Imagine you have a model class hierarchy, like
public class TopLevel {
private MiddleLevel middleLevel = null;
public TopLevel() {
middleLevel = new MiddleLevel();
}
public MiddleLevel getMiddleLevel() { return middleLevel; }
}
public class MiddleLevel {
private LowLevel lowLevel = null;
public MiddleLevel () {
lowLevel = new LowLevel();
}
public LowLevel getLowLevel() { return lowLevel; }
}
public class LowLevel {
private Value value = null;
public LowLevel() {
value = new Value();
}
public Value getValue() { return value; }
}
public class Value {
private String stringValue = "ItsAValue";
private String doubleValue = 1.0d;
private String integerValue = 4321;
public void setStringValue(String value) {
stringValue = value;
}
}
And of course further classes with different attributes. E.g. this hierarchy was created and instantiated by Jaxb.
Now, i want to set a value in the Value-class. Of course i can execute something like:
TopLevel topLevel = new TopLevel();
topLevel.getMiddleLevel().getLowLevel().getValue().setStringValue("NewValue");
Is there a way to simplify or to generalize this, e.g. to be able to call the "path" through all these class-objects to set a value deep inside? Here is some pseudocode, what i mean:
public class Anotherclass {
public static void main(String[] args) {
TopLevel topLevel = new TopLevel();
setStringValueByPath("topLevel/middleLevel/lowLevel/value/stringValue", "newValue");
setDoubleValueByPath("topLevel/middleLevel/lowLevel/value/doubleValue", 5.0d);
setIntegerValueByPath("topLevel/middleLevel/lowLevel/value/integerValue", 1234);
}
}
Thanks a lot
Alex
Ok, if anyone is interested, i think i found a solution, that i was looking for:
A recursive approach based on Java.reflection :
public class ReflectionSetter {
private static List<Field> getFields(Object object) {
List<Field> fields = new ArrayList<>();
fields.addAll(Arrays.asList(object.getClass().getDeclaredFields()));
return fields;
}
private static Field hasField(Object object, String fieldName) {
for (Field f : getFields(object)) {
if (f.getName().equalsIgnoreCase(fieldName)) return f;
}
return null;
}
public static void setValue(Object object, String path, String newValue) throws IllegalArgumentException, IllegalAccessException {
if (path.contains("/")) {
int pos = path.indexOf('/');
String first = path.substring(0, pos);
String rest = path.substring(pos+1);
Field f = ReflectionSetter.hasField(object, first);
if (null == f) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Path not found: " + path);
f.setAccessible(true);
Object obj = f.get(object);
setValue(obj, rest, newValue);
} else {
Field f = ReflectionSetter.hasField(object, path);
if (f == null) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Field not found: " + path);
// if found -> set value
f.setAccessible(true);
f.set(object, newValue);
}
}
}
Now, you can set a value via a path. Usage:
TopLevel topLevel = new TopLevel();
ReflectionSetter.setValue(topLevel, "middleLevel/lowLevel/value/myValue", "NewValue");
An ideal efficient way to do this and by focussing more on reducing code complexity and at the same time improving code readability, you should look at design patterns, may be something like visitor pattern.
One of the most common use cases of visitor pattern is and as a result of separating algorithm and the data structure, comes with ability to add new operations to existing object structures without modifying said structures.
Moving on to a phase where "No, I want to look at string based approached as pointed in question". Apache commons library provides something called JxPath.
Unsure if you tried looking at JxPath ref.apache.jx.path
It offers simple interpreter of an expression language called XPath. JXPath applies XPath expressions to graphs of objects of all kinds
Picking an example from your question :
TopLevel topLevel = new TopLevel();
JXPathContext context = JXPathContext.newContext(topLevel);
context.setValue("middleLevel/lowLevel/value/stringValue", "newStringValue");
Related
My company has an application server that receives sets of instructions in their own bespoke XTML syntax. As this is limited, there's a special "drop to Java" command that sends arguments to a JVM (1.6.0_39). Arguments are passed as "in" only, or "in/out", where the special "in/out" variables are a library of mutables for use with this platform.
