Play 2 Java Tutorial

I’ve created a Play 2 Tutorial and posted it on GitHub! The tutorial covers how to:

• Create a Play App
• Set up an IDE
• Start the Play Server
• Routes
• Test a Route
• Update a Controller
• Test a Controller
• Update a View
• Test a View
• Deploy your app on the Cloud with Heroku
• Create a Model
• Create UI for Adding Tasks
• Get Tasks as JSON
• Display the Tasks via CoffeeScript and jQuery
• Make the App Pretty with Twitter Bootstrap
• Add Form Validation
• Update the App on Heroku

Each section has a corresponding branch in git so you can diff against my version to see if you’ve done everything correctly. Right now this is just for Play 2 with Java and Ebean but I’m working on doing this for Play 2 with Scala as well.

You can see a live demo of the final app at:
play2torial.herokuapp.com

It’s a pretty simple app but it should get you started building Play 2 apps and deploying them on the cloud with Heroku. If you want to take the shortcut to the end and get your own copy of the app running on Heroku then just do the following:

1. Install git and the Heroku Toolbelt.
2. Signup for an account on Heroku. (Don’t worry, this stuff is free.)
3. Clone the play2torial git repo:

   git clone git://github.com/jamesward/play2torial.git

4. Login to Heroku:

   heroku login

5. Create a new app on Heroku (from within the play2torial directory):

   heroku create --stack cedar

6. Upload the app to Heroku (from within the play2torial directory):

   git push heroku java-heroku_update:master

7. Check out your app on the cloud:

   heroku open

8. If you want to run the app locally, install Play 2 and then run:

   git checkout java-heroku_update
   play ~run

I hope this helps you learn Play 2! Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Thanks!