Spring Dependency Injection and Plugin Jar - java

I have web application running with a default impl of a backend service. One should be able to implement the interface and drop the jar into the plugins folder (which is not in the apps classpath). Once the server is restarted, the idea is to load the new jar into the classloader, and have it take part in dependency injection. I am using Spring DI using #Autowired. The new plugin service impl will have #Primary annotation. So given two impls of the interface, the primary should be loaded.
I got the jar loaded into the classloader and can invoke the impl manually. But I haven't been able to get to to participate in the Dependency Injection, and have it replace the default impl.
Here's a simplified example:
#Controller
public class MyController {
#Autowired
Service service;
}
//default.jar
#Service
DefaultService implements Service {
public void print() {
System.out.println("printing DefaultService.print()");
}
}
//plugin.jar not in classpath yet
#Service
#Primary
MyNewService implements Service {
public void print() {
System.out.println("printing MyNewService.print()");
}
}
//For lack of better place, I loaded the plugin jar from the ContextListener
public class PluginContextLoaderListener extends org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener {
#Override
protected void customizeContext(ServletContext servletContext,
ConfigurableWebApplicationContext wac) {
System.out.println("Init Plugin");
PluginManager pluginManager = PluginManagerFactory.createPluginManager("plugins");
pluginManager.init();
//Prints the MyNewService.print() method
Service service = (Service) pluginManager.getService("service");
service.print();
}
}
<listener>
<listener-class>com.plugin.PluginContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
</listener>
Even after I have loaded the jar into the classloader, DefaultService is still being injected as service. Any idea how I get the plugin jar to participate into the spring's DI lifecycle?
Edited:
To put it simply, I have a war file that has a few plugin jars in a plugins directory inside the war. Based on a value from a configuration file that the app looks at, when the app is started, I want to load that particular plugin jar and run the application with it. That way, I can distribute the war to anyone, and they can choose which plugin to run based on a config value without having to to repackage everything. This is the problem I am trying to solve.

It seems like all You need is to create the Spring ApplicationContext properly. I think it's possible without classpath mingling. What matters most are the locations of the Spring configuration files within the classpath. So put all Your plugin jar's into WEB-INF/lib and read on.
Let's start with the core module. We'll make it to create it's ApplicationContext from files located at classpath*:META-INF/spring/*-corecontext.xml.
Now we'll make all plugins to have their config files elsewhere. I.e. 'myplugin1' will have its config location like this: classpath*:META-INF/spring/*-myplugin1context.xml. And anotherplugin will have the configs at classpath*:META-INF/spring/*-anotherplugincontext.xml.
What You see is a convension. You can also use subdirectiries if You like:
core: classpath*:META-INF/spring/core/*.xml
myplugin1: classpath*:META-INF/spring/myplugin1/*.xml
anotherplugin: classpath*:META-INF/spring/anotherplugin/*.xml
What matters is that the locations have to be disjoint.
All that remains is to pass the right locations to the ApplicationContext creator. For web applications the right place for this would be to extend the ContextLoaderListener and override the method customizeContext(ServletContext, ConfigurableWebApplicationContext).
All that remains is to read Your config file (its location can be passed as servlet init parameter). Than You need to construct the list of config locations:
String locationPrefix = "classpath*:META-INF/spring/";
String locationSiffix = "/*.xml";
List<String> configLocations = new ArrayList<String>();
configLocations.add(locationPrefix + "core" + locationSiffix);
List<String> pluginsTurnedOn = getPluginsTurnedOnFromConfiguration();
for (String pluginName : pluginsTurnedOn) {
configLocations.add(locationPrefix + pluginName + locationSiffix);
}
applicationContext.setConfigLocations(configLocations.toArray(new String[configLocations.size()]));
This way You can easily manage what is and what is not loaded into Spring ApplicationContext.
Update:
To make it work there's one more hidden assumption I made that I'm about to explain now. The base package of the core module and each plugin should also be disjoint. That is i.e.:
com.mycompany.myapp.core
com.mycompany.myapp.myplugin1
com.mycompany.myapp.anotherplugin
This way each module can use <context:componet-scan /> (on equivalent in JavaConfig) easily to add classpath scanning for it's own classes only. The core module should not contain any package scanning of any plugin packages. The plugins should extend configuration of ApplicationContext to add their own packages to classpath scanning.

If you restart the server, I see no reason why you can't just add the JAR to the WEB-INF/lib and have it in the CLASSPATH. All the complication of a custom class loader and context listener goes away, because you treat it just like any other class under Spring's control.
If you do it this way because you don't want to open or modify a WAR, why not put it in the server /lib directory? Let the server class loader pick it up. This makes all plugin classes available to all deployed apps.
The answer depends on how important the separate /plugin directory is. If it's key to the solution, and you can't add the JAR to the server's /lib directory, then that's that. I've got nothing. But I think it'd be worthwhile to at least revisit the solution you have to make sure that it's the only way to accomplish what you want.

