If you went through the previous two reading lists as they related to building Java “Enterprise” applications and browser side Web 2.0 development, you will come to the realization that there is a lot to read. Looking for an agile platform that was “Enterprise Friendly” and did not have as steep a learning curve led me evaluate several different frameworks and tools including:
The one that caught my eye was:
It is a framework built on a dynamic language called Groovy, which runs on the JVM and also let’s you leverage jars that you may have already built or other third party java libraries. It has a great community following with a lot of plug-ins available and several good books.
- The book I read to get started was: The Definitive Guide to Grails, Second Edition (The Definitive Guide)
and I would recommend waiting till the second edition comes out (which is the edition I have linked to), since the first edition covers version 0.3.
- If you are in a rush and don’t want to wait for the second edition you can read: Beginning Groovy and Grails: From Novice to Professional (Beginning from Novice to Professional)
.
- Then to get a deeper appreciation of the Groovy language the book to read is: Groovy in Action
which is written by one of the authors of the language.
- Then optional reads would be: Programming Groovy: Dynamic Productivity for the Java Developer (Pragmatic Programmers)
and Groovy Recipes: Greasing the Wheels of Java (Pragmatic Programmers)
.
- Given that Grails comes with a great unit test framework which facilitates agile practices you should also read: Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change (2nd Edition) (XP Series)
- I would recommend capping off your reading of with: Agile Project Management with Scrum (Microsoft Professional)
G2One, the company formed by the creators of the Groovy and Grails was just acquired by SpringSource, the company providing commercial support for the Spring Framework – incidentally the framework on top of which Grails is built. This now makes Grails a truly viable “Agile Enterprise Framework”.
The only limitation at this point is the lack of good support in Eclipse, though this should be forthcoming given that Grails is now in the SpringSource fold. Till then you can either live with the rather crude plug-ins that currently exist for Eclipse. If you are really hungry for an IDE with first class Groovy & Grails support you can use IntelliJ IDEA.
Hope this helps
Loading ...
Loading ...
5 Comments
This is my 2008 final goal, to learn about an emerging language, Do you think it’s a great option to invest time?
I spent a lot time evaluating the frameworks and languages and considered the following:
1. Was it a dynamic language
2. Did it have a good framework to support it
3. What was the community like
4. What was the possibility of having the language and framework be adopted within an enterprise
I thought Groovy+Grails were already in good shape to begin with, but with G2One being purchased by SpringSource – the die is cast and Groovy+Grails will be the next wave. This is the time to get in early.
Hope that helps
Yeah, yeah, sure. Having SpringSource behind it is a good reason to keep away from Grails. I’d rather go with MSoft than this bunch at least you already know MSoft intentions as they are blatant about it. SpringSources’ bait and switch tactics like they recently tried to pull with their “support” model will once again be replicated with Grails….Good luck surfing that “next” wave
Yeah I heard about the change in SpringSource’s support model but from following discussions in other forums I saw mixed responses to this change. I will follow it and keep you posted as to what I find.
Thanks for the useful info. It’s so interesting
One Trackback
[...] iPioneers.com Resources for Agile Data Warehouse Architects, Application Architects and Software Project Managers Skip to content BooksSitemapAbout Search « Why bother with application development technologies when building a data warehouse Reading List – Java in the Enterprise is Dead – Time to get ramped on Grails » [...]