Grails

Allow updating / overriding precompiled GSPs in war-deployed mode ("gsp only reloading" -mode for production)

Details

  • Type: New Feature New Feature
  • Status: Closed Closed
  • Priority: Major Major
  • Resolution: Fixed
  • Affects Version/s: 1.2 final
  • Fix Version/s: 1.3.5
  • Component/s: View technologies
  • Labels:
    None

Description

Sometimes there is a customer requirement to immediately change some information in a grails gsp file.
In war deployed mode, there should be a possibility to update gsps easily while running in production (without full reloading enabled).

Precompiled gsps classes contain the timestamp of the original gsp file in a static field called LAST_MODIFIED. If the override directory is specified it should be checked for an updated version of the gsp file. If the gsp file is newer, it should be used and compiled on the fly. There should be a parameter which defines the interval between checking for new versions of a gsp file (5000ms default).

If the war is deployed in "exploded mode", the default directory for overriding gsps is servletContext.getRealPath("/WEB-INF").
The gsps are in WEB-INF/grails-app/views and WEB-INF/plugins/*/grails-app/views directories by default in war deployed mode.

Issue Links

is related to

Improvement - An improvement or enhancement to an existing feature or task. GRAILS-5898 Selective (runtime) GSP Reloading

  • Minor - Minor loss of function, or other problem where easy workaround is present.
  • Open - The issue is open and ready for the assignee to start work on it.

Improvement - An improvement or enhancement to an existing feature or task. GRAILS-6180 Precompilation of gsp should be optional when generating the war file

  • Minor - Minor loss of function, or other problem where easy workaround is present.
  • Reopened - This issue was once resolved, but the resolution was deemed incorrect. From here issues are either marked assigned or resolved.
relates to

Improvement - An improvement or enhancement to an existing feature or task. GRAILS-7161 Enable caching for GrailsViewResolver when GSP reloading is enabled in production (war-deployed)

  • Minor - Minor loss of function, or other problem where easy workaround is present.
  • Closed - The issue is considered finished, the resolution is correct. Issues which are closed can be reopened.

Activity

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Fabien Benichou added a comment -

This feature would be great because grails.gsp.enable.reload=true really hurts performance and reploying a WAR is too heavy for a view fix only !!

One 'easy' way to do it, might be to delete the gsp class of a view, and if Grails does not find it, it will try to recompile it from WEB-INF/grails-app/views directory

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Fabien Benichou added a comment - This feature would be great because grails.gsp.enable.reload=true really hurts performance and reploying a WAR is too heavy for a view fix only !! One 'easy' way to do it, might be to delete the gsp class of a view, and if Grails does not find it, it will try to recompile it from WEB-INF/grails-app/views directory
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Marius Seritan added a comment -

It seems that customers always want changes after you push to production. Something about saying "It's live!" really focuses their attention. I end up putting bits of markup in the database and building adhoc CMS systems for the parts that change the most. So it would be nice if Grails supported changes in production.

On the other side if the changes are not in source control they do not exist. So maybe deploy-through-sync may give you the best of both worlds: change the file locally and commit then sync the changes to production where they take effect without restart.

Marius

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Marius Seritan added a comment - It seems that customers always want changes after you push to production. Something about saying "It's live!" really focuses their attention. I end up putting bits of markup in the database and building adhoc CMS systems for the parts that change the most. So it would be nice if Grails supported changes in production. On the other side if the changes are not in source control they do not exist. So maybe deploy-through-sync may give you the best of both worlds: change the file locally and commit then sync the changes to production where they take effect without restart. Marius
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Fabien Benichou added a comment -

Marius,

Could you please explain me how these adhoc CMS parts are built in your grails application?

You can write here or email me at fabien7474 [at] gmail [dot] com

Thank you.

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Fabien Benichou added a comment - Marius, Could you please explain me how these adhoc CMS parts are built in your grails application? You can write here or email me at fabien7474 [at] gmail [dot] com Thank you.
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Fabien Benichou added a comment - - edited

Please, when considering to fix this issue, have a look at GRAILS-6180 that has been closed because considered as a duplicate.
Actually, GRAILS-6180 is different in that it does not require to reload GSP on live BUT need an option for creating a WAR without GSP pre-compiled. GRAILS-6180 should not have been closed.

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Fabien Benichou added a comment - - edited Please, when considering to fix this issue, have a look at GRAILS-6180 that has been closed because considered as a duplicate. Actually, GRAILS-6180 is different in that it does not require to reload GSP on live BUT need an option for creating a WAR without GSP pre-compiled. GRAILS-6180 should not have been closed.
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Lari Hotari added a comment -

I have implemented this feature. http://github.com/grails/grails-core/commit/3cb34cdf66ff6e48bbc928f8e05dd823efe650a1

Basic documentation:
Reloading of GSPs can be enabled by setting "grails.gsp.reload.enable=true" in Config.groovy .

