Preface

Both of us came to Grails a few years ago while looking for a better, easier way to build web applications on the Java platform. Although there were lots of interesting Java frameworks available, the ones we tried seemed clunky and required too much setup. Around that time, the buzz surrounding Ruby on Rails was at a high. Its promise of quick and easy web development was too alluring to ignore, but it meant ditching the Java platform.

That’s when Grails arrived. This was a framework that you could use with just a simple text editor and still be tremendously productive. It was a breath of fresh air for longtime Java developers like us. Even at version 0.1 we could knock out useful applications with a minimum of effort, and since then Grails has grown into a major player that can be used for lots of projects, big and small. I was busy porting my unfinished home SpringMVC projects over to Grails and actually getting them live! My first SMS Gateway application went public on Grails 0.2 beta. At the same time, Peter was surreptitiously introducing Grails into his company--guerilla-style.