Installing HTTPBuilder for Groovy

Question

Apologies for the newbie question, but how do you install HTTPBuilder for Groovy?

I've added the http-builder-0.7.jar, http-builder-0.7-source.jar, and http-builder-0.7-javadoc.jar to GROOVY_HOME/lib.

Is there anything else I need to do? The HTTPBuilder website isn't clear.

Code run from GroovyConsole:

import groovy.grape.Grape

Grape.grab(group='org.codehaus.groovy.modules.http-builder', module='http-builder', version='0.7' )

def http = new groovyx.net.http.HTTPBuilder('http://www.codehaus.org')

I get this in response:

groovy.lang.MissingMethodException: No signature of method: static groovy.grape.Grape.grab() is applicable for argument types: (java.lang.String, java.lang.String, java.lang.String) values: [org.codehaus.groovy.modules.http-builder, http-builder, 0.7]
Possible solutions: grab(java.lang.String), grep(), grab(java.util.Map), grab(java.util.Map, [Ljava.util.Map;), wait(), dump()

EDIT 2:

 @Grab(group='org.codehaus.groovy.modules.http-builder', module='http-builder', version='0.7' )

 def http = new groovyx.net.http.HTTPBuilder('http://www.codehaus.org')

Response:

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/http/client/methods/HttpRequestBase

at ConsoleScript6.run(ConsoleScript6:4)

Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpRequestBase

... 1 more

Anchoress

Don't copy it to the lib folder. It makes anything you do almost impossible to reproduce. Why not use a proper build tool like gradle, and use the builder as a dependency? Or use a grab annotation to fetch it if you're just writing a script – Zibeline

@Zibeline I removed them from the lib folder. I've been trying to use Grape from GroovyConsole. I'll edit to show you what I did. I attempted to run Grape.bat on my machine but it just closes out. – Anchoress

Have you tried getting rid of your import and replacing the grab line with @Grab(group='org.codehaus.groovy.modules.http-builder', module='http-builder', version='0.7' ) – Zibeline

Or (even shorter) @Grab('org.codehaus.groovy.modules.http-builder:http-builder:0.7') – Zibeline

@Zibeline I get another exception thrown. I'm editing the post to show you. – Anchoress

Hmmmm... Try the latest: 'org.codehaus.groovy.modules.http-builder:http-builder:0.7.1' – Zibeline

@Zibeline Just tried it. Same exception thrown. – Anchoress

Odd, afaics that should work... – Zibeline

You need to install the dependencies of HTTPBuilder itself as well - e.g. apache classes. – Winn

Had very similar exceptions on ubuntu. Which OS do you use? Do you have ivy in classpath? – Irritative

Answer 1

The following example works for me out of the box:

@Grab(group='org.codehaus.groovy.modules.http-builder', module='http-builder', version='0.7' )

def http = new groovyx.net.http.HTTPBuilder('http://www.codehaus.org')
println http

You need to remove any of the dependency jars you added directly to GROOVY_HOME\lib. Manually adding the jars there could create conflicts and cause these types of errors. Check to see if you have manually added the HttpClient libraries to the lib, remove them as well and try again.

EDIT: When using IntelliJ, I have been able to reproduce this behavior once. I already had a single @Grab annotation added to my Groovy script. When I added a second, it didn't seem to download or import the new library.

First of all, if you add a second @Grab, you need to wrap it in the @Grapes annotation like the following (my first mistake):

@Grapes([
        @Grab(group='org.codehaus.gpars', module='gpars', version='1.2.1'),
        @Grab(group='org.codehaus.groovy.modules.http-builder', module='http-builder', version='0.7.1')
])

After that, I found my solution here: Intellij IDEA not importing dependencies from @Grab in Groovy project, which explains than when using IntelliJ and you encounter this issue, try placing your cursor next to the @Grapes annotation and selecting Alt+Enter then choose the 'Grab the Artifacts' option.

Chestonchest

not for me unfortunatly ... still digging into dirt. Tried to delete local dependencies, define custom Grape conf, tried other versions ... still fail to download (despite of the fact I have in my local Grape repo the Jar !!). Any idea please ? – Nuzzi

Intellij part is what i was look for!.. And once I have the artifacts resolved, just imported with import groovyx.net.http.HTTPBuilder and HTTPBuilder, is available to use as def http = new HTTPBuilder('http://www.codehaus.org') – Chiaroscuro

@Nuzzi The Alt-Enter approach will not work if you have any compile errors in the class/script you are trying to 'Grab the Artifacts' for. Temporarily comment out any references to HTTPBuilder or other lines that are in error and try the 'Alt-Enter'-->'Grap the Artifacts' option after. – Chestonchest

In 2020 this isn't working well. The http-builder hasn't been updated since 2014, and it uses a JSON library that haven't been updated since 2010 and isn't actually on Maven central anymore (try downloading the JAR: you'll get a 404). – Tonitonia