Synchronizing WaveMaker Apps with IDEs Beta

In scenarios where you want to work on WaveMaker apps and use IDE for editing Java code, synchronizing the two can be a challenge.

In this post, we will introduce a Maven plugin - wavemaker-workspace Plugin, which updates project changes between WaveMaker and IDE on your local machine.

WaveMaker WorkSpace Sync Plugin

When working on a project using an IDE, earlier you had to export the project from WaveMaker, import into IDE, make changes, build and re-import the project into WaveMaker (see here for details). This was a time-taking and tedious process.

WaveMaker WorkSpace Sync Plugin provides a communication channel between the IDE and Studio Workspace. You can directly push the changes made to the project from IDE to Studio Workspace without any overhead of copying and pasting the code. It solves the problem of synchronization between IDE and Studio Workspace without re-exporting the project. It also helps in getting the latest changes from Studio Workspace to IDE directly.

Prerequisites

Git has to be installed on your local machine.

How to use this plugin

Initialize the plugin: This is a one-time setup configuration. NOTE: In this step, all changes made to the project in IDE will be replaced with the Studio source.

Either from the terminal of your IDE or from the command shell on your local machine (from the project folder) and run the following command:

mvn wavemaker-workspace:init

Upon running the above Maven command, you will be prompted to enter:
- the Studio hostUrl
Next, you need to enter the Authentication credentials. It can be either
- Username & Password which would require:
  - user email - WaveMaker account which has access to the required project and
  - password of the WaveMaker account.
- Token - For this, you need to have an active WaveMaker session. Use the URL https://www.wavemakeronline.com/studio/services/auth/token to obtain token value and enter it at the prompt. Do not logout of the WaveMaker session till you complete the complete the synchronization.

Once the login is authenticated, you will be presented with a list of projects existing within the Studio Workspace. Choose and enter the Project Number when prompted.
Build Success message will indicate that the project is now available for use from your IDE.

How to synchronize your project

There are three scenarios wherein you will be dealing with once you start using the IDE: NOTE: For all three below-mentioned commands, you will be prompted for a password, enter your WaveMaker account password.

Pull

This command can be used to pull the latest changes made to project in Studio are applied to IDE code. This includes both the latest commits made in Studio and uncommitted changes. If the same file is modified in both IDE and Studio Workspace, a merge conflict occurs and the process terminates. You have to resolve the conflicted files and rerun the command to pull changes from Workspace.

mvn wavemaker-workspace:pull

Push

All the IDE changes are pushed to Studio Workspace. If the same file is modified in both IDE and Studio Workspace, a merge conflict occurs and the process terminates. You have to resolve the conflicted files and rerun the command to push IDE changes to Workspace.

mvn wavemaker-workspace:push

Sync

This command works in two steps:

Pull latest changes from Studio WorkSpace: In this step, the latest changes made to project in Studio are applied to IDE code. This includes both the latest commits made in Studio and uncommitted changes. This makes sure that both IDE and Studio are in the same state. If the same file is modified in both IDE and Studio Workspace, a merge conflict occurs and the process terminates. You have to resolve the conflicted files and rerun the command to push IDE changes to Workspace.
Push IDE changes to Studio Workspace: If there are no conflicts in step 1, all the IDE changes are pushed to Studio Workspace.

mvn wavemaker-workspace:sync

Limitations

Creation of pages and services need to be done from WaveMaker platform. Use IDE for editing and debugging purposes alone.
There is no provision to make new commits to VCS from IDE. All changes have to be committed from Studio Workspace.
Binary files cannot be pulled or pushed.

Troubleshoot

In case there are any major issues with the code in the IDE, like unresolvable conflicts, it is recommended to run the init command again.

mvn wavemaker-workspace:init

Prerequisites for Windows

If you are using any IDE or programming editor of your choice, make sure to change the line separator or delimiter to Unix (\n). For example: In intellij IDEA :- From the code Style panel, set the Line Separator field property from system-dependent to unix-style.

In Eclipse

User has to select the project and convert line delimiters to Unix.