Develop Reference

Adding a field to Java class

Looked at using CGLib, ASM, BCEL (aspect) and Javassist to add a field to a class during runtime....
Just to get my head straight it looks like these bytecode manipulators don't update the actual class rather allow the user to only dump the modification (like with CGLib and the writeFile method). Was hoping I would find a solution that (a) loaded the class (rather than doing an InputStream with BCEL) and (b) updated the class.
Maybe this is normal? Do people usually create a proxy and pass the proxy around?
What I want to do is to add a field (note: not a property via get/set methods) before passing the object along to a framework that looks for fields (not properties) with a particular annotation. So "clients" are creating my target classes that I want to inject with an extra field. Intercepting with AOP calls to a service layer where I want to manipulate these objects.

You can redefine classes with Intrumentation. However a common limiation is that you cannot change the fields used. This is because you cannot change the contents of a object (or add to it) once it has been created.
In your case you can,
create a proxy as you suggest, however proxies need to be interfaces.
create a subclass which has the additional field(s)
add the field before the class has loaded.

How can I pass arguments to an extension point constructor?

Eclipse calls the default (zero-argument) constructor when instantiating an extension point. I want to provide some arguments. I found a recommendation to use IExecutableExtension#setInitializationData but that appears to require specifying the argument values statically in XML. I need them to be dynamic. Another recommendation was to implement IExecutableExtensionFactory but that seems heavy handed. (The interface also seems pointless, as all it contains is a create() method.) I could add a method to set the values after creation but my class won't work correctly without them and they shouldn't be changed after creation, so forcing them to be provided at object creation time is preferable. This can't be a unique situation. What's the standard way of handling this?

If the arguments need to be "dynamic," where would they come from? How would Eclipse know what values to use? Extension point objects are created when the plugin is activated, so there is not much context available at that point.
I think the best option for you is to use IExecutableExtensionFactory after all. Your factory can implement IExecutableExtension to receive the XML configuration data and then be coded to create the objects based on that and any other context you can make available to it.
Depending on your needs, you could use Dynamic String Substitution Variables to insert certain context into your factory. See also Externalizing strings in plugin.xml for Eclipse plugin

What is the purpose of Dynamic Bean in ATG

I've read documentation, but there is no definition of the main purpose of Dynamic Bean. I understand how to implement this but dont know why this approach so good.
So could someone tell the situation when it's good to use Dynamic Bean?
Thanks

Dynamic beans typically allow you to get and set fields which may not be explicit members. The most direct comparison is a map - maps allow you to get and set fields without defining them beforehand. However, a dyanamic bean conforms to standard java idioms (getters/setters).
Unlike a hashmap, however, dyanbeans can enforce constraints more readily (and they hide the underlying data structure implementation, so they can be lazy, or make data connections when being set, etc... ) . For example, you can easily add a getter or setter to your dynabean that is explicit, and the code would read very idiomatically and cleanly interact with other bean apis.
public int getCost()
{
if(this.get("cost")==null)
return -1;
return Integer.parseInt(super.get("cost"));
}

The most useful part about dynamic beans in ATG is providing additional DynamicPropertyMapper classes for classes that aren't already covered by it. First, note that you can use the DynamicBeans.setPropertyValue(object, property, value) and DynamicBeans.getPropertyValue(object, property) static methods to set or get properties on an object that don't necessarily correspond with Java bean properties. If the object you're using isn't registered with dynamic beans, it'll try to use Java bean properties by default. Support is provided out of the box to do that with repository items (properties correspond to repository item properties; also applies to the Profile object, naturally), DynamoHttpServletRequest objects (correspond to servlet parameters), maps/dictionaries (correspond to keys), and DOM Node objects (correspond to element attributes followed by the getters/setters of Node).
To add more classes to this, you need to create classes that extend DynamicPropertyMapper. For instance, suppose you want to make HttpSession objects work similarly using attributes with a fallback to the getters and setters of HttpSession. Then you'd implement the three methods from DynamicPropertyMapper, and the getBeanInfo(object) class can be easily implemented using DynamicBeans.getBeanInfo(object) if you don't have any custom BeanInfo or DynamicBeanInfo classes for the object you're implementing this for.
Once you have a DynamicPropertyMapper, you can register it with DynamicBeans.registerPropertyMapper(mapper). Normally this would be put into a static initialization block for the class you're writing the property mapper for. However, if you're making a property mapper for another class out of your control (like HttpSession), you'll want to make a globally-scoped generic service that simply calls the register method in its doStartService(). Then you can add that service to your initial services.

