The Grails Plug-in System Part I: Plug into productivity

Grails is more than just a web framework, it is a complete platform and API for runtime configuration. This talk, by Grails project lead Graeme Rocher, will demonstrate Grails' modular architecture and how to hook into runtime configuration to adapt your application based on its environment and/or the presence of other plug-ins.

The talk will start with an overview of the Grails architecture and then jump into an extended example of how to write your own plug-in. As part of the journey you'll learn how to customize the Grails build system, participate in runtime Spring configuration, add new persistence methods that work with Hibernate and enhance your existing classes through Grails' advanced Groovy Meta-programming system.

Session Topics:

• The Grails Architecture
• Scripting Grails with Gant
• Using Grails' Spring DSL: The BeanBuilder
• Adding new methods, properties and constructors with ExpandoMetaClass
• Packaging, distributing and installing your plug-in

About Graeme Rocher

As Head of Grails Development for SpringSource, Graeme Rocher is the project lead and co-founder of the Grails web application framework. He's a member of the JSR-241 Expert Group which standardizes the Groovy language. Graeme authored the Definitive Guide to Grails for Apress and is a frequent speaker at JavaOne, JavaPolis, NoFluffJustStuff, JAOO, the Sun TechDays and more. Graeme joined SpringSource in late 2008 upon the acquisition of G2One Inc. Before founding G2One, Graeme was the CTO of SkillsMatter, a skills transfer company specializing in open source technology and agile software development, where Graeme was in charge of the company's courseware development strategy and general technical direction.

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