---
title: Creating a Project in IntelliJ
order: 120
layout: page
---

[[getting-started.idea]]
= Creating a Project with IntelliJ IDEA

The Ultimate Edition of IntelliJ IDEA includes support for creating Vaadin applications and running or debugging them in an integrated application server.

With the Community Edition, you can create a Vaadin application most easily with a Maven archetype and deploy it to a server with a Maven run/debug configuration.

[[getting-started.idea.project]]
== Creating a Vaadin Web Application Project

In the welcome page, do the following:

. Download and extract the Vaadin installation package to a local folder, as
instructed in <<dummy/../../../framework/getting-started/getting-started-package#getting-started.package,"Vaadin Installation Package">>.

. Select [menuchoice]#New Project#

. In the [guilabel]#New Project# window, select [menuchoice]#Java#

. Enter a [guilabel]#Project name# and [guilabel]#Project location#, and select
the [guilabel]#Java SDK# to be used for the project.
Vaadin requires at least Java 8.
If you have not configured a Java SDK previously, you can configure it here.
+
image::img/idea-newproject-1.png[scaledwidth=100%]
+
Click [guibutton]#Next#.

. Select "Web Application > Vaadin" to add Vaadin Framework to the project.

. Select Vaadin [guilabel]#Version# and [guilabel]#Distribution# installation
path. You probably also want an application stub, so select [guilabel]#Create
sample application# and give a name for the generated UI class.
+
image::img/idea-newproject-2.png[scaledwidth=100%]
+
Do __not__ click [guibutton]#Finish# yet.

. Select [guilabel]#Application Server# in the same window.
Set it as an integrated server that you have configured in IntelliJ IDEA, as described previously in <<DUMMY/../../../framework/installing/installing-idea#installing.idea.ultimate.server, "Configuring an Application Server">>.

. Click [guibutton]#Finish#.

The project is created with the UI class stub and a [filename]#web.xml#
deployment descriptor.

image::img/idea-newproject-4.png[scaledwidth=100%]

The wizard does not currently create a servlet class automatically, and uses
Servlet 2.4 compatible deployment with a [filename]#web.xml# deployment
descriptor.

[[getting-started.idea.project.running]]
=== Deploying the Project

To deploy the application to the integrated web server, right-click the
[filename]#index.jsp# file in the project and select [menuchoice]#Run
'index.jsp'#. This starts the integrated server, if it was not already running,
and launches the default browser with the application page.

[[getting-started.idea.maven]]
== Creating a Maven Project

You can choose to create a Maven project in IntelliJ IDEA. This is the
recommended way when using the Community Edition. You will not have the
application server integration, but can deploy the application to an application
server using a run/debug configuration.

. Select [menuchoice]#New Project#

. In the [guilabel]#New Project# window, select [menuchoice]#Maven#
//&lt;?dbfo-need height="8cm" ?&gt;

. Enter a project name, location, and the Java SDK to be used for the project.
Vaadin requires at least Java 8.
+
image::img/idea-maven-newproject-1.png[scaledwidth=100%]
+
Click [guibutton]#Next#.
//&lt;?dbfo-need height="6cm" ?&gt;

. Give a Maven [guilabel]#GroupID#, [guilabel]#ArtifactID#, and a
[guilabel]#Version# for the project, or use the defaults.

+
image::img/idea-maven-newproject-2.png[scaledwidth=100%]

. Check [guilabel]#Create from archetype#
//&lt;?dbfo-need height="6cm" ?&gt;

. If the Vaadin archetype is not in the list, click [guibutton]#Add archetype#,
enter [guilabel]#GroupId# [literal]#++com.vaadin++#, [guilabel]#ArtifactId#
[literal]#++vaadin-archetype-application++#, and [guilabel]#Version#
[literal]#++LATEST++# (or a specific version number).

+
Click [guibutton]#OK# in the dialog.
//&lt;?dbfo-need height="8cm" ?&gt;

. Select the [literal]#++com.vaadin:vaadin-archetype-application++#.

+
Click [guibutton]#Next#.
//&lt;?dbfo-need height="8cm" ?&gt;

. Review the general Maven settings and settings for the new project.
You may need to override the settings, especially if you are creating a Maven project for the first time.

+
Click [guibutton]#Finish#.

Creating the Maven project takes some time as Maven fetches the dependencies.
Once done, the project is created and the Maven POM is opened in the editor.

[[getting-started.idea.maven.compiling]]
=== Compiling the Project

To compile a Vaadin application using Maven, you can define a run/debug
configuration to execute a goal such as [literal]#++package++# to build the
deployable WAR package. It will also compile the widget set and theme, if
necessary. See
<<dummy/../../../framework/getting-started/getting-started-maven#getting-started.maven.compiling,"Compiling
and Running the Application">> for more details.

Compilation is included in the following instructions for deploying the
application.


[[getting-started.idea.maven.deploying]]
=== Deploying to a Server

There exists Maven plugins for deploying to various application servers. For
example, to deploy to Apache Tomcat, you can to configure the
[literal]#++tomcat-maven-plugin++# and then execute the
[literal]#++tomcat:deploy++# goal. See the documentation of the plugin that you
use for more details. If no Maven plugin exists for a particular server, you can
always use some lower-level method to deploy the application, such as running an
Ant task.

In the following, we create a run/debug configuration to build, deploy, and
launch a Vaadin Maven application on the light-weight Jetty web server.

. Select "Run > Edit Configurations".

. Click [guibutton]#+# and select menu:Maven[] to create a new Maven run/debug configuration.

. Enter a [guilabel]#Name# for the run configuration.
For the [guilabel]#Command line#, enter "`package jetty:run`# to first compile and package the project, and then launch Jetty to run it.

+
Click [guibutton]#OK#.

. Select the run configuration in the toolbar and click the [guibutton]#Run#
button beside it.


Compiling the project takes some time on the first time, as it compiles the
widget set and theme. Once the run console pane informs that Jetty Server has
been started, you can open the browser at the default URL
http://localhost:8080/.
