This quickstart will get you going with a Spring MVC Hibernate application that uses a Postgres database service, deployed to Heroku.

{.note} Sample code for the demo application is available on GitHub. Edits and enhancements are welcome. Just fork the repository, make your changes and send us a pull request.

Prerequisites

• Java 1.8.0_45, Maven 3.2.5, Git 2.3.2, and the Heroku client (as described in the basic Java quickstart)
• An installed version of Postgres to test locally

Modify database configuration (optional)

The web app generated by Spring Roo expects you to set database connection properties in the file src/main/resources/META-INF/spring/database.properties. However, it is not a good idea to hardcode database configuration into a file that is part of your project. Instead, we will edit the Spring configuration to read the configuration from an environment variable.

Heroku automatically provisions a small database when you create a Java application and sets the DATABASE_URL environment variable to a URL of the format

postgres://user:password@hostname:port/dbname

You can also provision a larger database service yourself using the heroku addons command. Either way, the database connection information will be stored in the DATABASE_URL variable.

Create a new URI spring bean initialized with this environment variable by adding this to src/main/resources/META-INF/spring/applicationContext.xml:

:::xml
<bean class="java.net.URI" id="dbUrl">
    <constructor-arg value="${DATABASE_URL}"/>
</bean>

Edit the dataSource section in src/main/resources/META-INF/spring/applicationContext.xml and replace the property place holders with the following:

:::xml
<bean class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" destroy-method="close" id="dataSource">
    <property name="driverClassName" value="${database.driverClassName}"/>
    <property name="url" value="#{ 'jdbc:postgresql://' + @dbUrl.getHost() + @dbUrl.getPath() }"/>
    <property name="username" value="#{ @dbUrl.getUserInfo().split(':')[0] }"/>
    <property name="password" value="#{ @dbUrl.getUserInfo().split(':')[1] }"/>
    ...

To run your app locally set the DATABASE_URL variable in your local environment to point to your local postgres database, for example:

:::term
$ export DATABASE_URL=postgres://scott:tiger@localhost/myapp

Run your app locally

Let's run the app locally first to test that it all works. You must have a Postgres database up and running and accessible on the DATABASE_URL you specified above.

Build your app

:::term
$ mvn package
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]                                                                         
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building sbweb 1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-resources-plugin:2.6:resources (default-resources) @ sbweb-jetty ---
[INFO] Using 'UTF-8' encoding to copy filtered resources.
[INFO] Copying 205 resources
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-compiler-plugin:2.5.1:compile (default-compile) @ sbweb-jetty ---
[INFO] Nothing to compile - all classes are up to date
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-resources-plugin:2.6:testResources (default-testResources) @ sbweb-jetty ---
[INFO] Using 'UTF-8' encoding to copy filtered resources.
[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory /Users/joelau/Dropbox/work/alvis-web-        interface/src/test/resources
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-compiler-plugin:2.5.1:testCompile (default-testCompile) @ sbweb-jetty ---
[INFO] Nothing to compile - all classes are up to date
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-surefire-plugin:2.12.4:test (default-test) @ sbweb-jetty ---
[INFO] No tests to run.
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-war-plugin:2.2:war (default-war) @ sbweb-jetty ---
[INFO] Packaging webapp
[INFO] Assembling webapp [sbweb-jetty] in [/Users/joelau/Dropbox/work/alvis-web-    interface/target/sbweb-jetty-1.0-SNAPSHOT]
[INFO] Processing war project
[INFO] Copying webapp resources [/Users/joelau/Dropbox/work/alvis-web-interface/src/main/webapp]
[INFO] Webapp assembled in [695 msecs]
[INFO] Building war: /Users/joelau/Dropbox/work/alvis-web-interface/target/sbweb-jetty-1.0-SNAPSHOT.war
[INFO] WEB-INF/web.xml already added, skipping
[INFO] META-INF/maven/org.spee/sbweb-jetty/pom.xml already added, skipping
[INFO] META-INF/maven/org.spee/sbweb-jetty/pom.properties already added, skipping
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-dependency-plugin:2.3:copy (default) @ sbweb-jetty ---
[INFO] Configured Artifact: org.mortbay.jetty:jetty-runner:7.4.5.v20110725:jar
[INFO] org.mortbay.jetty:jetty-runner:7.4.5.v20110725:jar already exists in /Users/joelau/Dropbox/work/alvis-web-interface/target/dependency
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 11.849 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2015-06-26T12:43:54+01:00
[INFO] Final Memory: 16M/220M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Start your app

Note: you can also start your app using foreman to execute the Procfile. [Read more about foreman and procfiles](http://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/procfile).

:::term
$ java -jar target/dependency/jetty-runner.jar target/*.war

Test it

Go to http://localhost:8080 and test it out by creating a new record.

