Grails Controller Mapping, Complete misunderstanding

Question

Okay, I'm trying to learn grails and I don't get how does UrlMappings work.

This is my code:

package naturalselector

class UrlMappings {

static mappings = {
    "/pleasemapit"(view: '/index')
    "/creatures/" {
      controller = 'NaturalSelectionController'
      action = 'viewCreatures'
    }
    "500"(view:'/error')
    "404"(view:'/notFound')
}
}

Controller class:

package naturalselector

class NaturalSelectionController {

def viewCreatures() {
  println("HIT viewCreatures")
  List creatures
  6.times { idx ->
    creatures.add(new RandomCreature())
    println creatures.get(idx)
  }
  redirect (view: "/index")
}
}

controller is in grails-app\controllers\naturalselector\ UrlMappings are in the same dir.

In all examples controller has a lower case value. I don't understand. Is it a package? Why would you specify controller as a package? I just want to execute method in controller, I don't want to render any page yet, just redirect back to index. Thank you.

Answer 1

Is it a package?

No.

Why would you specify controller as a package?

You wouldn't.

Instead of this...

static mappings = {
    "/pleasemapit"(view: '/index')
    "/creatures/" {
        controller = 'NaturalSelectionController'
        action = 'viewCreatures'
    }
    "500"(view:'/error')
    "404"(view:'/notFound')
}

Use this...

static mappings = {
    "/pleasemapit"(view: '/index')
    "/creatures" {
        controller = 'naturalSelection'
        action = 'viewCreatures'
    }
    "500"(view:'/error')
    "404"(view:'/notFound')
}

Or this...

static mappings = {
    "/pleasemapit"(view: '/index')
    "/creatures"(controller: 'naturalSelection', action: 'viewCreatures')
    "500"(view:'/error')
    "404"(view:'/notFound')
}