Getting the instance when Constructor#newInstance throws? - java

I'm working on a simple plugin system, where third party plugins implement a Plugin interface. A directory of JARs is scanned, and the implementing classes are instantiated with Constructor#newInstance.
The thing is, these plugins call back into register* methods of the plugin host. These registrations use the Plugin instance as a handle. My problem is how to clean up these registrations if the constructor decides to fail and throw halfway through.
InvocationTargetException doesn't seem to have anything on it to get the instance. Is there a way to get at the instance of an exception throwing constructor?
P.S.: It's typically strongly advised to users that the constructor not do anything, but in practice people are doing it any ways.

What you are in effect asking is whether there is a way to get hold of the (partial) instance when a constructor throws an exception.
The answer is No. But it is not because the instance is "dead". In fact the reference to the instance could still be reachable and usable by other parts of the application ... if it has been "published" before the constructor completed.
The real reason is that neither creating or throwing an exception records the instance associated with the method or constructor doing the creating / throwing.
You will need to solve this some other way. My suggestion is you make it a rule that these plugin classes must only register the instance as the last statement of the constructor; i.e. when no more initialization-related exceptions could be thrown.

Is it possible to do the registration through a holder object which is then used for actual plugin registration after the plugin class has been constructed successfully? I'm thinking of something like this:
public class MyPlugin extends BasePlugin {
public MyPlugin(PluginRegistry registry) {
super(registry);
// here be things which may cause an exception
// to be thrown, among other things
}
}
public interface PluginRegistry {
// method(s) for registration
}
public class PluginRegistryHolder implements PluginRegistry {
// implementations of the required method(s) for registration
// also a method for getting temporary registration data from within the class
}
// Actual usage in your code
public void registerPlugin(final String className) {
PluginRegistryHolder h = new PluginRegistryHolder();
Constructor c = /* acquire correct constructor, omitted for clarity */
try {
Object o = c.newInstance(new Object[] {h});
this.actualRegistry.register(o, h.getRegistrationData());
} catch (Throwable t) { /* die */
}
}
So basically handle the registration gracefully and never let the plugin class register directly but instead through a managed proxy.

Related

How to inspect java method references (double colon) operator usages in classes during build time

Is there a way to detect usages of java method reference (double colon) operator inside the code?
I need to discover all instance/static method references used in a given class in order to be able to detect some errors (must verify that the target method has a particular annotation - #Good in the below example) during build time. As by convention a method reference should be used only to some of the methods when it is passed to a constructor of some helper class (Info in the below example).
class X {
Info init() {
return new Info(X::beta); // good code: target method has #Good annotation
return new Info(X::alpha); // bad code: target method has no #Good annotation
}
void alpha() {
}
#Good
void beta() {
}
}
The intention is to be able to click on the method reference as this makes it easy to follow as otherwise if just passing Method instance or just method name it would lack this ability.
(The example is not very good but I'm now allowed to share more details, sorry about that!)
I can see IntelliJ IDEA "knows" about them - when you ctrl+click on them it navigates to the target method so there should be some form of a static analysis used there.
I'm already using ObjectWeb ASM to detect invocations to certain methods but it seems it lacks the ability to detect method references (::)
EDIT:
Just a note that you can also pass new Info(x -> x.alpha()) as #Thomas below mentioned in the comments but this would not pass our review process but I guess the additional ability to detect it would not hurt.
EDIT2: What exactly are you trying to achieve with these checks? What makes beta worthy of receiving the annotation?
Answer:
When the init() method is called we obtain the Info instance and from it obtain the lambda which must be a method reference. Then we use javassist ProxyFactory and create a sub-class of class X then instantiate it and intercept all its methods via setting a method handler. So now it is safe to execute the lambda without allowing it to make any side effects - the method body is skipped and the only thing we do is to capture which is the X method that the lambda actually is calling - in the example this will lead to a java.lang.Method instance pointing to X.beta or X.alpha method. Then we can check if it has the #Good annotation and proceed accordingly - which is to call the lambda without any proxying, but that call might happen later, like a millisecond later or an hour later. If there is no #Good annotation we cannot proceed - it is a bug.
So the problem is that this will happen at runtime later and there might be a bug not caught early enough and that is the reason I would like to inspect the X class at build time and catch all the bugs :)
This is a bit of a shot in the dark, as I'm neither very proficient with ASM nor sure if this approach addresses your problem. Having said that, I found that, in a similar setting, asm.MethodVisitor calls MethodVisitor.visitInvokeDynamicInsn(...) for (some? all?) method references.
E.g., if I compile this variant of your class X along with an Info:
class Info {
public Info(Runnable alpha) {}
}
class X {
Info init() { return new Info(this::alpha); }
void alpha() {}
}
... and I then feed the resulting X.class into a mini ClassVisitor + printing MethodVisitor (Groovy for brevity):
class MyMethodVisitor extends MethodVisitor {
MyMethodVisitor(MethodVisitor parent) { super(Opcodes.ASM8, parent) }
#Override
void visitInvokeDynamicInsn(String name, String descriptor, Handle bootstrapMethodHandle, Object... bootstrapMethodArguments) {
println "visitInvokeDynamicInsn($name, $descriptor, $bootstrapMethodHandle, $bootstrapMethodArguments)"
super.visitInvokeDynamicInsn(name, descriptor, bootstrapMethodHandle, bootstrapMethodArguments)
}
}
class MyClassVisitor extends ClassVisitor {
MyClassVisitor() { super(Opcodes.ASM8) }
#Override
MethodVisitor visitMethod(int access, String name, String descriptor, String signature, String[] exceptions) {
println "Starting method '$name'"
new MyMethodVisitor(super.visitMethod(access, name, descriptor, signature, exceptions))
}
}
def clr = new ClassReader(new File("./X.class").bytes)
clr.accept(new MyClassVisitor(), ClassReader.SKIP_FRAMES)
Then the method visitor prints, amongst other details, a call to visitInvokeDynamicInsn from within the method visitation of X::init with the desired X::alpha among the arguments (the xyz being my local package):
Visiting method '<init>'
Visiting method 'init'
visitInvokeDynamicInsn(run, (xyz/X;)Ljava/lang/Runnable;,
java/lang/invoke/LambdaMetafactory.metafactory(Ljava/lang/invoke/MethodHandles$Lookup;Ljava/lang/String;Ljava/lang/invoke/MethodType;Ljava/lang/invoke/MethodType;Ljava/lang/invoke/MethodHandle;Ljava/lang/invoke/MethodType;)Ljava/lang/invoke/CallSite; (6),
[()V, xyz/X.alpha()V (5), ()V])
Visiting method 'alpha'
So it would seem possible to peel the method out of those arguments. I am not sure if this reliable (e.g., whether this bytecode is guaranteed by specification, or whether it can depend on compilation/optimization details).

