Reading up on Groovy and Grails

The good thing about Groovy is its likeness to Java, and reading Groovy code should pose no difficulty to a seasoned Java programmer who's taken a days worth reading. The problem with Groovy is writing good code. Not because you do it wrong, but you can always write it better! As with Ruby, there are alot of nifty features in the language that shortcuts ugly code in Java. But, you have to know that these features exists before you can use them. Grails? It just might become the next dogma in Java application development!

This is the litterature list and resources I've used in my pursuit of becoming a Groovier developer:

Groovy in Action (GiA)

• Great for getting started with Groovy


• Reference manual to the nifty stuff in the language


• Well written with good examples


• Short introduction to grails, that is hard to follow

Groovy Recipies

• Good follow up to GiA


• Covers some details better than GiA, like Grails and Meta Programming


• After reading GiA and developing some Groovy code, I could easily skip much of it's contents and read through the book in half a day

Getting started with Grails - Webcast

• Hour long webcast


• Good starting point for Grails!

Getting started with Grails - Book

• Thorough introduction to creating your first Grails application


• Covers Grails in more detail than most of what I had read up until then


• Largest benefits when reading this book early


• 120 pages shouldn't scare anyone

Resources on the Web

Groovy Documentation

• A necessity followup after reading GiA and Groovy Recipies


• Could be more thorough


• I have a sneaky suspicion that the Groovy crowd hangs somewhere else and feed off a different source of information

Grails main documentation

• grails.org the natural place to start


• Because navigating the site is a mess, i recommend using Grails Confluence Wiki instead!

Grails reference manual

• NICE!


• +1


• May be confusing to first find information in grails.org documentation, later understanding that its outdated, and the updated version is in the reference manual

Grails Mailing list

• Lively mailing list.


• I had to sign off it after a week due to inbox flooding :)


• Use the mailing list Archive until you need to post something

Also check out GMaven

• Maven plugin for building Groovy code


• RECOMMENDED!

Grails Octo Maven Plugin

• I have mixed feelings for this plugin, it is the best alternative for Mavenizing your Grails project for the moment, but don't expect to beeing able to have a nice multimodule project


• Acts as a wrapper around ant tasks


• Can package a grails plugin in a Maven cycle

IntelliJ with its JetGroovy plugin

• Improves the quality of working with Groovy.


• Still has some sharp edges, but not worth waiting for 2.0


• A good excuse for jumping on the Groovy/Grails Bandwagon

News on Grails

• InfoQ has had some good articles on Groovy and Grails

Books not bougth/read

Programming Groovy

• I read Groovy Recipies in stead...


• Give me a recommendation :)

The Definitive Guide to Grails

• Waiting for the 2.0 version to be released in Q4 2008