Tools
Coda
We have a couple of internal web applications whose frontend is a static website which connects to a Grails 3 JSON API. They are built with HTML, CSS and Javascript + JQuery. I use Coda to work in those frontends. Coda is probably the best static website IDE that exists for OSX. It has excellent support for PHP if you need to edit your Wordpress theme too. And the killer feature for me is the integrated VCS and publishing mechanism which allows you to deploy your changes in one click; with support for SFTP, FTP, S3
IntelliJ IDEA the Java IDE
IntelliJ is the IDE if you are in the Grails/Groovy world, period. One of the modules which I was not using before and I have been using like crazy in the 2015 edition is the database module. They have great support for postgresql, our database of choice at Shoptimix. I have removed pgadmin from my dock due to features such as queries autocomplete, shortcuts to speed your queries trigger, export results as CSVs ...
Paw – The ultimate REST client for Mac
Our use of Grails is mainly to generate JSON APIs and Paw is an absolutely joy to use if your work involves JSON API testing. They have support for everything: http verbs, headers, authorization, url parameters, parameters in the body as a json payload, response formatting, configuration files ... I love it.
SnippetsLab - The missing code snippets manager
I am a heavy Evernote user. However, it became messy for me to store all the code notes in the same program as invoices, manuals and plain text notes.
Because of this I was searching for a good code snippet manager when I found SnippetsLab. I've been using for just couple of weeks and so far so good. It has great support for code highlighting and dialects such SQL Postgresql. Moreover, it allows you to organise your code in folders
Dash - API Documentation Browser
I jump from iOS, Android and Grails Development in a daily routine. Dash allows me to have a centralised desktop app where the docsets for all my daily technologies live. Moreover, it has nice iOS companion apps.
Tower - The most powerful Git client for Mac
My Git client. Always opened on my Dock. It has support of multiple Github or Bitbucket accounts. A Beautiful UI to select what you wish to commit. Integrated support for common workflows such as Git-Flow. Great great tool for Git.
Prompt 2
I you are on iOS and you manage servers this app will give you peace of mind when you go out without your laptop. A powerful SSH client in your pocket always ready
I took a break from writing Groovy Calamari this week. Instead of just skipping this weekend I decided to send a different email. This issue is filled with my recommendations of essential tools for Grails programming, backend development in general. None of these tools have been picked for any other reason than the fact I use them and love them!
So, If you did not get what you wished for in Christmas, these tools are surely a good gift to any developer.
Here's to a successful 2016 for everyone! Thanks for reading.
Groovy Calamari