Peter Ledbrook

Presentations

Grails in the Java Enterprise

With all the buzz around rapid web application development frameworks, are enterprise developers left looking on enviously? Not at all. Grails brings RAD to web application development in the Java enterprise and this talk discusses the integration options available to you and where difficulties may arise.

Learn how you can get Maven and Grails working together, what's involved in talking to legacy databases, and why plugins are often an ideal solution to code reuse.

Grails in the cloud

2011 is turning into a tremendously exciting year for Grails developers. One of the most important developments is the arrival of several new cloud hosting providers that work with Grails applications with minimal effort on your part. No longer do we have to look enviously at our Rails comrades who have Heroku et al.

The new batch of solutions are known as Platforms as a Service (PaaS), so this talk will first explain what this means before delving into the individual providers. You'll be able to compare what each provider offers and see how the Grails integration compares as well.

Grails plugin development - lessons to learn

It's very easy to create plugins for Grails, particularly if all you want to do is share some domain classes between projects. But even with the simplest plugins, you still need to know a few things to make integration with applications and other plugins as smooth as possible.

Learn how to make your plugins as flexible as possible, while minimising integration issues with other plugins. For example, find out how Searchable was modified to allow users to add search to domain classes provided by other plugins; and why the Release plugin switched from a DSL for its configuration to simple properties.

Grails and the World of Tomorrow

It's an interesting time in the world of application development. We're in the middle of a perfect storm in which cloud deployments, alternative data stores, and rich, multi-device client UIs are emerging as the future standards. What does this mean for Grails developers and what does the framework offer in this very different world?

We'll look at potential changes to the way applications are designed and how you can leverage the current and future features of Grails to take advantage of those changes.

Groovy & Grails for Spring/Java developers

Java is a good all-purpose programming language, but does that mean it's the best tool for all jobs? In this talk, you'll see how Groovy can scratch itches you didn't even know you had. From scripts, to writing unit tests, to building projects, we'll take you through use cases that highlight the advantages of having a second language in your toolbox.

In the second part of the talk, you'll find out how Grails simplifies web application development without sacrificing flexibility and power. Built on Spring, it eliminates the need to write a lot of plumbing for your application while still allowing you the full power of the Spring framework. You'll see how quick it is to get started with a fresh application and also how you can leverage plugins to quickly enhance your applications with power features.

Application Architectures with Grails

Grails is geared towards an MVC architecture with a database back-end and a service layer. But is this the only way to write Grails applications? What other architectures are possible and what is required to implement them?

In this talk we'll answer those questions by looking at several different architectures in the context of Grails. From single-page apps to event based back-ends, you'll get a good overview of just what is possible and you'll be able to make an informed decision on how to implement your next project.

Groovy for Spring/Java developers

Java is a good all-purpose programming language, but does that mean it's the best tool for all jobs? In this talk, you'll see how Groovy can scratch itches you didn't even know you had. From scripts, to writing unit tests, to building projects, we'll take you through use cases that highlight the advantages of having a second language in your toolbox.

We'll also discuss an approach to introducing the language into Java teams that doesn't hit too much resistance and allows time for teams to become comfortable with it. Dictatorial approaches typically don't work well!