After enabling GSP reloading you can directly edit the files in the expanded war directory (for example tomcat/webapps/myapp/WEB-INF/grails-app/views/my.gsp). Grails will use precompiled versions of GSPs for unedited gsp files.
It's recommended to deploy the webapp in "expanded mode" by unzipping the war file to a directory manually if you plan to use this feature. File copying must preserve original modification times for files since decision of the latest version is made upon the file's modification time information.

System properties to controll behaviour:
grails.gsp.reload.interval interval between checking the lastmodified time of the gsp source file, default value 5000 (ms)
grails.gsp.reload.enable altervative system property for enabling the GSP reload mode
grails.gsp.reload.granularity the number of milliseconds leeway to give before deciding a file is out of date. this is needed because different roundings usually cause a 1000ms difference in lastmodified times, default value 1000 (ms).

Show
Lari Hotari added a comment - I have implemented this feature. http://github.com/grails/grails-core/commit/3cb34cdf66ff6e48bbc928f8e05dd823efe650a1 Basic documentation: Reloading of GSPs can be enabled by setting "grails.gsp.reload.enable=true" in Config.groovy . After enabling GSP reloading you can directly edit the files in the expanded war directory (for example tomcat/webapps/myapp/WEB-INF/grails-app/views/my.gsp). Grails will use precompiled versions of GSPs for unedited gsp files. It's recommended to deploy the webapp in "expanded mode" by unzipping the war file to a directory manually if you plan to use this feature. File copying must preserve original modification times for files since decision of the latest version is made upon the file's modification time information. System properties to controll behaviour: grails.gsp.reload.interval interval between checking the lastmodified time of the gsp source file, default value 5000 (ms) grails.gsp.reload.enable altervative system property for enabling the GSP reload mode grails.gsp.reload.granularity the number of milliseconds leeway to give before deciding a file is out of date. this is needed because different roundings usually cause a 1000ms difference in lastmodified times, default value 1000 (ms).
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Lari Hotari added a comment -

New feature to support template caching in g:render taglib when reloading is enabled.
http://github.com/grails/grails-core/commit/b1b597d828b5e2fb85ed303fcb74eac5037afc9b

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Lari Hotari added a comment - New feature to support template caching in g:render taglib when reloading is enabled. http://github.com/grails/grails-core/commit/b1b597d828b5e2fb85ed303fcb74eac5037afc9b
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Lari Hotari added a comment -

Documentation for new reloading features: http://github.com/grails/grails-doc/commit/9b523bd52cae5cf662c59f6b5f4cfb1baad27d66

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Lari Hotari added a comment - Documentation for new reloading features: http://github.com/grails/grails-doc/commit/9b523bd52cae5cf662c59f6b5f4cfb1baad27d66
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Lari Hotari added a comment -

Additional fix: http://github.com/grails/grails-core/commit/12d39c8449ac1ce167a6a6aced56594ec9092380 . Reloading works now for deployed exploded war directories (for example tomcat/webapps/myapp/WEB-INF/grails-app/views/my/my.gsp).

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Lari Hotari added a comment - Additional fix: http://github.com/grails/grails-core/commit/12d39c8449ac1ce167a6a6aced56594ec9092380 . Reloading works now for deployed exploded war directories (for example tomcat/webapps/myapp/WEB-INF/grails-app/views/my/my.gsp).
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Ryan Vanderwerf added a comment -

as far as I can tell, this is not actually working or fixed on 1.3.5. See http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/GRAILS-6959 for more info and a test app.

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Ryan Vanderwerf added a comment - as far as I can tell, this is not actually working or fixed on 1.3.5. See http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/GRAILS-6959 for more info and a test app.
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Lari Hotari added a comment -

The correct property name to enable GSP reloading is "grails.gsp.enable.reload" . There is a typo in the documentation.

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Lari Hotari added a comment - The correct property name to enable GSP reloading is "grails.gsp.enable.reload" . There is a typo in the documentation.
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Lari Hotari added a comment -

TODO: fix documentation.

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Lari Hotari added a comment - TODO: fix documentation.
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Lari Hotari added a comment -

Fixed documentation:
1.3.x branch: https://github.com/grails/grails-doc/commit/3b0d8a2d2c1cad16b84e981e9af3e172511ec2ed
master branch: https://github.com/grails/grails-doc/commit/8ba0762f30517b2d05b8657a78c38ad68f73e8b8

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Lari Hotari added a comment - Fixed documentation: 1.3.x branch: https://github.com/grails/grails-doc/commit/3b0d8a2d2c1cad16b84e981e9af3e172511ec2ed master branch: https://github.com/grails/grails-doc/commit/8ba0762f30517b2d05b8657a78c38ad68f73e8b8

People

  • Assignee:
    Lari Hotari
    Reporter:
    Lari Hotari
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Dates

  • Created:
    Updated:
    Resolved: