Grails for prototyping and enterprise applications

[Hussein Baghdadi]

Hi,
I'm asked to create a quick web application prototype and I'm thinking of Grails, the dead line is really tight.
I'm familiar with Groovy and Grails, in fact I did a couple of simple Grails projects last year.
If every thing is ok and the management approved the demo, the project should be an enterprise application. How much Grails is suitable for enterprise applications in the long term?
My Grails knowledge was at version 1.2.x, should I expect any surprises in 1.3.x?
Management top requirements are:
1. Not complicated code base.
2. High performance isn't a feature, it a requirement.
3. Security is the nerve system of the application, the application is about real estates.
Given these criteria, do you think Grails is suitable? I'm worry about the performance.
Thanks for help and time.

[Gregg Bolinger]

Grails is just Spring and Hibernate via Groovy. Both of which are heavily used in enterprise level applications. What specifically about performance concerns you?

[Hussein Baghdadi]

I'm concerned about Groovy and GSP performance. I don't know if performance is better in Grails 1.3.x.
We need a trusted security solution, what do you suggest? Spring Security or Apache Shiro?

[Gregg Bolinger]

John Todd wrote:I'm concerned about Groovy and GSP performance. I don't know if performance is better in Grails 1.3.x.
We need a trusted security solution, what do you suggest? Spring Security or Apache Shiro?

Taglibs are still a small performance concern, but they are better in 1.3.x. Groovy is not an issue. You'll have network and database latency issues before you have groovy performance issues. I always use Spring Security. Neither are more or less secure than the other.

[Hussein Baghdadi]

On a side note:
Do you think JRuby on Rails is a vital option in general?
You have working knowledge in Spring, Hibernate and Groovy but have you considered coding in JRails?

[Gregg Bolinger]

John Todd wrote:On a side note:
Do you think JRuby on Rails is a vital option in general?
You have working knowledge in Spring, Hibernate and Groovy but have you considered coding in JRails?

No, I don't care for the ruby language, among other purely opinionated issues.

[Hussein Baghdadi]

What about Grails memory consumption? Should I worry about it?

[Gregg Bolinger]

John Todd wrote:What about Grails memory consumption? Should I worry about it?

You should worry about it in the context of any Java based application. Grails adds some slight overhead to everything because of Groovy but once it is running, it is really just Spring and Hibernate. That said, I know nothing about the application you need to build so it is really impossible to say something like "grails will work for you". All I can say is in the last 2 years I've had no reason to use anything else for all our clients. Grails provides so much convenience and fun that any issues that arise are just challenging annoyances to work around.