demo-gwt-springboot
Build Status
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Architecture
- Run the WebApp for Development
- Logging
- Debugging
- Unit and Integration Testing
Introduction
This is an example Maven project for following frameworks:
- User Interfaces (Client):
- GWT
- GWTBootstrap3 for the UI
- RestyGWT for the RESTful access to backend services
- GIN for Dependency Injection
- GWT Event Binder for event bus
- GWT Mockito for UI logic test
- Controllers and Services (Server):
- KissMDA
- Spring Boot for business logic implementations
- All the standard stuffs used by Spring Framework
- Domains (Server):
- KissMDA
- JPA with Hibernate
The idea of this project is to offer a simple application template for the mentioned frameworks above. If you need a more sophisticated GWT application framework you can use following frameworks:
- ArcBees GWT-Platform: Model-View-Presenter Framework for GWT
- JBoss Errai Framework
- Sencha GXT
The development is based on Maven so this project can be used with Eclipse, IntelliJ or NetBeans.
Architecture
Model for Services and Domains
There are two services: UserService and PersonService and two Entities: Person and Address. Following diagram shows the structure of the services and the domains.
Architecture
Following diagram shows the architecture of the Microservice Demo. The naming of the packages client, server, shared and resource (not shown in diagram) is based on this architecture.
Client
All the GWT (UI and REST client) classes should be located in this package. GWT transpiles all the Java sources into JavaScript sources.
Shared
In this package you can put any classes which will be used from both sides: client and server. It is advisable to put constants and endpoints of the RESTful services so that they point to the same address. Also DTO (Data Transfer Objects) for RESTful services should be included in this package. GWT transpiles this package into JavaScript sources.
Server
All the controller, service, repository and domain classes - based on Spring Framework - should reside in this package. This package will not be included in GWT transpiler.
Resource
All the themes for GWTBootstrap3 and general Bootstrap themes like Bootswatch should be located in this package.
You can take a look the GWT configuration file to see which packages will be included in GWT transpiler.
Run the WebApp for Development
Server: Start the WebApp with Spring Boot
Just run the class DemoGwtSpringbootApplication or if you are using Spring Tool Suite just run it with Spring Boot Dashboard:
Tips and Tricks
JRebel
- If you are using JRebel you need to put following parameter in VM Arguments, something like:
-javaagent:C:\progjava\jrebel\jrebel.jar
- You also have to comment out the Spring Boot Dev Tools dependency in pom.xml.
<!-- Use this Spring Tool for restarting the app automatically -->
<!-- Only use this if you don't use JRebel! -->
<!--
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
</dependency>
-->- To be able to generate the rebel.xml you need to compile the project with Maven profile development.
Spring Boot Dev Tools
Spring Boot Dev Tools restarts the Spring Boot App automatically if your codes have changed. You have to deactivate JRebel if you want to use this tool. This Spring Boot Dev Tools dependency should be activated:
<!-- Use this Spring Tool for restarting the app automatically -->
<!-- Only use this if you don't use JRebel! -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
</dependency>Client: Start GWT SuperDev Mode transpiler
To be able to test quickly you can use GWT SuperDev Mode. With this tool you can just recompile the changes in GWT Java codes into JavaScript codes without restarting the process.
Follow following steps:
Starting GWT SuperDev Mode
Starting GWT SuperDev Mode Compiler from command line or within the development environment with Maven:
mvn -P development process-classes gwt:run-codeserverAt the end you can see following message:
...
[INFO] The code server is ready at http://localhost:9876/
...Bookmark Dev Mode On
Now you can go to the given address and boomark the Dev Mode On through drag and drop into your bookmark menu.
That's it. You can just push Dev Mode On to run the transpiler directly and the WebApp will be reloaded automatically.
Browser: Call the WebApp demo-gwt-springboot from a web browser
Go to the application URL with a web browser:
http://localhost:9014/demogwt/demogwt.htmlHeroku: Test the Webapp from Heroku
The webapp is installed at Heroku PaaS and you can test it from this address: https://demo-gwt-springboot.herokuapp.com/demogwt/demogwt.html
Logging
The GWT logging is activated (see configuration file) at both sides: Client and Server.
Server: Logging at the Spring Boot Console
Client: Logging at the Browser Console
Debugging
Server: Debugging Spring Boot
Debugging the Spring Boot part can be achieved easily by starting the Spring Boot with Debug mode.
Client: Debugging with GWT SuperDev Mode
Debugging the GWT part should be done by using SDBG. For this purpose you need to use Google Chrome as your browser.
You need to update following file: configuration file for development
<!-- Compiler agent - we only need to compile for one web browser in development -->
<!-- If you want to use SDBG for debugging you need to use Chrome == safari -->
<set-property name="user.agent" value="safari" /> Tips and Tricks for Optimizing Transpiler Speed
There are two GWT configuration files: DemoGwtDevelopment.gwt.xml and DemoGwt.gwt.xml.
- DemoGwtDevelopment.gwt.xml: this config will be used to make the GWT compiling process faster. This only compiles for one web browser and use INFO as logging output.
- DemoGwt.gwt.xml: this config will be used for production transpilling. This is optimized for many many production purposes.
Unit and Integration Testing
Server: Spring Test
Examples of unit test with POJO and Mockito:
Examples of integration test with Spring and in memory database:
Client: GWT Mockito
We use GWT Mockito for writing the GWT user interface unit test. Following is an example of GWT Mockito unit test: