Building Grails Plugins

Building Grails Plugins
tips and tricks from the wild

About Me
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Mike Hugo, Independent Software Developer

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http://piragua.com http://WhenWorksForYou.com

Groovy/Grails since2007 Author of several Grails plugins

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code-coverage hibernate-stats test-template

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greenmail build-info ????

• Plugins overview • Build your own plugin • testing •modularization • configuration • events • did I mention testing?
what’s on the menu for tonight?

App

Plugin

a plugin is just another grails application, with a few extra files * GrailsPlugin.groovy *Install, Uninstall and Upgrade scripts

Cool hooks into the runtime environment of a running grails app, plus ability to add new ‘artefacts’ and participate in reloading events

ExistingPlugins

there are a ton of existing plugins from security to Rich UI to searching to...you name it.

common problem - this is one i’ve solved about 6 times. time for a plugin

• grailscreate-plugin build-status • cd build-status • mkdir test/projects • cd test/projects • grails create-app statusapp
gives you a client you can use to test your plugin. why?

development
• make a change tothe plugin • grails package-plugin • cd test/projects/statusapp/ • grails install-plugin ../../../grails-build-status-0.1.zip • grails run-app • wash, rinse, repeat

In Place Plugins
• In theapplication just created, modify
BuildConfig.groovy and add:

• grails.plugin.location."build-status" = "../../.." • TADA! You’re now working with an inplace plugin

Add Controller (test)
importgrails.test.* class BuildInfoControllerTests extends ControllerUnitTestCase { void testIndex() { ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! } } controller.index() assertEquals('index', renderArgs.view)assertEquals(['app.version'], renderArgs.model.buildInfoProperties)

Add Controller
class BuildInfoController { ! static final List infoProperties = ['app.version'] def index = { ! render view:'index', model:...