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Composi t i on on Gr ai l s
Sean Doyle, SAP NetWeaver
September 2008
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1. Introduction
1.1 Whats Grails?
1.2 Whats Composition on Grails (CoG)?
1.3 Why Composition on Grails?
1.4 What is CoGSole (CoG web ConSole)?
1.5 Why CogSole?
2. Demo
2.1 CoGSole wizard
2.2 Builder script engine
2.3 Web services
3. Future directions
3.1 Composition on Grails Enhancements
Agenda
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SAP Composi t i on on Gr ai l s
Whats Grails?
Whats Grails?
Grails is an open source web application framework which leverages the Groovy
programming language (which is in turn based on the J ava platform). Grails is intended
to be a high-productivity framework by following the "coding by convention" paradigm,
providing a stand-alone development environment and hiding much of the
configuration detail from the developer.
(i.e. a tool that lets you build web apps quickly!)
Whats Composition on Grails?
Whats Composition on Grails?
A tool (now web based) that enables users to quickly build and run SAP applications
(with or without deploying them) by leveraging the Grails framework.
It uses WebDynpro to render the views and has libraries to help consume web
services and BAPIs
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SAP Composi t i on on Gr ai l s
Composition on Grails Architecture
Composition on Grails Architecture
1. Developer creates domain class models and (optionally) service clients
2. Models are read by groovy script generators->produce views and controllers
3. Users can access generated application (via web browser)
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SAP Composi t i on on Gr ai l s
Composition on Grails Architecture
Composition on Grails Architecture
Consists of:
Tools: Developer builds & modifies apps using Eclipse/ NetWeaver IDE & WD generator
Grails/WD bridge: Renders applications in WebDynPro
WebDynPro Runtime: Renders the views and stores variables
Grails Runtime: Interprets groovy code and interfaces with persistence framework
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Composi t i on on Gr ai l s
Why Composition on Grails? Why Composition on Grails?
Integrating Grails increases productivity
and flexibility of SAP NetWeaver
Provide a simple to consume
composition platform for ISVs and
customers
Reduce Total Cost of Development
(TCD)
SAP 2008 / Page 6
Flexibility
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
Visual
Modeling &
Patterns Composition
On Grails
NW Java
Platform
oIndependent software vendors (ISVs) & consultants can quickly create customized
apps; especially useful in the long tail apps i.e. frequently used apps are common to
many business partners but each one has specific needs for customized apps. To avoid
the overhead of building enterprise apps CoG provides a lightweight alternative
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Gr oovy and J ava
Both compile to J VM bytecode virtually all java code is compatible with groovy compiler
Groovy is loosely typed & has simpler syntax
Groovy may or may not use classes
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Gr ai l s f eat ur es
CRUD Operations
CRUD Operations
Grails domain classes use dynamic persistent methods to facilitate CRUD
(Create/Read/Update/Delete) operations on persistent classes
These methods are automatically generated so only the domain classes need to be
created by the user
Grails Object Relational Mapping (GORM)
Grails Object Relational Mapping (GORM)
Domain classes are core to any business application. They hold state about business
processes. They are linked together through relationships, either one-to-one or one-to-
many.
GORM is Grails' object relational mapping (ORM) implementation. Under the hood it
uses Hibernate 3 (an extremely popular and flexible open source ORM solution) but
because of the dynamic nature of Groovy, the fact that it supports both static and
dynamic typing, and the convention of Grails there is less configuration involved in
creating Grails domain classes
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Real Wor l d Rai l s Appl i c at i ons
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Ec l i pse based Composi t i on on Gr ai l s
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CoGSol e - Web based Composi t i on on Gr ai l s
CoGSole is a 100% web-
based system that allows
knowledge workers to create
their own custom business
applications, with file
manager, console interface for
compiling and execution of
code and an editor with syntax
highlighting, which is
accessed using a browser.
