How to Set Up Play Framework 2.0 Javadocs for Eclipse

Play framework 2.0 was released a few days ago and many developers are wondering how to set up the Javadocs for Eclipse.  The documentation is quite lacking so I hope this post will show up on Google and save some people a few hours.

The Problem:

No Javadocs!

The Solution:

• In Eclipse, select your project in the Project Explorer
• In the menu bar, select Project > Properties > Java Build Path > Libraries
• Scroll down and look for play_2.9.1.jar
• Click the arrow on play_2.9.1.jar and set the Source attachment and Javadoc location
• Edit the Source attachment, click External Folder, and point to play-2.0/framework/src/play/src
• Edit the Javadoc location, click Browse under Javadoc URL, and point to play-2.0/documentation/api/java

The Result:

Yay Javadocs!

Some other helpful tips:

Be sure to install the Scala plugin for Eclipse here.  Play 2.0 now uses Scala so the plugin will fix any pesky problems in Eclipse where it can't resolve some classes and methods provided by the framework.

If you're using Git to host your Play projects, check out the sample .gitignore file here.  Just stick it into your Play project folder.  It automatically excludes all Eclipse configuration files and makes it easy to work across multiple environments and developers.