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==== Writing a Simple Data Service

In a Grails application you can create a Data Service in either `src/main/groovy` or `grails-app/services`. To write a Data Service you should create either an interface (although abstract classes can also be used, more about that later) and annotate it with the `grails.gorm.services.Service` annotation with the domain class the service applies to:

[source,groovy]
----
@Service(Book)
interface BookService {
    Book getBook(Serializable id)
}
----

The `@Service` annotation is an AST transformation that will automatically implement the service for you. You can then obtain the service via Spring autowiring:

[source,groovy]
----
@Autowired BookService bookService
----

Or if you are using GORM standalone by looking it up from the `HibernateDatastore` instance:

[source,groovy]
----
BookService bookService = hibernateDatastore.getService(BookService)
----

TIP: The above example also works in Spock unit tests that extend `HibernateSpec`

==== How Does it Work?

The `@Service` transformation will look at the the method signatures of the interface and make a best effort to find a way to implement each method.

If a method cannot be implemented then a compilation error will occur. At this point you have the option to use an abstract class instead and provide an implementation yourself.

The `@Service` transformation will also generate a `META-INF/services` file for the service so it can be discovered via the standard Java service loader. So no additional configuration is necessary.


==== Advantages of Data Services

There are several advantages to Data Services that make them worth considering to abstract your persistence logic.

* *Type Safety* - Data service method signatures are compile time checked and compilation will fail if the types of any parameters don't match up with properties in your domain class
* *Testing* - Since Data Services are interfaces this makes them easy to test via https://spockframework.org/spock/docs/1.0/interaction_based_testing.html[Spock Mocks]
* *Performance* - The generated services are statically compiled and unlike competing technologies in the Java space no proxies are created so runtime performance doesn't suffer
* *Transaction Management* - Each method in a Data Service is wrapped in an appropriate transaction (a read-only transaction in the case of read operations) that can be easily overridden.

==== Abstract Class Support

If you come across a method that GORM doesn't know how to implement, then you can provide an implementation by using an abstract class.

For example:

[source,groovy]
----
interface IBookService {
    Book getBook(Serializable id)
    Date someOtherMethod()
}
@Service(Book)
abstract class BookService implements IBookService {

   @Override
   Date someOtherMethod() {
      // impl
   }
}
----

In this case GORM will implement the interface methods that have not been defined by the abstract class.

In addition, all _public_ methods of the domain class will be automatically wrapped in the appropriate transaction handling.

What this means is that you can define protected abstract methods that are non-transactional in order to compose logic. For example:

[source,groovy]
----
@Service(Book)
abstract class BookService  {

   protected abstract Book getBook(Serializable id) <1>

   protected abstract Author getAuthor(Serializable id) <1>

   Book updateBook(Serializable id, Serializable authorId) { <2>
      Book book = getBook(id)
      if(book != null) {
          Author author = getAuthor(authorId)
          if(author == null) {
              throw new IllegalArgumentException("Author does not exist")
          }
          book.author = author
          book.save()
      }
      return book
   }
}
----

<1> Two `protected abstract` methods are defined that are not wrapped in transaction handling
<2> The `updateBook` method uses the two methods that are implemented automatically by GORM and being `public` is automatically made transactional.

TIP: If you have `public` methods that you do not wish to be transactional, then you can annotate them with `@NotTransactional`