We Keep Coding

Calling methods between groovy scripts with correct parameters

I just started learning about groovy and trying to transpose my java code to groovy scripts. Usually java allows you have a class with only methods that you can call from other classes. I wanted to translate that to groovy. I have in one file - lets call it File1- a method like this:
def retrieveData(String name){
// do something
}
and in the second file, File2, I call File1 like this:
def file1Class = this.class.classLoader.parseClass(new File("../File1.groovy"))
and then try to call the method in File1 like this:
def data = file1Class.retrieveData("String")
but it keeps giving me this error - MissingMethodException:
groovy.lang.MissingMethodException: No signature of method: static File1.retrieveData() is applicable for argument types: (java.lang.String) values: [String] Possible solutions: retrieveData(java.lang.String)
so it does recognize that I am sending in the correct number of parameters and even the correct object, but it isn't running the method as it should?
Is there something I am missing? I tried to remove the object definition from the method - in other words - like this:
def retrieveData(name){
// do something
}
but that didn't work either. I am clueless about what the next step would be. Can anyone please help push me in the right direction? I would greatly appreciate it.

See the answer provided in this StackOverflow reponse.
Use the GroovyScriptEngine class. What does the GroovyScriptEngine do? From the docs:
Specific script engine able to reload modified scripts as well as
dealing properly with dependent scripts.
See the example below.
def script = new GroovyScriptEngine( '.' ).with {
loadScriptByName( '..\File1.groovy' )
}
this.metaClass.mixin script
retrieveData()
Note how we use the loadScriptByNamemethod to
Get the class of the scriptName in question, so that you can
instantiate Groovy objects with caching and reloading.
This will allow you to access Groovy objects from files however you please.

Getting qualified method name by the line number

This question is Java and Maven specific. Please note the additional constraints below as they are different from other questions.
I have several Maven (Java) projects to analyze. What I have is:
the source code
maven-compiled Jave code with binaries in target/ folder
The question is:
Given one source code file (.java) and a line number there, how can I get the fully qualified name of the method that spans over that line? If the line is not in a method then just output null. Acceptable languages to implement this are: Java, ruby, or python.
Could you please answer the question in one of the following two ways?
use the binary and extract qualified method name of that line. (This might involve weave in debug info, but that is fine.)
directly use the source file given, try to parse it and use the AST.
Using specific libraries (like BCEL) or any 3rd party ones (as long as they are well documented and usable) are OK, too.
Many many thanks for the huge help!

Unfortunately, your question is full of drawbacks:
You could, of corse, parse the input source (through an Javacc or ANTLR parser) until you reach the desired line. But it seems a waste of effort to parse the same source since you already have the .class files.
So, it seems better to analyze the .class file. But unfortunately, you have no gurantee that this is the class where your line spawns at, because there can be more than one class defined in the same source file.
Augh! That leads me to a kind of complicated solution:
I'll declare a class which will contain all the login:
public class SourceMethodsIndexer
{
private final SortedMap<Integer, List<Method>> indexOfMethodsByFirstLineNumber;
}
The constructor will be like this:
public SourceMethodsIndexer(File sourceFile)
... and should do these tasks:
1.Browse the class directory related to the target package.
File targetPackageDir=getTargetPackageDir(sourceFile);
File[] classFiles=targetPackageDir.listFiles(new FileFilter(){
public boolean accept(File dir, String name){
return name.endsWith(".class");
}
});
2.Use Apache BCEL to collect all the non public classes belonging to your input source file (you can invoke JavaClass.getSourceFileName() to filter classes), plus the public class corresponding to the name of your input source file.
Collection<JavaClass> targetClasses=getNonPublicClasses(classFiles, sourceFile.getName());
targetClasses.add(publicClass);
3.Collect then all the methods in each class.
Set<Method> targetMethods=new HashSet<Method>(1024);
for (JavaClass javaClass:targetClasses)
{
targetMethods.addAll(Arrays.asList(javaClass.getMethods()));
}
4.Now you can either search directly your line number, or index first the methods by line number to access them later more quickly: JavaClass.getMethods()[n].getLineNumberTable().getSourceLine(0) (take care that there could be repeated values).
this.indexOfMethodsByFirstLineNumber=new TreeMap<Integer, List<Method>>((int)(1.7d*methods.size()));
for (Method method: methods)
{
// Note: The -1 in this line stands to make the SortedMap work properly when searching for ranges.
int firstLine=getLineNumberTable().getSourceLine(0)-1;
List<Method> methodsInTheSameLine=indexOfMethodsByFirstLineNumber.get(firstLine);
if (methodsInTheSameLine==null)
{
methodsInTheSameLine=new ArrayList<Method>();
indexOfMethodsByFirstLineNumber.put(firstLine,methodsInTheSameLine);
}
methodsInTheSameLine.add(method);
}
5.Public a method to do the search:
public Method getMethodByLine(int lineNumber)
{
Set<Method> methodsInTheSameLine=this.indexOfMethodsByFirstLineNumber.headMap(lineNumber).lastKey();
if (methodsInTheSameLine.size()==0)
{
// There are no methods method in that line: Absurd.
}
else if (methodsInTheSameLine.size()>1)
{
// There are more than one method in that line. Hardly probable, but possible.
}
else
{
// There is one method in that line:
return methods.get(0);
}
}

There are a number of open source Maven plugins which analyse source code, and report on a per-method basis. A careful study of some of those may be your best bet.
Examples include Checkstyle, FindBugs, PMD, JDepend, JavaNCSS.
Also take a look at SonarQube.