Previously the only way to receive external configuration was to use a different special command to read from an XTML file. For reasons not worth delving into, this method of configuration is difficult to scale, so I'm working on a way to do this with Java.
The syntax for this configuration was two-tuples of (String,T) where String was the property name in the XTML file, and T was the in/out mutable that the application server would assign the property value to.
I'm attempting to make this transition as seamless as possible, and not have to do annoying string parsing in the application server.
I already have a function
public String[] get(String ... keys)
That retrieves the values from the application servers' keys, but What I really need is a function
public static void get(T ... args)
that accepts the two-tuples. However, note it needs to be static in order to be called from the application server, and my understanding is that T can't be used in a static context.
I'm at a loss for how to approach this problem in a way that doesn't require (at least) two steps, and there is no way to loop over the arguments in the application server.
I know I'm working within a tight set of constraints here, so if the answer is "you have to some messed up stuff", that's fine - I'd just like any insight into another way.
-- edit --
Editing a more specific example.
The configuration is a set of key-value pairs, and can be in a database or a file. The get function is:
public JSONObject get(String ... keys) throws ClassNotFoundException, SQLException, KeyNotFoundException, FileNotFoundException, IOException {
JSONObject response = new JSONObject();
if(this.isDatabase) {
for(int i=0;i<keys.length;i++){
PreparedStatement statement = this.prepare("SELECT value FROM "+this.databaseSchema+"."+this.settingsTableName+" WHERE key = ? LIMIT 1");
statement.setString(1, keys[i]);
ResultSet results = statement.executeQuery();
boolean found = false;
while(results.next()){
String value = results.getString("value");
value = value.replace("\"","");
response.put(keys[i], value);
found = true;
}
if(!found){
throw new KeyNotFoundException(keys[i]);
}
}
} else if (this.isFile) {
boolean[] found = new boolean[keys.length];
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(this.settingsFile));
String line;
while((line = br.readLine()) != null ){
String key;
String value;
for(int i=0;i<line.length();i++){
if(line.charAt(i) == '='){
key = line.substring(0,i);
value = line.substring(i+1,line.length());
if(indexOfString(keys,key) != -1){
value = value.replace("\"","");
found[indexOfString(keys,key)] = true;
response.put(key,value);
if(allFound(found)==-1){
return response;
}
}
break;
}
}
}
if(allFound(found)!=-1){
throw new KeyNotFoundException(keys[allFound(found)]);
}
}
return response;
If I had my way, it would look like ...
// ConfigurationReader.java
public class ConfigurationReader{
public ConfigurationReader( ... ){}
public static JSONObject get(String key){
// Get the key
}
}
// ConfigurationInterface.java
public static void get(T ... args){
ConfigurationReader cfgReader = new ConfigurationReader( ... );
for(var i=0;i<args.length;i+=2){
in = args[i];
out = args[i+1];
out = cfgReader.get(in);
}
}
You can use generic types in a static context. Your question is somewhat vague/unclear about how you intend to do this, but consider the example below:
public class Example {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Type t1 = new Type("foo");
Type t2 = new Type("bar");
Type t3 = new Type("baz");
Printer.<Type> printNames(t1, t2, t3);
}
public static class Printer {
#SafeVarargs
public static <T extends Type> void printNames(T... objs) {
for (T obj : objs) {
System.out.println(obj);
}
}
}
public static class Type {
private final String name;
public Type(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
#Override
public final String toString() {
return name;
}
}
}
Printer.<Type> printNames(t1, t2, t3) makes a static reference to the printNames method, parameterized with the Type generic type.
Note that this is type-safe. Attempting to pass an object of a different type into that parameterized method will fail at compile-time (assuming the type is known to be different at that point):
Example.java:8: error: method printNames in class Printer cannot be applied to given types;
Printer.<Type> printNames(t1, t2, t3, "test");
^
required: T[]
found: Type,Type,Type,String
reason: varargs mismatch; String cannot be converted to Type
where T is a type-variable:
T extends Type declared in method <T>printNames(T...)
Edit
Based on your comment, the issue isn't that you're trying use a generic type for your method argument (in the Java-sense of the word generic, anyway); you're simply looking for any non-specific, parent class that both String and your custom type inherit from. There's only one such class: Object.
