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Asked: 2026-05-11T01:59:55+00:00

There are essentially 2 places to define JavaScript functions in Grails, directly in a

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There are essentially 2 places to define JavaScript functions in Grails, directly in a element on the GSP, and within a separate javascript source file under /web-app/js (for example, application.js). We have defined a commonly reused javascript function within application.js, but we also need to be able to generate parts of the function dynamically using groovy code. Unfortunately, ${some groovy code} does not appear to be processed within separate javascript source files.

Is the only way to do this by defining the javascript function within a script tag on a GSP page, or is there a more general solution? Obviously we could define the javascript function in a script tag within a template GSP file which would be reused, but there is a lot of push to keep our javascript functions defined all together in one place (i.e. the external javascript source file). This has performance benefits as well (the javascript source files are usually just downloaded once by each client’s browser, instead of reloading the same javascript functions within the source of every html page they visit). I have toyed around with the idea of breaking the function up into static and dynamic pieces, putting the static ones in the external source and putting the dynamic ones in the template GSP, then gluing them together, but this seems like an unnecessary hack.

Any ideas?

(edit: It may sound like the idea of dynamically generating parts of a JavaScript function, which is then downloaded once and used over and over again by the client, would be a bad idea. However, the piece which is ‘dynamic’ only changes perhaps once a week or month, and then only very slightly. Mostly we just want this piece generated off the database, even if only once, instead of hard coded.)

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  1. An easy solution to keep your JavaScript unobtrusive is to create a JavaScriptController and map its actions ‘/js/*’ by adding this to your UrlMappings.groovy file:

    '/js/$action'{   controller = 'javascript' }

    then just create an action for each dynamic JS file you want, include in in your layout <HEAD>, and presto, you’ve got a JS file that you can insert Grails snippets into! 🙂

    Note: I’ve found that there’s currently a bug in Grails that doesn’t map file extensions to content-types properly, so you’ll need to include <%@ page contentType='text/javascript; UTF-8' %> at the top of your view files.

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