Grails Web Console

Summary

A web-based Groovy console for interactive runtime application management and debugging

Versions

• 1.X for Grails 2
• 2.0.X for Grails 3.0 - 3.2
• 2.2.X for Grails 3.3+
• 4.X.X for Grails 4+
• 5.X.X for Grails 5+
• 6.X.X for Grails 6+
• 7.X.X for Grails 7+

Installation

Add a dependency in build.gradle

repositories {
    maven { url "https://repo.grails.org/grails/core/" }
}

dependencies {
    runtimeOnly 'com.github.grails-plugins:grails-web-console:7.0.0-M1'
}

Usage

Use a browser to navigate to the /console page of your running app, e.g. http://localhost:8080/{app-name}/console

Type any Groovy commands in the console text area, then click on the execute button. The console plugin relies on Groovy Shell. Lookup Groovy Shell documentation for more information. The Groovy Shell uses the Grails classloader, so you can access any class or artifact (e.g. domain classes, services, etc.) just like in your application code.

Saving/loading scripts

Click on the Save button to save the current script.

Use the Storage pane to navigate existing files. Click on a file to load it into the editor.

There are currently two storage options available:

Local Storage

Local Storage uses HTML5 Web Storage. The files are serialized and stored in the browser as a map under the key gconsole.files.

Remote Storage

Remote Storage uses the filesystem of the server on which the application is running.

Writing to the browser console

Calls made to the implicit console variable will be executed on the browser's console. The arguments are serialized as JSON and the calls are queued to run after the script completes.

Example:

Implicit variables

The following implicit variables are available:

• ctx - the Spring ApplicationContext
• grailsApplication - the GrailsApplication instance
• config - the Grails configuration
• request - the current HTTP request
• session - the current HTTP session
• out - the output PrintStream

See Script Examples for example usage.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Command
Ctrl-Enter / ⌘-Enter	Execute
Ctrl-S / ⌘-S	Save
Esc	Clear output

Configuration

The following configuration options are available:

Property	Description
grails.plugin.console.enabled	Whether to enable the plugin. Default is true for the development environment, false otherwise.
grails.plugin.console.baseUrl	Base URL for the console controller. Can be a String or a List of Strings if having multiple URLs is desired. Default uses createLink().
grails.plugin.console.fileStore.remote.enabled	Whether to include the remote file store functionality. Default is true.
grails.plugin.console.fileStore.remote.defaultPath	Default path when browsing remote files. Default is /.
grails.plugin.console.layout	Used to override the plugin's GSP layout.
grails.plugin.console.newFileText	Text to display as a template for new files. Can be used to add frequently used imports, environment specific warnings, etc... Defaults to empty.
grails.plugin.console.tabSize	The width of a tab character. Defaults to 4.
grails.plugin.console.indentWithTabs	Whether indents should use tabs rather than spaces. Default is false.
grails.plugin.console.indentUnit	How many spaces a block should be indented. Default is 4.
grails.plugin.console.csrfProtection.enabled	Whether to enable CSRF protection. Default is true.

Security

By default (as of v1.5.0) the console plugin is only enabled in the development environment. You can enable or disable it for any environment with the grails.plugin.console.enabled config option in Config.groovy / application.groovy (Grails 3). If the plugin is enabled in non-development environments, be sure to guard access using a security plugin like Spring Security Core or Shiro. For Grails 2.x, the paths /console/** and /plugins/console*/** should be secured. For Grails 3.x, the paths /console/** and /static/console/** should be secured.

Spring Security Core example:

grails.plugin.springsecurity.controllerAnnotations.staticRules = [
    [pattern:"/console/**",          access:['ROLE_ADMIN']],
    [pattern:"/static/console/**",   access:['ROLE_ADMIN']],
]

Another example restricting access to localhost IPs:

grails.plugin.springsecurity.controllerAnnotations.staticRules = [
    [pattern:"/console/**",          access:["hasRole('ROLE_ADMIN') && (hasIpAddress('127.0.0.1') || hasIpAddress('::1'))"]],
    [pattern:"/static/console/**",   access:["hasRole('ROLE_ADMIN') && (hasIpAddress('127.0.0.1') || hasIpAddress('::1'))"]],
]

Authors

• Siegfried Puchbauer
• Mingfai Ma
• Burt Beckwith
• Matt Sheehan
• Mike Hugo
• Kamil Dybicz
• Sachin Verma
• James Daugherty
• Scott Murphy
• Søren Berg Glasius

Development

Please see CONTRIBUTING.md

Local deployment

Please see LOCALDEPLOYMENT.md