Skip to main content

Configuration

You can configure webforJ using a project's POM file, which is designed to make deploying an app easy. The following sections outline the various options you can change to achieve a desired result.

POM file tags​

Tags within the <configuration> tag can be changed to configure your app. Editing the following lines in the default POM file that comes with the HelloWorldJava starting repository will result in these changes:

<plugin>
    <groupId>com.webforj</groupId>
    <artifactId>webforj-install-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>${webforj.version}</version>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <goals>
                <goal>install</goal>
            </goals>
    </execution>
    </executions>
    <configuration>
        <deployurl>http://localhost:8888/webforj-install</deployurl>
        <classname>samples.HelloWorldApp</classname>
        <publishname>hello-world</publishname>
        <debug>true</debug>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

  • <deployurl> This tag is the URL where the webforJ endpoint for the project installation can be reached. For users running their app locally, a default port of 8888 is used. For users running Docker, the port should be changed to the port that was entered when configuring the Docker container.

  • <classname> This tag should contain the package and class name of the app you wish to run. This will be the single class in your project that extends the App class and runs from the base URL.

  • <publishname> This tag specifies the name of the app in the published URL. Generally, to run your program, you'll navigate to a URL similar to http://localhost:8888/webapp/<publishname>, replacing <publishname> with the value in the <publishname> tag. Then, the program specified by the <classname> tag is run.

  • <debug> The debug tag can be set to true or false, and will determine whether or not the browser's console displays error messages thrown by your program.

Running a specific program​

There are two ways to run a specific program in your app:

  1. Place the program within the run() method of the class that extends App.
  2. Utilze routing in your webforJ app to give the program a dedicated URL.

How webforJ selects an entry point​

The entry point for an app is determined by the <classname> specified in the POM file. If no entry point is specified in the POM file, the system will start an entry point search.

Entry point search​

  1. If there is a single class that extends the App class, that will become the entry point.
  2. If multiple classes extend App, the system checks if one has the com.webforj.annotation.AppEntry annotation. The single class annotated with @AppEntry will become the entry point.
    warning

    If multiple classes are annotated with @AppEntry, an exception is thrown, listing all the discovered classes.

If there are multiple classes that extend App and none of them are annotated with @AppEntry, an exception is thrown, detailing each subclass.

Debug mode​

It's also possible to run your app in debug mode, which allows the console to print comprehensive error messages.

The first option is to change the config.bbx file, found in the cfg/ directory of your BBj installation. Add the line SET DEBUG=1 to the file and save your changes.

Additionally, in the Enterprise Manager, you can add the following as a program argument: DEBUG

Completing either of these allows the browser console to print error messages.