Static Factory Methods Return Types [duplicate]

From Effective Java (Item 1: Consider static factory methods instead of constructors):
The class of the object returned by a static factory method need not even exist
at the time the class containing the method is written. Such flexible static factory
methods form the basis of service provider frameworks, such as the Java Database
Connectivity API (JDBC). A service provider framework is a system in which
multiple service providers implement a service, and the system makes the implementations
available to its clients, decoupling them from the implementations.
I specifically do not understand why the book is saying that The class of the object returned by a static factory method need not even exist at the time the class containing the method is written ? Can some one explain using JDBC as the example .
Consider something like the following:
public interface MyService {
void doSomething();
}
public class MyServiceFactory {
public static MyService getService() {
try {
(MyService) Class.forName(System.getProperty("MyServiceImplemetation")).newInstance();
} catch (Throwable t) {
throw new Error(t);
}
}
}
With this code, your library doesn't need to know about the implementations of the service. Users of your library would have to set a system property containing the name of the implementation they want to use.
This is what is meant by the sentence you don't understand: the factory method will return an instance of some class (which name is stored in the system property "MyServiceImplementation"), but it has absolutely no idea what class it is. All it knows is that it implements MyService and that it must have a public, no-arg constructor (otherwise, the factory above will throw an Error).
the system makes the implementations available to its clients, decoupling them from the implementations
Just to put it in simpler way you don't add any dependencies of these JDBC vendors at compile time. Clients can add their own at runtime

How to use Picocontainer Web?

I'm trying to use Picocontainer Web (picocontainer-web-core-2.5.1.jar).
I have configured everything and I checked out that everything works just fine, until trying to retrieve anything from container... :p
I though I should use static method getRequestComponentForThread(Class type) from PicoServletContainerFilter class, which looks like this:
public static Object getRequestComponentForThread(Class type) {
MutablePicoContainer requestContainer = ServletFilter.currentRequestContainer.get();
MutablePicoContainer container = new DefaultPicoContainer(requestContainer);
container.addComponent(type);
return container.getComponent(type);
}
But as you can see, in that method, new instance of DefaultPicoContainer is created and type which I'm trying to retrieve is being registered.
if type is a Class - new instance is created and returned, instead of cached one from parent container...
if type is a Interface - runtime exception ("'ExampleInterface' is not instantiable") is being thrown, at 3rd line (addComponent).
And my question is: How to use this library? I was pretty sure that I understand it, but implementation of this one method blows my mind...
Actually you should not use getComponent unless there's a special case.
App/Session/Request containers are created for you when you add pico context listener to the web.xml.
Just configure components for each scope and picocontainer will inject stuff automatically and instantiate components when needed. Also use Startable lifecycle interface.
I figured out one acceptable solution - writing own version of org.picocontainer.web.PicoServletContainerFilter.ServletFilter - and adding one method:
public class MyComponentContainer extends PicoServletContainerFilter {
/*
code from original class PicoServletContainerFilter.ServletFilter
[...]
*/
public static <T> T getComponent(Class<T> clazz) {
return (T) currentRequestContainer.get().getComponent(clazz);
}
}
I'm not sure if it's the best to do, but it work's fine for me. However, if you know better solution I'd be grateful for information :)