I'd strongly recommend reconsidering your design if you have any flexibility, since this will make for poor API design. However you can have your method accept an arbitrary number of arbitrarily-typed objects using Object... objs.
For example:
public class Example {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Printer.printNames("a", "b", new Type("foo"), new Type("bar"));
}
public static class Printer {
public static void printNames(Object... objs) {
for (Object obj : objs) {
if (obj instanceof String) {
System.out.println(((String) obj).toUpperCase());
}
else if (obj instanceof Type) {
System.out.println(obj);
}
}
}
}
public static class Type {
private final String name;
public Type(String name) { this.name = name; }
public final String toString() { return name; }
}
}
Based on #nbrooks work, I found a solution. I made a temporary MutableString (to be replaced by the classes provided by the library).
public static class MutableString {
public String value;
public MutableString(){}
}
// One for every mutable type
public static void Pair(String key, MutableString mutable, ApplicationConfiguration appConfig) throws Exception{
mutable.value = appConfig.get(key).toString();
}
public static void Retrieve(Object ... args) throws Exception {
ApplicationConfiguration appConfig = new ApplicationConfiguration( ##args## );
for(int i=0;i<args.length;i+=2){
if(args[i+1].getClass().equals(new MutableString().getClass())){
ApplicationConfiguration.Pair( (String) args[i], (MutableString) args[i+1], appConfig);
} // One for every mutable type
}
}
I have created an enumeration:
public enum ROLECATEGORY {
LOW ("Low Risk", 0),
MEDIUM ("Medium Risk", 1),
public final String attrname;
public final int value;
ROLECATEGORY(String attrname, int value) {
this.attrname = attrname;
this.value = value;
}
public static ROLECATEGORY valueOf(int val){
switch(val){
case 0: return LOW;
case 1: return MEDIUM;
default: throw new IllegalArgumentException("blablabla");
}
}
public int toInt() { return value; }
}
According to the starter tutorial I've created the normal ODataProvider Class. All I'm missing is a peace of code to get the enum as FQDN type for the property instantiation:
CsdlProperty p = new CsdlProperty().setName("MYENUM").setType( ?getEnumType("MYENUM")? )
OK, I found a simple solution myself. But it's probably not the best one:
1.) I've added a new static FullQualifiedName:
public static final FullQualifiedName CET_ROLECAT = new FullQualifiedName(NAMESPACE, "RoleCategory");
2.) I've created the member getEnumType()
public CsdlEnumType getEnumType(final FullQualifiedName enmuTypeName){
if (CET_ROLECAT.equals(enmuTypeName)) {
return new CsdlEnumType()
.setName(CET_ROLECAT.getName())
.setMembers(Arrays.asList(
new CsdlEnumMember().setName("LOW").setValue("0"),
new CsdlEnumMember().setName("MEDIUM").setValue("1")
))
.setUnderlyingType(EdmPrimitiveTypeKind.Int32.getFullQualifiedName())
;
}
return null;
}
3.) I've added the FQDN from 1.) to my Entity Property:
// ...
CsdlProperty p = new CsdlProperty().setName("RoleCategory").setType(CET_ROLECAT));
//...
4.) Finally I've added the EnumType the my schema:
public List<CsdlSchema> getSchemas() throws ODataException {
CsdlSchema schema = new CsdlSchema();
// ...
List<CsdlEnumType> enumTypes = new ArrayList<CsdlEnumType>();
enumTypes.add(getEnumType(CET_ROLECAT));
schema.setEnumTypes(enumTypes);
// ...
List<CsdlSchema> schemas = new ArrayList<CsdlSchema>();
schemas.add(schema);
return schemas;
}
FYI: 'NAMESPACE' is just a public static final String member in my EdmODataProvider class.
Unfortunately it was only possible for me to add Strings in the name and value parts in 2.) at the CsdlEnumMember. Neither I'm sure what's setUnderlyningType() for.
Is it possible to allow multiple #QueryParam keys for a single object/variable in Jersey?
Actual:
#POST
public Something getThings(#QueryParam("customer-number") Integer n) {
...
}
so, if I add ?customer-number=3 after the URL it works.
