Getting Started

This article outlines the steps to scaffold a new webforJ app using the webforJ archetypes. This archetypes provide a pre-configured project structure and starter code to quickly get a project up and running.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have read about the necessary prerequisites for setting up and using webforJ.

Using the hello-world archetype

To create and scaffold a new hello-world project, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the proper directory: Open a terminal and move to the folder where you want to create your new project.

2. Run the archetype:generate command: Use the Maven command below, and customize the groupId, artifactId, and version as needed for your project.

mvn -B archetype:generate \
-DarchetypeGroupId=com.webforj \
-DarchetypeArtifactId=webforj-archetype-hello-world \
-DgroupId=org.example \
-DarchetypeVersion=24.20 \
-DartifactId=my-hello-world-app \
-Dversion=1.0-SNAPSHOT

Argument	Explanation
archetypeGroupId	The group ID of the archetype is com.webforj for webforJ archetypes.
archetypeArtifactId	Specifies the name of the archetype to use.
archetypeVersion	Specifies the version of the archetype you want to use. This ensures that the generated project is compatible with a specific version of the archetype.
groupId	Represents the namespace for the generated project. Typically structured like a Java package, such as org.example and is used to uniquely identify your organization or project domain.
artifactId	Specifies the name of the generated project. This will be the name of the resulting artifact and the project folder.
version	Defines the version of the generated project. A common convention is MAJOR.MINOR-SNAPSHOT, like 1.0-SNAPSHOT, where SNAPSHOT denotes that the project is still in development.

After running the command, Maven will generate the project files necessary to run the project.

Run the app

Navigate into the newly created directory, and run the following command from the project’s root directory:

mvn jetty:run

This command uses the Jetty maven plugin to start a Jetty server. Once the server is running, open your browser and go to http://localhost:8080 to view the app.

Licensing and watermark

For information on the licensing and the watermark present in unlicensed projects, see this article.