JSON converter is not working in unit tests in Grails

If calling grails.converters.JSON from unit test throws error like:

java.lang.RuntimeException: org.codehaus.groovy.grails.web.converters.exceptions.ConverterException: Unconvertable Object of class: my.blog.Post
	at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.web.converters.AbstractConverter.toString(AbstractConverter.java:111)
	at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.InvokerHelper.format(InvokerHelper.java:616)
	at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.InvokerHelper.format(InvokerHelper.java:559)

It is easy to fix this error by adding ControllerUnitTestMixin to the test definition like:

@TestMixin(ControllerUnitTestMixin)
@TestFor(BlogService)
class BlogServiceTests {
...

Grails requires restart after changes in domain class

Grails officially supports domain class reloading since version 2, but recently I found problems using it together with MongoDB GORM plugin, because it required application restart after every change to domain class.

So if Hibernate is primary GORM and Mongo is used only for some particular cases, disabling it can be a good option to make development easier.

Adding common methods to Grails domain objects

If you don't want to change your domain hierarchy, but need to add common function to multiple domains without copy/paste, one simple option is to create and implement trait. For example:

class Test implements LogTrait {
  String name
}

trait LogTrait {
  def springSecurityService

  def afterInsert() {
    log.info(this as JSON)
  }
}

Nice bonus is that events and injected services work just fine as it would be in original class.

Script that logs time to JIRA from Git commit messages

If you need to report work time in JIRA and native comment hashes are not suitable for you, there is simple Groovy script that does the same and can be adjusted to particular scenario or configuration:

@GrabResolver(name='test', root='https://maven.atlassian.com/content/groups/public/')
@Grab( group ='com.atlassian.jira.plugins', module = 'jira-soapclient', version = '4.4' )
@Grab(group='org.eclipse.jgit', module='org.eclipse.jgit', version='3.3.2.201404171909-r')

import com.atlassian.jira.rpc.soap.client.JiraSoapServiceServiceLocator
import com.atlassian.jira.rpc.soap.client.RemoteWorklog
import groovy.transform.TailRecursive
import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.Repository
import org.eclipse.jgit.revwalk.RevCommit
import org.eclipse.jgit.revwalk.RevWalk
import org.eclipse.jgit.storage.file.FileRepositoryBuilder
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat
import static java.util.Calendar.*

@TailRecursive
static Set<RevCommit> subcommits(RevCommit commit, int start, RevWalk walk, def all) {
  if (commit.commitTime > start) {
    all << commit
    commit.parents.collect{ walk.parseCommit(it) }.each {
      subcommits(it, start, walk, all)
    }
  }
  return all
}

Repository repository = new FileRepositoryBuilder().setGitDir(new File(args[3])).setMustExist(true).build()
RevWalk walk = new RevWalk(repository)

def formattime = new SimpleDateFormat('yyyy-MM-dd')
formattime.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"))
Date start = formattime.parse(args[4])
Date end = formattime.parse(args[5])

def all = subcommits(walk.parseCommit(repository.resolve("HEAD")), start.time / 1000L as int, walk, new HashSet())
def mine = all.findAll{ it.authorIdent.name == args[6] && it.fullMessage =~ /^PRJ-[0-9]+/ }

def actual = mine.min{ it.commitTime }

def tasks = (start..end).findAll{!(it[DAY_OF_WEEK] in [SUNDAY, SATURDAY])}.collect {date ->
  actual = mine.find{ date.time / 1000L <= it.commitTime && (date + 1).time / 1000L > it.commitTime } ?: actual
  [date:date, task:(actual.fullMessage =~ /(PRJ-[0-9]+)/)[0][1]]
}

if (args[0] == 'test') {
  tasks.each { println "${it.date} - ${it.task}" }
} else if (args[0] == 'prod') {
  def jiraSoapService = new JiraSoapServiceServiceLocator().getJirasoapserviceV2(new URL('http://jira.com/rpc/soap/jirasoapservice-v2'))
  String token = jiraSoapService.login(args[1], args[2])
  tasks.each { jiraSoapService.addWorklogAndRetainRemainingEstimate(token, it.task, new RemoteWorklog(timeSpent: "8h", startDate:it.date.toCalendar())) }
}

It uses a bunch of command line parameters - first is either prod or test; test just prints tasks, prod sends them to JIRA. There is an example CLI command:

groovy gittotempo.groovy prod jirauser jirapassword c:\work\project\.git 2014-08-01 2014-08-31 gituser

Disable pretty printing of JSON in Grails

It is easy to print any object as JSON in Grails

[key:'value'] as JSON

But it gives human readable, nice, multiline formatted version of JSON with indents. If that is not needed, it is easy to switch it off, like:

new JSON([key:'value']).toString(true)

Much uglier, but does the job.

CanJS execute code on component initialization

I didn't found it described anywhere, but it works for me. If you need to execute code after component initialization, you can add init method to scope and it is executed after component is created.

    scope: {
      init: function() {
        runme();
      }
    }

Updating model elements of CanJS component scope

CanJS scope is simple map and when you need to retrieve new element from server the easiest way seems just to assign new model to property, like:

  scope.attr('todos', new Todo.List({date:val}));

This is easy and works, but not best solution, as values blink on screen. This is because initial list is empty and values are added after they are loaded, so more smooth and reactive (bazinga!) way to do it, will be by model's findAll method callback, like:

  Todo.findAll({date:val}, function(todos){ scope.attr('todos', todos) });

Additional benefit of this approach is that you can use new values for whatever you might need besides displaying them.