Gradle (tomcat-plugin): tomcatRun cannot execute GWT JS - gwt

Question

I am trying to build a GWT enabled web application with Gradle (on Ubuntu Linux).
I have configured everything, and Gradle manages to successfully build the application, but when I run the task "tomcatRun", I can only see a blank page, which is a result of GWT javascript not executing (if I view the page source, it is there). No errors, no warnings from Tomcat, just that blank page.
However, when I run "tomcatRunWar", everything works perfectly. I can't figure out what might be wrong or why might this happen.
This is my gradle.build file:
apply plugin: 'java'
apply plugin: 'war'
apply plugin: 'tomcat'
apply plugin: 'eclipse-wtp'
buildscript {
repositories {
jcenter()
}
dependencies {
classpath "org.gradle.api.plugins:gradle-tomcat-plugin:1.0"
}
}
repositories {
mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
/* Tomcat plugin dependencies */
def tomcatVersion = '7.0.47'
tomcat "org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-core:${tomcatVersion}",
"org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-logging-juli:${tomcatVersion}"
tomcat("org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-jasper:${tomcatVersion}") {
exclude group: 'org.eclipse.jdt.core.compiler', module: 'ecj'
}
/* Google Web Toolkit */
def gwtVersion = '2.5.1'
providedCompile "com.google.gwt:gwt-user:${gwtVersion}"
providedCompile "com.google.gwt:gwt-dev:${gwtVersion}"
runtime "com.google.gwt:gwt-servlet:${gwtVersion}"
/* Spring Security */
def springVersion = '3.1.4.RELEASE'
compile "org.springframework.security:spring-security-web:${springVersion}"
compile "org.springframework.security:spring-security-config:${springVersion}"
}
/* Task to compile the client package GWT code to JavaScript */
task gwtCompile (dependsOn: classes, type: JavaExec) {
buildDir = "${project.buildDir}/gwt"
extraDir = "${project.buildDir}/extra"
inputs.source sourceSets.main.java.srcDirs
inputs.dir sourceSets.main.output.resourcesDir
outputs.dir buildDir
doFirst {
file(buildDir).mkdirs()
}
main = "com.google.gwt.dev.Compiler"
classpath {
[
sourceSets.main.java.srcDirs, // Java source
sourceSets.main.output.resourcesDir, // Generated resources
sourceSets.main.output.classesDir, // Generated classes
sourceSets.main.compileClasspath, // Dependencies
]
}
args = [
'<package_path_to_GWT_module>', // Our GWT module
'-war', buildDir,
'-logLevel', 'INFO',
'-localWorkers', '2',
'-compileReport',
'-extra', extraDir,
]
maxHeapSize = '256M'
}
/* Make the war plugin depend on the gwtCompile task */
war.dependsOn gwtCompile
/* Include the contents of the GWT compilation in the generated WAR file */
war {
from gwtCompile.buildDir
}
/* Configure the eclipse plugin in case it is used */
eclipse {
project {
natures 'com.google.gwt.eclipse.core.gwtNature'
buildCommand 'com.google.gdt.eclipse.core.webAppProjectValidator'
buildCommand 'com.google.gwt.eclipse.core.gwtProjectValidator'
}
classpath {
containers 'com.google.gwt.eclipse.core.GWT_CONTAINER'
}
}
My directory tree looks like this:
ProjectHome
-- src
-- main
-- java
-- <packages>
-- webapp
-- WEB-INF
-- web.xml
-- index.html
-- test
-- build.gradle
I have also compared the resulting WAR's directory tree with the one used by the 'tomcatRun' task (build/libs/ProjectName) and they seem identical.
Does anyone have any ideas for this?
// Edit: Actually, it does not display an empty page, it just can't execute the GWT Javascript, to assign content to the only div in body.

Answer 1

OK, found the solution.
You actually have to copy the needed files into the src/main/webapp directory (or make the build script do that or even better configure the tomcat-plugin to read the files from elsewhere - if that is possible), because tomcatRun reads the files from there. I was expecting it to read them from where the WAR file lies in (build/libs), but this is not the case.
So, the best option here, given that the GWT plugin is still a work in progress, is to use the tomcatRunWar option.