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UI Development

Set up the Maven Build

  1. Fork the Sage-Bionetworks SynapseWebClient repository into your own GitHub account: https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo

  2. Clone the SynapseWebClient project down to your computer: git clone https://github.com/[YOUR GITHUB NAME]/SynapseWebClient.git
  3. Follow the instructions on the Platform Bootstrap.
  4. Change the synapse.version tag to develop-SNAPSHOT.
    1. The synapse.version tag in root pom.xml has the form 2012-08-06-3e90a85-44, it has the date (2012-08-06) and the first 7 chars of the commit hash, 3e90a85.
  5. Now, from an up-to-date clone of Synapse-Repository-Services on your local box:
    1. mvn clean install -Dorg.sagebionetworks.database.drop.schema=true
    2. cd integration-test
    3. mvn cargo:run

    4. Verify the services are running correctly by visiting http://localhost:8080/services-repository-develop-SNAPSHOT/repo/v1/version you should see something like this:

      {"version":"develop-SNAPSHOT"}
  6. Now, in your up-to-date clone of SynapseWebClient:
    1. mvn gwt:run
    2. A GWT Development Mode log window should pop-up.
  7. Now try to open the web-app from the Dev Mode window.  You should be prompted to install the GWT Dev Mode plugin (assuming your browser is supported).

Set up the Eclipse Build

  1. Install Eclipse
  2. Install Google Web Toolkit, Google App Engine SDK, and Google plug-in for Eclipse using Eclipse new software from Google's update site - http://dl.google.com/eclipse/plugin/4.2.  Note: if you were using an older version of this plugin you will need to uninstall it and then re-install it to ensure it has GWT 2.4.0 support. Another note: Installing the Google App Engine Maven Integration software made Eclipse error when building the SynapseWebClient. It would not work until I uninstalled it.
  3. Install the Maven2Eclipse plugin: http://download.eclipse.org/technology/m2e/releases
  4. (Optional) Install the EGit eclipse plugin: http://www.eclipse.org/egit/download/
  5. Create a GitHub user account
    1. Internal Sage developers will be added as a developer on the project and will be able to push directly
    2. External contributors should fork the repository and submit GitHub Pull Requests for code inclusion

  6. Set up Git: https://help.github.com/articles/set-up-git

  7. Import the project as a maven project
    1. File -> Import -> Maven -> Existing Maven Projects
    2. Next, in Root Directory enter the local path to your repository clone
    3. Next, Finish 
  8. (Optional) Enable Git Team tracking
    1. Now right click on portal (project name) -> Team -> Share Project
    2. Next, Select repository type Git
    3. Next, Check the box "Use or create repository in parent folder of project
    4. Next, Finish 
  9. You need to make sure the GWT xml files are on the classpath. All of these resources can be found in src/main/resources and src/test/resources directories. 
    1. Right-click on portal (project name) ->Build Path>Configure Build Path...
    2. Remove the "Exclude" filter from the source tab on the src/main/resources and src/test/resources directories.
  10. We need to tell the GWT Eclipse-plugin that this is a GWT project. Do this by Right-Clicking on the project in the package explorer and select: Google->Web Toolkit Settings...
    1. From the resulting dialog make sure the "Use Google Web Tookit" check box is selected.
    2. Also make sure you are using GWT 2.4.0 (or 2.5.1).
  11. We need to tell the Google plugin where our web app directory can be found.  Right-click on the project in the package explorer and select Properties.
    1.  From the tree on the left of the dialog navigate to Google->Web Application
    2. Check the the check box: "This project has a WAR directory"
    3. With the "Browse" button, select "src/main/webapp"
    4. UN-CHECK the "Launch and deploy from this directory"  This is very important, if you keep this checked then Maven will not be able to generate a clean WAR file.  If you see "GWT needs to recompile" when you deploy your WAR then you probably have this box checked.
  12. Now that the Portal.gwt.xml file is on the classpath, make sure GWT knows it is the entry point.
    1. Right-Click on the project from the package explorer.
    2. Select Google->Web Toolkit Settings...
    3. Under the "entry point modules" you should see "Portal - org.sagebionetworks.web",  if not, then add it with the add button.
  13. Now make sure GWT can compile your code
    1. Right-Click on the project in the package explorer
    2. Google->GWT Compile
    3. The first time you run this you will be asked to select the output directory where GWT will compile the code. You want this to match the Maven WAR output directory, so use "target/portal-<VERSION>-SNAPSHOT"
    4. If you get compilation errors from the JavaScript validator (i.e. NullPointerException), navigate to the project's properties -> JavaScript -> Include Path -> Source, and exclude all files from the source. If an OutOfMemoryError was thrown while compiling, you can click the "Advanced" tab towards the bottom of the Google->GWT Compile window and add "-Xms512M -Xmx1524M" to the VM arguments to increase heap space.
  14. The next step creates a Run Configuration. You should modify this configuration to avoid a PermGen OutOfMemoryError 
    (the error is likely due to the gwt development environment, where gwt does not properly gc the classes loaded in the permanent generation area of the heap (that were loaded in a previous run)):
    1. Right-Click on the project in the package explorer.
    2. Select: Run As->Run Configurations...
    3. Select the GWT Web Application run configuration named Portal.html.
      1. If the run configuration is not present, perform step 18.  When the OutOfMemoryError occurs, restart Eclipse.  
    4. Click on the Arguments tab.
    5. In the VM arguments, add "-XX:MaxPermSize=512m"
  15. You are finally ready to run the application in development mode.
    1. Right-Click on the project in the package explorer
    2. Select: Run As->Web Application
    3. Double-click on the link provided in the Development Mode window to view the portal in your browser.  If you get asked what page to start on choose Portal.html
    4. If you get a 404 error, you may need to navigate to the project root directory and "mvn clean install".

