Before you start #

If you haven't already, configure Eclipse to work with Liferay.

Install the JRebel plugin for Eclipse #

JRebel Tutorial: Using JRebel with Eclipse IDE

Follow the instructions up to "Step 3: Configuring JRebel and Adding Your License Key"

JRebel Config Center #

• Menu: Window > Open Perspective > Other...
• Select: JRebel Config Center
• Section Servers: select all your target servers, e.g. Liferay v6.2 CE Server (Tomcat 7)
• Section Projects: select your Portlet projects, e.g. weather-portlet-master

Modify your rebel.xml files #

Find these 2 rebel.xml files under yout Tomcat bundle:

lib/ext/rebel.xml
webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/classes/rebel.xml

Find and replace all occurrences of:

/classes

With:

/bin

Change the "portal-master" project's output folders #

You will have to change the output folder for every source folder that has a corresponding entry in one of the aforementioned rebel.xml files.

The output folder should be a new "bin" folder, sibling of the existing "src" folder.

For instance, given the source folder:

portal-service/src

The output folder should be:

portal-service/bin

And, given the source folder:

portal-impl/src

The output folder should be:

portal-impl/bin

Do it for all entries in both rebel.xml files.

Modify the rebel.xml files at your plugin projects #

This is required for JRebel to reload changed JSP files and other resources from your plugin projects.

At each plugin project, find the rebel.xml file, e.g.

weather-portlet-master/docroot/WEB-INF/src/rebel.xml

(This file is generated by the JRebel Eclipse Plugin, when you select the plugin project's checkbox at the JRebel Config Center.)

Add a section like this to the rebel.xml file:

<web>
  <link target="/">
    <dir name="/FULL/PATH/TO/plugins/portlets/weather-portlet/docroot/" />
  </link>
</web>

What next? #

Optimal Liferay Core Development with JRebel

Eclipse Debugging Liferay on Tomcat