Deploying to CloudBees

CloudBees is a hosted platform for JVM apps that puts everything from source control to continuous integration to production deployment under one roof.

Its free plan is more than sufficient for a simple Scalatra app.


1. Register for an account.

2. Install the CloudBees SDK.

If you’re a Mac Homebrew user, it’s as easy as brew install bees. If you’re not, check the CloudBees installation instructions.

After installing, run the bees command to provoke a login:

$ bees
# CloudBees SDK version: 1.2.2
Installing plugin: org.cloudbees.sdk.plugins:ant-plugin:1.1

You have not created a CloudBees configuration profile, let's create one now...
Enter your CloudBees account email address: you@you.com
Enter your CloudBees account password:

3. Set up a project.

  • Create a Scalatra project from the usual Scalatra giter8 template. Check out the installation and first project guides if this isn’t familiar.
$ sbt new scalatra/scalatra-sbt.g8
$ cd [app root]
  • Now create the war file:
$ cd [app root]
$ sbt
> package-war
[info] Compiling 2 Scala sources to /Users/yuvi/Desktop/my-scalatra-web-app/target/scala-2.9.2/classes...
[info] Packaging /Users/yuvi/Desktop/my-scalatra-web-app/target/scala-2.9.2/my-scalatra-web-app_2.9.2-0.1.0-SNAPSHOT.war ...
[info] Done packaging.
[success] Total time: 4 s, completed Dec 19, 2012 8:55:03 PM

4. Create your app on CloudBees

  • Log into your account, and click on the Apps tab. The first time you do that you’ll have to subscribe for that service.
  • Click Add New Application. Choose an app name and choose the runtime JVM Web Application (WAR).

5. Deploy

There are many customizations you can choose when deploying your app, such as specifying the version of Java or the particular servlet container to be used. We won’t go into it here, but you can learn more on your own.

$ cd [app root]
$ sbt
$ bees app:deploy ./target/scala-2.9.2/my-scalatra-web-app_2.9.2-0.1.0-SNAPSHOT.war -a USERNAME/APPNAME -t jboss71
Deploying application scalatra-documenter/scalatra-test (environment: ): ./target/scala-2.9.2/my-scalatra-web-app_2.9.2-0.1.0-SNAPSHOT.war
........................uploaded 25%
........................uploaded 50%
........................uploaded 75%
........................upload completed
deploying application to server(s)...
Application scalatra-documenter/scalatra-test deployed: http://scalatra-test.scalatra-documenter.cloudbees.net

6. Visit your website

The output from the deploy phase shows the URL to visit.