Power of Groovy and Grails

I recently started learning Groovy and Grails. I found it to be quite productive compared to traditional Java based web development.

Groovy itself is much more compact than Java, and it plays really well with Java. You can call a Groovy class from Java or a Java class from Groovy. Groovy is also a supported language on the Java platform via JSR #241.

For example, to read a file in Groovy, you just need to write the following:

new File("filename").eachLine{line-> println line}

Note the use of closure being passed to the eachLine() method.

If you do web development using Java, you are probably aware of the build-restart-test cycle that you have to go through for every change. You can setup hot deployment to work around it, but it is complex and doesn't always work that well. Groovy and Grails eliminate this inefficiency, as you can make a change and refresh the browser to see your change. (I have seen some complex changes to break in Grails as well, but I am hopeful that it will get better as this platform matures.)

Grails also comes with a number of plug-ins, which make most common tasks really trivial.

Using the power of Grails and Groovy, I was able to quickly setup 3pundits.com.

3pundits.com is an attempt to provide education related information to parents, students and teachers. More services are coming soon.

Do you use Groovy or Grails? What has been your experience?

Directory symbolic links in Windows

I ran into this tool called Junction, which can be used to create directory symbolic links in Windows. I have not tried this out yet, but I have seen other bloggers mentions it:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896768.aspx

Rapid development with Hibernate

I have been helping build a startup since January 07, and we have achieved a lot in last 3 and 1/2 months. You can see the results at:

Care.com – Find Child Care, Tutoring, Pet Care, and Senior Care Providers and Jobs.

We are using Hibernate for O/R mapping and it has really helped speed up the development. I have been surprised myself by the amount of work a very small team has been able to produce. I have indeed become a hibernate fan !!

Keeping the passwords safe

It is tough to remember all the usernames and passwords that one ends up creating. Password Safe does a great job of securely storing username and passwords protected with one master password.

For the websites, Firefox provides a similar solution.

JadClipse: Java decompiler plug-in for Eclipse

I just installed JadClipse plug-in for Eclipse and I am finding it very useful. I have been trying to debug an issue with the ATG API, and this plugin lets me read the ATG code by decompiling the class files.

I haven’t yet tried debugging the “decompiled” ATG code.

The plugin home page:

http://jadclipse.sourceforge.net/

Installation instructions:

http://jadclipse.sourceforge.net/install.html

Libraries and tools for JavaScript Development

Libraries:

Dojo:
http://dojotoolkit.org/
Recommended if you are familiar with Java.

Prototype:
http://prototype.conio.net/
Recommended if you are familiar with Ruby.

Tools:

Firefox Web Developer Extension:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/60/

JavaScript Shell
http://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/webdevel.html

jManage 1.0 Documentation

jManage Documentation is now being maintained on the following wiki:

http://jmanage.org/wiki/index.php/Documentation

You can also make changes to this documentation after you login.