Apache Grails

Introduction

Apache Grails is a framework used to build web applications with the Apache Groovy programming language. Releases prior to 7.0.0 were outside of the Apache Software Foundation. The core framework is very extensible and there are numerous plugins available that provide easy integration of add-on features. To assist in getting started, various Application generators exist and are provided by the Apache Grails team.

Using the source distribution

Please see the INSTALL document for instructions on how to build, use, and run Apache Grails CLIs from the source distribution.

Getting help

• Check the Documentation for your preferred Apache Grails version.
• Check for a Grails Guide.
• Ask questions on the Grails User Mailing List
• Submit an issue: Grails Issues
• Join the discussions on Slack

Please note that the Apache Software Foundation does not offer commercial support for Apache Grails or related applications.

Commercial support options are available. The products and services listed at this link are provided for information use only to our users. The Apache Grails Project does not endorse or recommend any of the products or services.

Application Generation

The only requirement for Apache Grails is the Java Development Kit (JDK). Once a JDK is installed there are many ways to get started. The preferred way to get started is to use Grails Forge. Alternatively, offline CLI applications exist to assist in Application generation. Instructions for them follow.

Wrapper

The Apache Grails Wrapper is a tiny distribution (25KB) that can manage larger sized CLIs for Grails. It consists of a grailsw shell script, a grailsw.bat batch script, and the jar file grails-wrapper.jar. It can be downloaded from the latest GitHub Release page starting with version 7.0.0-M4 & it is included in any created project. The wrapper is used to either create an Apache Grails Application or to run commands in an existing Grails Application directory. The wrapper is generally meant to be forward compatible and downloads the Apache Grails CLIs to the directory $HOME/.grails/wrapper.

Wrapper - Creating a Apache Grails Application

To create an Apache Grails Application with the wrapper follow these steps:

1. Extract the wrapper to your preferred location.
2. Set the environment variable PREFERRED_GRAILS_VERSION to the preferred version.
3. Run the wrapper command grailsw -t forge create-app to create a new Apache Grails Application.

Please note, that the wrapper supports either the legacy Apache Grails Shell or the newer Apache Grails Forge CLI. For more detailed information about it, see the documentation.

Wrapper - Running Commands inside a Apache Grails Project

For running commands, the Grails Wrapper will always pull the Apache Grails version from gradle.properties and ignore any environment variables. Type grailsw -t shell help to see the available commands. For more detailed information about it, see the documentation.

grails-shell-cli

The legacy Apache Grails CLI is the command line interface that IntelliJ uses to interact with existing Apache Grails Applications. It can be used to generate applications or it can be used to interact with existing ones. To use it, download it to your preferred location from the grails-forge release page. You can use the command ./grails-shell-cli help to see what's possible.

grails-forge-cli

The newer Apache Grails CLI is available from the grails-forge release page. You can use the command ./grails-forge-cli --help to see what's possible.

SDKMAN

If managing multiple, local copies of the Grails CLI, it is recommended to use SDKMAN!. Assuming SDKMAN is installed, this command installs the latest available version:

 sdk install grails

Apache Grails versions installed via SDKMAN! include the following commands grails, grails-shell-cli, & grails-forge-cli. The grails command simply delegates to forge or the legacy shell. For further information on SDKMAN, please see their website.

Starting your Grails Application

Once your Apache Grails Application is created, you can start it with the command:

./gradlew bootRun

For further information, please consult the documentation.

Licensing

Apache Grails is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. For details, see the LICENSE.

Versioning

The Apache Grails versioning scheme is defined in RELEASE.md Appendix: Versioning.

Performing a Release

See RELEASE.md.

Friends of Apache Grails Open Collective

As an independent initiative, community members have set up an open collective for Apache Grails:

https://opencollective.com/friends-of-grails

This initiative is designed to complement the Apache project and the many contributions we get from our great community and supporters.