I had a wonderful experience with Grails after finishing two projects. If you are a new Java programmer who's looking for a good web frameworks, Grails will be your savior just like what it was to me.
Here's what I like about Grails
- Relatively easy to learn compared to other Java web frameworks.
- Provides the basic things that one need, it's all there and there's not much
to configure (ex. No XML). - It's agile!
- Good ORM built on top of Hibernate.
- Grails was developed mostly in Java so it's enterprise-ready and it scales well.
- Uses groovy. Easy to learn Java scripting language
- Although it's not really Java, it does take advantage of the massive amount of Java libraries available, including ones I use like the Java Excel API and JFreeChart.
- I like database stored procedure programming, and calling stored procedurefrom Grails is easy as well as executing complex sql queries.
- Integrate my choice of Javascript framework easily. I use jQuery.
- Grails helps me code properly because of its MVC pattern and servicesconcept.
- Grails plug-in are so cool like Quartz and Searchable
One of the requirements of my next project is that it be hosted on the internet. My client doesn't care what technology I use but wants the hosting fee to be as low as possible. And as we all know, Java web hosting is not cheap compared to others.
I hope to use a non-Java web framework, Django or Ruby on Rails, that I could be comfortable with because of the knowledge and experience I have with Grails. I'd like to see the things that I like in Grails on them. Right now, I'm gearing towards Django because I know a little of Python.
Comments & Suggestions?