Loading Settings - Best Practices

I'm at the point in my first real application where I am adding in the user settings. I'm using Java and being very OO (and trying to keep it that way) so here are my ideas:
Load everything in the main() and
pass it all 'down the line' to the
required objects (array)
Same as above, but just pass the
object that contains the data down
the line
Load each individual setting as
needed within the various classes.
I understand some of the basic pros and cons to each method (i.e. time vs. size) but I'm looking for some outside input as to what practices they've successfully used in the past.

Someone should stand up for the purported Java standard, the Preferences API... and it's most recent incarnation in JDK6. Edited to add, since the author seems to savvy XML, this is more appropriate than before. Thought I believe you can work XML juju with Properties too, should the spirit take you.
Related on SO: Preferences API vs. Apache solution, Is a master preferences class a good idea?
(well, that's about all the standing up I'm willing to do.)

Use a SettingsManager class or something similar that is used to abstract getting all settings data. At each point in the code where you need a setting you query the SettingsManager class - something like:
int timeout = SettingsManager.GetSetting("TimeoutSetting");
You then delegate all of the logic for how settings are fetched to this single manager class, whose implementation you can change / optimize as needed. For instance, you could implement the SettingsManager to fetch settings from a config file, or a database, or some other data store, periodically refresh the settings, handle caching of settings that are expensive to retrieve, etc. The code using the settings remains blissfully unaware of all of these implementaton decisions.
For maximum flexibility you can use an interface instead of an actual class, and have different setting managers implement the interface: you can swap them in and out as needed at some central point without having to change the underlying code at all.
In .NET there is a fairly rich set of existing configuration classes (in the System.Configuration) namespace that provide this sort of thing, and it works out quite well.
I'm not sure of the Java equivalent, but it's a good pattern.

Since configuration / settings are typically loaded once (at startup; or maybe a few times during the program's runtime. In any way, we're not talking about a very frequent / time-consuming process), I would prefer simplicity over efficiency.
That rules out option number (3). Configuration-loading will be scattered all over the place.
I'm not entirely sure what the difference is between (1) and (2) in your list. Does (1) mean "passing discreet parameters" and (2) mean "passing an object containing the entire configuration"? If so, I'd prefer (2) over (1).
The rule of thumb here is that you should keep things simple and concentrated. The advantage of reading configuration in one place is that it gives you better control in case the source of the configuration changes at some point.

Here is a tutorial on the Properties class. From the Javadocs (Properties):
The Properties class represents a
persistent set of properties. The
Properties can be saved to a stream or
loaded from a stream. Each key and its
corresponding value in the property
list is a string.
A property list can contain another
property list as its "defaults"; this
second property list is searched if
the property key is not found in the
original property list.
The tutorial gives the following example instantiation for a typical usage:
. . .
// create and load default properties
Properties defaultProps = new Properties();
FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream("defaultProperties");
defaultProps.load(in);
in.close();
// create application properties with default
Properties applicationProps = new Properties(defaultProps);
// now load properties from last invocation
in = new FileInputStream("appProperties");
applicationProps.load(in);
in.close();
. . .
You could, of course, also roll your own system fairly directly using a file-based store and an XML or YAML parser. Good luck!

