I just did a quick test to convert one of my skins from BeanShell to Groovy.
I changes all .bsh fies to .groovy files and did a Make with the new skin.

I get a bunch of errors, which does not say anything to me:

Stack trace for jAlbum 29rc1 using skin FancyBoxGroovy 1.3.3:
 
se.datadosen.util.ScriptException: org.codehaus.groovy.control.MultipleCompilationErrorsException: startup failed:
C:\Users\Gebruiker\AppData\Roaming\JAlbum\skins\FancyBoxGroovy\onload.groovy: 102: Can't have an abstract method in a non-abstract class. 
The class 'CustomUI$2' must be declared abstract or the method 'void focusGained(java.awt.event.FocusEvent)' must be implemented.
 in onload.groovy at line number 102 at column number 59
 
Line 102: customImageWidth.addFocusListener(new FocusListener() {                                 ^
 
C:\Users\Gebruiker\AppData\Roaming\JAlbum\skins\FancyBoxGroovy\onload.groovy: 95: 
The method focusLost should be public as it implements the corresponding method from interface java.awt.event.FocusListener
 
Line 95: private void focusLost(FocusEvent e) {
 
C:\Users\Gebruiker\AppData\Roaming\JAlbum\skins\FancyBoxGroovy\onload.groovy: 278: Modifier 'public' not allowed here.
 
Line 278: public JTextField folderImageSize = new JTextField("1920 x 1080");

I don't plan on taking a Groovy programming course.

So my question is will there be a BeanShell to Groovy tutorial?

Well David I did open an old version of the FancyBox which did not had a compiled GUI.

But if I convert the newest FancyBox version with compiled GUI, I get error statements which I don't understand:

se.datadosen.util.ScriptException: org.codehaus.groovy.control.MultipleCompilationErrorsException: startup failed:
C:\Users\Gebruiker\AppData\Roaming\JAlbum\skins\FancyBoxGroovy\init.groovy: 482: token recognition error at: '"' 
in init.groovy at line number 482 at column number 103
 
Line 482:
s = engine.processTemplate(s).replaceAll(" +", " ").replaceAll("\r\n|\r|\n","<br>").replaceAll("<br>$", "").trim();
 
                                 ^
 
se.datadosen.util.ScriptException: groovy.lang.MissingMethodException: No signature of method: 
static java.lang.Integer.toString() is applicable for argument types: (BigDecimal) values: [50]
Possible solutions: toString(), toString(), toString(), toString(int), toString(int, int), toHexString(int) in common.css at line number 6
 
Line 6 in common.css:
<%
common.css does not contain: "BigDecimal" or "[50]"

Lucky the current bsh version works fine in 29c1.

As for the other error. Pass me a zip/jaskin package of the failing skin for testing here.

David,, did you find a solution?

Yes, but there are tons of things for you to adjust to make things work. The problems are luckily only of a few different categories, so you can apply the same types of fixes in multiple locations.

The Float.toString() error is solved like this:

Float.toString((float)(topButtonWidthFl / 2f));

That extra (float) cast is needed as Groovy converts calculations to double as soon as it can.

Other typical errors you will be seeing in your skin are caused by these factors:

• You've made some utility methods private. Now they can't be called from other scripts.
• You need to adjust the declaration of any global variables by removing the type, so String foo=5 will become foo = 5 etc.
• Some calculations are brittle, the way you calculate "jAlbumVersion". I recommend this instead:

  jAlbumVersion = Integer.parseInt(AlbumBean.PRODUCT_DISPLAY_VERSION);
  

• You still do void tests using BeanShell syntax. I recommend adding the following to init.grooy:

  exists = binding.variables
  

  Now you can do your void tests like this:

  if (exists.foo) { ... }
  

Reason being that we'll eventually remove BeanShell as it hasn't been maintained since 2005.

Use Float.parseFloat instead

It's not always a number. There may be "b" and "rc" characters there and doing a substring on internalVersion is ugly as it assumes two characters before a dot.