gwtgwt-super-dev-mode

Super Dev Mode on a remote server

The project I work at is quite specific. We use GWT with SAP backend. We run the Dev Mode using the following configuration (as program arguments; I run the project directly using IntelliJ IDEA)

-noserver -logLevel INFO -startupUrl http://server-url:8000/aaa -whitelist ^http[:][/][/]server-url[.]eu[:]8000/aaa com.company.project.main.Main

Note, we didn't use a local server (-noserver).

After familiarizing myself with the Super Dev Mode, I understood, that it works similar to GWT Web Mode, i.e. it compiles JavaScript (the folder to compile to can be specified) and then runs the code server with that script hosted.

Due to the specifics of the project, the compiled JavaScript is deployed to the remote server using maven via WebDav. So simply specifying -workDir as a parameter will not deploy the scripts on the remote server. Nor can we run (at least at the moment) a Java server on the server-url address.

Can we use the Super Dev Mode in this situation?

Solution

  • Yes you can.

    EDIT 2016-11-27: I built a devserver that can use -launcherDir-style SuperDevMode without the need to write to the server, by using a webpack-like proxy: https://github.com/tbroyer/gwt-devserver

    EDIT: there are a few issues re. deferred-binding properties. The recommended use of SDM (since GWT 2.7) is to use -launcherDir which means using a local server.

    SuperDevMode works much like DevMode with -noserver, which means you have to deploy your app at least once to your server. In the case of SuperDevMode, it means you have to compile and deploy with the xsiframe linker and devModeRedirectEnabled property set to true.

    Then you run SuperDevMode on your machine, create your bookmarklets if not done already, load your app from the remote server and click the Dev Mode On bookmarklet.

    This will store something in the browser's sessionStorage so that reloading the page will now load the permutation from the SuperDevMode running on your machine rather than the remote server.

    More info about how SuperDevMode works: http://blog.ltgt.net/how-does-gwts-super-dev-mode-work/