Grails - Add method on String to truncate long texts nicely | technipelago

Add method on String to truncate long texts nicely

I had several domain classes with long text content that I wanted to display just a summary of on the screen, especially in lists columns, etc.. I first added a getIntro(int numChars) method on domain classes with long strings, and used them when appropriate.
But I soon realised that I violated the DRY principle (Dont Repeat Yourself) with getInto() methods all over the place. I could have put the method in a base class but my text properties did not have the same name in all domain classes, so that was complicated.
I think I found a much better solution. I removed all those methods and added a getIntro(int) method to String and GString in BootStrap.groovy.

Grails - user - Paragraphs

Grails - user - Paragraphs

What's the standard design solution for the following problem :

The application prompts the user for some text. This is entered in a text area. And it's easy to store it as a long String. But how to preserve the line breaks to keep the separate paragraphs ? Should the text be stored as String[] ? Should the controller convert the text area String into String[] ?