Heroku CLI Plugin for Java

This project is a Heroku CLI plugin for working with Java applications on Heroku. It provides commands for:

• Deploying WAR files
• Deploying executable JAR files
• Inspecting JVMs running on Heroku with tools like jmap and visualvm

If you are using Maven, see the Heroku Maven plugin, which is a more robust method of WAR and JAR file deployment.

Prerequisites

You will require the following:

• Install the Heroku CLI
• Create a Heroku account

Deploying WAR files

1. Make sure Java 7 or higher is installed

Run the following command to confirm:

$ java -version
java version "1.7.0_51"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_51-b13)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.51-b03, mixed mode)

2. Install this CLI plugin

$ heroku plugins:install java

3. Create a Heroku application

$ heroku create

4. Create a WAR file

You can use any method to generate a WAR file. You can use maven,ant or simply export your application from your IDE as a WAR file.

The only requirement is that the WAR file is a standard Java web application and adheres to the standard web application structure and conventions.

5. Deploy your WAR

In order to deploy your WAR use the following command:

$ heroku war:deploy <path_to_war_file> --app <app_name>
Uploading my-app.war....
---> Packaging application...
    - app: my-app
    - including: webapp-runner.jar
    - including: my-app.war
---> Creating build...
    - file: slug.tgz
    - size: 1MB
---> Uploading build...
    - success
---> Deploying...
remote:
remote: -----> Fetching custom tar buildpack... done
remote: -----> JVM Common app detected
remote: -----> Installing OpenJDK 1.8... done
remote: -----> Discovering process types
remote:        Procfile declares types -> web
remote:
remote: -----> Compressing... done, 50.3MB
remote: -----> Launching... done, v5
remote:        https://my-app.herokuapp.com/ deployed to Heroku
remote:
---> Done

If you are in an application directory, you can use the following command instead:

$ heroku deploy:war <path_to_war_file>

6. View your app on Heroku

Use the following command to open the application on the browser:

$ heroku open

You can learn how to customize the deploy (such as including files and setting Tomcat options) in Configuring WAR Deployment with the Heroku Toolbelt.

Executable JAR Files

You can also use this tool to deploy executable JAR files. To do so, run a command like this:

$ heroku jar:deploy <path_to_jar> --app <appname>

Available options include:

 -j, --jar FILE         # jar or war to deploy
 -v, --jdk VERSION      # 7 or 8. defaults to 8
 -o, --options OPTS     # options passed to the jar file
 -i, --includes FILES   # list of files to include in the slug

The --includes option may contain a list of files separated by a ; or : on Windows or Mac respectively.

Customizing your deployment

You can customize the command used to run your application by creating a Procfile in the same directory as your run the heroku jar:deploy command. For example:

web: java -cp my-uberjar.jar com.foo.MyMain opt1 opt2

You can view your current Procfile command by running heroku ps.

Running locally

You can run your WAR file locally the way it is run on Heroku by executing this command:

$ heroku war:run <path_to_war>

Inspecting a JVM on Heroku

For information on using the java commands in this plugin, see the Heroku Exec documentation.

Development

To run the tests:

$ bash bin/test

To update the lib/heroku-deploy-complete.jar:

$ bash bin/update <version>

For a list of versions see Maven Central.

To publish this plugin:

$ npm version <version>
$ npm publish

License

MIT