Grails in Action Licensed to Larry Cormier Licensed to Larry Cormier Grails in Action GLEN SMITH PETER LEDBROOK MANNING Greenwich (74° w long.) Licensed to Larry Cormier For online information and ordering of this and other Manning books, please visit www.manning.com The publisher offers discounts on this book when ordered in quantity For more information, please contact Special Sales Department Manning Publications Co Sound View Court 3B fax: (609) 877-8256 Greenwich, CT 06830 email: orders@manning.com ©2009 by Manning Publications Co All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks Where those designations appear in the book, and Manning Publications was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial caps or all caps Recognizing the importance of preserving what has been written, it is Manning’s policy to have the books we publish printed on acid-free paper, and we exert our best efforts to that end Recognizing also our responsibility to conserve the resources of our planet, Manning books are printed on paper that is at least 15 percent recycled and processed without the use of elemental chlorine Manning Publications Co Sound View Court 3B Greenwich, CT 06830 Development editor: Copyeditor: Typesetter: Cover designer: Cynthia Kane Andy Carroll Dottie Marsico Leslie Haimes ISBN 978-1-933988-93-1 Printed in the United States of America 10 – MAL – 14 13 12 11 10 09 Licensed to Larry Cormier To Kylie, who sacrifices daily to let me chase such crazy dreams Love you so much, matie! —G.S To my parents, for always being there —P.L Licensed to Larry Cormier Licensed to Larry Cormier brief contents PART INTRODUCING GRAILS 1 ■ Grails in a hurry ■ The Groovy essentials 31 PART CORE GRAILS 63 ■ Modeling the domain 65 ■ Putting the model to work ■ Controlling application flow 121 ■ Developing tasty views, forms, and layouts ■ Building reliable applications 92 155 188 PART EVERYDAY GRAILS 219 ■ Using plugins: adding Web 2.0 in 60 minutes 221 ■ Wizards and workflow with webflows 10 ■ Don’t let strangers in—security 11 ■ Remote access 12 ■ Understanding messaging and scheduling 340 255 280 310 vii Licensed to Larry Cormier viii BRIEF CONTENTS PART ADVANCED GRAILS 363 13 ■ Advanced GORM kung fu 365 14 ■ Spring and transactions 15 ■ Beyond compile, test, and run 16 ■ Plugin development 442 395 415 Licensed to Larry Cormier contents foreword xvii preface xix acknowledgments xxi about this book xxiv about the title xxviii about the cover illustration xxix PART INTRODUCING GRAILS 1 Grails in a hurry 1.1 Why Grails? First there was Rails Why Grails changed the game Big idea #1: Convention over Configuration Big idea #2: agile philosophy Big idea #3: rock-solid foundations Big idea #4: scaffolding and templating Big idea #5: Java integration Big idea #6: incredible wetware Big idea #7: productivity ethos ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ 1.2 1.3 ■ Getting set up Our sample program: a Web 2.0 QOTD 10 Writing your first controller 11 Writing stuff out: the view Adding some style with Grails layouts 15 ■ ix Licensed to Larry Cormier 13 ... EVERYDAY GRAILS 219 Using plugins: adding Web 2.0 in 60 minutes 8.1 Taking advantage of others’ hard work Finding plugins 8.2 223 ■ Installing plugins Adding charts and graphs 221 222 225 228 Installing... Action Author Online forum (www .manning. com/GrailsinAction) Author Online Purchase of Grails in Action includes free access to a private web forum run by Manning Publications where you can make... title By combining introductions, overviews, and how-to examples, Manning s In Action books are designed to help learning and remembering According to research in cognitive science, the things people