Groovy, Grails and Google Maps: Mashups 101

Groovy is a new dynamic language that dramatically speeds up Java development. Grails is a complete web framework in a box, including a web server and a database. Google Maps allows you to add maps to your webpage in a few lines of code. Put all three together and you are built for speed.

In this talk, Scott discussed how to incorporate Google Maps with your database-driven web application. Mashing up local data is one thing: mapping data from other websites is just as easy. Groovy's XML parsing capabilities make dealing with web services a breeze. Creating mashup means understanding both web services and Ajax-based mapping services. This talk provided sound fundamentals in both. The rich toolsets out there allow you to spatially-enable data that you never thought of mapping.

About Scott Davis

Scott Davis is the founder of ThirstyHead.com, a training company that specializes in Groovy and Grails training.

Scott published one of the first public websites implemented in Grails in 2006 and has been actively working with the technology ever since. Author of the book Groovy Recipes: Greasing the Wheels of Java and two ongoing IBM developerWorks article series (Mastering Grails and in 2009, Practically Groovy), Scott writes extensively about how Groovy and Grails are the future of Java development.

More About Scott »