Deploying Java Applications to Heroku from Eclipse or IntelliJ IDEA

Last updated 10 April 2020

Many Java developers find that deploying from an IDE is a more natural fit than deploying from the command-line. In this article, you’ll learn how to deploy to Heroku from two popular Java-based IDEs: Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA. In both cases, you’ll use the Heroku Maven Plugin to do the heavy lifting.

Setting up the Heroku Maven Plugin

If you have an existing project using the Heroku Maven Plugin, then you can use it for the steps in this article. If you do not, then start by cloning the sample project:

$ git clone https://github.com/kissaten/maven-plugin-war-example

Then create a new Heroku application by running the following command:

$ heroku create
Creating gentle-shore-6874... done, stack is heroku-18
https://gentle-shore-6874.herokuapp.com/ | git@heroku.com:gentle-shore-6874.git

Next, you’ll need to have one one of the IDEs installed. You can download and install Eclipse as describe on the Eclipse download site. For IntelliJ, you can download and install either the free Community edition or begin a free-trial of the Ultimate Edition. Once your IDE is installed, you can use it to open your project.

To open your project in Eclipse, select File > Import... from the Eclipse menu. Then choose Maven and below that, Existing Maven Projects. Click Next, and enter the location of the Git project you cloned for “Root directory”. Then click Finish. After a few seconds, your project will appear in the “Package Explorer”

To open your project in IntelliJ IDEA, choose File > Open and then select the directory location of the Git project you cloned.

Deploying from Eclipse

In the “Package Explorer” pane (usually on the left side of the window), expand the project so you can see its files. Then right-click on the pom.xml and select Run As > Maven build....

In the dialog that appears, enter heroku:deploy-war in the “Goals” field, as shown here.

If you were deploying a standalone Java application, you could use the heroku:deploy target to deploy without a WAR file. For more information on deploying standalone apps, see the Heroku Maven Plugin documentation.

On some platforms, including Windows, you will also need to set the HEROKU_API_KEY environment variable for the task. Click the Environment tab, and select New... to create a new variable. Enter “HEROKU_API_KEY” for the name and your API key for the value. You can get your API key by running heroku auth:token at the command-line.

Now click Run, and the deployment will start. In the “Console” pane you will see something like this:

Open your application by running $ heroku open -a <app-name> from the command-line, or by browsing to https://<app-name>.herokuapp.com (but replace <app-name with the name of your app).

Generating launch configurations

You can optionally run a Maven command (either from the terminal or from Eclipse) to generate launch configurations for common goals:

$ mvn heroku:eclipse-launch-config

The will create a number of *.launch files in the root of your project. You can click these files in Eclipse to run them.

Deploying from IntelliJ IDEA

Before opening IntelliJ, ensure that your M2_HOME environment variable is set to the location of your Maven installation. If you would prefer not to set this variable, then you may need to configure the path to your Maven installation under Preferences -> Maven within IntelliJ.

To deploy, select Run -> Edit Configurations from the IntelliJ IDEA menu. Then select the + button to create a new Maven configuration.

Then name the configuration “Heroku Deploy”, and enter heroku:deploy-war in the “Command Line” field as shown here.

If you were deploying a standalone Java application, you could use the heroku:deploy target to deploy without a WAR file. For more information on deploying standalone apps, see the Heroku Maven Plugin documentation.

Click OK. Now a “Heroku Deploy” task will be shown in the Run Configurations toolbar. Press the green arrow button next to it.

In the “Console” pane you will see something like this:

Open your application by running $ heroku open -a <app-name> from the command-line, or by browsing to https://<app-name>.herokuapp.com (replace <app-name with the name of your app).

Troubleshooting

If you receive the error Failed to deploy application: Forbidden, such as:

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal com.heroku.sdk:heroku-maven-plugin:0.4.1:deploy-war (default-cli) on project helloworld: Failed to deploy application: Forbidden -> [Help 1]

This indicates that the Maven plugin cannot find your app. Check that you have a “heroku” remote in your Git repository by running this command:

$ git remote
heroku
origin

Then try adding your application name to the pom.xml in the plugin configuration like this:

<configuration>
  <appName>gentle-shore-6874</appName>
</configuration>

Your app name will be something other than “gentle-shore-6874”.

If you receive the error Failed to deploy application: Unauthorized, such as:

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal com.heroku.sdk:heroku-maven-plugin:0.4.1:deploy-war (default-cli) on project helloworld: Failed to deploy application: Unauthorized -> [Help 1]

This means that you are not authorized to deploy to the configured application. Check that you are logged into the toolbelt by running this command:

$ heroku auth:whoami
ide-test@heroku.com

Then check that the value in your HEROKU_API_KEY is correct.

For more information on using Maven with Eclipse, see the Eclipse documentation. For more information on using Maven with IntelliJ IDEA, see the IntelliJ documentation.

For more information on the Heroku Maven plugin, see the DevCenter article Deploying Java Applications with the Heroku Maven Plugin.