Expected:
I want to get the behavior above if I add any of the following values:
?customer-number=3
?customerNumber=3
?customerNo=3
Obs:
The QueryParam annotation looks like:
...
public #interface QueryParam {
String value();
}
so, it cannot accept multiple String values (like #Produces).
The approach below allows the user to use multiple keys having the same meaning at the same time (and I want to have an "OR" condition between them):
#POST
public Something getThings(#QueryParam("customer-number") Integer n1,
#QueryParam("customerNumber") Integer n2,
#QueryParam("customerNo") Integer n3) {
...
}
Something like this doesn't work:
#POST
public Something getThings(#QueryParam("customer-number|customerNumber|customerNo") Integer n) {
...
}
How can I do this?
Details:
Jersey 2.22.1
Java 8
To be honest: this is not how webservices are supposed to be designed. You lay down a strict contract that both client and server follow; you define one parameter and that's it.
But of course it would be a perfect world where you have the freedom to dictate what is going to happen. So if you must allow three parameters in, then you'll have to make that the contract. This is one way following approach #2 which I have to provide without being able to test it for goofs:
public Something getThings(#QueryParam("customer-number") Integer n1,
#QueryParam("customerNumber") Integer n2,
#QueryParam("customerNo") Integer n3) throws YourFailureException {
Integer customerNumber = getNonNullValue("Customer number", n1, n2, n3);
// things with stuff
}
private static Integer getNonNullValue(String label, Integer... params) throws YourFailureException {
Integer value = null;
for(Integer choice : params){
if(choice != null){
if(value != null){
// this means there are at least two query parameters passed with a value
throw new YourFailureException("Ambiguous " + label + " parameters");
}
value = choice;
}
}
if(value == null){
throw new YourFailureException("Missing " + label + " parameter");
}
return value;
}
So basically reject any call that does not pass specifically one of the parameters, and let an exception mapper translate the exception you throw into a HTTP response code in the 4xx range of course.
(I made the getNonNullValue() method static is it strikes me as a reusable utility function).
Maybe the simplest and easiest way would be to use a custom #BeanParam:
First define the custom bean merging all the query parameters as:
class MergedIntegerValue {
private final Integer value;
public MergedIntegerValue(
#QueryParam("n1") Integer n1,
#QueryParam("n2") Integer n2,
#QueryParam("n3") Integer n3) {
this.value = n1 != null ? n1
: n2 != null ? n2
: n3 != null ? n3
: null;
// Throw an exception if value == null ?
}
public Integer getValue() {
return value;
}
}
and then use it with #BeanParam in your resource method:
public Something getThings(
#BeanParam MergedIntegerValue n) {
// Use n.getValue() ...
}
Reference: https://jersey.java.net/documentation/latest/user-guide.html#d0e2403
You can create a custom annotation. I won't go in too much about how to do it, you can see this post, or this post. Basically it relies on a different infrastructure than the usual dependency injection with Jersey. You can see this package from the Jersey project. This is where all the injection providers live that handle the #XxxParam injections. If you examine the source code, you will see the the implementations are fairly the same. The two links I provided above follow the same pattern, as well as the code below.
What I did was created a custom annotation
#Target({ElementType.FIELD, ElementType.PARAMETER})
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public #interface VaryingParam {
String value();
#SuppressWarnings("AnnotationAsSuperInterface")
public static class Factory
extends AnnotationLiteral<VaryingParam> implements VaryingParam {
private final String value;
public static VaryingParam create(final String newValue) {
return new Factory(newValue);
}
public Factory(String newValue) {
this.value = newValue;
}
#Override
public String value() {
return this.value;
}
}
}
It may seem odd that I have a factory to create it, but this was required for the implementation of the below code, where I split the value of the String, and end up creating a new annotation instance for each split value.
