title: How to run a local plugin in grails 1.3.5
body: <p>I'm using Grails and I have a local-plugin (that I wrote) that I'm using in conjunction with my project. The local plugin location is configured in BuildConfig.groovy using the <em>grails.plugin.location</em> config parameter.</p>
  
  <p>In Grails 1.3.3, the plugin worked fine, however since upgrading to Grails 1.3.5 I get the following error when I attempt to run one of the plugin's scripts:</p>
  
  <pre><code>org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'pluginManager': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.io.FileNotFoundException: web-app\WEB-INF\grails.xml (The system cannot find the file specified)
      at gant.Gant$_dispatch_closure5.doCall(Gant.groovy:391)
      at gant.Gant$_dispatch_closure7.doCall(Gant.groovy:415)
      at gant.Gant$_dispatch_closure7.doCall(Gant.groovy)
      at gant.Gant.withBuildListeners(Gant.groovy:427)
      at gant.Gant.this$2$withBuildListeners(Gant.groovy)
      at gant.Gant$this$2$withBuildListeners.callCurrent(Unknown Source)
      at gant.Gant.dispatch(Gant.groovy:415)
      at gant.Gant.this$2$dispatch(Gant.groovy)
      at gant.Gant.invokeMethod(Gant.groovy)
      at gant.Gant.executeTargets(Gant.groovy:590)
      at gant.Gant.executeTargets(Gant.groovy:589)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I believe that the <em>grails.xml</em> file (which it claims is missing) is generated automatically - and the problem may be related to issue <a href="http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/GRAILS-6601" rel="nofollow">GRAILS-6601</a> (however, this was fixed in 1.3.5).</p>
  
  <p>In any case, my problem seems to have occurred due to a change in the _<em>GrailsBootstrap.groovy</em> script between Grails 1.3.3 and 1.3.5. Comparing these scripts between 1.3.3 and 1.3.5, I note that a new pluginManager part of the script reads:</p>
  
  <pre><code>// There is a pluginManager variable in the binding
              delegate."pluginManager"(GrailsPluginManagerFactoryBean) {
                  application = grailsApplication
                  grailsDescriptor = new FileSystemResource("web-app/WEB-INF/grails.xml")
              }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This is not present in the equivalent script in Grails 1.3.3 and seems to be causing my problem. I've looked at the release notes and other information, and haven't been able to find if there's something new I need to configure to make local plugins work.</p>
  
  <p>Any ideas how I can avoid this error? Is it a configuration issue, and if so, what am I missing?</p>