...
grailsVersion=5.1.1
...3 Upgrading from the previous versions
Version: 5.3.2
3 Upgrading from the previous versions
3.1 Upgrading from Grails 4 to Grails 5
Bump up Grails Version
You will need to upgrade your Grails version defined in gradle.properties as:
gradle.properties
Apache Groovy 3.0.7
Grails 5.1.1 provide support for Groovy 3. We would recommend you to please check the Release notes for Groovy 3 to update your application in case you are using a specific feature which might not work in Groovy 3.
Define groovyVersion in gradle.properties to force the application to use Groovy 3.
Grails 5.1 app’s gradle.properties
gradle.properties
...
groovyVersion=3.0.7
...Bump up GORM Version
If you were using GORM, you will need to update the version defined in gradle.properties as:
gradle.properties
...
gormVersion=7.2.0
...GORM for MonogDB Sync Driver
The GORM for MongoDB is updated to support latest mongodb-driver-sync. If you are using GORM for MongoDB and doing something specific to MongoDB Driver or low level Mongo API then you might want to take a look at Upgrading to the 4.0 Driver
Bump up Asset Pipeline plugin version
The previous version of asset-pipeline is not supported with Grails 5.0 as it is compiled with a version of Groovy which is binary incompatible with Groovy 3. So, please update the plugin version to 3.2.4.
Disabled StringCharArrayAccessor by default
The previous version of Grails use the StringCharArrayAccessor which is enabled by default and provides optimized access to java.lang.String internals. In Grails 5.0 it is disabled by default but you can enable it by setting a system property with name stringchararrayaccessor.disabled and value false.
| Enabling StringCharArrayAccessor would show IllegalReflectiveAccess warnings as it uses reflection to do the optimizations. |
Changes in profile.yml and feature.yml files in Grails Profiles
The format of how dependencies are defined in features and profiles has been changed. See the section on Application Profiles for more information.
Deprecation of dot navigation of Grails configuration
In order to reduce complexity, improve performance, and increase maintainability, accessing configuration through dot notation (config.a.b.c) has been deprecated. This functionality will be removed in a future release.
Also, you would see a warning message if you are accessing configuration through the dot notation.
The recommended way to access configuration is:
grailsApplication.config.getProperty("hola", String.class)Deprecated Classes
Spring 5.3
Grails 5.0.0.RC1 is built on Spring 5.3.2 See the Upgrading to Spring 5.3 if you are using Spring specific features.
Spring Boot 2.4
Grails 5.1.1 updates to Spring Boot 2.6. Please check Spring Boot 2.6 Release Notes for more information.
Micronaut 3.2.0
Grails 5.1.1 is shipped with Micronaut 3.2.0. Please check the Upgrading to Micronaut 3.x if you are using a specific feature.
Micronaut for Spring 4.0.1
Grails 5.1.1 is updated to Micronaut for Spring 4.0.1, please check out release notes for more information.
Gradle 7.x
Compile dependency configuration as well as others have been removed from Gradle 7.x. In previous version they were deprecated.
Replace configurations:
build.gradle
...
compile -> implementation
testCompile -> testImplementation
runtime -> runtimeOnly
...| More information in Gradle upgrade docs Gradle upgrade docs |
Plugins in multi-project setup
If you have grails plugins as part of multi-project builds you should also replace the compile with implementation configuration.
Additionally if your main application relied on the dependencies declared by the plugin you need to apply further changes.
To make the dependencies available again you have to declare them with api configuration. You also have to apply the java-library gradle plugin in your plugin project.
| More information gradle java-library-plugin |
3.2 Upgrading from Grails 3.3.x to Grails 4
Bump up Grails Version
You will need to upgrade your Grails version defined in gradle.properties.
Grails 3 app’s gradle.properties
gradle.properties
...
grailsVersion=3.3.8
...Grails 4 app’s gradle.properties
gradle.properties
...
grailsVersion=4.0.4
...Bump up GORM Version
If you were using GORM, you will need to update the version defined in gradle.properties.
Grails 3 app’s gradle.properties
gradle.properties
...
gormVersion=6.1.10.RELEASE
...Grails 4 app’s gradle.properties
gradle.properties
...
gormVersion=7.0.4
...Move GORM DSL Entries to runtime.groovy
GORM DSL entries should be move to runtime.groovy. For instance, using following GORM configuration in the application.groovy is not supported and will break the application:
grails.gorm.default.mapping = {
id generator: 'identity'
}Spring 5 and Spring Boot 2.1
Grails 4.0 is built on Spring 5 and Spring Boot 2.1. See the migration guide and release notes if you are using Spring specific features.
Hibernate 5.4 and GORM 7.x
Grails 4.x supports a minimum version of Hibernate 5.4 and GORM 7.x. Several changes have been made to GORM to support the newer version of Hibernate and simplify GORM itself.
The details of these changes are covered in the GORM upgrade documentation.
