Breaking out Vaadin widgetset compilation

Question

In order to save time compiling, I'm trying to break out the compilation of the widgetsets to a TeamCity build project of its own, we're using nexus as repo. The Vaadin "base project" is then to contain a dependency to the widgetset artifact to fetch the current version. I'm sure this has been done before.

The widgetset project builds fine in TeamCity. The jars and poms are correctly uploaded to nexus. I have unpacked the jars to make sure everything was in its place. So far so good.

In eclipse, the base project does fetch the widgetset artifact and contain it in its library. Seems good.

However, when I do a "mvn clean package" on the base project from eclipse and run it on Tomcat, I get the following error in the web browser:

Failed to load the widgetset: ./VAADIN/widgetsets/com.example.somerandomapp.web.AppWidgetSet/com.example.somerandomapp.web.AppWidgetSet.nocache.js?1376642850734

When I check the project structure, I find no VAADIN/widgetset-folder under the target folder. Additionally, in the maven dependency jar-file, there are one VAADIN folder containing gwt-unitCache and one VAADIN.widgetsets-folder containing the widgetset-goodies, as well as the - in the error message above - mentioned file.

I cannot get my head around this. I'm no maven pro, so I may have missed something trivial there. Also I'm no Vaadin pro, so I might as well have missed something just as trivial there.

I really hope there is someone out there that could help me get this ship in the water. I would greatly appreciate it!

Vaadin version: 7.1.1 Maven version: 3.0.4

My base project's pom.xml (leaving out some stuff for brevity):

<dependencies>

    <!-- Some Random App - Commons -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.example.somerandomapp.common</groupId>
        <artifactId>somerandomapp-common-widgetset</artifactId>
        <version>0.0.5-SNAPSHOT</version>
    </dependency>

    <!-- Vaadin -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.vaadin</groupId>
        <artifactId>vaadin-server</artifactId>
        <version>${vaadin.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.vaadin</groupId>
        <artifactId>vaadin-client-compiled</artifactId>
        <version>${vaadin.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.vaadin</groupId>
        <artifactId>vaadin-client</artifactId>
        <version>${vaadin.version}</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.vaadin</groupId>
        <artifactId>vaadin-push</artifactId>
        <version>${vaadin.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.vaadin</groupId>
        <artifactId>vaadin-themes</artifactId>
        <version>${vaadin.version}</version>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
        <version>${javax-servlet-api.version}</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>${maven-war-plugin.version}</version>
            <configuration>
                <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

My widgetset-pom (leaving out some stuff for brevity):

<!-- same Vaadin-plugins as in the "base project" -->
<!-- maven compiler, release, javadoc, deploy and source artifacts -->
    <plugin>
        <artifactId>maven-clean-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>${maven-clean-plugin.version}</version>
        <configuration>
            <filesets>
                <fileset>
                    <directory>src/main/webapp/VAADIN/widgetsets</directory>
                </fileset>
            </filesets>
        </configuration>
    </plugin>

    <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>${maven-jar-plugin.version}</version>
        <configuration>
            <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
            <excludes>
                <exclude>VAADIN/widgetsets/WEB-INF/**</exclude>
            </excludes>
        </configuration>
    </plugin>

    <plugin>
        <groupId>com.vaadin</groupId>
        <artifactId>vaadin-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>${vaadin-plugin.version}</version>
        <configuration>
            <extraJvmArgs>-Xmx512M -Xss1024k</extraJvmArgs>
            <!-- <runTarget>mobilemail</runTarget> -->
            <!-- We are doing "inplace" but into subdir VAADIN/widgetsets. This 
                 way compatible with Vaadin eclipse plugin. -->
            <webappDirectory>${project.build.outputDirectory}/VAADIN/widgetsets</webappDirectory>
            <hostedWebapp>${project.build.outputDirectory}/VAADIN/widgetsets</hostedWebapp>
            <noServer>true</noServer>
            <!-- Remove draftCompile when project is ready -->
            <draftCompile>false</draftCompile>
            <compileReport>true</compileReport>
            <style>OBF</style>
            <strict>true</strict>
            <runTarget>http://localhost:8080/</runTarget>
        </configuration>
        <executions>
            <execution>
                <goals>
                   <goal>clean</goal>
                    <goal>resources</goal>
                    <goal>update-theme</goal>
                    <goal>update-widgetset</goal>
                    <goal>compile-theme</goal>
                    <goal>compile</goal>
                </goals>
            </execution>
        </executions>
    </plugin>
</plugins>
<pluginManagement>
    <plugins>    
        <!--This plugin's configuration is used to store Eclipse m2e settings 
            only. It has no influence on the Maven build itself. -->
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.eclipse.m2e</groupId>
            <artifactId>lifecycle-mapping</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.0</version>
            <configuration>
                <lifecycleMappingMetadata>
                    <pluginExecutions>
                        <pluginExecution>
                            <pluginExecutionFilter>
                                <groupId>com.vaadin</groupId>
                                <artifactId>vaadin-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                                <versionRange>[7.1.1,)</versionRange>
                                <goals>
                                    <goal>update-theme</goal>
                                    <goal>resources</goal>
                                    <goal>compile-theme</goal>
                                    <goal>update-widgetset</goal>
                                </goals>
                            </pluginExecutionFilter>
                            <action>
                                <ignore />
                            </action>
                        </pluginExecution>
                    </pluginExecutions>
                </lifecycleMappingMetadata>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</pluginManagement>
</build>

Update: I have setup my MainUI class like this:

@WebServlet(value = {"/foo/*", "/VAADIN/*"} , asyncSupported = true)
@VaadinServletConfiguration(productionMode = false, ui = MainUI.class, widgetset = "com.example.somerandomapp.common.widgetset.AppWidgetSet")

I realised this has something to do with it and changed it to the correct widgetset. But I still get the same error:

Failed to load the widgetset: ./VAADIN/widgetsets/com.example.somerandomapp.common.widgetset.AppWidgetSet/com.example.somerandomapp.common.widgetset.AppWidgetSet.nocache.js?1376662202437

Now, this error shows the correct path to the nocache-file in the classpath, which makes me very confused, because the file is there, in the lib folder. I hope this didn't confuse you further....

Update 2: Actually this is adequate:

@WebServlet(value = "/*", asyncSupported = true)
@VaadinServletConfiguration(productionMode = false, ui = MainUI.class, widgetset = "com.example.somerandomapp.common.widgetset.AppWidgetSet")

Answer 1

The change you see after the update of my OP was what was missing.

I'm not sure why Vaadin didn't find the resources at first, but after I wiped the "base project" from disk and re-fetched it from SVN, did a project clean and a maven update on it, as well as a Tomcat working directory clean, it magically worked. I guess there was some cached content laying around. I hope this can be to help for anyone else who wants to break out the Vaadin widgetsets to a project of its own!

Answer 2

Refer to Vaadin wiki (You can find pom.xml example here)

If your project uses custom GWT widgets, you will need to compile them with the GWT compiler. This can be done using the Codehaus GWT Maven Plugin.

You have to compile widgetset with GWT maven plugin (It's a little bit tricky with this plugin cuz you have to download GWT SDK i think)

If the 'vaadin-maven-plugin' is used, the widgetset (if any) can be automatically updated based on project dependencies. This is achieved with the Maven goal 'vaadin:update-widgetset' followed by 'gwt:compile'. Running the goal clean (or gwt:clean) prior to vaadin:update-widgetset is recommended.