Here is the ValueFactoryProvider (which, if you've read either of the above articles, you will see that is required for custom method parameter injection). It a large class, only because I put all the required classes into a single class, following the pattern you see in the Jersey project.
public class VaryingParamValueFactoryProvider extends AbstractValueFactoryProvider {
#Inject
public VaryingParamValueFactoryProvider(
final MultivaluedParameterExtractorProvider mpep,
final ServiceLocator locator) {
super(mpep, locator, Parameter.Source.UNKNOWN);
}
#Override
protected Factory<?> createValueFactory(final Parameter parameter) {
VaryingParam annotation = parameter.getAnnotation(VaryingParam.class);
if (annotation == null) {
return null;
}
String value = annotation.value();
if (value == null || value.length() == 0) {
return null;
}
String[] variations = value.split("\\s*\\|\\s*");
return new VaryingParamFactory(variations, parameter);
}
private static Parameter cloneParameter(final Parameter original, final String value) {
Annotation[] annotations = changeVaryingParam(original.getAnnotations(), value);
Parameter clone = Parameter.create(
original.getRawType(),
original.getRawType(),
true,
original.getRawType(),
original.getRawType(),
annotations);
return clone;
}
private static Annotation[] changeVaryingParam(final Annotation[] annos, final String value) {
for (int i = 0; i < annos.length; i++) {
if (annos[i] instanceof VaryingParam) {
annos[i] = VaryingParam.Factory.create(value);
break;
}
}
return annos;
}
private class VaryingParamFactory extends AbstractContainerRequestValueFactory<Object> {
private final String[] variations;
private final Parameter parameter;
private final boolean decode;
private final Class<?> paramType;
private final boolean isList;
private final boolean isSet;
VaryingParamFactory(final String[] variations, final Parameter parameter) {
this.variations = variations;
this.parameter = parameter;
this.decode = !parameter.isEncoded();
this.paramType = parameter.getRawType();
this.isList = paramType == List.class;
this.isSet = paramType == Set.class;
}
#Override
public Object provide() {
MultivaluedParameterExtractor<?> e = null;
try {
Object value = null;
MultivaluedMap<String, String> params
= getContainerRequest().getUriInfo().getQueryParameters(decode);
for (String variant : variations) {
e = get(cloneParameter(parameter, variant));
if (e == null) {
return null;
}
if (isList) {
List list = (List<?>) e.extract(params);
if (value == null) {
value = new ArrayList();
}
((List<?>) value).addAll(list);
} else if (isSet) {
Set set = (Set<?>) e.extract(params);
if (value == null) {
value = new HashSet();
}
((Set<?>) value).addAll(set);
} else {
value = e.extract(params);
if (value != null) {
return value;
}
}
}
return value;
} catch (ExtractorException ex) {
if (e == null) {
throw new ParamException.QueryParamException(ex.getCause(),
parameter.getSourceName(), parameter.getDefaultValue());
} else {
throw new ParamException.QueryParamException(ex.getCause(),
e.getName(), e.getDefaultValueString());
}
}
}
}
private static class Resolver extends ParamInjectionResolver<VaryingParam> {
public Resolver() {
super(VaryingParamValueFactoryProvider.class);
}
}
public static class Binder extends AbstractBinder {
#Override
protected void configure() {
bind(VaryingParamValueFactoryProvider.class)
.to(ValueFactoryProvider.class)
.in(Singleton.class);
bind(VaryingParamValueFactoryProvider.Resolver.class)
.to(new TypeLiteral<InjectionResolver<VaryingParam>>() {
})
.in(Singleton.class);
}
}
}
You will need to register this class' Binder (bottom of class) with Jersey to use it.
What differentiates this class from Jersey QueryParamValueFactoryProvider is that instead of just processing a single String value of the annotation, it splits the value, and tries to extract the values from the query param map. The first value found will be returned. If the parameter is a List or Set, it just continues to keep looking up all the options, and adding them to the list.
For the most part this keeps all the functionality you would expect from an #XxxParam annotation. The only thing that was difficult to implement (so I left out supporting this use case), is multiple parameters, e.g.
#GET
#Path("multiple")
public String getMultipleVariants(#VaryingParam("param-1|param-2|param-3") String value1,
#VaryingParam("param-1|param-2|param-3") String value2) {
return value1 + ":" + value2;
}
I actually don't think it should be that hard to implement, if you really need it, it's just a matter of creating a new MultivaluedMap, removing a value if it is found. This would be implemented in the provide() method of the VaryingParamFactory above. If you need this use case, you could just use a List or Set instead.