Related

How to add external JARs to Spring application without restarting JVM?

I have a Spring Boot application which copies external JAR files to a folder, depending on certain conditions. These JARs can contain many Spring components (i.e. classes annotated or meta-annotated with #Component) and the Spring application should be able scan and instantiate for these beans. Is it possible, based on certain conditions, to dynamically load the contents of the JAR files and make them available to the Spring application context? I am fully aware of the security implications this has.
I have read about the different types of Launchers which Spring provides for its executable JAR format, such as JarLauncher and PropertiesLauncher, but it looks like that these launchers do not detect changes to the classpath, but instead only scan the directories once for JAR files.
The following simple application demonstrates the problem:
// .../Application.java
#SpringBootApplication
public class Application {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Please copy JAR files and press Enter ...");
System.in.read();
SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
}
}
Replace the default JarLauncher with PropertiesLauncher:
// build.gradle
tasks.named('bootJar') {
manifest {
attributes 'Main-Class': 'org.springframework.boot.loader.PropertiesLauncher',
'Start-Class': 'com.example.customlauncher.Application'
}
}
Specify the location to the external JARs in the properties file of the PropertiesLauncher:
# .../resources/loader.properties
loader.path=file:/path/to/dir
The application is a Spring Initializer Gradle application and packaged by running the bootJar task: ./gradlew bootJar.
It is then started with the following command:
java -jar build/libs/customlauncher-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
This works if the JAR file is already present at the specified location (/path/to/dir), but it does not work if the java command is executed while the directory is empty and the JAR file is then copied while the app waits for the user to copy the files and press Enter ↲.
There are a couple of related questions, but it looks like they all assume that the JAR files already exist at the time of starting the JVM:
How to put a directory first on the classpath with Spring Boot?
Spring Boot Executable Jar with Classpath
SpringBoot external jar not load
Is there a way to achieve this without too many awkard hacks? Or is recommended to utilize something like OSGi? Am I looking at this completely wrong and there is a better way to have JARs on the classpath that do not need always need loading (if the JAR is "disabled", it should not be loaded/compiled by the JVM, should not be picked up by Spring, etc.)?
It looks like this is possible if the JAR files are copied before starting the Spring application. It feels hackish, but it works. Use at your own risk!
You need two classes, one for bootstrapping the external JARs, which will then start the second via a manually created PropertiesLauncher. The bootstrapping class can be a plain old regular Java class (but it can be a Spring Boot Application too) and only the second class needs to be a SpringBootApplication.
// BootstrapApplication.java
public class BootstrapApplication {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Please copy JAR files and press Enter ...");
System.in.read();
PropertiesLauncher.main(args);
}
}
// Application.java
#SpringBootApplication
public class Application {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
}
}
In the gradle file, we can switch back to the default JarLauncher, by removing the bootJar task manifest configuration and applying settings via the springBoot configuration block. mainClass will end up as Start-Class in the MANIFEST.MF file.
// build.gradle
springBoot {
mainClass = 'com.example.customlauncher.BootstrapApplication'
}
In the properties file for the loader, a new property needs to be set, which points to the real application class. The settings in this file are only picked up by PropertiesLauncher and ignored by JarLauncher. In other words: JarLauncher delegates to Start-Class from the manifest file and PropertiesLauncher delegates to loader.main from its properties file.
# .../resources/loader.properties
loader.path=file:/path/to/dir
loader.main=com.example.customlauncher.Application
Spring (Boot) will first call the main method of BootstrapApplication, as specified in the MANIFEST.MF file (controlled via springBoot configuration block in the build.gradle file). In the implementation of this main method, a new PropertiesLauncher is created with the main class set to the "real" application (i.e. Application).
Executing the application is still done via the same invocation:
java -jar build/libs/customlauncher-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
Any JAR files added to /path/to/dir after the JVM has started, but before calling PropertiesLauncher#main in BootstrapApplication are then available in the classpath and application context as seen from Application.

