Groovy
Getting Started With Android Development Using Groovy 2.4 and Android Studio
I have followed the steps described by Hosain in this link and I am already developing an Android application fully in Groovy. No Java. Ou Yeah!
If you want some context, almost a year ago @cedricchampeau introduced at GR8Conf how to use Groovy on Android. I watched both Developing Android Application with Groovy and Android and Groovy, a winning pair and read the related blog post. I recommend you both videos to get answers to most common questions. How much system resources do I sacrifice to run Groovy on Android? Is there a performance penalty cost? Spoiler: around 1Mb and no performance penalty with @CompileStatic
Problems with using Groovy on Android? To my understanding it is not possible to use popular dependency injection frameworks such as Dagger.
Sponsored Jobs
Grails
Grails’ JSONObject.NULL More or Less Equal To Null
Read @tvinke's post to understand how to test your JSON API outputs in case of null values. This link and the next are the kind of programming autopsies that help other programmers save hours of frustration.
Adding field to hasMany, got MySql error ??
Ankit Agrawal published in @tothenew's blog which describes how to face a MySql error while adding a field to a hasMany relationship. He gives more than ten possible causes which he has explored while trying to fix a bug. I immediately share his pain and thank him for sharing the solution.
Gradle
Gradle for Android and Java Free Course
@mark_vieira hosts a Gradle for Android and Java Course in Udacity. Gradle is my company's build system; both for backend and Android. Thus, I am gonna push my Android team to do this course and you should too.
If you are not familiar with Udacity, please watch the awesome TWIST interview with Sebastian Thrun.
Video
▶ Ken Kousen speaks about Grails 3 and Testing Grails
Austin Groovy and Grails Meetup hosted a Google Hangout with @kenkousen. The video is great but they experienced some technical difficulties. There are two gaps without sound from 25:17 - 37:21 and 01:07:03 - 1:10:15. Moreover, good stuff starts at 16:10. The video focuses on testing in Grails but it is an opportunity to discuss several Grails 3 changes. For example, Ken Kousen speaks about scaffolding removal. He calls it a questionable move. I tend to agree. Scaffolding can be a great asset for teaching and welcome new programmers into the framework. But the highlight of the video for me is that I discovered Groovy's combinations() method. Such a powerful tool for testing.
Libraries
Dependable Microservices via Lattice
@JacobASeverson's post shows how to deploy a Grails 3 app to Docker and cluster it with Lattice. I personally have no experience with Docker or Lattice but it looks so straightforward that I was able to follow through. Create a Dockerfile, add some dependencies and configuration to build.gradle and you are good to go.
Yes, Yes, I know I should learn about Docker.
Google IO 2015
Google IO 2015 finished last Friday. I was dreaming we could see an announcement from Google about the adoption of Groovy as the new Android language. Kind of WWDC 2014 Swift announcement. Unfortunately that did not happen. In spite of not being news this week, I have included a couple links about how to use Groovy on Android just to overcome the disappointment.
Groovy Dev Weekly