Introduction To Groovy

For Java Programmers

Jeff Brown
Principal Software Engineer
Object Computing Inc.
http://www.ociweb.com/
[email protected]
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Books To Give Away

Thanks To Manning And Apress

http://manning.com/

http://apress.com/
About Me

Jeff Brown

Principal Engineer - Object Computing Inc.

Software Engineering For 15 Years

Mostly Java For 10 Years

Java/OO Instructor For 7 Years

Grails Core Development Team Member

St. Louis Java SIG Steering Committee

Member
What Is Groovy?

Open Source

Agile Dynamic Language

Others...

JavaScript

Ruby

Python

Integrates Very Well With Java

Runs On The JVM

Call Groovy From Java

Call Java From Groovy

Leverage Powerful Existing Java Libraries

Why Groovy?

Familiar Syntax For Java Programmers

Leverage The Wealth Of Java Libraries

Easy Integration With Your Existing

Infrastructure

App Servers

Servlet Containers

Loads Of Databases With JDBC Drivers

All Your Homegrown Java Infrastructure

Momentum

In Recent Weeks...

Manning published Groovy In Action

Apress published The Definitive Guide To Grails

AboutGroovy.com went live

Groovy 1.0-RC-01 was released

Installing Groovy

Download Release

http://groovy.codehaus.org/

Extract The Archive

Set GROOVY_HOME

Add $GROOVY_HOME/bin to PATH

Hello Groovy

Give It A Spin...
$ groovy -version
Groovy Version: 1.0-RC-01 JVM: 1.4.2_13-b06
$ groovy -e " println 'Hello From Groovy' "
Hello From Groovy
$ groovy -e "a=10;b=4;c=a*b;println c"
40
Groovy Shell
$ groovysh
Let's get Groovy!
================
Version: 1.0-RC-01 JVM: 1.4.2_13-b06
Type 'exit' to terminate the shell
Type 'help' for command help
Type 'go' to execute the statements
groovy> width = 5
groovy> height = 12
groovy> area = width * height
groovy> println area
groovy> go
60
Groovy Console
$ groovyConsole
Groovy Scripts
// mygroovyscript.groovy
println 'Hello From My Groovy Script'
groovy mygroovyscript.groovy
Hello From My Groovy Script
Groovy Classes
// MyGroovyTest.groovy
class MyGroovyTest {
def sayHello() {
println 'Hello From MyGroovyTest'
}

static void main(args) {
def mgt = new MyGroovyTest()
mgt.sayHello()
}
}
groovy MyGroovyTest.groovy
Hello From MyGroovyTest
groovyc

groovyc Compiles Groovy To Bytecode

Compiled Code Runs As Normal Java Code

CLASSPATH

groovy-all-[version].jar

in $GROOVY_HOME/embeddable/
groovyc MyGroovyTest.groovy
java MyGroovyTest
Hello From MyGroovyTest
Some Language Basics

Everything Is An Object

GString

Closures

Collections

Categories

Ranges

Groovy Beans

Builders

Meta Programming
The following slides are a bunch
of code snippets run in groovysh
and groovyConsole to accompany
live demo and discussion.
Everything Is An Object
Groovy Strings

Known As GStrings

GStrings Are Surrounded By Double Quotes

single quotes are used for regular strings

May Contain Groovy Expressions

expressions surrounded by ${ }

evaluated and substitution takes place at runtime

Square Bracket Syntax My Be Applied

like charAt(i)

more complicated range related example later

Groovy Strings
Groovy Strings
Closures

A Block Of Code

May Be Passed Around

May Accept Arguments

Always Return Something

not necessarily explicitly

More Flexible Than Anonymous Inner Class

Closures

Groovy Adds A times Method to Number

The times Method Accepts A Closure

groovy> 3.times { println 'Hello' }
groovy> go
Hello
Hello
Hello
Closures

Closures Are First Class Objects

References May Point To Closures

groovy> cl = { println 'Closures Are Cool' }
groovy> 3.times cl
groovy> go
Closures Are Cool
Closures Are Cool
Closures Are Cool
Closures

Closures May Accept Arguments

The times Method Passes An Argument To

The Closure
groovy> 3.times { index -> println "index is ${index}" }
groovy> go
index is 0
index is 1
index is 2
Closures

Closures Have An Implicit it Argument

groovy> 3.times { println "index is ${it}" }
groovy> go
index is 0
index is 1
index is 2
Closures

Multiple Arguments
groovy> myMap = [name:'Jeff', location:'St. Louis']
groovy> myMap.each { key, value ->
println "${key} is ${value}"
}
groovy> go
location is St. Louis
name is Jeff
Collections

Lists Are Simple To Declare

groovy> kids = ['Zack', 'Jake']
groovy> println kids.class
groovy> go
class java.util.ArrayList
Collections

Adding To A List
groovy> albums = ['Rush']
groovy> albums << 'Fly By Night'
groovy> albums += 'Caress Of Steel'
groovy> albums.add '2112'
groovy> println albums
groovy> go
["Rush", "Fly By Night", "Caress Of Steel", "2112"]
Collections

