Groovy:unable to resolve class groovyx.net.http.RESTClient

Question

I am learning groovy for a scripting package called geoscript-groovy. I followed the groovy REST tutorial here and tested the following code:

import groovyx.net.http.RESTClient

def client = new RESTClient( 'http://www.acme.com/' )
def resp = client.get( path : 'products/3322' ) // ACME boomerang

However, I got an error at the import statement saying:

Groovy:unable to resolve class groovyx.net.http.RESTClient

I searched around, and there are many questions and answers for this error message, e.g., import groovyx.net.http.RESTClient in Groovy class , and RestClient Grails Import fails. However, they all for grails, which I don't use and am not very familiar with.

My question is

How should I fix this error if I have groovy only? (My version of groovy is installed under Ubuntu 12.04 with the following commands).

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:groovy-dev/groovy
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install groovy

Thanks.

-- EDIT ---

I added @Grab statements as suggested, and put up a two-line rest1.groovy file as follows:

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

groovyConsole rest1.groovy seems to run OK. But groovysh < rest1.groovy is still giving me an error (as shown below). I guess I need to have this run in a groovysh-like environment because the groovy script is called in the background as a web service. Without the @Grab line, the service generates an Exception. With the @Grab line, the service won't even register. Is there a more permanent way of including necessary dependencies for groovyx.net.http.RESTClient than a per script grab (e.g. an apt-get or manual copying of something)?

groovysh < rest1.groovy
Groovy Shell (1.8.6, JVM: 1.7.0_72)
Type 'help' or '\h' for help.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
groovy:000> @Grab(group='org.codehaus.groovy.modules.http-builder', module='http-builder', version='0.7')
groovy:001> import groovyx.net.http.RESTClient
ERROR org.codehaus.groovy.tools.shell.CommandException:
Invalid import definition: 'import groovyx.net.http.RESTClient'; reason: startup failed:
script1413902882282760571375.groovy: 1: unable to resolve class groovyx.net.http.RESTClient
 @ line 1, column 1.
   import groovyx.net.http.RESTClient

Answer 1

You probably just need the Grape line to properly make sure your Groovy script has the jar you need in the classpath. Put this at the top of your script:

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

Note, I can't see the rest of your script, so there may be other modules you need to Grab too. Check here for more possibilities: http://groovy.codehaus.org/modules/http-builder/doc/rest.html

EDIT

Well, glad it works part of the way now. As far as groovysh goes, I don't know of a way to have groovysh dynamically get the dependent libraries, so what you really need to do is, as part of the script install, also put the jar you need in a directory (call it "lib" or some such), and then add the argument to your groovysh call: groovysh -cp ./lib < script.groovy from this: http://groovy.codehaus.org/Groovy+Shell

The jar you want should be available via maven using the artifact specification from the @Grab line.