Spring Boot + GWT embedded configuraiton

Question

I want to configure Spring Boot Embedded Servlet Container + GWT. The way I want is either create a jar/war file that just contains the compiled gwt files & static resources. I want to load jars from lib/* and config files from classpath.

I couldn't find any working example. There is one actually, https://github.com/Ekito/spring-boot-gwt, but all the dependencies and configs are still in the war.

Can someone suggest a solution ?

Answer 1

I'd like to provide more details to Gokhan's answer for others who wouldn't see the static files generated by the gwt compiler lie *.nocache.js being requested and responded from their locations.

I also started from the https://github.com/Ekito/spring-boot-gwt example and haven't seen this working out of the box like in https://github.com/interseroh/demo-gwt-springboot (where I couldn't figure out why it is working). So you should use

<webappDirectory>${project.build.directory}/${artifactId}/WEB-INF/classes/public</webappDirectory>

instead of

 <webappDirectory>${project.build.directory}/classes/public</webappDirectory>

that is according to Gokhan's answer. And also, don't leave the war in packaging section as well as war-maven-plugin. Thus youl'get the generated static files being placed into the actual /public/classes/ folder being then packaged to the jar.

Answer 2

After long search & test, here is the solution that I come up with:

```

<!-- POM -->
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>fr.ekito.gwt</groupId>
<artifactId>gwt-boot</artifactId>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<packaging>jar</packaging>
<name>Ekito Spring Boot GWT WebApp</name>

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>1.2.5.RELEASE</version>
</parent>

<properties>
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
    <start-class>fr.ekito.gwt.server.ServerApplication</start-class>
    <java.version>1.7</java.version>

    <gwtVersion>2.6.0</gwtVersion>
    <googleGin>2.1.2</googleGin>
    <outputFolder>${project.build.directory}/${artifactId}</outputFolder>
</properties>

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        <exclusions>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
        </exclusions>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-undertow</artifactId>
        <exclusions>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>io.undertow</groupId>
                <artifactId>undertow-websockets-jsr</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
        </exclusions>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.google.gwt</groupId>
        <artifactId>gwt-user</artifactId>
        <version>${gwtVersion}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.google.gwt.inject</groupId>
        <artifactId>gin</artifactId>
        <version>${googleGin}</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>


<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <mainClass>${start-class}</mainClass>
                <layout>ZIP</layout>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
            <artifactId>gwt-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>${gwtVersion}</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>compile</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
            <configuration>
                <runTarget>GwtWebApp.html</runTarget>
                <persistentunitcachedir>${project.build.directory}</persistentunitcachedir>
                <deploy>${project.build.directory}/gwt-deploy</deploy>
                <webappDirectory>${project.build.directory}/classes/public</webappDirectory>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

```

my project structure is is same with original project, https://github.com/Ekito/spring-boot-gwt, except some little changes:

• Instead of webapp folder, I have src/main/resources/public folder, and html & css file is there.
• No need for web.xml file, spring-boot take care of it.
• No need for WEB-INF folder.

As a result, I have a runable jar, but run by org.springframework.boot.loader.PropertiesLauncher. Single jar works as expected, Tomcat doesnt work as stated here: http://docs.spring.io/spring-boot/docs/current/reference/html/boot-features-developing-web-applications.html#boot-features-jsp-limitations.

Also, I can move the lib folder outside the jar file, but I in order to set the loader.path property, I need to put it to application.properties inside the jar file. I should be able to use -Dloader.path but didn't work.

I'll check with spring team. But so far, it's promising.