Removing From A List

groovy> instruments =
['drums', 'keyboards', 'guitars', 'lutes']
groovy> instruments.remove 'keyboards'
groovy> instruments -= 'lutes'
groovy> println instruments
groovy> go
["drums", "guitars"]
Collections

Closure To Iterate Over A List

groovy> tracks = ['Custard Pie',
'The Rover',
'In My Time Of Dying']
groovy> tracks.each { println it }
groovy> go
Custard Pie
The Rover
In My Time Of Dying
Collections

Iterating With An Index

groovy> tracks = ['Custard Pie',
'The Rover',
'In My Time Of Dying']
groovy> tracks.eachWithIndex { track, index ->
println "Track ${index + 1}: ${track}"
}
groovy> go
Track 1: Custard Pie
Track 2: The Rover
Track 3: In My Time Of Dying
Collections

Map Manipulation
groovy> myMap = [bass:'Geezer', drums:'Bill']
groovy> myMap['vocals'] = 'Ozzy'
groovy> myMap.guitar = 'Tony'
groovy> println myMap
groovy> go
["drums":"Bill", "vocals":"Ozzy",
"bass":"Geezer", "guitar":"Tony"]
Groovy Categories
Groovy Categories
Groovy Categories
Ranges
Ranges
Ranges
Groovy Beans

Groovy Beans Are POGOs

Similar To POJOs

Boilerplate Code Is Eliminated

POJO
// Person.java
public class Person {
private String firstName;
private String lastName;
public Person() {}
public Person(String firstName, String lastName) {
this.firstName = firstName;
this.lastName = lastName;
}
POJO
public String getFirstName() {
return firstName;
}
public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
this.firstName = firstName;
}
public String getLastName() {
return lastName;
}
public void setLastName(String lastName) {
this.lastName = lastName;
}
}
POJO

I Wrote Code To Declare The Fields

I Let Eclipse Generate Constructors

I Let Eclipse Generate Getters/Setters

If all of that code can be generated by
the IDE, why can't it be generated by the
compiler or the runtime environment?
Groovy Beans

No Need To Write Constructors

No Need To Write Getters/Setters

May Declare Types Don't Need To

// BaseballTeam.groovy
class BaseballTeam {
def cityName
def teamName
}
Groovy Beans
cardinals = new BaseballTeam(cityName:'St. Louis',
teamName:'Cardinals')
println "City Name: ${cardinals.cityName}"
println "Team Name: ${cardinals.teamName}"
City Name: St. Louis
Team Name: Cardinals
Groovy Beans

Property Access Looks Like Field Access

name = cardinals.teamName

name = cardinals.getTeamName()

Assignment Works The Same Way

cardinals.teamName = 'Saint Louis'

cardinals.setTeamName('Saint Louis')
Groovy Beans

Properties Aren't Necessarily Declared As

Fields
class BaseballTeam {
def cityName
def teamName
def getDisplayName () {
"${cityName} ${teamName}"
}
}
Groovy Beans
cardinals = new BaseballTeam(cityName:'St. Louis',
teamName:'Cardinals')
println cardinals.displayName
St. Louis Cardinals
Groovy Beans

Properties Are Public By Default

private field

public getter/setter

Properties May Be Private Or Protected

No 'package' Level
MarkupBuilder
builder = new groovy.xml.MarkupBuilder()
builder.baseball {
league(name:"National") {
team("Cardinals")
team("Cubs")
team("Mets")
}
league(name:"American") {
team("Angels")
team("Yankees")
team("Royals")
}
}
MarkupBuilder
<baseball>
<league name='National'>
<team>Cardinals</team>
<team>Cubs</team>
<team>Mets</team>
</league>
<league name='American'>
<team>Angels</team>
<team>Yankees</team>
<team>Royals</team>
</league>
</baseball>
MarkupBuilder
builder = new groovy.xml.MarkupBuilder()
builder.html() {
head() {
title('Markup Builder Demo')
}
body {
h1('Bands')
ul {
li('Rush')
li('King Crimson')
li('Opeth')
}
}
}
MarkupBuilder
<html>
<head>
<title>Markup Builder Demo</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Bands</h1>
<ul>
<li>Rush</li>
<li>King Crimson</li>
<li>Opeth</li>
</ul>
</body>
</html>
Meta Programming
class MyGroovyThing {
Object invokeMethod(String name, Object args) {
// do something cool
}
}
Live Meta Programming Demo...
Calling Groovy From Java

GroovyShell

GroovyClassLoader

Bean Scripting Framework

Java 6 (and beyond...)

Live Demo...
Links

Main Groovy Site

http://groovy.codehaus.org/

Main Grails Site

http://grails.org/

Groovy Portal

http://aboutgroovy.com/

My Blog

http://javajeff.blogspot.com/

Java News Brief

http://www.ociweb.com/jnb/
The End
Thank You For Coming!
Q&A