See this GitHub Gist (it's rather long) for a complete test case, using Jersey Test Framework. You can see all the use cases I tested in the QueryTestResource, and where I register the Binder with the ResourceConfig in the test configure() method.
Can I write a generic method to trim all strings within an complex object (object containing other objects)? Should java reflection api be used to achieve this?Thanks.
I have provided a sample below. However in reality there could be multiple objects within objects. Each object might contain a collection of String or collection of other objects which may contain String. Is there a way to trim the Strings - ones directly with the objects and ones within collection.
public class School{
private List<Course> courses;
private List<Student> students;
// Getters and Setters
}
public class Course{
private String name;
private String xxx;
private String yyy;
private List<String> zzzList;
}
public class Student{
private Map<String,String> xxx;
private List<Course> courseList;
}
Yes, reflection is the way. Basically, you need to:
get the class of the top level object (with [object].getClass())
get all the fields of the object (with clazz.getFields() - beware, it works only with public fields)
check if the field is String (either get field.getType() and check it's a string, or do a field.get(the object) and a instanceof String)
if it's the case, replace the string in the object with the trimmed one, using field.set([your object],[trimmed string])
if the field is an object but not a string, call your method recursively
That will do the trick.
---- just seen your update
Trimming strings in collection will be more tricky, since the strings are not exposed as public fields of the collection (List for example).
You will need something more clever, that will check if an object is an instance of List, or Map, or etc... (or a derived class!).
Main problem is also that java generics are done with erasing type at compile type. So you cannot know that your field is List[String] or List[Integer] or whatever. Every List[?] becomes List.
Still you can try to do it like that:
if field type is List
iterate through the list values
if a value is instanceof String, you have to remove it from the list and insert in place the trimmed version
if a value is an object, there you go again recursively with your method.
Not very interesting in real life samples, but more on a library side maybe.
Long way to go though!
Yes, you can do that with reflection, quite easily. Just check if the field is instanceof String.
The exact way to do it depends on your object structure.
/*********************************************************************************************
* Trim first level children of string type in this object
* #param obj which all string properties to be trimmed
*********************************************************************************************/
public static void trimAll(final Object obj)
throws LocalException
{
if (obj==null) return;
final Class c = obj.getClass();
final Method[] methods = c.getMethods();
final Class[] SETTER_ARGS = new Class[]{String.class};
final Object[] SETTER_VAL = new Object[1];
final String SET = "set";
final String GET = "get";
final String SPACE = "\u0020";
final String TAB = "\t";
for (final Method m:methods)
{
try
{
final String name=m.getName();
if (
name.length()>GET.length()
&& name.indexOf(GET)==0
&& m.getReturnType().equals(String.class)
&& m.getParameterTypes().length==0)
{
final String v = (String)m.invoke(obj);
if (v!=null && (v.contains(SPACE) || v.contains(TAB)) )
{
final Method setter=c.getMethod(SET+name.substring(3),SETTER_ARGS);
if (setter!=null)
{
SETTER_VAL[0]=v.trim();
setter.invoke(obj,SETTER_VAL);
}
}
}
}
catch (final Throwable e)
{
throw new LocalException(LocalException.EC_GENERAL_EXCEPTION,e);
}
}
}
We can also use Jackson to serialize and then deserialize the object. While deserializing we can use custom deserializer to trim all the String values.
Create a deserializer like this:
public class TrimStringToNullDeserializer extends JsonDeserializer<String> {
#Override
public String deserialize(JsonParser jsonParser, DeserializationContext deserializationContext)
throws IOException {
String value = jsonParser.getValueAsString();
if (isNull(value)) {
return null;
}
value = value.trim();
if (value.length() == 0) {
value = null;
}
return value;
}
And then we can use Jackson to trim all values:
public class TrimStringToNullConfiguration {
private ObjectMapper objectMapper;
public Client trimToNull(Client inputClient) throws JsonProcessingException {
return getObjectMapper().readValue(getObjectMapper().writeValueAsString(inputClient), Client.class);
}
private ObjectMapper getObjectMapper() {
if (isNull(objectMapper)) {
objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
SimpleModule module = new SimpleModule();
module.addDeserializer(String.class, new TrimStringToNullDeserializer());
objectMapper.registerModule(module);
}
return objectMapper;
}
I have placed a working example over here.