Using Java class in Matlab

I've been struggling with this problem for two days now and no resource I've found have been able to solve it.
I am trying to call a java class (added the link at the bottom) from Matlab (version 7.13.0.564 (R2011b)). I've compiled the java class using java 1.6 into a .class file and also added the path to the folder where the file is situated using javaaddpath (I've of course checked that the path is correct in the list of dynamic paths). However, when I try to call the class from Matlab using javaMethod('main','PerlinNoiseGenerator','') I get the error:
"No class PerlinNoiseGenerator can be located on Java class path"
I would be extremely grateful if someone with experience in calling java from Matlab could put together a short tut on how to do this. I am probably going to distribute my code so I kinda need to set the java path dynamically and from what I've read it really should be possible although I've seen post that indicate that it could be the cause of the problem.
http://svn.j3d.org/code/tags/Xj3D-M10/src/java/org/j3d/texture/procedural/PerlinNoiseGenerator.java

Usually I create jar files that contain java classes. I also had problems loading individual java classes before. In your case I did the following on xubuntu 13.04 x64 and Matlab 2013a x64 to load your particular class:
Compile it using java 6 (not the default 7) with option -d . to create a set of package folders, as your class defines a package org/j3d/texture/proecedural/ etc:
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-amd64/bin/javac -d . PerlinNoiseGenerator.java
This will compile the class and make in the current director (thus .) the set of package folders.
Make jar file containing your class again using jar from java 6. I named it javaNoise.jar:
/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-amd64/bin/jar cf javaNoise.jar ./org/j3d/texture/procedural/PerlinNoiseGenerator.class
In Matlab, in the directory where javaNoise.jar is:
javaaddpath('./javaNoise.jar');
Create object of your java class:
png=org.j3d.texture.procedural.PerlinNoiseGenerator()
% results in: png = org.j3d.texture.procedural.PerlinNoiseGenerator#3982a033
To test it, I just generated some 1D noise:
png.noise1(1.2)
ans = -0.0960
Hope this helps.
P.S.
javaMethod('main','PerlinNoiseGenerator','') wont work because this class has no main method:-).

Your notation to the compiler of the constructor is a polymorphic class meaning "use appropriate constructor that is called at runtime".
public PerlinNoiseGenerator()
public PerlinNoiseGenerator(int seed)
The first form with no argument can be called but is irrelevent because the line with this(DEFAULT_SEED) attempts to call itself but only one constructor is allowed used
Second constructor has int for an argument but requires being loaded by an already loaded class.
Use the first version and change the case sensitive name of the one with the argument and remove this(DEFAULT_SEED) from it replace with the method name(the one you changed from a constructor that has the argument).
e.g. public perlinNoiseGenerator(int seed)
note: by convention java code method names start with a lower-case letter.
A final note, java arguments from the command line come in as "String" data type through the "main" method, a starter method for applications (gui or command prompt).
The first argument on the main method argument is the first commandline argument.
public static void main(String[] Args){
new PerlinNoiseGenerator(Args); // recursive class call
}//end main method
int[] args; // global
public PerlinNoiseGenerator(String[] Args){
int arglength=Args.length();
args = new int[arglength];
for(int cnt=0;cnt<arglength;cnt++){
Args[cnt].trim();
args[cnt]=new Integer(Args[cnt]).intValue();
}//enfor
perlinNoiseGenerator(args[0]); // call method
}//end constructor

Supressing console (disp) output for compiled MATLAB > Java program (using MATLAB Compiler)

Edit 2 After recieving a response from Mathworks support I've answered the question myself. In brief, there is an options class MWComponentOptions that is passed to the exported class when instantiated. This can, among other things, specify unique print streams for error output and regular output (i.e. from disp()-liked functions). Thanks for all the responses none the less :)
====================================================================
Just a quick question - is there any way to prevent MATLAB code from outputting to the Java console with disp (and similar) functions once compiled? What is useful debugging information in MATLAB quickly becomes annoying extra text in the Java logs.
The compilation tool I'm using is MATLAB Compiler (which I think is not the same as MATLAB Builder JA, but I might be wrong). I can't find any good documentation on the mcc command so am not sure if there are any options for this.
Of course if this is impossible and a direct consequence of the compiler converting all MATLAB code to its Java equivalent then that's completely understandable.
Thanks in advance
Edit This will also be useful to handle error reporting on the Java side alone - currently all MATLAB errors are sent to the console regardless of whether they are caught or not.

