Question

I need to setup Maven to:

a) compile the GWT module

b) copy the *.java files in the jar (so it can be imported in another GWT module)

c) copy the result of the compilation step in the jar (so it can be used on a server as is)

Does any one know how this can be done ?

The basic idea is that I want to decouple my GWT project from my Spring MVC project and remove any dependencies that the Spring application might have to GWT jars & plug-ins.

That way I can use the GWT modules as pure javascript libraries and load them with org.springframework.js.resource.ResourceServlet directly from the Jar files while still maintaining the flexibility to re-use modules in other GWT projects.

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I’m attaching the solution I came up with so others can use it:

<!-- Set the output directory to something gwt:run can use in hosted mode -->
<outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/${project.build.finalName}/WEB-INF/classes</outputDirectory>
            <finalName>gwt-build-name</finalName>
            <plugins>
                <plugin>
                    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                    <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                    <configuration>
                        <source>1.6</source>
                        <target>1.6</target>
                    </configuration>
                </plugin>
                <plugin>
                    <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                    <artifactId>gwt-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                    <version>${gwt.version}</version>
                    <executions>
                        <execution>
                            <goals>
                                <goal>compile</goal>
                                <goal>test</goal>
                            </goals>
                        </execution>
                    </executions>
                    <configuration>
                        <hostedWebapp>${project.build.directory}/${project.build.finalName}</hostedWebapp>
                    </configuration>
                </plugin>
                <!-- Attach the resources plugin to the prepare-package phase to include the host page & generated javascript files -->
                <plugin>
                    <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
                    <executions>
                        <execution>
                            <id>package-generated-javascript</id>
                            <phase>prepare-package</phase>
                            <goals>
                                <goal>copy-resources</goal>
                            </goals>
                            <configuration> 
                                <!-- shove everything the compiler produced into the JAR/META-INF/ folder so that Spring resourceServlet can find it -->
                                <outputDirectory>${project.build.outputDirectory}/META-INF</outputDirectory>
                                <resources>
                                    <resource>
                                        <directory>${project.build.directory}/${project.build.finalName}</directory>
                                        <includes>
                                            <include>org.yournamehere.Main/**</include>
                                        </includes>
                                    </resource>
                                </resources>
                            </configuration>
                        </execution>
                        <execution>
                            <id>include-host-page</id>
                            <phase>compile</phase>
                            <goals>
                                <goal>copy-resources</goal>
                            </goals>
                            <configuration> 
                           <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/${project.build.finalName}</outputDirectory>

                                <resources>
                                    <resource>
                                        <directory>${basedir}/src/main/webapp</directory>
                                        <includes>
                                            <include>**</include>                                        
                                        </includes>
                                    </resource>
                                </resources>
                            </configuration>
                        </execution>
                    </executions>
                </plugin>

What the above does is change the output directory to target/finalName so that everything ends up under the same directory and attach the resources plugin to the compile, prepare-package phases to copy the GWT compiler output to the build directory. Once everything is there it will end up in the final jar by default.

This way the build directory contains everything that hosted mode needs to run and everything Spring resources servlet needs to serve the GWT module without any direct dependencies to GWT.