Switch between development and deployment mode

Switch to deployment mode before an application goes to a production server. Wicket starts in development mode unless you tell it otherwise. That mode shows full stack traces to visitors, polls markup files for changes and adds the Ajax debug window, so you do not want it in production. Application settings lists every setting the mode changes.

You can recognize development mode by this warning on standard error when the application starts:

********************************************************************
*** WARNING: Wicket is running in DEVELOPMENT mode.              ***
***                               ^^^^^^^^^^^                    ***
*** Do NOT deploy to your live server(s) without changing this.  ***
*** See Application#getConfigurationType() for more information. ***
********************************************************************

Set the mode with a system property

Start the JVM of the server with the system property wicket.configuration:

java -Dwicket.configuration=deployment ...

For Tomcat, put it in CATALINA_OPTS, for example in bin/setenv.sh. A system property overrides the parameters in web.xml, so the same WAR file runs in development mode on your machine and in deployment mode on the server. The value is not case-sensitive.

Set the mode in web.xml

Add a configuration parameter to the Wicket filter:

<filter>
    <filter-name>wicket.myproject</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.apache.wicket.protocol.http.WicketFilter</filter-class>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>applicationClassName</param-name>
        <param-value>com.mycompany.WicketApplication</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>configuration</param-name>
        <param-value>deployment</param-value>
    </init-param>
</filter>

Or set it for the whole web application as a context parameter:

<context-param>
    <param-name>configuration</param-name>
    <param-value>deployment</param-value>
</context-param>

Both places also accept the name wicket.configuration. When Wicket finds more than one setting, it uses the first of: the system property, then wicket.configuration as filter and as context parameter, then configuration as filter and as context parameter.

Set the mode in code

Override getConfigurationType() in your application class when the application decides for itself, for example from an environment variable:

public class WicketApplication extends WebApplication {
    @Override
    public RuntimeConfigurationType getConfigurationType() {
        return "production".equals(System.getenv("APP_ENV"))
                ? RuntimeConfigurationType.DEPLOYMENT
                : RuntimeConfigurationType.DEVELOPMENT;
    }
}

The override replaces the lookup of the system property and the web.xml parameters. WebApplication also has setConfigurationType(), but you can call it only once, and only before Wicket initializes the application.

Check which mode is active

When it starts, Wicket logs the mode at INFO level:

[wicket.myproject] Started Wicket version 11.0.0 in DEPLOYMENT mode

In code, ask the application:

if (getApplication().usesDevelopmentConfig()) {
    add(new DebugBar("debug"));
}

DebugBar comes from the wicket-devutils module. usesDeploymentConfig() is the opposite check. The Start class of the quickstart sets wicket.configuration to development, so an application you run from your IDE stays in development mode whatever web.xml says.