Setting Up a Java Development Environment

This tutorial shows how to prepare your local machine for Java development, including developing Java apps that run on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Follow this tutorial to install Java and relevant tools.

Objectives

• Install a JDK (Java Development Kit).
• Install a build automation tool.
• (Optional) Install an IDE or editor.
• (Optional) Install IDE Cloud SDK Plugin.
• Install the Cloud SDK.
• Install the GCP Client Library for Java.

Install a JDK (Java Development Kit)

Install either the Java 8 SE JDK or the Open JDK 8. The environment variables are set as follows when you are done with the installation:

• JAVA_HOME: Points to the base of the JDK installation.

• PATH: Includes $JAVA_HOME/bin.

Windows

1. To install the Java 8 SE JDK on Windows, open the Java downloads page and find the most recent Java SE 8 package section.

   

2. Agree to the terms and conditions, and then download and run the appropriate installer package.

macOS

To install the Java 8 SE JDK on macOS, download and run the Mac installer.

Linux

Java JDK 8

1. If the Java 8 SE JDK isn't available on your Linux distribution, open the Java downloads page and find the most recent Java SE 8 package section.

   

2. Agree to the terms and conditions, and then download and run the appropriate installer package.

Open JDK

Open JDK is an open source implementation of the Java Platform SE and related projects. You can download and install Open JDK with the following commands:

Debian and Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk

Fedora, Oracle Linux, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux

su -c "yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel"

Install a build automation tool

Apache Maven, Gradle, and SBT are package management options that can help build Java app dependencies quickly and consistently across platforms.

Install the Cloud SDK

The Cloud SDK is a set of tools for GCP. It contains gcloud, gsutil, and bq, which you can use to access Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, BigQuery, and other products and services from the command line. You can run these tools interactively or in your automated scripts.

(Optional) Install an IDE or editor

Popular editors (in no particular order) used to develop Java apps include, but are not limited to:

• Eclipse by Eclipse Foundation
• IntelliJ IDEA and/or Webstorm by JetBrains
• Atom by GitHub

These editors (sometimes with the help of plugins) give you everything from syntax highlighting, intelli-sense, and code completion to fully integrated debugging capabilities.

(Optional) Install IDE Cloud SDK plugin

For access to helpful functions within your editor, check out the Google-sponsored plugins for Eclipse or IntelliJ.

Install the GCP Client Library for Java

Use the GCP Client Library for Java to integrate with GCP services, such as Cloud Datastore and Cloud Storage. You can install the package for an individual API, such as BigQuery, as shown in the following example.

Installing the client library

If you are using Maven, add the following to your pom.xml file:

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
  <artifactId>google-cloud-bigquery</artifactId>
  <version>1.90.0</version>
</dependency>

If you are using Gradle, add the following to your dependencies:

compile 'com.google.cloud:google-cloud-bigquery:1.90.0'

If you are using SBT, add the following to your dependencies:

libraryDependencies += "com.google.cloud" % "google-cloud-bigquery" % "1.90.0"

If you're using IntelliJ or Eclipse, you can add client libraries to your project using the following IDE plugins:

• Cloud Code for IntelliJ
• Cloud Tools for Eclipse

The plugins provide additional functionality, such as key management for service accounts. Refer to each plugin's documentation for details.

Note: Cloud Java client libraries do not currently support Android.

Set up authentication

To run the client library, you must first set up authentication.

Using the client library

View on GitHub

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
import com.google.cloud.bigquery.BigQuery;
import com.google.cloud.bigquery.BigQueryOptions;
import com.google.cloud.bigquery.Dataset;
import com.google.cloud.bigquery.DatasetInfo;

public class QuickstartSample {
  public static void main(String... args) throws Exception {
    // Instantiate a client. If you don't specify credentials when constructing a client, the
    // client library will look for credentials in the environment, such as the
    // GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable.
    BigQuery bigquery = BigQueryOptions.getDefaultInstance().getService();

    // The name for the new dataset
    String datasetName = "my_new_dataset";

    // Prepares a new dataset
    Dataset dataset = null;
    DatasetInfo datasetInfo = DatasetInfo.newBuilder(datasetName).build();

    // Creates the dataset
    dataset = bigquery.create(datasetInfo);

    System.out.printf("Dataset %s created.%n", dataset.getDatasetId().getDataset());
  }
}

What's next

(Optional) Install Maven or Gradle plugin for App Engine

If you are developing in the App Engine standard or flexible environment, you can use plugins for both Apache Maven and Gradle build tools that provide convenient functions for developing, testing, and deploying your apps directly.

For App Engine standard environments

Add the Maven App Engine Plugin or Gradle Plugin for App Engine standard environments.

For App Engine flexible environments

Add the Maven App Engine Plugin or Gradle Plugin for App Engine flexible environments.

More resources

• Browse the documentation for GCP products.
• Clone the Java samples repository from GitHub.
• Explore Java tutorials submitted by the community.