The Definitive Guide to Grails

by Graeme Rocher, Jeff Brown, Dierk Koenig Graeme Keith Rocher,Guillaume Laforge

Book Overview

The rise of Ruby on Rails has signified a huge shift in how we build web applications today; it is a fantastic framework with a growing community. There is, however, space for another such framework that integrates seamlessly with Java. Thousands of companies have invested in Java, and these same companies are losing out on the benefits of a Rails-like framework. Enter Grails.

Grails is not just a Rails clone. It aims to provide a Rails-like...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590599950
• ISBN13: 9781590599952
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 648 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 7.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great Reading!

This book was a great reading. I was able to learn grails in a very short time. It was written in a simple, direct and accessible way. All concepts were well explained and demonstrated. The suggestion to improve it is to have some annex containing all command lines and some hints on write more groovier code.

A pleasure to read! I've set aside Ruby on Rails to pick up Grails now..

I picked up Graeme's Grails book while in a Barnes & Noble store recently, while waiting out the evening rush hour in Silicon Valley. I've already been fiddling with Ruby on Rails and like it, and although I'd heard of Grails I instinctively thought it couldn't measure up to RoR as a framework. Wow, was I wrong. Graeme does a very good job in explaining and demonstrating how Grails makes it drop dead simple to whip up simple web apps, while also providing a nice compact intro to Groovy the language. The reason I give the book 5 stars is that Graeme clearly understands the real world of app development, and at a higher level, Graeme and his Grails framework takes us a huge leap closer to the Promised Land of computing: when you want it simple, it's simple with sensible defaults, but when you need or want to dive deeper, Grails lets you do that. I could have used Grails and its seamless on demand integration with Java and custom Java libraries many, many times in the past. The thing I kept wishing, when looking at Zope, Ruby on Rails and friends is for some clean way to tap into all the business logic that organizations have spent a decade investing in, via Java and J2EE development. Grails does that! The book is well paced, and I'm very glad I bought it.

A must read by today's Enterprise POJO Java Developers...

Today's enterprise Java development is complex, tedious and challenging. In spite of numerous frameworks including Spring framework and HIBERNATE trying to address this complexity and make development simple, the truth is it is not simple. The Java developer community deserves a true framework built on very similar agile development principles that Ruby on Rails was built upon; DRY, Convention over Configuration and Boilerplate Code Generation. Grails combines the power of Java, Groovy, Spring, HIBERNATE and more under the covers and brings out a true framework that increases your productivity to great levels. This book clearly explains the concepts. Though some of the material and examples are little old compared to the latest Grails release, it is worth reading this book to understand the concepts. It will change the way you think and build Java applications. A must read by every Java professional.

Productivity combined with quality

Really great book! It shows not only how fast and easy Web Application development can be on the Java Platform what you may expect as this is the book description but it also shows that Grails perfectly combines quality and productivity. High quality applications need to be easily automated testable. Authors presenting new technologies often forget this point but not Graeme who shows through the whole book how to take care to the quality of your application and even dedicates a special chapter to testing.

Awesome book - a must have for Java Developers.

Grails brings a smart, productive framework like Rails to the Java world, by way of Groovy. What's not to like about that? With Grails, you can create your standard Hibernate+Spring web application without slogging through reams of xml configuration or xdoclet notations. When you need to, you can drop back to Java - it's totally integrated. It's a truly great framework, and this is a truly great book that describes everything you need to get started with it and more.