Deploying the Application

Clarity’s development team has been working on implementing their distributor onboarding solution. Throughout this process, they’ve used low-code features like Objects, Picklists, and Workflows. They have also leveraged page builder features to design a dynamic, responsive user interface for their custom application. Additionally, they’ve created a microservice client extension to help automate their onboarding workflow.

While most parts of the solution are complete, some features remain unfinished. Throughout this module, you’ll take on the role of Ian Miller and contribute to Clarity’s solution. But before you can do that, let’s get your working environment set up.

Here you’ll learn how to:

• Set up the Clarity workspace
• Build and deploy the solution using client extensions
• Test the solution in Liferay’s UI

Exercise One: Setting Up the Clarity Workspace

The Clarity workspace is available in the liferay-portal repo.

To set it up locally,

1. Download and unzip the workspace in a folder of your choice using these commands:

   curl -o com.liferay.sample.workspace-latest.zip https://repository.liferay.com/nexus/service/local/artifact/maven/content\?r\=liferay-public-releases\&g\=com.liferay.workspace\&a\=com.liferay.clarity.workspace\&\v\=LATEST\&p\=zip
   

   unzip com.liferay.sample.workspace-latest.zip
   

2. After extracting the workspace, go to the client-extensions/ folder.

   cd [workspace-root]/client-extensions/
   

3. Run this command to build the client extensions:

   ../gradlew clean build
   

The compiled .zip files appear in each project’s dist/ folder.

[project-name]
├── batch
├── build
├── dist
│   └── [project-name].zip
└── client-extension.yaml

Now that the client extensions are ready, you can deploy them to your Liferay instance.

Exercise Two: Deploying the Client Extensions

The specific process for deploying client extensions depends on your Liferay hosting model (i.e., Self-Hosted, PaaS, or SaaS). However, in all cases, you must add the compiled .zip file to the Liferay server’s [Liferay Home]/osgi/client-extensions/ folder.

Deploying to Self-Hosted Instances

The following exercise assumes you’re using Liferay SaaS. If you’re self-hosting, navigate to the client-extensions/ folder in your workspace and run this command: ../gradlew clean distBundleZip. Alternatively, you can manually copy the .zip file to your server’s [Liferay Home]/osgi/client-extensions/ folder. See Deploying to Your Liferay Instance for more information.

Deploying client extensions to a SaaS environment requires the Liferay Cloud CLI tool you installed in Module 2. To do this,

1. Go to the liferay-clarity-batch folder.

   cd liferay-clarity-batch/
   

2. Run this command to deploy the compiled .zip:

   lcp deploy --ext [path-to-zip-file]
   

3. When prompted, select the desired project environment.

   

4. Once finished, open the Cloud Console and go into the target environment’s Services menu. Make sure the liferayclaritybatch’s service status shows ready.

Now that you’ve deployed the solution’s client extensions, all the necessary components are available in your Liferay instance. Let’s verify this by testing the solution.

Exercise Three: Testing the Distributor Application

The solution includes two Liferay objects: the Distributor Application object and the Application Evaluation object. In the following lessons, you’ll learn more about these objects and how they’re configured. For now, let’s create and review a Distributor Application entry.

To do this,

1. Sign in as Ian Miller.

   • Email: [e-mail]
   • Password: learn

2. Open the Global Menu () and go to the Control Panel tab. Application Evaluations and Distributor Applications should appear in the Object category.

   

3. Open Distributor Applications.

4. Click Add () to create an entry.

5. Fill out the form with any information, then click Save.

6. Return to the Distributor Applications overview page and verify your entry appears in the table.

   

   Now you can create an evaluation for this entry.

7. Open the Global Menu (), go to the Control Panel tab, and click Application Evaluations.

8. Click Add () to create an evaluation for the application.

9. In the Application to Evaluations field, select the application you created. It is identified by the Business Name field.

10. Fill out the evaluation form with any information, then click Save.

11. Return to the Application Evaluations overview page and verify the entry appears in the table.

    

This evaluation is automatically related to the selected application. You can confirm this relationship between them by returning to Distributor Applications overview page, selecting the application, and going to the Evaluation Notes tab.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You’ve set up the prebuilt Clarity workspace and deployed its client extensions to your Liferay instance. Next, let’s explore the solution’s data structures and fill in the missing pieces.

Next Up: Modeling Data Structures

Additional Resources

• Objects
• Picklists
• Liferay Workspace
• Client Extensions
• Deploying Client Extensions