Running Play Framework + Scala Apps on Heroku

Building Play Framework apps with Scala is all the rage right now. And for good reason… It’s never been easier to build and deploy JVM-based web apps! Lets walk through how to build a Play app with Scala and then deploy it on the cloud with Heroku.

Step 1) Install the Play Framework (make sure you have at least version 1.2.3)

Step 2) Install the Play Scala module:

play install scala

Step 3) Create a new Play app with Scala support:

play new playwithscala --with scala

Step 4) Start the app:

cd playwithscala
play run

Step 5) Open the app in your browser:

http://localhost:9000

That was easy! Lets spice this up a bit before we deploy it on Heroku by adding a custom model, view, and controller.

Step 1) Create a new app/models/Widget.scala file containing:

package models

case class Widget(id: Int, name: String)

Step 2) Create a new app/views/Widget/list.scala.html file containing:

@(widgets: Vector[models.Widget])



    
        @widgets.map { widget => 
            Widget @widget.id = @widget.name</br>
        }
    

Step 3) Create a new app/controllers/WidgetController.scala file containing:

package controllers

import play._
import play.mvc._

object WidgetController extends Controller {

    import views.Widget._
    import models.Widget

    def list = {
        val widget1 = Widget(1, "The first Widget")
        val widget2 = Widget(2, "A really special Widget")
        val widget3 = Widget(3, "Just another Widget")
        html.list(Vector(widget1, widget2, widget3))
    }

}

Step 4) Test out the new code by going to:

http://localhost:9000/WidgetController/list

It works! And we didn’t even need to reload the server! But lets clean up that URL a bit. Edit the conf/routes file and change “Application.index” to “WidgetController.list”:

GET     /                                       WidgetController.list

Now load the new URL:

http://localhost:9000/

That was easy but now we want to show our friends. So lets deploy it on Heroku.

Step 1) Install the Heroku command line client on Linux, Mac, or Windows

Step 2) Login to Heroku from the command line:

heroku auth:login

Step 3) Heroku uses git for application upload, so create a .gitignore file containing:

/modules
/tmp

Step 4) Create a git repo, add the files to it, and commit them:

git init
git add .
git commit -m init

Step 5) Create the new application on Heroku:

heroku create -s cedar

This provisions a new application on Heroku and assigns a random name / URL to the app.

Step 6) Deploy the application:

git push heroku master

The application will now be assembled and deployed on Heroku.

Step 7) Open the application in the browser:

heroku open

Tada! Your Play + Scala app is now running on the cloud!

At JavaOne I showed this to Bill Venners (creator of ScalaTest). He then moved the scalatest.org website (a Play + Scala app) to Heroku! Cool stuff!

Let me know if you have any questions.