Grails Controller Tests: ModelAndView

I just joined the team at AlterThought.com and my first task was to revitalize the integration test for a bunch of controllers. But Grails no longer seems to have the modelAndView as a standard attribute of a controller. And we have assertions like:

assert controller.modelAndView.model.contractList.size() > 1

My solution was to override the controller's render method and stuff in a modelAndView to the controller myself:

import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView
 
class IntegrationTestUtil {
void overrideRender(controller) {
  def dir = controller.class.name.replaceAll(/Controller/, '')
  dir = dir[0].toLowerCase() + dir.substring(1)
  def originalRender = 
     controller.metaClass.getMetaMethod("render", [Map] as Class[]) 
  controller.metaClass.render = { Map args ->  
   if(args.view && args.model) {  
    delegate.metaClass.getModelAndView = {-> 
     new ModelAndView("/${dir}/${args.view}", args.model) 
    }
   } else {
    originalRender.invoke(delegate, args)
   }
  }       
}
}

My controllers then invoke the overrideRender method in setUp and the test run fine.

Note the override only changes render invocations that pass a map with model and view entries.