Creating a new application with play

Create a new application with the play command

The easiest way to create a new application is to use the play new command.

$ play new myFirstApp

This will ask for some information.

• The application name (just for display, this name will be used later in several messages).
• The template to use for this application. You can choose either a default Scala application or a default Java application.

Note that choosing a template at this point does not imply that you can’t change language later. For example, you can create a new application using the default Java application template and start adding Scala code whenever you like.

Create a new application without having Play installed

You can also create a new Play application without installing Play, by using sbt.

First install sbt if needed.

Just create a new directory for your new application and configure your sbt build script with two additions.

In project/plugins.sbt, add:

// The Typesafe repository 
resolvers += "Typesafe repository" at "http://repo.typesafe.com/typesafe/releases/"

// Use the Play sbt plugin for Play projects
addSbtPlugin("play" % "sbt-plugin" % "2.1.0")

Be sure to replace 2.1.0 here by the exact version you want to use. If you want to use a snapshot version, you will have to specify this additional resolver:

// Typesafe snapshots
resolvers += "Typesafe Snapshots" at "http://repo.typesafe.com/typesafe/snapshots/"

In project/Build.scala:

import sbt._
import Keys._
import play.Project._
 
object ApplicationBuild extends Build {
 
  val appName         = "My first application"
  val appVersion      = "1.0"
 
  val appDependencies = Nil
 
  val main = play.Project(
    appName, appVersion, appDependencies
  ) 
 
}

You can then launch the sbt console in this directory:

$ cd myFirstApp
$ sbt

sbt will load your project and fetch the dependencies.

Once the application has been created you can use the play command again to enter the Play console .

$ cd myFirstApp
$ play