ZK Installation Guide/Quick Start/Create and Run Your First ZK Application with Spring Boot

The zk-spring-boot Example

The example project is located on github/zkoss-demo/zk-spring-boot. To use it all you need is a command line interface (and optional: git).

This example is based on the Spring Boot - Getting Started Guide extending it by adding the required ZK dependencies and necessary configuration in order to start a ZK project with the Spring Boot platform.

Differences to a normal ZK Web Application

As Spring Boot prefers Java- over XML-configuration and doesn't require a classical src/main/webapp-folder (and no WEB-INF/) the ZK configuration is moved to a different folder:

zk.xml was moved to a classpath location:

src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/zk.xml -> src/main/resources/metainfo/zk/zk.xml

web.xml configuration such as servlets/filters are configured the "Spring Boot Way" using java configuration

src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml -> src/main/java/zk/springboot/config/ZKCEConfig / ZKEEConfig

ZKCEConfig.java and ZKEEConfig.java can be changed to fit your requirements, e.g. disable websocket filter (when used with an older ZK version < 8.5) or richlet filter if not needed.

Adding them to the Spring Boot main Application class can be done using the @Import annotation:

@SpringBootApplication
@Import(ZKEEConfig.class) /*ZK EE config includes CE*/
public class Application  {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
	}
}

Download/Clone the example project

With the git command line installed all you need is to clone the example repository:

   git clone https://github.com/zkoss-demo/zk-spring-boot.git

Alternatively you can download the example as a zip-package.

Once cloned/unzipped open a command line in the project folder.

In order to get started immediately the project includes the gradle-wrapper and maven-wrapper.

The first time you'll execute any of the commands in the following section gradle/maven will download itself automatically and all the required project dependencies. This will initially take quite a few minutes while showing the overall progress. Subsequent executions will be faster as gradle/maven will cache once downloaded resources. For addtional information on gradle/maven please refer to the official documentations.

Useful build tasks

NOTE: Using the windows command line (cmd) you have to omit the "./" in front of the commands

build self executable jar

with gradle-wrapper

./gradlew clean build

with maven-wrapper

./mvnw clean package

Run the Project

for gradle:

java -jar build/libs/zk-spring-boot-0.1.0.jar

for maven

java -jar target/zk-spring-boot-0.1.0.jar

After a short startup time you'll see an output like this.

... Started ServerConnector@5536379e{HTTP/1.1,[http/1.1]}{0.0.0.0:8080}
... Jetty started on port(s) 8080 (http/1.1)
... Started Application in 4.328 seconds (JVM running for 4.987)

The test pages are now available under:

http://localhost:8080/mvvm.zul (small MVVM example showing subnavigation and spring service integration)

http://localhost:8080/resources.zul (examples of accessing static resources the "springboot way" vs the "zk way")

http://localhost:8080/richlet/test (sample richlet - zk in pure java)

Import the project into your IDE

The project itself designed to work from command line and independent of any IDE. Since it's both a gradle or maven project you can import it into your favorite IDE using the provided plugins.

TIP: The main class zk.springboot.Application can be executed directly in your IDE for development and debugging.