Learn GRAILS with Real Code Examples

Grails uses the MVC pattern and leverages Groovy’s dynamic features for concise and expressive code.

Built on Spring Boot, providing access to Spring’s ecosystem and tools.

Includes built-in ORM (GORM), scaffolding, REST support, and templating.

Supports rapid application development and prototyping.

Ideal for enterprise applications with full Java interoperability.

MVC architecture

GORM for persistence

Tag libraries and templates for views

URL mappings and routing

Spring Security integration

Controller - handles HTTP requests and responses

Domain - represents database entities via GORM

View - rendered using GSP templates

Service - encapsulates business logic

TagLib - reusable view components and templates

grails-app/controllers/ - controllers

grails-app/domain/ - domain classes (models)

grails-app/services/ - business logic

grails-app/views/ - GSP templates

grails-app/conf/ - configuration and URL mappings

Generate controllers and domain classes

Define URL mappings and routes

Use GORM to persist and query data

Implement services for business logic

Render views with GSP or JSON/XML responses

Beginner: simple CRUD app with scaffolding

Intermediate: multi-entity app with GORM queries

Advanced: REST API with authentication and services

Expert: enterprise-grade application with Spring integrations

Enterprise: microservices architecture using Grails and Spring Boot

Grails vs Spring Boot: Grails faster prototyping; Spring Boot more explicit configuration

Grails vs Ruby on Rails: Similar convention-over-configuration; Groovy/Java vs Ruby

Grails vs Micronaut: Grails for full-stack apps; Micronaut for microservices

Grails vs Laravel: Grails on JVM, leverages Java ecosystem; Laravel PHP-based

Grails vs Play Framework: Grails for Groovy; Play supports Scala/Java and reactive programming

2005 - Initial release by Graeme Rocher

2006 - Grails 0.1 alpha

2008 - Grails 1.0 stable release

2012 - Grails 2.x with plugin system and GSP improvements

2025 - Grails 6.x with Spring Boot 3.x integration and modern Groovy support

Controller - handles HTTP requests and returns responses

Domain - class representing database entities via GORM

View - presentation layer using GSP templates

Service - reusable business logic class

TagLib - reusable UI component in views