Part1 : Introduction

Reference Documentation: http://docs.grails.org/2.3.8/guide/single.html#conf
Important sections:

1 <- does not mean whole section 1, it means read from 1 till 1.1 starts
2.[3,4,7,8,10,11] <- means 2.3, 2.4, 2.7, ...
4
4.1
4.1.1
4.2
4.3
4.3.[1,3,6] <- means 4.3.1, 4.3.3, ...
4.[4,5]
5
6
6.1
6.1.1
6.2
6.2.1
6.2.1.[1-4] <- means 6.2.1.1, 6.2.1.2, ..., 6.2.1.4
6.3
6.3.[1-5]
6.4
6.4.[1-5]
6.5
6.5.1
6.5.2
6.5.2.[1,4-9]
6.5.3
6.6
6.7
7
7.1
7.1.[1-4,6-9,11,12] - (7.1.6 (Intro), 7.1.7 (JSON))
7.2
7.2.1
7.2.1.[1,2,4]
7.2.2
7.2.2.[1-6]
7.2.[3,4]
7.3
7.3.[1-7]
7.4
7.4.[1,3,5,13]
7.6
7.6.[1-3]
8
8.2
10
10.[1,2,4,5]
11
11.1
11.1.1
11.[2-4]
13
13.[1-3]
14
14.[1-3]
14.5
14.5.1
17
19


Before creating Grails applications:


1. Download Grails framework (2.3.8), set GRAILS_HOME as a system variable, and add %GRAILS_HOME%\bin to your PATH. Set by step instructions can be found here.
-- Specific to case study VRS: add a system variable "local_machine" with the value of "1" or "true".
-- Specific to case study VRS: modify sample_my_config.groovy to my_config.groovy, change values as needed (banner tickets, usrname, pwd) and put in directory 'target/extern/my_config.groovy'.


Set up IDE (IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate for built in support).

2. Grails is a full stack framework and attempts to solve as many pieces of the web development puzzle through the core technology and its associated plugins. Included out the box are things like:

• An easy to use Object Relational Mapping (ORM) layer built on Hibernate

• An expressive view technology called Groovy Server Pages (GSP)

• A controller layer built on Spring MVC

• A command line scripting environment built on the Groovy-powered Gant

• An embedded Tomcat container which is configured for on the fly reloading

• Dependency injection with the inbuilt Spring container

• Support for internationalization (i18n) built on Spring's core MessageSource concept

• A transactional service layer built on Spring's transaction abstraction

3. Model - View - Controller Pattern

MVC pattern is a software architecture that encourages separation of concerns, such that:

Model - handles data representation and operations. For example, HangTag and Vehicle are part of the Model. Classes that represents entities (E.g. Vehicle) and business logic/functionalities (e.g. Register), collectively represent the model.

View - handles how data is viewed by the user. For example, the HTML code in register.gsp.

Controller - handle the code that links a user to the system. It receives request or events from the user, prepare data and invoke proper business logic, and then return the view that represents the result of user actions.


4. Grails uses Convention over Configuration, which means name and location of files is used instead of configuration, therefor it is important to be familiar with the directory structure:

• grails-app - top level directory for Groovy sources
• conf - Configuration sources.
• controllers - Web controllers - The C in MVC.
• domain - The application domain.
• i18n - Support for internationalization (i18n).
• services - The service layer.
• taglib - Tag libraries.
• utils - Grails specific utilities.
• views - Groovy Server Pages - The V in MVC.
• scripts - Gant scripts.
• src - Supporting sources
• groovy - Other Groovy sources
• java - Other Java sources
• test - Unit and integration tests.

5. Deploying an application 

Grails applications are deployed as Web Application Archives (WAR files), and Grails includes the war command for performing this task (runs in the production environment by default):

grails war

This will produce a WAR file under the target directory which can then be deployed as per your container's instructions.