Introduction
The play framework is a web application framework for Java and Scala that unifies parts and APIs for modern web development. It is user-friendly for developers, with a "simply click refresh" workflow and built-in testing capabilities. It is an excellent match for the modern web & mobile apps since it is RESTful by default and has useful compilers, JSON, and WebSocket support.
In this blog, we will discuss methods for Improving Compilation Times in the Play Framework to reduce the bottleneck in the development process. Let’s start going!
Need for Improving Compilation Times in Play Framework
Unlike machines, programmers do not always produce the ideal and accurate answer on the first try. We have a process where we write a program, compile it, test it, and rewrite it since the first attempts were unsuccessful. The method will be slower as a whole if we have to wait for the compilation phase.
The Play framework is one of the most used for production but was slow during compilation, making development difficult and irritating. While compiling the source code, it takes 10 to 15 minutes to compile the code and sometimes loops which never ends.
The developer’s team investigated the circumstances and found methods of improving compilation times.
Improving Compilation Times using Subprojects/modularize
Subprojects/modularize improve compilation times by following measures:-
1. It minimizes the sizes of cycles.
2. It enables you to work with a subset of the code as needed.
3. It makes inter-dependencies easy to understand.
4. It also enables sbt to compile independent modules concurrently.
Improving Compilation Times by Annotating Return types of Public Methods
The speed of the compilation process is increased by reducing the need for type inference by annotating return types of public methods. It also helps address corner cases by improving the compilation times reduced by inference across source file boundaries.
Improving Compilation Times by the Play Enhancer Plugin
The play framework can improve compilation times by deactivating the Play Enhancer Plugin. It is enabled by default in all the source code and samples and is actively used by Ebean. After compilation, this plugin modifies the bytecode to include getters and setters. So deactivate it all and delete all the generated folders.
playEnhancerEnabled := false
The above command is used to deactivate the Enhancer plugin. But it must be imported in SBT files; otherwise, it will crash while trying to load Ebean dependencies. Put this in the build.sbt file.
Improving Compilation Times by Avoiding Large Cycles Between Source Files
In the Play Framework, the size of the source file is very large due to repeated cycles, which take time to compile and decreases compilation speed. Therefore to increase the compilation speed, the source file must be split into small size files, which tends to reduce the cycle and improves compilation times.
Improving Compilation Times by Minimizing Inheritance
Inheritance is a mechanism that allows a new class to be derived from an existing one. Classes in Java can inherit or acquire the attributes and methods of other classes. A subclass is a class that is derived from another class, whereas the superclass is the class from which the subclass is derived.
API changes in a source file usually need recompiling all descendants to improve compilation times.
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