Deploy to Heroku

Commit your changes to Git:

:::term
$ git add .
$ git commit -m "Ready to deploy"

Create the app:

:::term
$ heroku create
Creating high-lightning-129... done, stack is cedar
http://high-lightning-129.herokuapp.com/ | git@heroku.com:high-lightning-129.git
Git remote heroku added

Deploy your code:

:::term
$ git push heroku master
Counting objects: 227, done.
Delta compression using up to 4 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (117/117), done.
Writing objects: 100% (227/227), 101.06 KiB, done.
Total 227 (delta 99), reused 220 (delta 98)

-----> Heroku receiving push
-----> Java app detected
-----> Installing Maven 3.0.3..... done
-----> Installing settings.xml..... done
-----> executing .maven/bin/mvn -B -Duser.home=/tmp/build_1jems2so86ck4 -s .m2/settings.xml -DskipTests=true clean install
       [INFO] Scanning for projects...
       [INFO]                                                                         
       [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
       [INFO] Building petclinic 0.1.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT
       [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
       ...
       [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
       [INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
       [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
       [INFO] Total time: 36.612s
       [INFO] Finished at: Tue Aug 30 04:03:02 UTC 2011
       [INFO] Final Memory: 19M/287M
       [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----> Discovering process types
       Procfile declares types -> web
-----> Compiled slug size is 62.7MB
-----> Launching... done, v5
       http://pure-window-800.herokuapp.com deployed to Heroku

Congratulations! Your web app should now be up and running on Heroku. Open it in your browser with:

:::term  
$ heroku open

How to install server environment to run Alvis Web Interface locally

1. Install Java JDK 8u25 http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html

2. Install Git 2.2.1 http://git-scm.com/download/mac

3. Install NetBeans 8.0.2

4. Open Terminal and check, if Git is installed by hitting “git”

5. Create local directory where Git repository will be cloned to.

6. Go to that repository in Terminal.

7. Clone repository through Terminal by hitting: “git clone https://[USERNAME]@bitbucket.org/rfs/alvis-web-interface.git”

8. Open NetBeans and open project “alvis-web-interface” from local directory. Ignore all errors…

9. Right-click “AlvisWebInterface” in Projects tab

10. Click “Resolve Missing Server…”

11. Add server…

12. Create directory for a server and install GlassFish 4.1

13. Finish by accepting default settings for Domain Location.

14. Select GlassFish 4.1 server

—

WARNING! ACHTUNG! UWAGA! AVERTIZARE! WAARSKUWING!

This part should already be obsolete because of recent implementations in .properties files. For reference only…

—

15. If there is an error, go right-click “AlvisWebInterface” again and go to “Properties”

16. Set the “Web Pages Folder” directory to “alvis-Web-Interface/web” and the “WEB-INF Folder” directory to “alvis-Web-Interface/web/WEB-INF”

17. Go to “Services” tab next to the “Projects” tab, open “Servers” and right-click “GlassFish server 4.1” and select “Start”

18. Hit green play triangle in the top menu bar of NetBeans (Run Project). There may be some errors coming in the “Output” console below…

19. Hit the hammer and broom button (“Clean and Build Project”) next to the green triangle button.

20. If missing the source folder in “Project tab”, add the src folder in AlvisWebInterface Properties (through right-click).

21. Add libraries in Properties. Through “Add JAR/Folder” button add [alvis-web-interface/web/WEB-INF/lib] and the alvis.jar file (wherever it sits) and through “Add Library…” add Spring Framework 4.0.1., Spring Web MVC 4.0.1. and JSTL 1.2.2.

22. Hit hammer and broom button.

23. We were having this error: ant -f "/Users/marekkultys/Git Repos/alvis-web-interface" -Dnb.internal.action.name=rebuild -DforceRedeploy=false "-Dbrowser.context=/Users/marekkultys/Git Repos/alvis-web-interface" clean dist /Users/marekkultys/Git Repos/alvis-web-interface/nbproject/build-impl.xml:237: Must set build.dir BUILD FAILED (total time: 0 seconds)

If the error is “Must set build.dir”, go to build.xml file (ctrl+shift+o) and paste this code in the penultimate line just before the final statement:

24. Refer to this article if there are problems: http://www.adam-bien.com/roller/abien/entry/how_to_fix_the_libs

25. Update actual path of Java settings files. To do that, hit Command+comma in NetBeans and select Java tab, then Ant tab, and in Properties window add the actual path of absolute “org-netbeans-modules-java-j2seproject-copylibstask.jar” file. The command line added to Properties should look something like this: libs.CopyLibs.classpath=/Applications/NetBeans/NetBeans 8.0.2.app/Contents/Resources/NetBeans/java/ant/extra/org-netbeans-modules-java-j2seproject-copylibstask.jar

26. Create “images” directory in “alvis-web-interface/build/web”.

27. Add Alvis project to NetBeans (File > Open Project).

28. Update libraries for Alvis. Right-click to go to Alvis “Properties”, select “Libraries” and click “Add JAR/Folder” and select all. Libraries in red in the “Properties” window can be deleted.

29. Pull content from the repository.

30. Quit NetBeans and run it again.

31. Play the “Alvis Web Interface” project.

32. If there is an error, try adding “/SB” to the end of URL. The address should look something like this: http://localhost:8080/alvis-web-interface/SB