Vaadin Portlets in Liferay User Interface Development

Vaadin portlets are developed with Vaadin framework. The Vaadin framework can also be used to develop standalone web applications. Liferay portal supports the Vaadin portlets.

In this section, we will write a Vaadin portlet for Liferay portal using the Vaadin Eclipse plugin.

Required software

Install the following software for the development environment, if they are not already there:

• Eclipse Java EE IDE
• Liferay portal 6.x.x with Tomcat 6.0.x

Configuring Tomcat 6.0 in Eclipse

If you have not already done so, configure Tomcat 6.0 in Eclipse as follows:

1. Start Eclipse. Click on Window | Preferences.
2. Expand Server. Click on Runtime Environment.
3. Click on Add ….
4. Select Apache Tomcat v6.0. Click on Next.
5. Click on Browse and open the tomcat-6.0.x directory.
6. Click on Finish.

Installing Vaadin Eclipse plugin

You can automatically create a Vaadin portlet prototype for Liferay portal with the Vaadin Eclipse plugin. Here is how you can install it:

1. Assuming that Eclipse is open. Click on Help. Select Install New Software …
2. Click on Add ….
3. Input Name: Vaadin, Location: http://vaadin.com/eclipse. Click on OK.
4. Click on Finish.

The Vaadin Eclipse plugin will be installed. It will take several minutes.