Instant development and
code testing
Begin to code without spending
time with configurations and
environments;
Test your code instantly;
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Why CoGSol e? - Desk t op I DE vs Web I DE
Description
Problem: Developers spend too much
time to become productive
Problem: Developers spend too much
time to become productive
Solution Solution
Scripting languages & Rails framework growing
in popularity with the web developer community
SaaS not just web services & web based apps
but web based tools for building web based apps
Several companies are building web IDEs
Technology trends Technology trends
Desktop IDE -Download, install, configure,
plugins, updates, deployment, etc. (installing
server takes even longer)
Grails - command line tools create-domain-class,
generate-controllers, etc.
Searching for required libs e.g. testing
webservices in IDE requires several extra jars
Web based IDE > Composition on Grails web Console (CoGSole)
Zero download, install, config, updates, etc.
Access your code from anywhere
Shorter development cycle; changes available upon page reload
edit/compile/deploy/test cycle ->edit/test
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Tec hnol ogy t r ends: Her ok u.c om
Web based ruby on rails
application tool
Problems:
Unclear where to get
started building apps
Not downloadable - cant
install on intranet
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Demo
Composi t i on on Gr ai l s Demo
Steve Marks
Developer
Demo Act 1:
Steve writes the
Inventory models
and generates the
application
Demo Act 2:
Steve tailors the
generated Web
Dynpro
Demo Act 3:
Steve integrates
the system using
BAPIs and Web
Services
Steve is a developer whos building an Inventory Level Replenishment
(ILR) composite. ILR allows retailers to resupply by periodically
reporting their inventory levels to the manufacturer. The
manufacturer's agents then create sales orders to bring the
customer's stock back up to pre-defined levels.
Report
inventory
Customer
Review
and trigger
replenishment
Sales agent
Sales
order
(ERP)
The Company: McGee is a Tier 1 supplier for US-based automotive manufacturers,
including American and Foreign brands manufactured in the US and Mexico. They are
based outside of Cincinnati, OH, and have manufacturing facilities in Ohio and in
Southern Texas. McGee employs 2,300 people across these two locations.
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I nvent or y Level Repl eni shment (I LR)
Customer
Threshold Inventory
Basically user just defines domain classes and relationships
The platform takes care of the rest, i.e. create database
entries, generate controllers, views & CRUD operations
(Create/Read/Update/Delete)
Product
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CoG as a CoG appl i c at i on
Application
Domains
Controllers
Services
All Grails applications consist of a collection of domains, and services.
Each domain contains set of controllers implementing CRUD operations & views
An alternative to CogSole is CoG built with CoG (CoG
2
)
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Composi t i on on Gr ai l s Summar y
Value Proposition
Value Proposition
Reduce overall complexity of app
development
Combine productivity of web based
design with the flexibility of coding
Rapid web application development;
developer changes available instantly
Key Innovations
Key Innovations
Simplified SAP NetWeaver
technologies like Web Dynpro
through Groovy scripting
Easy to use remote connectivity:
BAPIs, Enterprise Services
Provided platform as a service by
creating web based development
tool.
Next Steps / Open Points
Next Steps / Open Points
Deploy to the cloud - no need to install & maintain servers (just need a browser!)
Involve developer community
Project released on SDN for public trial:
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/wiki?path=/display/Community/Composition+On+Grails
Questions/comments: sean.doyle@sap.com
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Gr ai l s obj ec t r el at i onshi ps
A class can belong to multiple related classes like this:
class Book {static belongsTo =[Author,Publisher]}
class Author {static hasMany =[books:Book] }
In other words:
an owner can have belongings
belongings use the 'belongsTo' property to refer to their owner(s)
if an owner dies, all his belongings vanish, if the owner actually has direct references
or an explicit hasMany relationship.
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CoG Evol ut i on
Testing web services in NW IDE; required a lot of configuration to generate proxies and call
the web service (See https://wiki.wdf.sap.corp/display/NWI/Composition+on+Grails+-
+Webservices)
Created web service client code generator in WebDynpro so no configuration and extra libs
required
We realized the whole application building tool could be web based.
Value prop - just one install
everyone can use it
available from any web device
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SAP Composi t i on on Gr ai l s
Deployed Application
Deployed Application
Resulting applications can be deployed to portal
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Quest i ons?
Thank you!
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