Eclipse Workspace Settings

Set file encoding to UTF-8 and the line-endings (for new files) to Unix, so that text files are saved in a format that is not specific to the Windows or Mac OS and most easily shared across heterogeneous developer desktops:

  • Open Preferences
  • Navigate to the Workspace preferences: General->Workspace
  • Change the Text File Encoding to UTF-8
  • Change the New Text File Line Delimiter to Other and select Unix from the drop-down

Getting Eclipse's GWT Dev mode working again after version changes

When the root pom.xml's version changes (upon each sprint's release), your dev mode will be broken (giving either a 404 or a 503 error when you try to view the page at http://127.0.0.1:8888/Portal.html?gwt.codesvr=127.0.0.1:9997. To fix this you can try the following things:

  • Remove all of your PLFM projects, check out a fresh copy of the PLFM project and start from the beginning of this document.
  • Performing a Maven update.
  • Alternatively, you can just rebuild your Eclipse's Portal project and keep your files in place:
  1. Git pull update to the newest version
  2. Delete your project from Eclipse (leave "Delete project contents on disk" UNCHECKED)
  3. Go to the project root on your file system and delete .classpath, .project and the .settings/ folder
  4. Go to Step 7 in "UI Development above"

If this still doesn't work, or your dev mode is broken for another reason (e.g. after an svn update), there are some further steps you can take.
(Check out this site for more information: http://www.eclipsezone.com/eclipse/forums/t61566.html)

  1. Use the '-clean' argument.
    1. One way to do this is to add -clean on its own line as the first line on the eclipse.ini file, and restart Eclipse.
  2. Use a new workspace.
    1. I followed the instructions in the site linked above. The gist of it is:
      1. Export your preferences to somewhere outside your Eclipse environment environment (Export -> General -> Preferences. Make sure that 'Export All' is checked.)
      2. Switch to a new workspace. (Switch Workspace -> Other, then name your new workspace.)
      3. Import your preferences into this new workspace (Import -> General -> Preferences, make sure 'Import All' is checked.)
      4. Import trunk as usual.

Technologies used

There are several technologies that we are currently utilizing in the portal. The following is a list of primers for each:

How to override configuration (obsolete, needs updating)

If you want to point it to a locally running instance of the repository service:

  1. Run As->Run Configurations
  2. click on the "Arguments" Tab
  3. add to the VM Arguments -Dorg.sagebionetworks.rest.api.endpoint=http://localhost:8080/

 

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