Last Updated: February 25, 2016

Groovy DSL: Setting properties like functions

Recently I wanted to be able to set properties on an object in a closure without having to use the = operator.

This is what I didn't want to do:


closure = {
 foo = "abc"
 bar = "efg"
}

This is what I actually wanted to do:

closure = {
 foo "abc"
 bar "efg" 
}

To do this I implemented the methodMissing function, saw if that object had the property, and if it does, sets that property.

class MyClosure {
 def foo
 def bar

 def methodMissing(String name, args) {
 if(this.properties.containsKey(name)) {
 setProperty(name,args)
 }
 }
}

closure = {
 foo "abc"
 bar "efg"
}

myClosure = new MyClosure()
closure.delegate = myClosure
closure.resolveStrategy = Closure.DELEGATE_FIRST
closure()
myClosure.properties.each{key,value-> println key + ": " + value}

#groovy

#dsl