Error at password = AESCodec.decode("...") in an external app.groovy

[fdutenho]

using an env.groovy in tomcat config folder with

environments {
   abc {
      username = "app_test"
      password = AESCodec.decode("***")
      ...
   }
   ...
}

this results in an error (log file):

...
org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR Error deploying web application archive [.../webapps/ROOT.war]
	java.lang.IllegalStateException: Error starting child
		at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:714)
		at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:687)
		at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:660)
		at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR(HostConfig.java:1016)
		at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployWar.run(HostConfig.java:1903)
		at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511)
		at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
		at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149)
		at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624)
		at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:750)
	Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[]]
		at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.handleSubClassException(LifecycleBase.java:419)
		at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:186)
		at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:710)
		... 9 more
Caused by: groovy.lang.MissingMethodException: No signature of method: groovy.util.ConfigObject.decode() is applicable for argument types: (String) values: [***]
...

[fdutenho]

Exact same config packaged with the grails app (as war) works. If I move the file and use grails.config.locations = ['file:${catalina.base}/conf/env.groovy'] will cause above mentioned error message.

[fdutenho]

my fault I forget an import statement at the beginning of the file :-(

[fdutenho]

adding the import statement is not fixing the issue

[fdutenho]

AESCodec is a class written by us.

[fdutenho]

import statement in the external file results into:

unable to resolve class ...
 @ line 1, column 1.
   import ...

[fdutenho]

using this in the internal file

import ....AESCodec
grails.config.locations = ['file:${catalina.base}/conf/runtime.groovy']

and no import statement in the external file results into:

Caused by: groovy.lang.MissingMethodException: No signature of method: groovy.util.ConfigObject.decode() is applicable for argument types: (String) values: [***]