Grails Gathers Steam, Heads for 1.0

Posted by Geoffrey Wiseman on May 01, 2007 02:58 PM

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Web Frameworks

In the past few years, web frameworks have increasingly been focused on productivity. Ruby on Rails is seen by many as the poster-child for rapid web development, which has put a lot of pressure on traditional frameworks. In the Java marketplace, a number of frameworks are responding to that call by aiming for increased productivity, rapid development, and support for scripting languages. From Grails to Stripes, RIFE to Trails, Tapestry 5.X and Phobos, there are a lot of people looking for new ways to make Java web development a productive, rapid environment for building web applications that scale.

Grails, a Rails-style web framework using Groovy on the Java platform, has been getting a lot of attention lately, with a rapidly growing community and increasing production use for major corporations including Tropicana and Pepsico. Grails is often compared to Ruby on Rails, which is both an opportunity and a challenge, as people are attracted to the power of a Rails-like framework on a familiar platform, but may move on to Rails itself. A recent set of comparisons imply that Grails has the edge on performance for now, but that new releases of Ruby promise better performance across the board, and that may change.

Although there has been some discussion about support for Ruby within Grails, it doesn't currently seem likely. If, instead of integrating Ruby with Grails, you'd like to integrate parts of Grails with your other applications, it is apparently possible to use the Grails object/relational mapper, GORM, outside of a Grails context, such as in a Java desktop application. All of the major IDEs are showing signs of increased support for Groovy and Grails. There's been some discussion of IDE support in Netbeans, as well as discussion of improvements for GroovyJ in IDEA. Eclipse has the beginnings of a Grails plugin and new releases of the Groovy/Eclipse plugin and Edward Povazan working on improved code completion support with Big Sky Technology.

Grails recently released version 0.5, with improved performance, custom URLs, enhancements to GORM and more.? Next on the roadmap is 0.6, with a 1.0 release late in the year. InfoQ spoke with Graeme Rocher, a co-founder and the project lead for Grails about its current success and the future.

When asked about the recent surge in attention for Grails, Graeme responded:

Well, Java developers all over are being made aware that configuration is no longer a necessary activity and Grails is one of the frameworks leading this surge. However, in comparison to other frameworks, Grails has a really strong message around re-using your existing Java knowledge, infrastructure, and code. Grails is as elegant as Rails, but as flexible as Spring MVC or Seam. It really does provide the best of both worlds. As to the uptake, that has really been lead by our community and world of mouth. We spent over a year putting together a 0.1 release; if it had been mediocre no one would have paid any attention. As it is, we have many happy users who are spreading the word and increasing Grails' mindshare.

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When comparing Grails to other frameworks for building web applications in Java:

Well, it really embraces DRY and convention-over-configuration. You really have pretty much zero configuration when developing a Grails application. However, you get all of this AND tight Java integration with existing APIs, libraries and frameworks like the Java Enterprise stack, Spring, Hibernate & SiteMesh.

In addition it has a number of key selling points. Including an extensible plug-in system, a domain-driven ORM layer built on Hibernate, and a powerful view technology with Groovy Server Pages (GSP).

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On convincing someone to try Grails for the first time:

Developers don't really need a lot of convincing, it is more management that is the struggle. However, if I do want to convince people to use Grails, I just do a quick 5 minute demo and they're sold.

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As to where Grails goes next, for v1.0 and therafter, Graeme Rocher said:

We're really focusing on improving the developer experience and getting out 1.0 by autumn time. We have only a few "big" jobs left and then it is just incremental improvements to reach the finishing line. Some things that we have left to do are for example JSP tag library support in GSP, possible support for JPA as a plug-in, and improvements to our unit testing infrastructure.

Overall though we are mainly focused on getting 1.0 out the door after that we'll look at leveraging the infrastructure we have in place and writing many plug-ins for Grails to continue to improve the developer experience. For example I really want to get round to writing a Groovy compiler for GWT that hooks into Grails as a plug-in, which should be fun.

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If you'd like to learn more about Grails, you can continue to read about Grails at InfoQ, or take a look at Grails website, read Getting Started with Grails or the Definitive Guide to Grails.

