Deploying Vaadin 8.8.2 on WebSphere Application Server 8.5.5.15 traditional

Prepare application server instance

Federated application servers do not support tight Eclipse integration needed for productive development, therefore a standalone application server is needed. For this example, create a profile named vaadinDevNode1, which will also be the node name, with server being named vaadinDevServer1: Managing profiles using the graphical user interface

The development optimization option should be selected for this server instance. The version of WAS for this recipe already runs on Java 8 by default.

Prepare Eclipse

To avoid any problems, it is best to run Eclipse with the same OS user as the one used to run WAS:

1. Download and install Eclipse,
2. install IBM WebSphere Application Server V8.5x Developer Tools,
3. configure IBM JRE as default Eclipse JRE
   
   
4. define a new Eclipse server target for WAS 8.5.x: Creating a server
   
   

   

5. run server with resources from the workspace for faster publish:
   

6. verify that the Maven Central catalog is available in your Eclipse workspace: http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/archetype-catalog.xml
   

7. make sure that Eclipse uses the same JRE as the application server; update the eclipse.ini file as follows:

   -vm
   C:/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer85/java/jre/bin
   # C:/Program Files/Java/jre1.8.0_211/bin

   This is required for correct functionality of IBM tools and debugger.

8. restart Eclipse.

Prepare projects

1. Create a non-simple Maven project,
2. use filter vaadin-archetype-application and select the example for our version:
   
   

   

3. if you are getting an XSD/XML validation error regarding MyAppWidgetset.gwt.xml, you can safely remove the error marker,
4. update Maven projects to download dependencies:
   

5. first compile the test-widgetset project with the following Maven goal sequence:

   compiler:compile

   vaadin:compile

   You can list available Maven lifecycle goals as follows:
   

   This step is required so that the Vaadin widgetset is available for Eclipse build and publish activities. Without this step, Vaadin will report that the widgetset can’t be found.

6. add the ui project to an EAR:
   
   

   

7. start the server in debug mode and add workspace resources:
   
   

   

Configure and publish Vaadin application

1. OPTIONAL: Modify the MyUI.java and remove the following code:

       @WebServlet(urlPatterns = "/*", name = "MyUIServlet", asyncSupported = true)
       @VaadinServletConfiguration(ui = MyUI.class, productionMode = false)
       public static class MyUIServlet extends VaadinServlet {
       }

   Instead, create a separate class as follows:

   package com.was.vaadin.test;
   
   import com.vaadin.server.VaadinServlet; 
   
   public class MyUIServlet extends VaadinServlet {
   }

   

   The sample will work without refactoring as well.

2. create WEB_INF folder as follows:
   
   
   1. beans.xml

      <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
      <beans xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/beans_1_0.xsd">
       
       <!-- The presence of this files enables CDI 1.0, as supported by WebSphere 8.5.5.15. -->
      </beans>

   2. ibm-web-bnd.xml

      <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
      <web-bnd 
       xmlns="http://websphere.ibm.com/xml/ns/javaee"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://websphere.ibm.com/xml/ns/javaee 
       http://websphere.ibm.com/xml/ns/javaee/ibm-web-bnd_1_2.xsd"
       version="1.2">
      
       <virtual-host name="default_host" />
      
      </web-bnd>

   3. ibm-web-ext.xml

      <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
      <web-ext
       xmlns="http://websphere.ibm.com/xml/ns/javaee"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://websphere.ibm.com/xml/ns/javaee 
       http://websphere.ibm.com/xml/ns/javaee/ibm-web-ext_1_1.xsd"
       version="1.1">
      
       <reload-interval value="3"/>
       <context-root uri="/test"/>
       <enable-directory-browsing value="false"/>
       <enable-file-serving value="true"/>
       <enable-reloading value="true"/>
       <enable-serving-servlets-by-class-name value="false" />
      
      </web-ext>

   4. web.xml

      <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
      <web-app id="WebApp_ID" version="3.1" 
      xmlns="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee" 
      xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
      xsi:schemaLocation="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee 
      http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_1.xsd">
       <display-name>test-ui</display-name>
       
      <!-- SECTION_1 The following section is required when NOT using the @WebServlet annotation. -->
       <servlet>
       <servlet-name>MyUIServlet</servlet-name>
       <servlet-class>com.was.vaadin.test.MyUIServlet</servlet-class>
       <init-param>
       <param-name>UI</param-name>
       <param-value>com.was.vaadin.test.MyUI</param-value>
       </init-param>
       <async-supported>true</async-supported>
       </servlet>
       <servlet-mapping>
       <servlet-name>MyUIServlet</servlet-name>
       <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
       </servlet-mapping>
       
       <context-param>
       <description>Vaadin production mode</description>
       <param-name>productionMode</param-name>
       <param-value>false</param-value>
       </context-param>
      <!-- SECTION_1 -->
      </web-app>

3. clean and build the ui project (do not clean the widgetset project or you will have to run related Maven tasks again) and publish. This will publish

   the testEAR to the application server: 

   6/6/19 18:43:19:060 CEST] 0000004e ApplicationMg A   WSVR0221I: Application started: testEAR

   [6/6/19 18:43:19:061 CEST] 0000004e CompositionUn A   WSVR0191I: Composition unit WebSphere:cuname=testEAR in BLA WebSphere:blaname=testEAR started. [6/6/19 18:45:19:334 CEST] 00000091 DefaultDeploy W  

   =================================================================

   Vaadin is running in DEBUG MODE.

   Add productionMode=true to web.xml to disable debug features.

   To show debug window, add ?debug to your application URL.

   =================================================================

   [6/6/19 18:45:19:455 CEST] 00000091 ServletWrappe I com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper init SRVE0242I: [testEAR] [/test] [MyUIServlet]: Initialization successful.

Run and debug Vaadin application

1. You may now test on localhost:<http transport port>/test:
   
2. since the server is already running in debug mode, simply insert a breakpoint and trigger it:
   
3. for the example project, to update the code and see the updated results in the browser, simply edit the code, Eclipse-build edited projects, republish and refresh the page. Run Maven goals if editing the widgetset project.

Conclusion