Play Pure-Maven Plugin

This plugin allows Play Framework 2.4 projects to use the Maven build system instead of SBT.

The plugin provides a solution to organizations who already have maven experience or would like to create a web application with Play Framework that plays well with other modules managed by maven.

Currently, the plugin simply allows maven to compile *.scala.html, compile the routes file, and includes the "public" assets directory in your build.

This plugin is easy to test out since it is possible to add it to an existing Play SBT project without modifying the directory structure.

Features

• Compiles HTML Scala templates
• Compiles conf/routes file
• Makes static assets available in the classpath with no copying
• Does not require that Play or SBT be installed
• Experimental continuous template compilation

Benefits

• Supports use of play in sub-projects (modules)
• Better junit support (e.g. running cucumber-jvm through junit)
• Complete maven remote repo support including support for central proxies
• Leverages mature IDE support
• Easy Jenkins integration

Changes

The version number of this plugin always matches the version of the play framework it is built to work with. Additional changes in each release are noted below.

2.4.6

Set targetJdk version to 1.8 in sample poms.

2.4.2

Updated the the latest patch versions of scala and the scala-maven-plugin.

2.4.0

It is recommended that you run mvn clean on your project after upgrading this plugin due to various path changes in the target directory.

This plugin requires Java 8 just as Play 2.4 now requires it.

Route compilation was moved into its own mojo. When upgrading from earlier versions, add <goal>compile-routes</goal> to the list of goals to run from this plugin to continue compiling your routes file.

Compiled objects are now written to target/scala-2.11 rather than target/scala-2.10 reflecting the update in scala versions.

Generated source files were moved from target/generated-sources/play-templates to target/generated-sources/play since we write both template and route source files there. You may change it back by overriding the generatedSourcesDirectory variable for each mojo.

Installing the Plugin From Source

Clone the repository from git and install the plugin in your local maven repository (on disk)

git clone https://github.com/absurdhero/play-pure-maven-plugin.git
cd play-pure-maven-plugin
mvn install -DskipTests=true

Note: tests are skipped for the first execution because they depend on the plugin itself.

Plugin Mojos

In normal usage, you don't need to execute these directly. They run automatically during the right lifecycle phases when building a project that uses this plugin.

To get much more detailed help after installing the plugin, run mvn help:describe -Ddetail=true -Dplugin=net.raboof.play:play-pure-maven-plugin

play-pure:compile-templates

Translates scala.html templates into scala source files.

play-pure:compile-routes

Translates conf/routes into source files.

play-pure:link-assets

This goal allows you to change javascript and other assets and see your changes immediately in your running server. It adds your public assets directory to the classpath by creating a symlink in the build output directory.

play-pure:watch

Watches for changes to templates and routes and compiles them to source files. Leave this mojo running in the background and edit templates like normal in your IDE. Your IDE should pick up the re-compiled files after a few seconds.

To-Do

• Provide a hot-reloading development server through an SBTLink implementation or other mechanism
• Find a way to use the play version specified by the plugin consumer rather than specifying a version in this plugin. Instead, this plugin is versioned based on the play version it is tied with.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License Version 2.0. A copy of the license is available in the LICENSE file.

This software was originally developed at Nominum for internal use. Nominum allowed it to be released to the broader Play Framework community while supporting its future development by employing the author.

Maven Project Setup (pom.xml)

A bare-bones project can be found at src/test/resources/play-maven-project This working project uses the recommended Play 2.0 file layout.

Refer to sample_play_project_pom.xml for a non-trivial maven example project which works with the Play 2.0 file layout. It handles class paths appropriately, sets up the scala compiler, and invokes the play-pure-maven plugin at the right points. This sample also shows how to set up jar packaging, provides the ability to start the production server with mvn exec:exec, and shows how to correctly set up code coverage analysis for a typical play project.

If you are a Maven maven, you can take a look at just the essential additions to the POM:

In the plugins section:

<plugin>
    <groupId>net.raboof.play</groupId>
    <artifactId>play-pure-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.4.6</version>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <goals>
                <goal>compile-routes</goal>
                <goal>compile-templates</goal>
                <goal>link-assets</goal>
            </goals>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

<plugins>
   <plugin>
     <groupId>net.alchim31.maven</groupId>
     <artifactId>scala-maven-plugin</artifactId>
     <version>3.2.2</version>
     <configuration>
       <!-- Use Zinc Compiler if running (https://github.com/typesafehub/zinc) -->
       <recompileMode>incremental</recompileMode>
       <useZincServer>true</useZincServer>
       <charset>UTF-8</charset>
     </configuration>
     <executions>
       <execution>
         <id>compile</id>
         <goals>
           <goal>compile</goal>
         </goals>
         <phase>compile</phase>
       </execution>
       <execution>
         <id>test-compile</id>
         <goals>
           <goal>testCompile</goal>
         </goals>
         <phase>test-compile</phase>
       </execution>
       <execution>
         <phase>process-resources</phase>
         <goals>
           <goal>compile</goal>
         </goals>
       </execution>
     </executions>
   </plugin>

Add the Typesafe Repository so the Play Framework can be downloaded:

<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>typesafe</id>
        <url>http://repo.typesafe.com/typesafe/releases/</url>
    </repository>
</repositories>

In the dependencies section, include the Play modules you will depend on:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.typesafe.play</groupId>
    <artifactId>play_2.11</artifactId>
    <version>2.4.6</version>
    <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>com.typesafe.play</groupId>
    <artifactId>play-java_2.11</artifactId>
    <version>2.4.6</version>
    <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>com.typesafe.play</groupId>
    <artifactId>twirl-api_2.11</artifactId>
    <version>1.1.1</version>
    <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>com.typesafe.play</groupId>
    <artifactId>play-test_2.11</artifactId>
    <version>2.4.6</version>
    <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>