Before we start coding, we need a project. Vaadin projects can be created in many ways using several tools and languages.

In this chapter, we will show how to make projects that support three languages: Java, Groovy, and Scala.

First, we will make a simple Java project in Eclipse. Then, we will continue in a more sophisticated way and make a Vaadin application by using Maven and Gradle. Maven is a tool providing a better build process and it uses XML for the description of project, definition of dependencies, plugins, and so on. While Gradle is the next generation of build tools. Gradle combines both Maven and Ant, taking the best from both tools. Maybe the most exciting thing about Gradle is that it is uses Groovy instead of XML.

After we know how to make the project from Maven archetype, we will make the same project in IntelliJ IDEA.

Scala is a programming language that integrates features of object-oriented and functional languages. The server-side part of Vaadin runs on JVM and therefore we can write Vaadin applications in Scala language.

Grails is a web application framework that takes advantage of the Groovy language. Grails follows the convention over configuration principle. When we make a new Grails project, we automatically get a persistent model, service, controller and view layers, environments, and localization. We will have a look at how to create a new Grails project and how to use Vaadin instead of a Grails view layer.