Step 1: Create a Project

The Axelor Open Platform uses Gradle to manage application project and it’s modules.

Directory structure

The directory structure of a typical Axelor Open Platform application project is something like this:

Directory Structure
axelor-demo
└── src
│   └── main
│       ├── java
│       └── resources
│           └── META-INF
│               ├── axelor-config.properties (1)
│               └── persistence.xml (2)
├── gradle (3)
│   └── wrapper
│       ├── gradle-wrapper.jar
│       └── gradle-wrapper.properties
├── modules (4)
├── gradlew (5)
├── gradlew.bat (5)
├── settings.gradle (6)
└── build.gradle (7)
1 The application config file
2 The minimal persistence xml file to confirm JPA requirement
3 The directory to keep gradle wrapper files
4 The directory to keep module projects
5 The shell and batch scripts to execute the build with wrapper
6 The gradle settings script
7 The gradle build script

Create build.gradle

Create the application build script like this:

build.gradle
plugins {
  id 'com.axelor.app' (1)
}

axelor { (2)
  title = 'Axelor DEMO'
}

allprojects {

  group = 'com.axelor'
  version = '1.0.0'

  java {
    toolchain {
      languageVersion = JavaLanguageVersion.of(11) (3)
    }
  }

  afterEvaluate {
    test {
      useJUnitPlatform() (4)
      beforeTest { descriptor ->
        logger.lifecycle('Running: ' + descriptor)
      }
    }
  }
}

dependencies {
  // add dependencies
}
1 Use axelor application plugin
2 The application project config
3 Use Java 11
4 Use JUnit5 for unit testing

The com.axelor.app gradle plugin defines an extension point axelor where we can define various properties.

  • title - display title for the application

Create settings.gradle

Create the settings.gradle like this:

settings.gradle
pluginManagement {
  repositories {
    maven {
      url 'https://repository.axelor.com/nexus/repository/maven-public/' (1)
    }
  }
  plugins {
    id 'com.axelor.app' version '6.0.+' (2)
  }
}

dependencyResolutionManagement {
  repositories {
    mavenCentral() {
      content {
        excludeGroup 'com.axelor' (3)
      }
    }
    maven {
      url 'https://repository.axelor.com/nexus/repository/maven-public/'
    }
  }
}

rootProject.name = 'axelor-demo'
1 The axelor maven repository
2 The axelor app gradle plugin version
3 Use maven central but don’t load com.axelor from it

The include "modules:axelor-contact" line tells gradle to include the module axelor-contact in current build cycle. It is required to list all the modules in settings.gradle file.

To check whether application project is configured properly, issue the following command:

$ gradle build

The build process should finish without any error.

Generate Gradle wrapper

The recommended way to execute gradle build is with the help of Gradle Wrapper. Run the following command from terminal to generate wrapper:

$ gradle wrapper

Now onward, you can use either @gradlew@ shell script or @gradlew.bat@ batch script to execute build. Like:

$ ./gradlew build

Create config files

We also need to create following configuration files:

  1. src/main/resources/axelor-config.properties - the application config file

  2. src/main/resources/META-INF/persistence.xml - the jpa configuration file

Please follow the app configuration guide for more details.