Obtaining the original Java class while using instanceof and casting

First off, for anyone out there who abhors, detests and despises the instanceof operator, I understand your concerns with it, but am stuck using it. That's because I don't have the authority to completely refactor the way another development team set a project up, so unless I'm missing somethin here, I just don't see any way of avoiding it.
I have a Java POJO that cannot be changed, and allows you to set an Exception as one of its properties:
public class Message {
private Exception exception;
public void setException(Exception exc) {
this.exception = exc;
}
}
Again, I can't change this Message class.
I am writing an error handler method that gets passed a MessageContainer instances, and I need logic to do different things depending on what type of exception was set on the container's Message:
public class ErrorHandler {
public void handle(MessageContainer container) {
Message msg = container.getMessage();
Exception exc = msg.getException();
if(exc instanceof FizzException)
System.out.println("Do x");
else if(exc instanceof BuzzException)
System.out.println("Do y");
else
System.out.println("Do z");
}
}
Again, I can't change the fact that ErrorHandler#handle is passed a MessageContainer and not an injectable Message instance.
So, even though I really don't like to use instanceof, I don't see any other way of accomplishing this logic (but by all means, please make suggestions...as long as they don't involve making changes to Message, MessageContainer, or the handle(MessageContainer) method!).
But even with using instanceof, how does this code even work? Once you pull the Exception out of the Message, I don't think any of the instanceofs will fire, because its cast to an Exception, with no way to detect if it's BuzzException, FizzException, etc. What are my options here? Thanks in advance.
This code will work as expected. During runtime, instanceof statements will compare the actual type of exc, and not just assume this is only an Exception. If the only statement that worked was exc instanceof Exception, instanceof would be totally worthless :)
Another solution (which I would avoid to use) would be to compare fully qualified class names:
String fqcn = exc.getClass().getName();
if (fqcn.equals("com.foo.FizzException") {
// etc.
}
The cast to exception on
Exception exc = msg.getException();
does not erase the exception runtime type. It has merely cast it to a base type. The instanceof will still work. However, if your FizzException extends BuzzException, then you will need to do the instanceof checks in the other order. i.e. check for the most derived type first.
Otherwise, it will go into the base class check clause instead of the derived one.
It's not clear what you want. If the exceptions are all "given" and you can't change their implementations then you can use exception.getClass().getName() to get the class name and, maybe, look it up in a table or whatever to pick your course of action.
If you can change many of the exception implementations have them all implement an interface that provides a "functionality()" method or whatever. If an given Exception object is instanceof MyFunctionalityInterface then cast to MyFunctionalityInterface and call functionality() to have it return the info you need to guide your actions. Then use instanceof or getClass().getName() to manage the Exception classes you can't change.

How to get the name of a proxy class?

I'm using the java.util.concurrency framework for the first time. Here's a very simplified version of what I'm doing. For those not intimately familiar with the framework, future.get() executes a Callable object defined in the future. future.getOriginatingRequest() returns an object I set in the future for use by the Callable object and I'm just trying to log which originating request object failed (its enough to know the class name of it).
try {
future.get();
} catch (ExecutionException e) {
logger.error("Failed to execute future with id '" +
future.getOriginatingRequest().getClass().getName() + "'");
}
The problem I'm having is that the logging framework is outputting this:
Failed to execute future with id '$Proxy22'
Thus instead of the real class name I am getting $Proxy22 or some other number. Is there a way to get ahold of the real class name rather than the proxy name? Bonus points is someone can clearly explain why I'm getting the proxy string in the first place!
I can answer the bonus question: the string is the name of a dynamic Proxy class, generated in runtime.
As for how you can get to the masked class, there's not even a guarantee that one exists at all. The only thing you can do is to call Proxy.getInvocationHandler() on your proxy object and hope that the invocation handler will reveal more information (unlikely but may be worth a shot).
I find good for me solution on http://www.techper.net/2009/06/05/how-to-acess-target-object-behind-a-spring-proxy/
#SuppressWarnings({"unchecked"})
protected <T> T getTargetObject(Object proxy, Class<T> targetClass) throws Exception {
if (AopUtils.isJdkDynamicProxy(proxy)) {
return (T) ((Advised)proxy).getTargetSource().getTarget();
} else {
return (T) proxy; // expected to be cglib proxy then, which is simply a specialized class
}
}
Usage
#Override
protected void onSetUp() throws Exception {
getTargetObject(fooBean, FooBeanImpl.class).setBarRepository(new MyStubBarRepository());
}
i'm guessing that the proxy class is a subclass of the class you're looking for. especially if the class you're looking for is a class you wrote.
can you access the inheritance tree for the object you found? maybe through reflection?

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