Spring context indexer not working for dependency jar

I have some library jar lib.jar (made using spring boot but packaged as normal jar without spring boot plugin) which is made of spring boot and contains spring.components file generated by spring-context-indexer.
Now, I'm using this jar in my application which also has spring-context-indexer and its own spring.components file and uses some of the bean defined in lib.jar.
When I start my application, spring should register all beans defined in spring.components of lib.jar and spring.components of application. But spring isn't registering any of bean of lib.jar.
I tried using basePackages property of #SpringBootApplication but no results.
I even copied all entries of spring.components of lib.jar into spring.components of my application but no result.
Can anyone please help me?
TL;DR
If you're using Spring Data, #SpringBootApplication.scanBasePackages is not enough, you also need #EnableJdbcRepositories (or *Jpa* or whatsoever).
package application;
// without this annotation all Repository classes
// from library will be missing
#EnableJdbcRepositories({
"application",
"library"
})
#SpringBootApplication(
scanBasePackages = {
"application",
"library"
}
)
public class Application {
public static void main(final String[] args) {
SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
}
}
Some more info
Okay, maybe I'm a bit late, but I decided to investigate this case a bit.
That's what I've found as of 2 Feb 2022:
All META-INF/spring.components files are loaded in CandidateComponentsIndexLoader.doLoadIndex. You can use debug to check whether it sees file from lib or not
CandidateComponentsIndexLoader then creates CandidateComponentsIndex, which is then stored in the component scanner, for me it is AnnotationConfigServletWebServerApplicationContext.scanner.componentsIndex
Then in ClassPathScanningCandidateComponentProvider findCandidateComponents is called, which, if componentsIndex is not null, just gets components from that index by provided basePackage.
That's why missing basePackage is crucial.
I haven't dug into the Spring Data algorithms, but in my case Spring hadn't been generating library Repositories until I added the #EnableJdbcRepositories with packages.
P.S. All links represent files at the 5.3.15 tag, latest atm.

Should the service beans defined in the jar library be instantiated by the jar library configuration or by the client war application configuration?

I have a library as a jar packaging Maven project which offers services.
The #Configuration class to instantiate service beans:
#Configuration
public class JpaService {
#Bean
public UserRoleServiceImpl userRoleService() {
return new UserRoleServiceImpl();
}
#Bean
public UserServiceImpl userService() {
return new UserServiceImpl();
}
}
I reckoned I needed to have the beans instantiation outside of the jar archive.
So I had a copy of this class in the test part of the project, and another copy in another war packaging Maven project using the library.
But what if I instantiated the services in the jar library itself. I would need to only do it once, be it for testing or for all client projects using it.
UPDATE: Two questions...
Should all component scanning only be done from the war ? Or should the jar service components be scanned from the jar ?
And what if two components (one in the jar and one in the war) have the same class name in the same package ?
I dont think i fully understand your question, but if you are aiming to add beans to your application context that is outside the jar then what you have to do is use the #ComponentScan annotation, and specify the package you want to scan, the package can be in a different jar, the only thing required is that you anotate the clases you want to include with #Service, #Componenet or even #Configuration
example:
#Configuration
#ComponentScan(basePackages={"com.somepackacge.controller",
...
you can include as much packages as you like.
By the way dont copy your clases from one place to the other, maintining that will be a headache in the futute, if you want to include your configuration in your tests you can always do :
#RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
#SpringApplicationConfiguration(classes = MyConfigClass.class)
Where MyConfigClass is the class u used before with the component scan
Hope it helps

Dynamic Web Application - platform with components

I am doing a research on how to make a proper structure for my web application.
It will be a web application serving as a platform for additional, independent components.
The components must be able to map requests by using the #Controller annotaion.
So far I have learned, that:
The platform will be deployed as a .war file on Tomcat.
The platform classpath location will contain components in a form of .jar files.
My question is:
How to setup the components and the platform, so that platform will make use of the components' #Controllers?
So far I have the platform.war running on Tomcat. It is annotation based Spring configuration.
I also have the first component, it is a single Java class with #Controller annotation and first mapping. For some reason when I include this component in the classpath of the platform and try to access the url mapped in the component, the application returns 404 error. In the log files it says "No mapping found for HTTP request" so it does not initialize the component's #Controller.
For further explanation click here.
In your JAR file, create a package defining your namespace, i.e: "com.platformproject.web". Then all you need to do is put the JAR file in WEB-INF/lib (or better use Maven Modules) and scan the annotations at startup:
MvcConfig.java
#EnableWebMvc
#Configuration
#ComponentScan(basePackages = { "com.platformproject.web" })
public class MvcConfig extends WebMvcConfigurerAdapter { ... }

Spring dependency injection from webapp to external jars

I am integrating Java Plugin Framework within a Spring based web application (XML-free).
Everything is fine, except for the dependency injection in plugin context
For instance I have a data source I would like to use in a plugin without having to go back to property files by using #Autowired like for the rest of the application
I cannot find a way to do this except by using getBean, which I read was not the best practise on this subject.
I also had a look at LogicalDoc but this project resorts to properties reloading which is not the correct solution for me as I want beans attributes modifications to be available without further glue.
Does anyone know of an existing open source project where both these environment are used ?
Not being able to inject dependencies in plugins, I finally added the following methods to mother class of all plugins
public void setContext(ApplicationContextProvider a_ctx) {
m_theContext = a_ctx;
}
public ApplicationContext getApplicationContext() {
return m_theContext.getApplicationContext();
}
And retreive the beans from within the plugin by
getApplicationContext().getBean(*ClassType*)

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