GR8Conf 2009: Griffon by Jim Shingler

Introduction to
Creating a Griffon: Rich Client front-end to our
Twitter Clone

By Jim Shingler

© Jim Shingler

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 1

Abstract
Groovy and Grails have given us the ability to leverage the
strength of the Java Platform (and Eco System) and
the productivity of “Convention over
Conﬁguration” to construct websites. But “What If” the
User Interface requirements of the new application is best
solved with the type of interaction a desktop application
provides?

Griffon bring the same productivity gains to the
desktop application that Grails brings to web
applications. This session will use Griffon and popular open
source libraries to build a desktop application to interact with
a Grails backend.
© Jim Shingler


Introduction
My name is Jim Shingler
Chief Technical Architect
President of Genuine Solutions
Beginning Groovy and Grails Co-Author
FallME (Inversion of Control for JavaME) Co-Founder
Griffon Splash Plugin Author
Griffon gConﬁg Author
Griffon TM Bundle Author
© Jim Shingler


Agenda
Griffon 101
•What is Griffon
•Installing Griffon
•0 -100 k/mph in 60 seconds
</xml>
•Plugins Overview
•Teaching the Griffon to count
(Binding and Threading)
•Readying Graeme’s Twitter Clone
Griffon 201
•Griffon Twitter Client
© Jim Shingler


Installing Griffon

1. Download Griffon
2. Unpack it
(unix: /opt/local/share/ windows: /apps/griffon)
3. Set the GROOVY_HOME
4. Add it to your path, <GROOVY_HOME>/bin

© Jim Shingler


0-100 k/mph
in 60 Seconds
> griffon create-app small
Welcome to Griffon 0.1.0 - http://griffon.codehaus.org/
Licensed under Apache Standard License 2.0
Griffon home is set to: /opt/local/share/griffon-0.1.0
...
> griffon run-app

© Jim Shingler


DEMO
© Jim Shingler


Congratulations
you are a

Developer

© Jim Shingler


Don’t
forget to
update
your
resume.

Griffon

© Jim Shingler


App Structure
& Convention
A pretty standard application
structure, . . . you can pretty well
guess the purpose of the ﬁles and
directories.

© Jim Shingler


Griffon Commands

© Jim Shingler


Plugins

© Jim Shingler


Start Small
• Swing and SwingX Builder
• GUI Components
• About Box
• Deﬁne and Process Actions

© Jim Shingler


DEMO
• Create Count App
• Add Button
• Build and Initialize “Click Action”
• Process the Click Action
• Install and Enable SwingXBuilder
• Build and Initialize Menus
• Build and Initialize “Menu Actions”
• Process the Menu Actions
© Jim Shingler


Controller
import javax.swing.JOptionPane

class CountingController {
// these will be injected by Griffon
def model
def view
def builder

void mvcGroupInit(Map args) {
// this method is called after model and view are injected
}

def click = { evt = null ->
model.count++
}

def exit = { evt = null ->
app.shutdown()
}

def showAbout = { evt = null ->
builder.optionPane().showMessageDialog(null,
'This is the Counting Application')
}
}

© Jim Shingler


Model
import groovy.beans.Bindable
Adds Property @Bindable

Change Support class CountingModel {
def count = 0
}
to the model

© Jim Shingler


View and Menu
View
application(title:'sample2', /*size:[320,480], */location:[200,200],
pack:true, locationByPlatform:false) {
// add content here
build(Actions) Loads and runs Actions and MenuBar scripts inline
build(MenuBar)
button(id:'clickButton', text:bind{ model.count }, action: clickAction)
}

Data Binding. Observe
the change in the model MenuBar Execute the “clickAction”

jxmenuBar {
menu(text: 'File', mnemonic: 'F') {
menuItem(exitAction) Use the action to deﬁne
} the menu item
glue()
menu(text: 'Help', mnemonic: 'H') {
menuItem(aboutAction)
}
}
© Jim Shingler


Actions
// create the actions
Closure to run when
action(id: 'clickAction', the action is
name: 'Click Me', executed
closure: controller.&click,
shortDescription: 'Increment the Click Count'
)

action(id: 'exitAction',
name: 'Exit', closure: controller.exit,
mnemonic: 'x', accelerator: 'F4',
shortDescription: 'Exit SimpleUI'
)

action(id: 'aboutAction',
name: 'About', closure: controller.showAbout,
mnemonic: 'A', accelerator: 'F1',
shortDescription: 'Find out about SimpleUI'
)

© Jim Shingler


Threading the GUI

It isn’t that bad
© Jim Shingler


Rules of Thumb

• Painting and UI Operations need to be done in the
EventDispatchThread (EDT)

• Everything else should be done outside the EDT

• Java 6 has SwingWorker, Java 5 has SwingLabs Swingworker

But that just isn’t Groovy enough for Griffon
© Jim Shingler


Griffon Threading
• Build the UI in the EDT
SwingBuilder.build { . . . }
• Long Running code outside the EDT
doOutside { . . . } Creates thread and runs closure

• code inside the EDT
edt { . . . } Do synchronously in EDT

doLater { . . . } Do asynchronously in EDT

© Jim Shingler


DEMO

© Jim Shingler


Model
import groovy.beans.Bindable

@Bindable
class CountingModel {
def count = 0
def countSlow = 0
def countConcurrent = 0
}