private <T> T toTrim(T t) {
Field[] fields = t.getClass().getFields();
for (Field field : fields) {
try {
if (field.get(t) instanceof String) {
Object o = field.get(t);
String s = (String) o;
field.set(t, s.trim().toUpperCase());
}
} catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
log.info("Error converting field "+ field.getName() );
}
}
return t;
}
if (yourObject instanceof String){
yourObject = yourObject.trim();
}
Hope it helps :)
Here is the basic code i'm trying to make work:
Field fields[] = SalesLetter.class.getDeclaredFields();
String fieldName;
for (int j = 0, m = fields.length; j < m; j++) {
fieldName = fields[j].getName(); //example fieldname [[headline]]
templateHTML = templateHTML.replace(fieldName, Letter.fieldName());
}
I believe I'm going about it wrong by trying to getDeclaredFields (which isn't even syntactically correct). When I finished my title, it came up with a few other stackoverflow questions which I read before writing this. They were:
Best way to replace tokens in a large text template
Replacing tokens in a string from an array
It gave me the idea of reading all legal [[tokens]] from a text file, putting them into a hash (err I mean map, this is java :D), then creating an object reference with the same name as that token.
I can't figure out how I would do such a thing in java specifically, or if that would work. Please assist.
Thanks in advance,
Cody Goodman
Note: I'm trying to make everything as flexible as possible, so maybe in the future I could add things such as "[[tokenname]]:this is token name, you need to really think about what the customer wants to come up with a good token name" in a text file, then those fields are generated on my form, and everything works :)
In order to read values from non-static fields of a type, you'll need a reference to an instance of the type:
public class ReflectFields {
static class Letter {
public int baz = 100;
}
static class SalesLetter extends Letter {
public String foo = "bar";
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
// TODO: better exception handling, etc.
SalesLetter instance = new SalesLetter();
for (Field field : instance.getClass().getFields()) {
System.out.format("%s = %s%n", field.getName(), field.get(instance));
}
}
}
You'll also have to watch for private fields, etc. In general, this approach should be avoided as it breaks encapsulation by looking at class internals.
Consider using the JavaBean API.
public class BeanHelper {
private final Object bean;
private final Map<String, Method> getters = new TreeMap<String, Method>();
public BeanHelper(Object bean) {
this.bean = bean;
for (PropertyDescriptor pd : Introspector.getBeanInfo(bean.getClass(),
Object.class).getPropertyDescriptors()) {
getters.put(pd.getName(), pd.getReadMethod());
}
}
public Set<String> getProperties() { return getters.keySet(); }
public Object get(String propertyName) {
return getters.get(propertyName).invoke(bean);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
BeanHelper helper = new BeanHelper(new MyBean());
for (String prop : helper.getProperties()) {
System.out.format("%s = %s%n", prop, helper.get(prop));
}
}
public static class MyBean {
private final String foo = "bar";
private final boolean baz = true;
public String getFoo() { return foo; }
public boolean isBaz() { return baz; }
}
}
Exception handling has been omitted for brevity, so you'll need to add some try/catch blocks (I suggest wrapping the caught exceptions in IllegalStateExceptions).
What about using a template engine like Freemarker, Velocity or StringTemplate:
replace [[ by ${ and ]] by }
create a model from a properties file containing the replacements
process templateHTML
Here an example with Freemarker (without Exception handling)
Configuration config = new Configuration();
StringTemplateLoader loader = new StringTemplateLoader();
config.setTeplateLoader(loader);
Map model = Properites.load(new FileInputStream("tokens.properties"));
loader.putTemplate("html.ftl", templateHTML);
Template template = config.getTemplate("html.ftl");
Writer out = new StringWriter();
template.process(root, out);
String result = out.toString();
StringTemplate may be more simple (replace [[ and ]] by $), but I am not fimilar with it:
Map model = Properites.load(new FileInputStream("tokens.properties"));
StringTemplate template = new StringTemplate(templateHTML);
template.setAttributes(model);
String result = template.toString();
The tokens.properties file looks like:
tokenname:this is token name