Spring Boot 2.1 Actuator
Please check the Spring Boot Actuator documentation since it has changed substantially from Spring Boot 1.5 the version Grails 3.x used.
If you had configuration such as:
grails-app/conf/application.yml - Grails 3.3.x
endpoints:
enabled: false
jmx:
enabled: true
unique-names: truereplace it with:
grails-app/conf/application.yml - Grails 4.x
spring:
jmx:
unique-names: true
management:
endpoints:
enabled-by-default: falseSpring Boot Developer Tools and Spring Loaded
Previous versions of Grails used a reloading agent called Spring Loaded. Since this library is no longer maintained and does not support Java 11 support for Spring Loaded has been removed.
As a replacement, Grails 4 applications include Spring Boot Developer Tools dependencies in the build.gradle build script. If you are migrating a Grails 3.x app, please include the following set of dependencies:
build.gradle
.
..
...
configurations {
developmentOnly
runtimeClasspath {
extendsFrom developmentOnly
}
}
dependencies {
developmentOnly("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-devtools")
...
..
}
...
..
.Also you should configure the necessary excludes for Spring Developer Tools in application.yml:
spring:
devtools:
restart:
exclude:
- grails-app/views/**
- grails-app/i18n/**
- grails-app/conf/**The above configuration prevents the server from restarting when views or message bundles are changed.
| You can use Spring Developer Tools in combination with a browser extension such as the Chrome LiveReload extension to get automatic browser refresh when you change anything in your Grails application. |
Spring Boot Gradle Plugin Changes
Grails 4 is built on top of Spring Boot 2.1. Grails 3 apps were built on top of Spring Boot 1.x.
Your Grails 3 app’s build.gradle may have such configuration:
build.gradle
bootRun {
addResources = true
...
}Grails 4 apps are built on top of Spring Boot 2.1. Starting from Spring Boot 2.0, the addResources property no longer exists. Instead, you need to set the sourceResources property to the source set that you want to use. Typically that’s sourceSets.main. This is described in the Spring Boot Gradle plugin’s documentation.
Your Grails 4 app’s build.gradle can be configured:
build.gradle
bootRun {
sourceResources sourceSets.main
...
}Building executable jars for Grails Plugins
The bootRepackage task has been replaced with bootJar and bootWar tasks for building executable jars and wars respectively. Both tasks extend their equivalent standard Gradle jar or war task, giving you access to all of the usual configuration options and behaviour.
If you had configuration such as:
build.gradle | Grails 3
// enable if you wish to package this plugin as a standalone application
bootRepackage.enabled = falsereplace it with:
build.gradle | Grails 4
// enable if you wish to package this plugin as a standalone application
bootJar.enabled = falseUpgrading to Gradle 5
Grails 3 apps by default used Gradle 3.5. Grails 4 apps use Gradle 5.
To upgrade to Gradle 5 execute:
./gradlew wrapper --gradle-version 5.0Due to changes in Gradle 5, transitive dependencies are no longer resolved for plugins. If your project makes use of a plugin that has transitive dependencies, you will need to add those explicitly to your build.gradle file.
If you customized your app’s build, other migrations may be necessary. Please check Gradle Upgrading your build documentation. Especially notice, that default Gradle daemon now starts with 512MB of heap instead of 1GB. Please check Default memory settings changed documentation.
Groovy language update to 2.5.6
Keep in mind, that with grails 4.0.x there is a minor groovy language upgrade (e.g. 3.3.9. used groovy 2.4.x), which requires a couple of changes, that are immediately obvious when trying to compile your source code. However there are also issues with changed implementations of core linkedlist functions! Check an overview of the breaking changes here: Breaking changes of Groovy 2.5
Removed date helper functions
Most common issue is that date util functions have been moved to individual project, e.g new Date().format("ddMMyyyy") no longer works without adding:
build.gradle
dependencies {
compile "org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-dateutil:3.0.4"
}Changed linked list method implementations
Check whether you are using the groovy version of linkedlist implementations:
-
[].pop()- will no longer remove the last, but the first element of the list. Replace it with[].removeLast()is recommended. -
[].push(..)- will no longer add to the end, but to the beginning of the list. Replace it with[].add(..)is recommended.
H2 Web Console
Spring Boot 2.1 includes native support for the H2 database web console. Since this is already included in Spring Boot the equivalent feature has been removed from Grails. The H2 console is therefore now available at /h2-console instead of the previous URI of /dbconsole. See Using H2’s Web Console in the Spring Boot documentation for more information.
Upgrade Hibernate
If you were using GORM for Hibernate implementation in your Grails 3 app, you will need to upgrade to Hibernate 5.4.
A Grails 3 build.gradle such as:
build.gradle
dependencies {
...
compile "org.grails.plugins:hibernate5"
compile "org.hibernate:hibernate-core:5.1.5.Final"
}will be in Grails 4:
build.gradle
dependencies {
...
compile "org.grails.plugins:hibernate5"
compile "org.hibernate:hibernate-core:5.4.0.Final"
}Migrating to Geb 2.3
Geb 1.1.x (a JDK 1.7 compatible version) was the version shipped by default with Grails 3. Grails 4 is no longer compatible with Java 1.7. You should migrate to Geb 2.3.
