Part 3. Everyday Grails

In part 2 of this book, you learned about the basic building blocks of Grails applications, ending with chapter 8, which discussed developing tasty forms, views, and layouts. In part 3, you apply your core knowledge to building all the necessary pieces of a real-world application.

In chapter 9, we’ll teach you how to build robust tests for your newly developed code so you can make sure everything works properly before your code is deployed. We’ll start with unit tests for all the basic Grails artifacts you’ve developed so far. We’ll then build on those fine-grained testing skills with the broader ideas of integration and functional testing. By the end of chapter 9, testing will be your middle name.

Chapter 10 introduces Grails plugins—ways of extending your applications using third-party code modules. You’ll use plugins to give Hubbub important functional enhancements such as email integration and full text search. You’ll also solve performance and deployment pain points such as effective caching and database schema migration.

Security is a vital topic in deploying any kind of application on the internet, so chapter 11 gives you a thorough grounding in web security issues. After learning about the common vulnerabilities in web applications, you learn how to mitigate them and keep everything secure. We’ll also take you on a tour of a popular Grails security plugin that allows you to add all sorts of access-control features to Hubbub.