If you are on a PC and would like to setup an environment for PHP, MySQL, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX, JAVA, GWT-EXT, Tomcat, and use Eclipse as your editor, here’s a step by step guide.  The instructions shouldn’t be very different for Linux except for some path changes and lack of *.exe files.

1. Though a bit unrelated unless you’re working with PHP, MySQL, as well, I like to install WAMP, which can be found here.  It’s pretty much the same thing as XAMP, but with a nice and friendly GUI and a lot easier to customize to match your server environment to your local environment.
2. Install JAVA Runtime Environment, found here.  You pretty much only need the first download, but if you would like to have command line ability, grab that as well.  You can always add it later on.
3. You’ll want to install Apache’s Tomcat, found here.  Grab the Windows Service installer for a quick and easy.  Through the install process, the wizard will ask you to point it at the JAVA Runtime Environment you installed in step 2.
4. Since I work quite a bit with PHP, I grab the Eclipse PDT All In One, which also has an installer for Linux or Mac if you are on either of those platforms.  I’m usually glued to Linux due to the heavy amount of Photoshopping I’m required to do by nature of the industry, but I believe Google has got Adobe software working with WINE for Linux distrobutions now.  If anyone has any experience with that, let me know how well it works.  Thanks!  At any rate, step through the install process there, which is a breeze.  Thank you Eclipse.  The PDT includes libraries for JavaScript, CSS, and AJAX.
5. Download the latest greatest Sysdeo Eclipse Tomcat Launcher Plugin.  Just unzip and drop this into the plugins folder of your Eclipse installation.  Now you’ll have to start Eclipse from the command prompt and clear the plugin cache.  For me this is done by executing “D:\eclipse\eclipse.exe -clean”.
6. Open Eclipse and go to “Help->Sofware Updates…->Available Software” and under “Ganymede Update Site” click the checkbox next to “JAVA Development” and “Web and JAVA EE Development”.  Then click “Install” on the right.  Step through with “Mr. Wizard”.  The installation may take a few minutes.  You’ll be prompted to restart and when you do, “Tomcat” should be a menu option at the top.
7. Go to “Windows->Preferences->Tomcat”.  Select the appropriate version.  In my case, 6.x.  Also make sure you point to the correct Tomcat directory while you’re here.  If you’ve set this correctly, you can now go to “Tomcat->Start Tomcat” and see everything launch beautifully from within Eclipse.  It’s like poetry.  Now you can add a new JAVA Tomcat Project and associate the appropriate perspectives.  Eclipse should automatically associate the JAVA perspective with your project.
8. Get GWT.  I simply extracted the files to “C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\webapps\gwt\”.  If you’ve got your setup in the same place and already have Tomcat running in the background, you can go to “http://localhost:8080/gwt/” in your browser and check it out.  You should get a “thank you for installing” message with a number of reference links, etc.
9. Get the ExtJS Library.  Copy the contents into the GWT folder.
10. Get GWT-EXT.  Copy the contents into the GWT folder.
11. Download and install the Cypal Plugin.  Unzip, stickem in your Eclipse plugins folder, and restart Eclipse.
12. Go to “Window->Preferences->Cypal Studio->GWT Versions” and find the directory you put GWT into.  In my case it was “C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\webapps\gwt”.
13. Now you can add your first Cypal Studio GWT project or Dynamic Web Project.  About time, isn’t it!?
14. FIN!

Why would you want to do all this?  Well, if you’re a JAVA developer, you may want to work with Open Source applications such as Drupal or Wordpress like I do.  You may want to start developing for the iPhone.  You may want to develop JAVA web applets or even develop full blown applications that have a web interface as well as a desktop interface… just add Swing and you’re done.  The great thing is GWT-EXT takes care of all your GUI very simply, and is cross browser compliant.  You just build the back end functionality and decide what you want your program to do.

Personal Rant: I’m very sick of people referring to “JavaScript” as “JAVA”.  They are very different things.  At the most basic differentiation, JavaScript runs on your browser, period.  JAVA runs on a server stand alone, on your browser as a JAVA Applet, interacts with your browser through markup and a JSP page and with AJAX, or on your desktop as a stand alone application.

Additional Notes:

Some other things you may want to do are…

• Set up Eclipse with GIT or SVN.  You may or may not want to use Tortoise.  This is a great way to control versions with multiple developers across multiple languages and platforms.  Subclipse would be a good place to start.
• Set up Swing for desktop applications development.
• Build a really sweet app and share it with the world!

Have fun!  If you aren’t, you are in the wrong business!

Please send me any notes if you have anything at all to add.  I’m traditionally a PHP guy, and besides, the more cooks in a kitchen, the more food… right? 

Tags: eclipse java ee, eclipse with gwt-ext, google windowing toolkit, gwt toolkit, java tomcat tutorial, jsp programming on tomcat, tomcat and gwt, tomcat gwt-ext, ui design, user interface design, Web Development

This entry was posted on Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 5:22 pm and is filed under JAVA Programming, Local Development, Web Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.