In Grails 3, if your build.gradle looks like:
build.gradle
dependencies {
testCompile "org.grails.plugins:geb:1.1.2"
testRuntime "org.seleniumhq.selenium:selenium-htmlunit-driver:2.47.1"
testRuntime "net.sourceforge.htmlunit:htmlunit:2.18"
}In Grails 4, you should replace it with:
build.gradle
buildscript {
repositories {
...
}
dependencies {
...
classpath "gradle.plugin.com.energizedwork.webdriver-binaries:webdriver-binaries-gradle-plugin:$webdriverBinariesVersion" (1)
}
}
...
..
repositories {
...
}
apply plugin:"idea"
...
...
apply plugin:"com.energizedwork.webdriver-binaries" (1)
dependencies {
...
testCompile "org.grails.plugins:geb" (4)
testRuntime "org.seleniumhq.selenium:selenium-chrome-driver:$seleniumVersion" (5)
testRuntime "org.seleniumhq.selenium:selenium-firefox-driver:$seleniumVersion" (5)
testRuntime "org.seleniumhq.selenium:selenium-safari-driver:$seleniumSafariDriverVersion" (5)
testCompile "org.seleniumhq.selenium:selenium-remote-driver:$seleniumVersion" (5)
testCompile "org.seleniumhq.selenium:selenium-api:$seleniumVersion" (5)
testCompile "org.seleniumhq.selenium:selenium-support:$seleniumVersion" (5)
}
webdriverBinaries {
chromedriver "$chromeDriverVersion" (2)
geckodriver "$geckodriverVersion" (3)
}
tasks.withType(Test) {
systemProperty "geb.env", System.getProperty('geb.env')
systemProperty "geb.build.reportsDir", reporting.file("geb/integrationTest")
systemProperty "webdriver.chrome.driver", System.getProperty('webdriver.chrome.driver')
systemProperty "webdriver.gecko.driver", System.getProperty('webdriver.gecko.driver')
}gradle.properties
gebVersion=2.3
seleniumVersion=3.12.0
webdriverBinariesVersion=1.4
hibernateCoreVersion=5.1.5.Final
chromeDriverVersion=2.44 (2)
geckodriverVersion=0.23.0 (3)
seleniumSafariDriverVersion=3.14.0| 1 | Includes Webdriver binaries Gradle plugin. |
| 2 | Set the appropriate Webdriver for Chrome version. |
| 3 | Set the appropriate Webdriver for Firefox version. |
| 4 | Includes the Grails Geb Plugin dependency which has a transitive dependency to geb-spock. This is the dependency necessary to work with Geb and Spock. |
| 5 | Selenium and different driver dependencies. |
Create also a Geb Configuration file at src/integration-test/resources/GebConfig.groovy.
src/integration-test/resources/GebConfig.groovy
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeOptions
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxOptions
import org.openqa.selenium.safari.SafariDriver
environments {
// You need to configure in Safari -> Develop -> Allowed Remote Automation
safari {
driver = { new SafariDriver() }
}
// run via “./gradlew -Dgeb.env=chrome iT”
chrome {
driver = { new ChromeDriver() }
}
// run via “./gradlew -Dgeb.env=chromeHeadless iT”
chromeHeadless {
driver = {
ChromeOptions o = new ChromeOptions()
o.addArguments('headless')
new ChromeDriver(o)
}
}
// run via “./gradlew -Dgeb.env=firefoxHeadless iT”
firefoxHeadless {
driver = {
FirefoxOptions o = new FirefoxOptions()
o.addArguments('-headless')
new FirefoxDriver(o)
}
}
// run via “./gradlew -Dgeb.env=firefox iT”
firefox {
driver = { new FirefoxDriver() }
}
}Deprecated classes
The following classes, which were deprecated in Grails 3.x, have been removed in Grails 4. Please, check the list below to find a suitable replacement:
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Grails-Java8
For those who have added a dependency on the grails-java8 plugin, all you should need to do is simply remove the dependency. All of the classes in the plugin have been moved out to their respective projects.
Profiles Deprecation
A few of the profiles supported in Grails 3.x will no longer be maintained going forward and as a result it is no longer possible to create applications when them in the shorthand form. When upgrading existing projects, it will be necessary to supply the version for these profiles.
-
org.grails.profiles:angularjs→org.grails.profiles:angularjs:1.1.2 -
org.grails.profiles:webpack→org.grails.profiles:webpack:1.1.6 -
org.grails.profiles:react-webpack→org.grails.profiles:react-webpack:1.0.8
Scheduled Methods
In Grails 3 no configuration or additional changes were necessary to use the Spring @Scheduled annotation. In Grails 4 you must apply the @EnableScheduling annotation to your application class in order for scheduling to work.