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Tag Archives: Eclipse

Vaadin Visual Designer, broken by default

I have spent the past month, attempting to learn my way around the Vaadin framework. Kind of sucks that its Eclipse plug-in is broken, right out of the box. As soon as I installed it, I started getting this error whenever I would launch my IDE.

Could not start XULRunner(version 1.9 or higher required)

Could not start XULRunner(version 1.9 or higher required)

I didn’t, and still don’t, know what the hell XULRunner is. Some library from the Mozilla Developers Network that is currently at version 19.0.2, as of this writing. I think the good folks at Vaadin have abandoned this project; version 1.9 is ancient!

Software rot aside, if you’d like to get rid of this annoying error dialog, you will need to add XULRunner 1.9 to Eclipse’s file path. Here’s how I did it:

  1. Close Eclipse, if it is open
  2. Download XULRunner 1.9.2 from MDN
  3. Install XULRunner by following the instructions here for your operating system.
    1. Be sure to perform the registration step
  4. Open eclipse.ini or your Eclipse shortcut (Windows) and add the following line 
    1. -Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.XULRunnerPath=C:<path><to>xulrunner-1.9.x.x
    2. Here, you can see how I added the line to my Eclipse shortcut link

    3. Adding XULRunner to Eclipse's classpath via shortcut

      Adding XULRunner to Eclipse’s classpath via shortcut

    4. Click ‘OK’ or Save the ‘eclipse.ini’ file
  5. Start Eclipse

Hopefully, at this point, the error will be gone and you can move on to being disappointed by the Vaadin Visual Designer, distraction-free!

Default Liferay Vaadin project broken

So I mentioned yesterday that I am attempting to make my first Vaadin app using Eclipse and the Liferay IDE plugin. This post is a word of warning to those trying to do the same thing. The default Liferay Vaadin project is broken; it will not deploy.

To get started, I simply used the Eclipse, “New Liferay Portlet” wizard. So the project skeleton gets build without a hitch. The trouble happens when I attempt to deploy this app in its current default configuration.

Check this out…

INFO: 15:50:43,968 INFO [PluginPackageUtil:1099] Reading plugin package for NewVaadinProject-portlet
WARNING: Error in annotation processing: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/springframework/transaction/PlatformTransactionManager
WARNING: Error in annotation processing: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/springframework/transaction/PlatformTransactionManager
INFO: 15:50:48,083 INFO [PluginPackageUtil:1099] Reading plugin package for NewVaadinProject-portlet
INFO: 15:50:48,245 INFO [PortletHotDeployListener:614] Registering portlets for NewVaadinProject-portlet
SEVERE: =================================================================
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.
=================================================================
INFO: 15:50:48,284 ERROR [PortletBagFactory:313] javax.portlet.PortletException: Application not specified in portlet parameters
javax.portlet.PortletException: Application not specified in portlet parameters
 at com.vaadin.terminal.gwt.server.ApplicationPortlet2.init(ApplicationPortlet2.java:40)
 at com.liferay.portlet.InvokerPortletImpl.init(InvokerPortletImpl.java:246)
 at com.liferay.portlet.PortletInstanceFactoryImpl.init(PortletInstanceFactoryImpl.java:216)
...removed for clarity...
 at org.glassfish.deployment.autodeploy.AutoDeployService$1.run(AutoDeployService.java:209)
 at java.util.TimerThread.mainLoop(Timer.java:512)
 at java.util.TimerThread.run(Timer.java:462)
SEVERE: =================================================================
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.
=================================================================
INFO: 15:50:48,286 ERROR [HotDeployUtil:114] com.liferay.portal.kernel.deploy.hot.HotDeployException: Error registering portlets for NewVaadinProject-portlet
com.liferay.portal.kernel.deploy.hot.HotDeployException: Error registering portlets for NewVaadinProject-portlet
 at com.liferay.portal.kernel.deploy.hot.BaseHotDeployListener.throwHotDeployException(BaseHotDeployListener.java:46)
 at com.liferay.portal.deploy.hot.PortletHotDeployListener.invokeDeploy(PortletHotDeployListener.java:118)
 at com.liferay.portal.kernel.deploy.hot.HotDeployUtil._doFireDeployEvent(HotDeployUtil.java:111)
...removed for clarity...
 at org.glassfish.deployment.autodeploy.AutoDeployService$1.run(AutoDeployService.java:209)
 at java.util.TimerThread.mainLoop(Timer.java:512)
 at java.util.TimerThread.run(Timer.java:462)
Caused by: javax.portlet.PortletException: Application not specified in portlet parameters
 at com.vaadin.terminal.gwt.server.ApplicationPortlet2.init(ApplicationPortlet2.java:40)
 at com.liferay.portlet.InvokerPortletImpl.init(InvokerPortletImpl.java:246)
 at com.liferay.portlet.PortletInstanceFactoryImpl.init(PortletInstanceFactoryImpl.java:216)
 at com.liferay.portlet.PortletInstanceFactoryImpl.create(PortletInstanceFactoryImpl.java:139)
 at com.liferay.portlet.PortletInstanceFactoryUtil.create(PortletInstanceFactoryUtil.java:40)
 at com.liferay.portal.deploy.hot.PortletHotDeployListener.initPortletApp(PortletHotDeployListener.java:590)
 at com.liferay.portal.deploy.hot.PortletHotDeployListener.doInvokeDeploy(PortletHotDeployListener.java:309)
 at com.liferay.portal.deploy.hot.PortletHotDeployListener.invokeDeploy(PortletHotDeployListener.java:115)
 ... 38 more
INFO: WEB0671: Loading application [NewVaadinProject-portlet] at [/NewVaadinProject-portlet]
INFO: NewVaadinProject-portlet was successfully deployed in 4,452 milliseconds.
INFO: [AutoDeploy] Successfully autodeployed : C:DEVbundlesliferay-portal-6.1.0-ce-ga1glassfish-3.1.1domainsdomain1autodeployNewVaadinProject-portlet.war.

