Downloading Add-ons from Vaadin Directory

If you are not using Maven or a Maven-compatible dependency manager such as Ivy, or want to manage for your libraries manually, you can download add-on packages from the details page of an add-on in Vaadin Directory.

1. Select the version; some add-ons have several versions available. The latest is shown by default, but you can choose another the version to download from the dropdown menu in the header of the details page.

2. Click Download Now and save the JAR or Zip file on your computer.

3. If the add-on is packaged in a Zip package, unzip the package and follow any instructions provided inside the package. Typically, you just need to copy a JAR file to your web project under the WEB-INF/lib directory.

   Note that some add-ons may require other libraries. You can resolve such dependencies manually, but we recommend using a dependency manager such as Ivy or Maven in your project.

4. Update and recompile your project. In Eclipse, select the project and press F5.

5. You may need to compile the client-side implementations of the add-on components, that is, a widget set. This is the case for majority of add-ons, except for pure server-side, theme, or data binding add-ons. Compiling the widget set depends on the build environment. See Compiling Widget Sets with an Ant Script, or later in this chapter for instructions for compiling the widget set with Eclipse and Maven.

6. Update the project in your development web server and possibly restart the server.

Compiling Widget Sets with an Ant Script

If you need to compile the widget set with an Ant script, you can find a script template package at the Vaadin download page. You can copy the files in the package to your project and, once configured, use it by running Ant in the directory.

If you are using an IDE such as Eclipse, always remember to refresh the project to synchronize it with the filesystem after compiling the widget set outside the IDE.