Recently I joined a long running Grails project and had to complete some issues in a short time. After a quick introduction I was ready to dive in and instantly could chunk out code. Convention over Configuration helped a lot getting a fast start:
- Which classes are persisted? Look into the domain folder.
- What controller handles xyz? It is named after xyz.
- What is the page that is served for URL u? Look into the corresponding folder and find the view named accordingly.
IMHO this is a benefit that many conventions are determined by the framework. If you know the framework, you know the layout of the project. The opposite holds also true: if the project departs from these “standards” you have to look closely into the configuration.
So think twice before you do something your way. Sometimes you have no choice like when you are using Oracle and have to cut all table and column names to 30 characters. But normally you should keep the defaults.
Schneide Blog 