Where does Typesafe Activator fit in the project

Question

First of all, I would like to say that I don't know if Stack Overflow is the right forum to ask this, but let's give it a try.

I'm a .NET developer, but I'm interested in giving Scala a try in my next project. Developing for .NET is very "simple" in the sense that everything happens "inside" Visual Studio, from coding to installing libraries, to deploying, you get it.

I've stumbled upon the Typesafe Activator tool. My question is for Scala programmers who are using it: is this tool usually used as an IDE for the whole project? Or is it used just to generate the templates, then work in another IDE like Eclipse? What would be a usual "cycle" in web app developing project with Scala?

Thank you very much in advance!

Answer 1

Right now the code editor in Activator is pretty basic. So most users start with Activator for new projects and learning and then open the project in IntelliJ or Eclipse. Then you can continue using Activator alongside an IDE if you want.

Answer 2

I agree with James that it is common to create the project with Activator before then moving to your preferred IDE. I'm not even close to the expert he is, and that has worked for me.

But inconsistently.

For me, as an IntelliJ user on Mac, I have found that JetBrains (the makers of IntelliJ) continues to make so many changes to their Scala, SBT, and Play plugins that there can be inconsistencies. I've found starting from IntelliJ sometimes works; starting with Activator sometimes works; importing an SBT project of any kind sometimes works; and so on. I have yet to uncover any pattern as to why.

You may have better luck than I, but just be ready to try a few approaches. Using Activator first as James suggests is certainly a viable one.