Making Java Groovy

Chapter 10. Building and testing web applications

This chapter covers

• Groovy servlets and ServletCategory
• Groovlets
• Unit and integration testing of web apps
• The Groovy killer app, Grails

While Java on the desktop has its adherents, Java found a true home on the server side. Java’s growth and adoption in the early days neatly follow that of the web itself. It’s a rare Java developer who hasn’t at least worked on a web application.

In this chapter I’m going to look at modern web application development and where Groovy can make the process simpler and easier. Sometimes Groovy just simplifies the code. Other times it provides helpful testing tools, like Gradle and HTTPBuilder. Finally, there’s the most famous framework in the Groovy ecosystem, ...