How to setup IntelliJ Java App Engine project to use Services (Modules)

Question

I've been using IntelliJ successfully for quite a while to develop App Engine projects that contain a single service (formerly 'module'), but am having difficulty setting up a project up that contains more than one service (a default front-end service plus one or more backend services).

I understand the multi-module EAR deployment folder structure, which is different from the single WAR structure, but I have not been able to figure out how to successfully launch the development server with this configuration to debug before I deploy.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

My application is structured as a multi module Gradle project. I have a top level Gradle Build file and three subprojects. One project contains the EAR project, and two projects are Goolge App Engine War projects.

I would propose that you start with trying to setup such a project. You will find a good example with a corresponding project structure at Googles Github

https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/appengine-modules-sample-java

You will deploy the ear to your locale dev server by running the ear gradle task appengineRun

You need to add the following entry to your ear gradle build file (keep the other entries)

appengine {

    jvmFlags = ['-Xdebug', '-Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=8000']

}

Next step is to configure a Remote Debug configuration similar to this

https://stackoverflow.com/a/18692212/2062634

After you started your application you have to start your remote debug configuration which will attach the debugger.