Getting Started with GlassFish in IntelliJ IDEA

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IntelliJ IDEA 7.0.x include plugins that provide support for configuring GlassFish. This blog provides clear instructions on how to get started by developing and deploying a JSP, Servlet and Web services using GlassFish in IntelliJ. The instructions are using IntelliJ 7.0.3 Build #7757 (with no additional plugins).

Create a new project
1. Clicking on "Create New Project" or "File", "New Project". Take the default as shown below:
  
  and click on "Next >".
2. Enter the project name as "GlassFishRocks" and take all defaults as shown:
  
  and click on "Next >".
3. Take another default for the source directory as shown:
  
  and click on "Next >".
4. For the first time use, JDK needs to be specified. Click on "+" in top-left corner as shown here:
  
  Take the default option of "JSDK" and specify the Home Directory as shown:
  
  Click on "OK" and then click on "Next >".
5. Let's create a Web application. Select the list of technologies as shown:
  
  and finally (phew!) click on "Finish". The expanded project looks like:
Create a GlassFish configuration
1. Select "Run", "Edit Configurations" as shown:
2. Click on "+" on top-left corner and select GlassFish as shown below:
3. Specify the location of GlassFish Application server at:
  
  by clicking on "Configure" button and enter the values as shown:
  
  and click on "OK". You can download and install GlassFish v2 UR2 from here.
4. Enter the "Name" and select the "Server Domain" as shown:
  
  and click on "OK".
Deploy the Web application
1. Click on the green button in the toolbar:
2. Click on the "Fix" button on the bottom and then click "Run". The recently created Web module is selected to be deployed as shown:
3. This starts the GlassFish v2 UR2 Application Server and deploys the Web application showing the console as:
  
  and also shows the default page at "http://localhost:8080/GlassFishRocksWeb/". You can edit "index.jsp", re-deploy the Web facet and refresh the page to see the updated message.
  
  Notice, even though project's name is "GlassFishRocks", the application context root is "GlassFishRocksWeb".

Now lets create/deploy a new Servlet.

Create a new project as described above and name it "KillerServlet".
Right-click on the project and select "New", "Servlet" as shown:
Enter the values as shown:

and click on "OK".
The "Java EE: Structure" shows the project as:

Double-click on "HelloServlet" (nested one) and add the following fragment to "doGet" method:

java.io.PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
        try {
            out.println("<html>");
            out.println("<head>");
            out.println("<title>Servlet NewServlet</title>");
            out.println("</head>");
            out.println("<body>");
            out.println("<h1>Servlet NewServlet at " + request.getContextPath () + "</h1>");
            out.println("</body>");
            out.println("</html>");
        } finally {
            out.close();
        }

NetBeans IDE auto-generates this code for a Servlet ;-) And add the following to "doPost" method:

doGet(request, response);

Double-click on "web.xml" and then select "Assembly Descriptor" tab.
Click on "+" in Servlet Mappings and specify the values as:
Deploy the project (as described above) and output from Servlet is displayed at "http://localhost:8080/KillerServletWeb/hello". Read more details in Creating Java EE Apps and Servlets with IntelliJ IDEA.

Remember the weird context root, it's "KillerServletWeb" instead of "KillerServlet". Now there may be a good reason to do so but nothing obvious.

Now lets create a simple Web service using the Metro Web services stack (the stack baked into GlassFish)

Create a new project with name "GlassFishWS" following the instructions given above.
Select the list of technologies as shown:
The default generated Web service looks like:
The default generated Web service uses light-weight Endpoint API to host the endpoint. Run the Web service by right-clicking in the editor pane and selecting "Run" as shown or default shortcut of Ctrl+Shift+F10:
The WSDL is now available at "http://localhost:9000/HelloWorld?wsdl".
Right-click on the project and select "New", "Web Service Client" as shown:

enter the value as "WSClient" and click on "OK".
In the next dialog, enter the values as shown:

The generated client code has some errors as shown:

Change the code to:

      client.HelloWorld service = new client.HelloWorldService().getHelloWorldPort();
      //invoke business method
      System.out.println(service.sayHelloWorldFrom("Duke"));

and run WSClient.main to see the result as:

Now you deployed a Metro Web service using light-weight Endpoint API. The bundled plugin version is 0.9 build 2 and the steps are so much cleaner from 0.7 version of the plugin.

Read more about Web Services support in IntelliJ IDEA.

Deploying this Web service on GlassFish is really simple.
1. Create a new GlassFish configuration as explained above.
2. Run the project using this configuration and the Web service is now hosted at "http://localhost:8080/GlassFishWSWeb/services/HelloWorld?wsdl".
3. Generate a client using the steps described above.

Here are few issues filed:

JEEAS-180 does not allow an application to be re-deployed to GlassFish and that's why the examples above use different projects.
JEEAS-181 asks for better integration of GlassFish logs in the IDE.
JEEAS-182 require support for GlassFish v3 in the GlassFish plugin. Please help by voting for this issue.
WSVC-61 reports the errors generated in Web services client code

So whether you are using Eclipse, IntelliJ or NetBeans - you can easily configure GlassFish and deploy your applications directly from within the IDE. Here are some related links:

However of all the IDEs, NetBeans IDE still provides the most comprehensive coverage in terms of development and deployment of Java EE applications (JSP, Servles, Java Server Faces, SOAP-based .NET 3.0-interoperable Web service, RESTful Web services, JPA, EJBs) and server plug-ins (GlassFish, Tomcat, JBoss, WebLogic, WebSphere, OC4J, SAP BusinessOne and JOnAS).

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Getting Started with GlassFish in IntelliJ IDEA

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