The isdeployed function returns true if run in a deployed application (with e.g. MATLAB Compiler or Builder JA) and false when running in live MATLAB.
You can surround your disp statements with an if isdeployed block.

I heard back from a request to Mathworks support, and they provided the following solution:
When creating whatever class has been exported, you can specify an MWComponentOptions object. This is poorly documented in R2012b, but for what I wanted the following example would work:
MWComponentOptions options = new MWComponentOptions();
PrintStream o = new PrintStream(new File("MATLAB log.log"));
options.setPrintStream(o); // send all standard dips() output to a log file
// the following ignores all error output (this will be caught by Java exception handling anyway)
options.setErrorStream((java.io.PrintStream)null);
// instantiate and use the exported class
myClass obj = new myClass(options);
obj.myMatlabFunction();
// etc...
Update
In case anyone does want to suppress all output, casing null to java.io.PrintStream ended up causing a NullPointerException in deployment. A better way to suppress all output is use to create a dummy print stream, something like:
PrintStream dummy = new PrintStream(new OutputStream() {
public void close() {}
public void flush() {}
public void write(byte[] b) {}
public void write(byte[] b, int off, int len) {}
public void write(int b) {}
} );
Then use
options.setErrorStream(dummy);
Hope this helps :)

Another possible hack if you have a stand-alone application and don't want to bother with classes at all:
Use evalc and deploy your func name during compile:
function my_wrap()
evalc('my_orig_func(''input_var'')');
end
And compile like
mcc -m my_wrap my_orig_func <...>
Well, it is obviously yet another hack.

Get declared methods in order they appear in source code

The situation seems to be abnormal, but I was asked to build serializer that will parse an object into string by concatenating results of "get" methods. The values should appear in the same order as their "get" equivalent is declared in source code file.
So, for example, we have
Class testBean1{
public String getValue1(){
return "value1";
}
public String getValue2(){
return "value2";
}
}
The result should be:
"value1 - value2"
An not
"value2 - value1"
It can't be done with Class object according to the documentation. But I wonder if I can find this information in "*.class" file or is it lost? If such data exists, maybe, someone knows a ready to use tool for that purpose? If such information can't be found, please, suggest the most professional way of achieving the goal. I thought about adding some kind of custom annotations to the getters of the class that should be serialized.

If you want that you have to parse the source code, not the byte code.
There are a number of libraries that parse a source file into a node tree, my favorite is the javaparser (hosted at code.google.com), which, in a slightly modified version, is also used by spring roo.
On the usage page you can find some samples. Basically you will want to use a Visitor that listens for MethodDefinitions.

Although reflection does not anymore (as of java 7 I think) give you the methods in the order in which they appear in the source code, the class file appears to still (as of Java 8) contain the methods in the order in which they appear in the source code.
So, you can parse the class file looking for method names and then sort the methods based on the file offset in which each method was found.
If you want to do it in a less hacky way you can use Javassist, which will give you the line number of each declared method, so you can sort methods by line number.

I don't think the information is retained.
JAXB, for example, has #XmlType(propOrder="field1, field2") where you define the order of the fields when they are serialized to xml. You can implemenet something similar

Edit: This works only on concrete classes (the class to inspect has its own .class file). I changed the code below to reflect this. Until diving deeper into the ClassFileAnalyzer library to work with classes directly instead of reading them from a temporary file this limitation exists.
Following approach works for me:
Download and import following libarary ClassFileAnalyzer
Add the following two static methods (Attention! getClussDump() needs a little modification for writing out the class file to a temporary file: I removed my code here because it's very special at this point):
public static String getClassDump(Class<?> c) throws Exception {
String classFileName = c.getSimpleName() + ".class";
URL resource = c.getResource(classFileName);
if (resource == null) {
throw new RuntimeException("Works only for concreate classes!");
}
String absolutePath = ...; // write to temp file and get absolute path
ClassFile classFile = new ClassFile(absolutePath);
classFile.parse();
Info infos = new Info(classFile, absolutePath);
StringBuffer infoBuffer = infos.getInfos();
return infoBuffer.toString();
}
public static <S extends List<Method>> S sortMethodsBySourceOrder(Class<?> c, S methods) throws Exception {
String classDump = getClassDump(c);
int index = classDump.indexOf("constant_pool_count:");
final String dump = classDump.substring(index);
Collections.sort(methods, new Comparator<Method>() {
public int compare(Method o1, Method o2) {
Integer i1 = Integer.valueOf(dump.indexOf(" " + o1.getName() + lineSeparator));
Integer i2 = Integer.valueOf(dump.indexOf(" " + o2.getName() + lineSeparator));
return i1.compareTo(i2);
}});
return methods;
}
Now you can call the sortMethodsBySourceOrder with any List of methods (because sorting arrays is not very comfortable) and you will get the list back sorted.
It works by looking at the class dumps constant pool which in turn can be determined by the library.
Greetz,
GHad

Write your custom annotation to store ordering data, then use Method.getAnnotation(Class annotationClass)