© Jim Shingler


View
application(title:'counting', /*size:[320,480], location:[50,50],*/
pack:true, locationByPlatform:true) {
build(Actions)
build(MenuBar)

gridLayout()
button(id:'clickButton',
text:bind {model.count}, action: clickAction)
label(text:bind {model.count})

button(id:'slowClickButton', text:"Slow Click", action: slowClickAction)
label(text:bind {model.countSlow})

button(id:'concurrentClickButton', text:"Concurrent Click", action: concurrentClickAction)
label(text:bind {model.countConcurrent})
}

© Jim Shingler


Actions
// create the actions
action(id: 'clickAction',
name: 'Click', closure: controller.&click,
shortDescription: 'Increment the Click Count'
)

action(id: 'clickActionSlow',
name: 'Click Slow', closure: controller.&clickSlow,
shortDescription: 'Increment the Click Count Slow'
)

action(id: 'clickActionConcurrent',
name: 'Click Concurrent', closure: controller.&clickConcurrent,
shortDescription: 'Increment the Click Count Concurrent'
)

action(id: 'exitAction',
name: 'Exit', closure: controller.exit,
mnemonic: 'x', accelerator: 'F4',
shortDescription: 'Exit SimpleUI'
)

action(id: 'aboutAction',
name: 'About', closure: controller.showAbout,
mnemonic: 'A', accelerator: 'F1',
shortDescription: 'Find out about SimpleUI'
)
© Jim Shingler


Controller
import javax.swing.JOptionPane
class CountingController {
// these will be injected by Griffon
def model
def view
void mvcGroupInit(Map args) { }

def click = { evt -> model.count++ }

def clickSlow = { evt = null ->
Thread.sleep(5000)
model.countSlow++
}

def clickConcurrent = { evt = null ->
doOutside {
Thread.sleep(5000)
edt { // Sync
model.countConcurrent++
}
}
}

def exit = { evt = null -> System.exit(0) }
def showAbout = { evt = null ->
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,
'''This is the SimpleUI Application''')
}
}
© Jim Shingler


Twitter Clone
Enhancements
© Jim Shingler


Render Status XML
import grails.converters.*

class StatusController {
def twitterCache
def index = {
def messages = twitterCache.get(principalInfo.username)?.value
if(!messages) {
messages = findStatusMessages()
twitterCache.put new Element(principalInfo.username, messages)
}

def feedOutput = {
. . .
}

withFormat {
html([messages:messages])
xml { render messages as XML}
rss { render(feedType:"rss", feedOutput)}
}
}
. . .
© Jim Shingler


Render Person XML
import grails.converters.*

class PersonController {

...

def ﬁndByUsername = {

def p = Person.ﬁndByUsername(params.username)

withFormat {

html person:p

xml { render p as XML }

}

}

...

© Jim Shingler


def show = {

def person = Person.get(params.id)

if (!person) {

ﬂash.message = "Person not found with id $params.id"

redirect action: list

return

}

List roleNames = []

for (role in person.authorities) {

roleNames << role.authority

}

roleNames.sort { n1, n2 ->

n1 <=> n2

}

withFormat {

html ( [person: person, roleNames: roleNames] )

xml { render person as XML }

}

//
[person: person, roleNames: roleNames]

}
© Jim Shingler


Acegi Basic
Authentication
grails-app/conf/SecurityConﬁg.groovy
security {

// see DefaultSecurityConfig.groovy for all settable/overridable properties

active = true

basicProcessingFilter = true

loginUserDomainClass = "Person"
authorityDomainClass = "Authority"
requestMapClass = "Requestmap"

}

© Jim Shingler


Acegi Basic
Authentication
grails-app/conf/spring/resources.groovy
beans = {
authenticationEntryPoint(org.springframework.security.ui.basicauth.
BasicProcessingFilterEntryPoint) {
realmName = 'Grails Realm'
}

twitterCache(org.springframework.cache.ehcache.EhCacheFactoryBean) {
timeToLive = 1200
}

}

© Jim Shingler


Requirements

• Login
• Display User Info
• Display Statuses (Tweets)
• Update Statuses(Tweets)
• Send My Own Status (Tweet)
© Jim Shingler


Overview
MVC Triad
MenuBar
Controller View
ToolBar

StatusBar
Model Tips

About

Twitter Service

</xml>

Twitter Clone
© Jim Shingler


Founders

Danno Ferrin
http://shemnon.com/speling

Andres Almiray
http://jroller.com/aalmiray

James Williams
http://jameswilliams.be/blog
© Jim Shingler


Resources
• Griffon
• griffon.codehause.org
• griffon-user@groovy.codehause.org
• Grails
• www.grails.org
Coming
• Books Soon

© Jim Shingler


Resources
• dev@griffon.codehaus.org is a medium volume list
useful for those interested in ongoing
developments
• scm@griffon.codehaus.org
is a high volume list
that logs commits and issues
• user@griffon.codehaus.org
is a high volume list is
for questions and general discussion about Griffon
• You can ﬁnd a great archive support at MarkMail,
http://griffon.markmail.org.

© Jim Shingler


Conclusion
Thank You for your time
• Blog:
http://jshingler.blogspot.com

• Email:
ShinglerJim@gmail.com

• LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimshingler

• Twitter:
@jshingler
© Jim Shingler


GR8Conf 2009: Griffon by Jim Shingler

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