原文地址：http://www.infoq.com/news/2007/05/grails-gathers-steam

Grails做足功夫 全力邁向1.0版

作者 Geoffrey Wiseman譯者 陳俊 發布于 2007年5月6日 上午10時0分

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Java

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Web框架

在 過去的幾年里，眾多的Web框架都把精力投放在提高開發效率上。而Ruby on Rails勝過了許多傳統框架而被人們視為Web快速開發的王牌。在Java界，很多的框架都在響應以提高效率，快速開發，和支持腳本語言為目標的號召。 從Grails到Stripes，RIFE到Trails，Tapestry 5.X到Phobos，人們都期望著能有新的能達此程度的Java Web開發方式，來高效快速地構建Web應用環境。

Grails是一個在Java平臺上基于Groovy的Rails風格Web框架，伴隨著其社區的快速成長，和包括在Tropicana和Pepsico這樣的主流公司內的日漸增多的實際應用，最近吸引了很多開發者的眼球。人們通常拿Grails在機遇與挑戰方面來與Ruby on Rails作比較, 皆因人們已被在自己熟悉的平臺上的這Rails式的框架的力量所吸引了。最近的一系列比較分析結果顯示了現在Grails有著更為優越的性能表現。但Ruby新發布的版本預言其能做得比這性能更好。

雖然曾經有過些關于在Grails內部直接支持Ruby的討論，但當前來說這是行不通的。如果你只是希望把Grails中的一些部分集成到你的應用中，而不是通過Grails來集成Ruby的話，那明顯是可行的，你可以在Grails context之外使用的Grails對象關系映射工具GORM，例如可用在Java桌面應用程序上。現在所有的主流IDE都逐漸有支持Groovy和Grails的跡象。如一些在Netbeans IDE上作支持的討論，還有在IDEA中改進GroovyJ的討論。在Eclipse上已經開始開發的Grails插件和新發布的Groovy/Eclipse插件，還有現在Edward Povazan致力于改進自動代碼完成（Code Completion）來支持Big Sky Technology。

Grails最近發布了0.5版本, 該版本包括了性能的提高，自定義URL，增強GORM 等一些特點。Roadmap中的下一步就是0.6版本，還有在今年遲點會發布的1.0正式版。 InfoQ與Graeme Rocher, Grails項目的開發者與領導，談論了關于Grails當前的成功經驗和未來的方向。

當被問及當前Grails引發的潮流時，Graeme回答：

很多的Java開發者都意識到配置不再是一個必要的工作，而Grails正是引領這個潮流的框架之一。與其它的一些框架相比，Grails著重強調重用你 現有的Java知識、底層架構和代碼。Grails和Rails一樣的優雅，另一方面又和Spring MVC或者Seam一樣的靈活，從這兩方面來說都真的做得很好了。因此，它也確實得到了社區和全世界的認同。我們花了超過一年時間來準備0.1版本。正因 它的非凡引起了很多人的注意，有很多樂于其中的用戶會幫忙散播信息和提高Grails在人們心中的地位。

當談到在構建Java Web應用方面拿Grails與其它框架相比較時：

Grails信奉著不重復原則（DRY，Don't Repeat Yourself）和無配置規約（Convention-over-Configuration）。當你開發Grails應用時真正會感受到很多地方無需 配置。而你所獲得的這些功能都是通過集成一些Java現存的API,庫和框架，如Java Enterprise stack、Spring、Hibernate和SiteMesh。

除此之外Grails還有許多關鍵賣點，包括了可擴展的插件系統，一個基于Hibernate的領域驅動的ORM層，和一個結合Groovy Server Pages（GSP）的強大視圖。

當談及如何去說服別人作第一次Grails的嘗試時：

程序員是不需要真的去說服的，Grails在易操控性方面有良好的競爭優勢。如果是我想去說服別人使用Grails的話，我只要進行一個5分鐘快速演示，然后他們就會信服了。

當問及Grails的1.0 版本和以后會如何發展時，Graeme Rocher回答到：

我們把精力都集中在改進開發者的體驗方面，還有在秋季時能發布1.0版本。我們剩下的只是一些”大”問題了，接下來的工作就是通過不斷的改進去達到終點線 了。我們還沒做的事情包括，JSP標簽庫支持GSP，如果可能的話以插件的形式支持JPA，還有改進我們的單元測試基礎框架。

雖然現在我們主要的精力集中在發布1.0版上，但在那之后，我們會補充一下基礎架構，同時會寫更多的Grails的插件來繼續改進開發者的體驗。例如，我 就很想騰出時間來為GWT寫個Groovy編譯器，這樣GWT就能作為Grails的一個插件了，我想這必定很有趣。

如果你想知道更多關于Grails方面的資料，你可以繼續閱讀InfoQ中Grails相關材料（英文），或者去瀏覽Grails的官方網站，又或者讀一下Getting Started with Grails或Definitive Guide to Grails。

查看英文原文： Grails Gathers Steam, Heads for 1.0

譯文地址：http://www.infoq.com/cn/news/2007/05/grails-gathers-steam

附：朝花夕拾——Groovy & Grails