Guidewire Local Dev Loop

Overview

Set up an efficient local development workflow with Guidewire Studio, including hot reload, Gosu debugging, and continuous testing.

Prerequisites

• JDK 17 installed and configured
• IntelliJ IDEA (Ultimate recommended) or Guidewire Studio
• Gradle 8.x
• Git for version control
• Access to Guidewire Cloud sandbox environment

Instructions

Step 1: Configure IDE Settings

# IntelliJ IDEA settings for Guidewire
# File > Settings > Build, Execution, Deployment > Build Tools > Gradle

# Set Gradle JVM to JDK 17
# Enable auto-import for Gradle projects
# Set test runner to Gradle

IntelliJ Plugins to Install:

• Gosu Language Support
• Guidewire Studio Plugin
• EditorConfig

Step 2: Project Structure Setup

# Standard Guidewire project structure
project-root/
├── build.gradle                 # Main build configuration
├── settings.gradle              # Multi-project settings
├── gradle.properties            # Gradle properties
├── modules/
│   ├── configuration/           # Gosu configuration code
│   │   ├── gsrc/               # Gosu source files
│   │   └── config/             # XML configuration
│   └── integration/             # Integration code
├── database/
│   └── upgrade/                 # Database upgrade scripts
└── build/
    └── idea/                    # IDE-specific files

Step 3: Configure Local Server

// build.gradle - Local server configuration
plugins {
    id 'com.guidewire.gradle' version '10.12.0'
}

guidewire {
    server {
        port = 8080
        debugPort = 5005
        jvmArgs = [
            '-Xmx4g',
            '-XX:+UseG1GC',
            '-Dgw.server.mode=dev'
        ]
    }

    database {
        server = 'localhost'
        port = 5432
        name = 'pc_dev'
        username = 'postgres'
        password = System.getenv('DB_PASSWORD') ?: 'password'
    }
}

// Hot reload configuration
tasks.register('devServer') {
    dependsOn 'classes'
    doLast {
        exec {
            commandLine 'java', '-agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=*:5005',
                '-jar', 'build/libs/server.jar'
        }
    }
}

Step 4: Database Setup

# Create local development database
createdb -U postgres pc_dev

# Run database upgrade
./gradlew dbUpgrade

# Reset database (caution: destroys data)
./gradlew dbReset

# Generate sample data
./gradlew loadSampleData

Step 5: Start Development Server

# Start server with hot reload
./gradlew runServer

# Start with debugging enabled
./gradlew runServer --debug-jvm

# Start specific application
./gradlew :policycenter:runServer

Step 6: Configure Hot Reload

// Enable Gosu hot swap in development
// config/dev-config.xml
<config>
  <development>
    <hot-swap enabled="true"/>
    <gosu-reload enabled="true"/>
    <pcf-reload enabled="true"/>
  </development>
</config>

IDE Configuration for Hot Reload:

1. Run > Edit Configurations > Remote JVM Debug
2. Set port to 5005
3. Start debug session after server is running

Gosu Development Workflow

Create New Gosu Class

// gsrc/gw/custom/MyService.gs
package gw.custom

uses gw.api.database.Query
uses gw.api.util.Logger

class MyService {
  private static final var LOG = Logger.forCategory("MyService")

  static function processPolicy(policyNumber : String) : Policy {
    LOG.info("Processing policy: ${policyNumber}")

    var policy = Query.make(Policy)
      .compare(Policy#PolicyNumber, Equals, policyNumber)
      .select()
      .AtMostOneRow

    if (policy == null) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException("Policy not found: ${policyNumber}")
    }

    // Business logic here
    return policy
  }
}

Unit Testing

// test/gsrc/gw/custom/MyServiceTest.gs
package gw.custom

uses gw.testharness.v3.PLTestCase
uses gw.testharness.v3.PLAssert

class MyServiceTest extends PLTestCase {

  function testProcessPolicy() {
    // Setup test data
    var account = createTestAccount()
    var policy = createTestPolicy(account)

    // Execute
    var result = MyService.processPolicy(policy.PolicyNumber)

    // Assert
    PLAssert.assertNotNull(result)
    PLAssert.assertEquals(policy.PolicyNumber, result.PolicyNumber)
  }

  private function createTestAccount() : Account {
    var account = new Account()
    account.AccountNumber = "TEST-" + System.currentTimeMillis()
    account.Bundle.commit()
    return account
  }
}

Run Tests

# Run all tests
./gradlew test

# Run specific test class
./gradlew test --tests "gw.custom.MyServiceTest"

# Run with coverage
./gradlew test jacocoTestReport

# Continuous testing (watch mode)
./gradlew test --continuous

PCF Development

<!-- pcf/AccountDetailScreen.pcf -->
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<PCF
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="pcf.xsd">
  <Screen
    id="AccountDetailScreen"
    editable="true">
    <Require var="account" type="Account"/>

    <Toolbar>
      <ToolbarButton
        action="saveAccount()"
        id="SaveButton"
        label="Save"/>
    </Toolbar>

    <DetailViewPanel>
      <InputColumn>
        <TextInput
          editable="true"
          id="AccountNumber"
          label="Account Number"
          value="account.AccountNumber"/>
        <TextInput
          editable="true"
          id="AccountName"
          label="Account Name"
          value="account.AccountHolderContact.DisplayName"/>
      </InputColumn>
    </DetailViewPanel>

    <Code>
      <![CDATA[
      function saveAccount() {
        account.Bundle.commit()
        util.LocationUtil.addRequestScopedInfoMessage("Account saved")
      }
      ]]>
    </Code>
  </Screen>
</PCF>

Output

• Running local development server
• Hot reload enabled for Gosu and PCF changes
• Debug session attached to IDE
• Unit tests executing successfully

Error Handling

Development Commands Cheatsheet

# Build
./gradlew clean build

# Run server
./gradlew runServer

# Database operations
./gradlew dbUpgrade
./gradlew dbReset
./gradlew loadSampleData

# Testing
./gradlew test
./gradlew test --tests "ClassName.methodName"
./gradlew test --continuous

# Code quality
./gradlew gosucheck
./gradlew spotlessApply

# Generate API documentation
./gradlew apiDoc

IDE Keyboard Shortcuts

Resources

• Guidewire Studio Documentation
• Gosu Language Reference
• Gradle Plugin Documentation

Next Steps

For SDK and API patterns, see guidewire-sdk-patterns.