Developing an addon using the vaadin-archetype-widget Maven archetype

Hi,

I have a custom server-side/client-side component that I created in a simple mvn project with a demo UI in the same project. I'm trying to migrate it to the multi-module structure in the vaadin-archetype-widget Maven archetype (with the addon and demo UI in separate sub-modules).

I can run the demo UI using mvn clean install, followed by mvn jetty:run. I can also debug server-side and client-side in IntelliJ and Chrome (settings breakpoints, inspecting values etc).

The one thing I can't get my head around is recompiling the addon following changes and seeing those changes in the demo UI. If I make a change to the addon code and restart the demo UI debugger I don't see the changes.

What is the easiest way to recompile the addon and restart the demo UI without having to do a full clean/install? I'm sure there must be an easy way to do this but my understanding of Maven multi-module projects is lacking.

Thanks for any help,

Robin Summerhill
Emu Analytics

Hi Robin,

I had a similiar issue, but never found way out. Instead, I ended up developing my custom component in the same project as demo app and splitting the two later, when I was done with debugging. I don't know if there's other reasonable way to deal with this issue…

Hi Mac,

I ditched the widget-archetype today and went with the project structure from the TinyMCE wrapper https://github.com/mstahv/tinymcewrapper . This has the demo/test UI in the same project so you can easily build and debug it. The demo UI is a 'test' class and so is excluded from the addon build. This is working well for me - I can add 'test' resources needed by the Demo UI, debug easily, and build a Directory-compatible addon zip with a single mvn command.

Anyone else have any suggestions for organising addon projects? Also any advice on unit testing?

Robin

Hi Robin,

This is definitely the way to go with add-on projects. The development cycle with the add-on archetype is not that nice and it don't provide any good way to have your use cases/tests listed for the development time. That is also how Vaadin Ltd's on add-ons like TouchKit and Charts are developed.

But I think TinyMCE wrapper is not the best example, I'd look into e.g. v-leaflet setup instead or read this blog post. 

cheers,
matti
 

Hi Matti,

I read the blog post you linked to and followed the example with sparklines. This was just what I needed. I now have a minimal framework for developing and testing addons. Thanks!

Robin