Just days ago SpringSource released version 1.1 of Grails, the open-source web application framework. It provides a slew of new features, improvements and bug fixes and rides on the recent release of Groovy 1.6 which significantly improves overall performance. The press release sums it up,
Grails 1.1 simplifies and accelerates web application development, enabling developers to focus on delivering new applications and capabilities to customers at a much quicker rate than complex and bloated application infrastructure alternatives. The new release provides a deeper integration with Spring by adding Spring namespace support and standalone usage of Grails Object Relational Mapping inside Spring MVC. It also provides tighter integration with the Java ecosystem through support for key build tools such as Maven and Ant + Ivy. Additionally, Grails 1.1 provides greater support for the vibrant plug-in community with key plug-in features such as global plug-ins, transitive plug-in resolution and modular plug-in development.
One enhancement developers have been waiting for is the ability to use GORM, Grails Object Relational Mapping, outside of Grails. In January 2009, Graeme Rocher, head of Grails development at SpringSource, informed the community that he had ported the Spring MVC petclinic application to use GORM outside of Grails.
Graeme had provided the following code snippet, which makes use of Spring, to provide a GORM enabled SessionFactory:
<gorm:sessionFactory base-package="org.grails.samples"
data-source-ref="dataSource"
message-source-ref="messageSource">
<property name="hibernateProperties">
<util:map>
<entry key="hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto" value="update"/>
</util:map>
</property>
</gorm:sessionFactory>
Graeme also posted additional details about several of the new features in Grails 1.1 on his blog on the SpringSource site. Additionally there are several new plugins including Commentable and Taggable which allow for commenting and tagging of domain object instances. There is also work on a Grails plugin portal to help improve the plugin experience for developers and users of Grails.
Wired.com, the online arm of Wired magazine, released a case study providing information regarding their use of Grails. Paul Fisher, Wired.com Manager of Technology stated that,
Grails makes it easier and saves time bringing new developers onto a project, because it provides a
simpler, clearer, more intuitive development workflow and process...Someone with no
Java or Grails experience can learn Grails quickly, get up to speed in a matter of days and become very
productive. Grails can be useful for both the novice developer, who is new to any kind of web development,
and the seasoned Java developer.
Grails continues to grow and mature while gaining popularity amongst developers and with SpringSource's acquisition of G2One, the founders and creators of Groovy and Grails, it appears things are just getting started for this open-source web application framework.