin. It's trying to dynamically set the jar path.

I thought I had removed that plugin dependency from all the templates, but I guess I missed a couple.

What you can do to fix this is:

1. Disable the jdeploy-maven-plugin in your pom.xml file. (just remove all references to it).
2. Ensure that the jdeploy.jar property of the package.json points to the correct location where your executable jar will be built.

If you still run into problems, please share the package.json file, and I'll take a look.

[shannah]

Hi @jamcgee313, thanks for the logs.

The 404 error is caused by a malformed URL in your package.json. Open it and find the publishTargets section — the url field likely ends with /releases. Remove that trailing /releases so it's just the repo URL:

"url": "https://github.com/jamcgee313/swingtest1-src-releases"

Save and try publishing again. This is a bug on our side that we'll get fixed.

[jamcgee313]

Changed the url as directed and was able to publish sucessfully a couple time. That's pretty slick!

I did have some followup issues/questions:

1. The private repository I had specified in the gui for the src files to be published to didn't seem to get anything sent to it. I was trying to replicate what you did in this video tutorial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1FlTXD53Ng

2. when the installer window opens, it opens bigger than my monitor size. Had to drag it around to be able to resize it down to see the buttons.

3. When I tried to uninstall, it didn't remove the shortcut from the desktop.

4. I'd like to allow the user to select the folder location to install the app. I didn't see an option that would allow me to choose that. It's currently installing to C:\Users\jamcgee313.jdeploy\apps\b4fa848c84e89cbc008e2a3d874006d7.swing-test-1

Is there something I can change on my end to address these items?

Overall, Thank you very much for your work in creating this jdeploy program. What I've seen so far is awesome! At least to this rookie...

[shannah]

The private repository I had specified in the gui for the src files to be published to didn't seem to get anything sent to it.
Everything gets published to the "public" repository. So as far as I can tell, your publish worked as expected - it published to your public releases repo.

when the installer window opens, it opens bigger than my monitor size. Had to drag it around to be able to resize it down to see the buttons.

It's the installer splash image size. Try adjusting the size of that.

When I tried to uninstall, it didn't remove the shortcut from the desktop.

Thanks. Looking into that. Will post fix when I find cause.

I'd like to allow the user to select the folder location to install the app. I

I haven't exposed this in the jdeploy GUI yet, but you can set the jdeploy.winAppDir property in the package.json as described here https://www.jdeploy.com/docs/manual/#_custom_installation_directory_winappdir

[shannah]

Note: Since you're publishing to github, I strongly encourage you to set up the github workflow for publishing, rather than manually publishing each time. You will thank yourself later.

[jamcgee313]

Thank you for the responses. I appreciate your time and patience.

I'll have to do some study on the use of github workflow for publishing. This is my first attempt at using github, so I'm learning new stuff all around. Do you already have a tutorial made on your channel or know of a good one you'd recommend?

[reportmill]

I'm having problems publishing to GitHub today, but the error message is also referencing npm:

I think my actual error is some kind of network issue with Github because even if I try to manually upload the files to Github, GitHub is complaining "Something went really wrong and we can't process that file." I'm going to try again later.

[reportmill]

Looks like my network issue cleared up and it's working fine now.

Unrelated: I notice that some of the icons in the samples area of the front page at jdeploy.com have broken links (including SnapCode).

[shannah]

Oh. Thanks for letting me know. Was just replying that it might have been a file name encoding issue... but network issue is better. The samples seem to be loading ok for me. Is this the part you're referring to? [image: image.png]

…

On Fri, Jul 3, 2026 at 1:23 PM Jeff Martin ***@***.***> wrote: Looks like my network issue cleared up and it's working fine now. Unrelated: I notice that some of the icons in the samples area of the front page at jdeploy.com have broken links (including SnapCode). — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#447?email_source=notifications&email_token=AAUNWORCHD43557XFJNZCO35DAB2XA5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCNZVGI3DKOBTUZZGKYLTN5XKOY3PNVWWK3TUUVSXMZLOOSWGM33PORSXEX3DNRUWG2Y#discussioncomment-17526583>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAUNWOVOSUHDSKRGKOB6LIT5DAB2XAVCNFSNUABGKJSXA33TNF2G64TZHM3TMNZXGAYTAMB3IRUXGY3VONZWS33OHM4TOMZUGYYDFILWAI> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

-- Steve Hannah Web Lite Solutions Corp.

[reportmill]

The icons for SwingSet2, SnapCode and Melody Matrix are all missing for me in the browser. If I try to "Open image in window" on SnapCode, it takes me to this missing page: https://www.jdeploy.com/assets/img/snapcode-icon.png

[reportmill]

But why does the publish to GitHub error mention npm?

[shannah]

It uses the "npm pack" command to produce the tarball that gets published. I did that to keep parity between github and npm publishing. It could mostly just be replaced with a tar command , but it does a little validation too. It uses an npm that jdeploy bundles itself. Not your system npm. Steve Hannah Web Lite Solutions Corp.

…

On Fri, Jul 3, 2026 at 1:31 PM Jeff Martin ***@***.***> wrote: But why does the publish to GitHub error mention npm? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#447?email_source=notifications&email_token=AAUNWOQVEXIOZE6H4NCFIIT5DACZPA5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCNZVGI3DMMZRUZZGKYLTN5XKOY3PNVWWK3TUUVSXMZLOOSWGM33PORSXEX3DNRUWG2Y#discussioncomment-17526631>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAUNWOUVY4I2XMU26NUUJH35DACZPAVCNFSNUABGKJSXA33TNF2G64TZHM3TMNZXGAYTAMB3IRUXGY3VONZWS33OHM4TOMZUGYYDFILWAI> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[reportmill]

Ah, makes sense, though shouldn't the error dialog say, "A problem occurred while trying to publish this package to GitHub"?