How to rename an existing Grails application

Question

Hi there,

Does anybody know how to (easily) "rename" an existing grails application? I'm running into this because my PaaS provider does not allow me to delete a subscription... So I want to deploy my application under a different name.

Of course, I can do this manually, but I think it might be a useful 'top-level' script (i.e. "grails rename-app newappname")

Manual hints:

When I do a "grails create-app myappname" I can see the myappname exists in the following files (and filenames)... Of course this is done by the create-app script, which replaces @...@ tokens in the template. I guess once they are replaced, it's not trivial to do a rename.

./.project: <name>myappname</name>
./application.properties:app.name=myappname
./build.xml:<project xmlns:ivy="antlib:org.apache.ivy.ant" name="myappname" default="test">
./ivy.xml:    <info organisation="org.example" module="myappname"/>
./myappname-test.launch:<stringAttribute key="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.PROJECT_ATTR" value="myappname"/>
./myappname.launch:<listEntry value="/myappname"/>
./myappname.launch:<listEntry value="<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <runtimeClasspathEntry containerPath="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.JRE_CONTAINER" javaProject="myappname" path="1" type="4"/> "/>
./myappname.launch:<stringAttribute key="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.PROJECT_ATTR" value="myappname"/>
./myappname.launch:<stringAttribute key="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.VM_ARGUMENTS" value="-Dbase.dir="${project_loc:myappname}" -Dserver.port=8080 -Dgrails.env=development"/>
./myappname.tmproj: <string>myappname.launch</string>

And of course... the top-level directory name is "myappname"

Any hints, or information about ongoing initiatives in this area are welcome

Greetz,

Johan

Answer 1

Hmm, I know it doesn't look fun, but it shouldn't be difficult (just boring) to rename the project directory, then all the files with your project name in them (you can ignore .tmproj unless you use TextMate). Finally, a quick search through all the files for your old project name to replace and you should have it.

Oh! First, if you're using an IDE, you'll want to remove the project from the IDE, then re-import it once you've completed your renaming procedure.

As far as I know, nothing project-specific is stored anywhere except the project directory and below, so it's a very finite set to search, and you only have to do this once (I hope).

Not very elegant, I know, but brute force does have its uses.

Answer 2

I had to do this, I renamed my project top level directory to the new name and edited the application.properties file. There is a line app.name=youroldappname which should be changed.

Actually, you do not even have to rename the directory. You could have a different web-app name.

Answer 3

I used the brute force Method and it worked for me. Took 5-10 minutes to find all files with the name in it and replace it with the new one. Also Netbeans was ok afterwards. The only thing that changed was the port number which I had to change again.

Answer 4

Just renaming works except when you are using plugins. They will be stored in the $USER_HOME/.grails/$GRAILS_VERSION/projects/OLDNAME folder.

So after renaming your project you "lost" your plugins. I haven't tried renaming the plugin's folder however just installing all your plugin works as well (at least with Google App Engine and gorm-jpa).