A basic, right-out-of-the-box project will not deploy correctly?! Wow, a bang-up job guys!

Fortunately, I didn’t have to spend too much time debugging this, as a coworker of mine is a few months further into his Vaadin training than I am and was able to find a solution rather quickly.

The problem lies in the default configuration of the portlet.xml file. Open the file and change the following line:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<portlet-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/portlet/portlet-app_2_0.xsd" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/portlet/portlet-app_2_0.xsd http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/portlet/portlet-app_2_0.xsd" version="2.0">
 <portlet>
 <portlet-name>CreateUser</portlet-name>
 <display-name>CreateUser</display-name>
 <portlet-class>com.vaadin.terminal.gwt.server.ApplicationPortlet2</portlet-class>
 <init-param>
 <name>view-template</name> should be <name>application</name>
 <value>CreateUser.CreateUserApplication</value>
 </init-param>
 ...
 </portlet>
 </portlet-app>

Just run the Ant deploy target after this change, and the project should auto-deploy successfully!

Ant + Eclipse + Liferay Plugins = ECJ error

I am working on a way to programmatically create Liferay users for our upcoming portal release. In order to get my feet wet with the technologies that our team will be using, I want to build a quick and dirty test app that will create a user in Liferay and LDAP. But before I could even get far enough to look into that, I hit two stupid errors. They were easy enough to fix, but annoying nonetheless.

The first involved Eclipse, the Liferay Plugins SDK, and Ant. I created a new Liferay portlet project. I immediately wanted to test this app, to make sure everything was configured correctly and that it would deploy successfully. I was right in wanting to test it because I immediately, and consistently, got the following error upon a build.

Task cannot continue because ECJ is not installed.

ECJ was automatically installed. Please rerun your task.

Total time: 1 second

I have run in to this error on the command line before, except that the error only appears once. It seems that Ant copies the ecj.jar (Eclipse Compiler for Java, I think) to the appropriate directory and builds from there on out are fine.

My issue here stems from my use of the Eclipse IDE. This error occurred on each subsequent attempt to build. A quick search turned up a Liferay page that helped. It recommends copying the ecj.jar to your Eclipse Ant plugin directory. Perhaps its because I’m a control freak, or maybe its because I have been burned by builds in Eclipse before, but I opted for another solution. I followed the page’s directions to get to the Ant settings page:

Eclipse Preferences

Preferences dropdown

From this ‘Preferences’ menu, select ‘Ant’, then ‘Runtime’

Ant Options

Ant Options dialog

Here is where my changes differ from the Liferay instructions. I have a copy of Ant locally that I use for command-line builds. I clicked the “Ant Home…” button and pointed Eclipse to my local Ant installation, instead of using its Ant plugin.

ANT_HOME

Don’t rely on Eclipse’s Ant plugin. As you can see here, I am pointing to my local Ant installation.

Like I said, I guess this makes me a control freak, but I have had so many problems in the past when a system or IDE tried to manage things using its own libraries or plugins. This should also remove any possible discrepancies between any builds I may do on the command line versus Eclipse.

Switching gears

I started a new job this week.

It is with a startup company here in Greenville, SC called Green Cloud Technologies. I am super-excited to be here and away from that crap company Windstream! I’ve had a few changes in my career growth as a result of this job change. First, they didn’t have any equipment for me when I started so I am currently using my own PC to work on. This is the same PC that I was teaching myself Linux on. However, I couldn’t very well learn and do everything needed for my job AND learn to do it on Linux at the same time. I’d never get anything done. So I purchased a copy of Windows 7, 8 Gb of DDR2 RAM and brought my PC to work.

That said, my focus on learning has shifted. I am no longer concerned with learning Linux, as all the tech at Green Cloud is new to me. Liferay, Glassfish, Vaadin, Git,…as I said before, I don’t have the mental bandwidth (or equipment now) to learn to use those and Linux. So I guess I’m probably going to start posting stuff on here about my findings with my new technology stack.

I’m currently working on an entry on how I got my Eclipse environment set up with Liferay. If you are using the Liferay IDE plugin with anything other than the Tomcat bundle, you are in for some headaches.