Contributing to Grails

Report problems in the issue tracker on Github.

To keep track of bugs with the core framework, Contributing to Grails leverages Github. Similarly to that, a separate tracker exists for its documentation. These are the locations to start if you've discovered a bug or want to request the addition of a specific feature. To either post an issue or make a comment on an already existing issue in either of these, you'll need to sign up for a GitHub account.

When reporting bugs, specify which versions of Groovy, Grails, and other plugins you run and include as much information as possible. Additional environment information, such as the OS version, JDK, Gradle, etc., should be provided. 

Examining issues

In GitHub, there are a lot of dated issues that might no longer be relevant. Verifying one or two points every so often will be a minimal but helpful contribution you can make since the core team can't find these on its own.

After you've confirmed an issue, just leave a brief note outlining your findings. Be careful to include the information of your environment and your Grails version.

Build from the ground up and run tests

To contribute fixes and features to any part of Contributing to Grails, you must first learn how to obtain the project's source code, build it, and test it with your applications. Before you begin, ensure that you have.

• Git Client
   
• JDK
   

Downloading the Grails source code, which is available on GitHub in various repositories held by the "grails" GitHub user, is the next step after downloading all required packages. Cloning the relevant repository is all that is necessary to do this. For example, to begin the fundamental framework

git clone http://github.com/grails/grails-core.git

This will create a "grails-core" directory in your current working directory that contains the complete project's source code. The following step is to contribute to the Grails installation from the source.

Grails installation creation

The project structure makes it clear that it differs significantly from a typical GRAILS HOME installation. But making it into one is pretty easy. Simply execute this from the project's root directory.

./gradlew install

This will download all of the common dependencies required by Grails and create a GRAILS HOME installation. The extensive set of Grails test classes, which can take some time to finish, are skipped by this target.
 

Simply update the GRAILS HOME environment variable to the checkout directory and add the "bin" directory to your path after the operation above has been completed. You will be utilising the version you just produced when you type the next grails command to run.

Carrying out the test suite to conduct the entire battery of tests, just do the following:

./gradlew test

Consider using the command line to run the tests individually since they will take a while. For instance, run the following command to run the test specification for BinaryPluginSpec:

./gradlew :grails-core:test --tests *.BinaryPluginSpec

Note that the top-level "test" target won't function. Thus you must specify the sub-project that the test case belongs.

Structuring in STS/Eclipse

You must execute the Gradle task listed below:

./gradlew cleanEclipse eclipse

Perform the following action before importing projects into STS:

To import all projects to STS, use "ImportGeneralExisting Projects into Workspace." Several build mistakes will occur. Follow these steps to fix them:

• Grails-classpath core should now include the springloaded-core JAR file located in. 
   

$GRAILS HOME/lib/org.SpringSource.springloaded/springloaded-core/jars.

• Remove "src/test/groovy" from the source path of grails-plugin-testing. GRECLIPSE-1067.
   
• Add the jsp-api JAR file to the grails-web classpath.
   

$GRAILS HOME/lib/javax.servlet.jsp/jsp-api/jars.

• Grails-scripts' source path has to be fixed. Include a source folder that points to "../scripts" in links. Do ".../gradlew cleanEclipse eclipse" in that directory and modify the Classpath file once again if you see build difficulties with grails-scripts. If you are unable to add the linked folder, remove any potential empty "scripts" directories under grails-scripts.
   
• Perform a clean build across the board.
   
• Eclipse GIT SCM team provider usage: In the navigation, select all projects (aside from "Servers"), then choose Team > Share a project from the context menu (not "Share projects"). Select "Git." Then select "Finish" after checking "Use or create the repository in the parent folder of the project."

• The mailing list thread's recommended code style settings. Use Window > Preferences > Java > Code Style > Formatter > Import to import the code style XML file to STS. Tabs are not used in Grails programming to indicate indentation.

Grails or a Grails application debugging

Run to activate debugging.

grails run-app --debug-jvm

Grails forks a JVM by default to run the application. The debugger is connected to the forked JVM when using the -debug-JVM parameter. Use the -debug option to instead attach the debugger to the build system that will fork the JVM:
 

grails -debug run-app

Send updates to the Grails documentation

Making Small Changes

Asciidoctor is being used to write the user manual. Simply clicking the "improve this doc" link that is to the right of each part of the documentation will allow you to offer fixes.
This will lead you to the GitHub edit page where you may make edits, and see how they look before saving and submitting a pull request.

Creating the Manual

We advise building the user guide if you want to make significant modifications, such as altering the table of contents structure, etc. Simply check out the sources from GitHub to get started:

$ git clone https://github.com/grails/grails-doc/
$ cd grails-doc

The src/en/guide directory contains the source files. At the same time, the src/en/guide/toc.yml file contains the definitions for the Table of Contents (TOC).

Frequently Asked Questions 

What is the use of Grails?

Grails is a web framework written in Groovy and Java that can be run on existing Java web servers such as Tomcat or Jetty. Contributing to Grails allows you to create web applications quickly. Its scaffolding capabilities will enable you to start a new project in minutes.

Is Grails entirely based on spring?

The Grails framework is built on top of Spring Boot and leverages Spring Boot's time-saving features, such as Spring-powered dependency injection.

What are Groovy and Grails?

Contributing to Grails is a Java-based web application framework that uses the Apache Groovy programming language. In contrast, Groovy, or Apache Groovy, is a domain-specific language for Java platforms with a low learning curve.

Is Groovy capable of replacing Java?

One of the reasons Java's popularity is rapidly declining is that more comfortable alternatives are appearing daily. Apache Groovy is a programming language that can complement and, sometimes, completely replace Java.

How grails are used for business purposes?

Grails is reportedly used in the tech stacks of 66 companies, including LinkedIn, Biting Bit, and TransferWise. Its scaffolding capabilities allow you to start a new project in minutes.

Conclusion

In this article, we have seen the topic name Contributing to grails in detail, which includes reporting problems in the issue tracker on GitHub, building from the ground up, running tests, etc.

Some related articles are given below:

• Grails the web layer
• Grails-The Service Layer
• Grails-Deployment
• STS Download
   

Please look into the guided paths on Code studio to learn more about DSA and CP and many more topics. Also, you can enrol in our courses. And check out the mock test and problems available to you. Please check out our interview experiences and interview bundle for the placement process.

Thank you for reading the article. Please upvote if you liked it.