Where to put a text file in Grails, and how to get the path

Question

I need to read in a .txt file into a groovy class in order to interrogate it line by line. But I am not sure what folder I put it into in my grails app, and how to get the

Answer 1

You can use Spring's resource loading to access the file. With this method you can access the file from a Spring bean, which means Grails can autowire the resource in to its artifacts.

See below for the following steps examples

1. Place the file in grails-app/conf/.
2. Make a resource holder class in src/groovy
3. Add the resource holder as a Spring bean in grails-app/spring/resources.groovy
4. Then autowire and use the resource wherever you need it

Step 2:

package resource

import org.springframework.core.io.Resource

class ResourceHolder {
    Resource lexicon
}

Step 3:

beans = {
    lexiconHolder(resource.ResourceHolder) {
        lexicon = 'classpath:lexicon.txt'
    }
}

Step 4:

class AnyGrailsService {
    def lexiconHolder

    void aMethodUsingTheLexicon() {
        File lexicon = lexiconHolder.lexicon.file

        /* Do stuff with the lexicon */
    }