Groovy Recipes: Greasing the Wheels of Java

Groovy and Grails give you the power of the Java platform together with the flexibility and dynamism of a scripting language. Pick one of the many example projects in this book: at first you'll scratch your head and ask, "where's all the code?" Then you'll smile as you realize that Groovy allows you to write code the way you always thought you should. You will never look at Java the same way again.

Groovy Recipes is targeted at the busy Java professional who needs quick solutions to everyday problems. Each recipe shows a concise code example right away. If you need more information, each recipe is explained in plain English.

Nearly every aspect of the development process can be sped up using Groovy. Groovy makes mundane file management tasks like copying and renaming files trivial. Reading and writing XML has never been easier with XmlParsers and XmlBuilders. JDBC gets a fresh makeover. Breathe new life into Arrays, Maps, and Lists with a number of convenience methods. Even Ant gets turbo-charged. You can mix Groovy right into your build.xml, or replace it completely with code from an AntBuilder.

As an added bonus, this book also covers Grails. You'll be amazed at how quickly you can have a first-class web application up and running from ground zero. Grails includes everything you need in a single zip file, a web server (Jetty), a database (HSQLDB), Spring, Hibernate, Sitemesh, even Ant. If you're looking for Ajax support, Grails ships with leading libraries like Prototype, script.aculo.us, Yahoo UI, and Dojo. We cover everything from getting a basic application up and running to advanced features such as deploying to other webservers and databases, adding a Captcha, integrating with legacy EJB applications, and even adding a Google Map.