Vaadin 14 Groovy Builder Example App / Archetype

This project can be used as a starting point to create your own Vaadin 14+ application. It has the necessary dependencies and files to get you started. Just clone this repo and start experimenting! Import it to the IDE of your choice as a Gradle project.

Uses Vaadin Groovy Builder Groovy bindings to the Vaadin framework. Uses Vaadin-Boot.

Preparing Environment

The Vaadin 14 build requires node.js and npm. Vaadin Gradle plugin will install it for you automatically (handy for the CI); alternatively you can install it to your OS:

• Windows: node.js Download site - use the .msi 64-bit installer
• Linux: sudo apt install npm

Also make sure that you have Java 11 JDK installed.

Getting Started

To quickly start the app, just type this into your terminal:

git clone https://github.com/mvysny/vaadin-groovy-builder-example
cd vaadin-groovy-builder-example
./gradlew run

Gradle will automatically download all dependencies and will run your app. Your app will be running on http://localhost:8080.

We suggest you use Intellij IDEA to develop the project further; the Community edition is enough for all development purposes. From your IDE, simply run the Main.main() function.

This is a port of Skeleton Starter Flow to Groovy+Gradle.

Supported Modes

Runs in Vaadin 14 npm mode, using the Vaadin Gradle Plugin.

Both the development and production modes are supported. To prepare for development mode, just run:

./gradlew clean vaadinPrepareFrontend

To build in production mode, just run:

./gradlew clean build -Pvaadin.productionMode

If you don't have node installed in your CI environment, Vaadin Gradle plugin will install it for you automatically:

./gradlew clean build -Pvaadin.productionMode

Workflow

To compile the entire project in production mode, run ./gradlew -Pvaadin.productionMode.

To run the application in development mode, run ./gradlew clean build example:run and open http://localhost:8080/.

To produce a runnable production-mode app:

• run ./gradlew -Pvaadin.productionMode
• You will find the app zip file in the example/build/distributions/ folder.
• To revert your environment back to development mode, just run ./gradlew or ./gradlew vaadinPrepareFrontend (omit the -Pvaadin.productionMode) switch.

This will allow you to quickly start the example app and allow you to do some basic modifications.

Note that the app doesn't build to WAR, but builds into a self-contained runnable app instead.

Dissection of project files

Let's look at all files that this project is composed of, and what are the points where you'll add functionality:

Files	Meaning
build.gradle.kts	Gradle build tool configuration files. Gradle is used to compile your app, download all dependency jars and build a standalone zip file
gradlew, gradlew.bat, gradle/	Gradle runtime files, so that you can build your app from command-line simply by running ./gradlew, without having to download and install Gradle distribution yourself.
.github	Configuration file for the GitHub Workflows which tells GitHub how to build the app. GitHub Workflows automatically builds your app and runs all the tests after every commit.
.gitignore	Tells Git to ignore files that can be produced from your app's sources - be it files produced by Gradle, Intellij project files etc.
src/main/resources/	A bunch of static files not compiled by Groovy in any way; see below for explanation.
simplelogger.properties	We're using Slf4j for logging and this is the configuration file for Slf4j Simple Logger.
webapp/	static files provided as-is to the browser.
src/main/groovy/	The main Groovy sources of your web app. You'll be mostly editing files located in this folder.
MainView.groovy	When Servlet Container (such as Tomcat) starts your app, it will show the components attached to the main route, in this case, the MainView class.
MainViewTest.groovy	Automatically run by Gradle to test your UI; see Karibu Testing for more information.

More Resources

• The DSL technique is used to allow you to nest your components in a structured code. This is provided by the Vaadin Groovy Builder library; please visit the Vaadin Groovy Builder home page for more information.
• The browserless testing is demonstrated in the MainViewTest.groovy file. Please read Browserless Web Testing for more information.