Learning Groovy

Start building powerful apps that take advantage of the dynamic scripting capabilities of the Groovy language. This book covers Groovy fundamentals, such as installing Groovy, using Groovy tools, and working with the Groovy Development Kit (GDK). You’ll also learn more advanced aspects of Groovy, such as using Groovy design patterns, writing DSLs in Groovy, and taking advantage of Groovy’s functional programming features.

There is more to Groovy than the core language, so Learning Groovy covers the extended Groovy ecosystem. You’ll see how to harness Gradle (Groovy’s build system), Grails (Groovy’s web application framework), Spock (Groovy’s testing framework), and Ratpack (Groovy’s reactive web library).

What you’ll learn

• Groovy fundamentals, including the GDK or Groovy Development Kit
• Advanced Groovy, such as writing Groovy DSLs
• Functional programming in Groovy
• GPars, the built-in concurrency library
• Gradle, the build system
• Grails, the web application framework
• Spock, the testing framework
• Ratpack, the reactive web library

Who is this book for

Although this book is intended for those with a Java background, anyone with basic programming skills could benefit from it. This book is a data-filled, yet easy-to-digest tour of the Groovy language and ecosystem.

Table of Contents

Part I: Getting Groovy
Chapter 1: Software to Install
Chapter 2: Groovy 101
Chapter 3: Tools
Chapter 4: GDK
Chapter 5: Coming from Java

Part II: Advanced Groovy
Chapter 6: Groovy Design Patterns
Chapter 7: DSLs
Chapter 8: Traits
Chapter 9: Functional Programming
Chapter 10: Groovy GPars

Part III: The Groovy Ecosystem
Chapter 11: Groovy Awesomeness
Chapter 12: Gradle
Chapter 13: Grails
Chapter 14: Spock
Chapter 15: Ratpack
Appendix A: Java/Groovy1
Appendix B: Resources