So I have recently moved from the very familiar Microsoft stack, so hopefully I can give some tutorials for those interested in Java Web Application development.
This tutorial is just to get your basic dev environment up and running. I am using a windows development system but you can also create a similar setup on Linux (Suggest Ubuntu) if you want.
Some pre-reading
- What is Oracle Java SE? In essence it is a platform specification from Oracle that consists of a collection of Java resources. Some primary resources include JDK (Developers) and JRE (includes JVM and allows the JDK code to execute). Read more on each version’s Java Docs (E.g. Java SE 6).
- What is Java EE? Oracles enterprise java platform, it is an extension of Java SE. This provides an API and runtime environment for rich enterprise application that can be deployed to the likes of WebSphere, Glassfish and JBoss.
Downloads
Setup Instructions
1. Create the following folder structure
2. Install JDK 6
*Be sure to change the target directory to ‘c:\development\bin\jdk1.6.0_43’
3. Extract the Eclipse folder in the downloaded ZIP file
*Extract the folder to ‘c:\development\bin\eclipse’
Another alternative IDE is IntelliJ IDEA, I suggest Eclipse to start off as not IntelliJ features are free.
4. Set Java System Runtime Environment Variable
Right click ‘My Computer’ > Properties > Advance > Under ‘System Variables’ > New
Variable name: JAVA_HOME
Variable value: c:\development\bin\jdk1.6.0_43
5. Extract Tomcat 6
*Extract tomcat folder to ‘c:\development\bin\apache-tomcat-6.0.36’
This is for development, most likely you will deploy to WebSphere, Glassfish and JBoss as your production environment.
6. Open Eclipse
a. At startup you be prompted to specify a working directory. Navigate to the created ‘c:\development\workspace’ folder and select ‘Use this the default..’
b. We need to add the extracted Tomcat 6.
Navigate to the tab ‘Servers’ below. Right click > New > Server. Under Apache select ‘Tomcat v6.0 Server’ and next. Browse to the extracted Tomcat folder and finish.
7. Create a very basic Web Application to test environment
a. Select ‘File’ > ‘New’ > ‘Dynamic Web Project’ > Give name ‘Test Environment’ > Finish
b. In ‘Project Explorer’ under ‘WebContent’ right click and create ‘New’ > ‘File’ > Create ‘index.jsp’
c. Inside the open file, click on the white and press Cntr+Space. This will give a list of scaffolding options. Select ‘New HTML File (5)..’ and enter a basic <H1> hello world text.
<body>
<!-- Add this below -->
<H1>Hello world!</H1>
</body>
d. Right click on the ‘index.jsp’ > Run as > Run on Server. Select the added Tomcat server and ‘Always use this server when running this project’ > Finish
If you can see the hello world you have successfully created a basic JAVA EE and eclipse dev environment.
Eclipse - Overview
·
Project Explorer
The is the main project map and
navigation section
·
Main Canvas
Files open and currently being
looked at. A good thing to know here is you can maximize/normalize a tab by
double clicking on it.
·
Perspectives
Different viewports, debug is the
other main one you will use. Some companies create their own flavors (customized)
versions of Eclipse; these are likely to include their own perspectives.
·
View/Tools
Having the right set of tools
and views goes a long way. Here is a couple of important ones
View
|
Description
|
Markers
|
Here you find the list of compile time errors and
warnings
|
Servers
|
Here you will find your Tomcat server and configure it
|
Tasks
|
Find your project ToDo’s here
|
Console
|
View the output of your loggers and System.out
|
Breakpoints
|
Show the list of set breakpoints
|
Expressions
|
This allows you to test code while debugging and check
their result
|
Some important menu actions
Action
|
Description
|
Build Project
|
Project > Build Project
|
Clean Project
|
Project > Clean (Sadly this needs to be done
regularly)
|
Clean Server
|
In ‘Servers’ > Right click on server > Right
click > Clean
|
Run on Server
|
Right click on file (E.g. index.jsp) > Run As >
Choose server
|
Debug on Server
|
Right click on file (E.g. index.jsp) > Debug As >
Choose server
|
Some important Shortcuts
Shortcut
|
Description
|
Ctrl+shift+t
|
Extensive type search through all available libraries
|
Alt+Shift+s
|
Open menu for generating formatting scaffolding
|
Tab
|
Tab indent forward
|
Shift+tab
|
Tab indent backward
|
Ctrl+1
|
Click on import before. Let eclipse clean and organize
imports.
|
Ctrl+t / F4
|
Open Type Hierarchy. Very powerful inheritance viewer
|
F3
|
Go to definition
|
Alt-left
|
Go to previous file
|
Alt+right
|
Go to next file
|
Install
Additional Software
·
Add from Marketplace
*Access
through ‘Help’ > ‘Eclipse marketplace’. If you don’t see it you might need
to add it manually.
·
Add additional software manually. Here is an
example of two:
*Add form ‘Help’ > ‘Install new
software’ > Add (Enter name and URL)
Add ons
|
URL
|
Subclipse
|
http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.8.x
|
m2e
|
http://subclipse.tigris.org/m2eclipse/1.0
|