We have recently started using JSR-330 dependency injection (using Guice from SVN) and found that it was possible to read in a Properties file (or any other map) and bind it inside Guice in the module in the startup code so that the
#Inject #Named("key") String value
string was injected with the value corresponding to the key when that particular code was called. This is the most elegant way I have ever seen for solving this problem!
You do not have to haul configuration objects around your code or sprinkle all kinds of magic method calls in each and every corner of the code to get the values - you just mention to Guice you need it, and it is there.
Note: I've had a look at Guice, Weld (Seam-based) and Spring which all provide injection, because we want JSR-330 in our own code, and I like Guice the best currently. I think the reason is because Guice is the clearest in its bindings as opposed to the under-the-hood magic happening with Weld.

In Java, how can I construct a "proxy wrapper" around an object which invokes a method upon changing a property?

I'm looking for something similar to the Proxy pattern or the Dynamic Proxy Classes, only that I don't want to intercept method calls before they are invoked on the real object, but rather I'd like to intercept properties that are being changed. I'd like the proxy to be able to represent multiple objects with different sets of properties. Something like the Proxy class in Action Script 3 would be fine.
Here's what I want to achieve in general:
I have a thread running with an object that manages a list of values (numbers, strings, objects) which were handed over by other threads in the program, so the class can take care of creating regular persistent snapshots on disk for the purpose of checkpointing the application. This persistor object manages a "dirty" flag that signifies whether the list of values has changed since the last checkpoint and needs to lock the list while it's busy writing it to disk.
The persistor and the other components identify a particular item via a common name, so that when recovering from a crash, the other components can first check if the persistor has their latest copy saved and continue working where they left off.
During normal operation, in order to work with the objects they handed over to the persistor, I want them to receive a reference to a proxy object that looks as if it were the original one, but whenever they change some value on it, the persistor notices and acts accordingly, for example by marking the item or the list as dirty before actually setting the real value.
Edit: Alternatively, are there generic setters (like in PHP 5) in Java, that is, a method that gets called if a property doesn't exist? Or is there a type of object that I can add properties to at runtime?

If with "properties" you mean JavaBean properties, i.e. represented bay a getter and/or a setter method, then you can use a dynamic proxy to intercept the set method.
If you mean instance variables, then no can do - not on the Java level. Perhaps something could be done by manipulations on the byte code level though.
Actually, the easiest way to do it is probably by using AspectJ and defining a set() pointcut (which will intercept the field access on the byte code level).

The design pattern you are looking for is: Differential Execution. I do believe.
How does differential execution work?
Is a question I answered that deals with this.
However, may I suggest that you use a callback instead? You will have to read about this, but the general idea is that you can implement interfaces (often called listeners) that active upon "something interesting" happening. Such as having a data structure be changed.
Obligitory links:
Wiki Differential execution
Wiki Callback
Alright, here is the answer as I see it. Differential Execution is O(N) time. This is really reasonable, but if that doesn't work for ya Callbacks will. Callbacks basically work by passing a method by parameter to your class that is changing the array. This method will take the value changed and the location of the item, pass it back by parameter to the "storage class" and change the value approipriately. So, yes, you have to back each change with a method call.
I realize now this is not what you want. What it appears that you want is a way that you can supply some kind of listener on each variable in an array that would be called when that item is changed. The listener would then change the corresponding array in your "backup" to refect this change.
Natively I can't think of a way to do this. You can, of course, create your own listeners and events, using an interface. This is basically the same idea as the callbacks, though nicer to look at.
Then there is reflection... Java has reflection, and I am positive you can write something using it to do this. However, reflection is notoriously slow. Not to mention a pain to code (in my opinion).
Hope that helps...

I don't want to intercept method calls before they are invoked on the real object, but
rather I'd like to intercept properties that are being changed
So in fact, the objects you want to monitor are no convenient beans but a resurgence of C structs. The only way that comes to my mind to do that is with the Field Access call in JVMTI.

I wanted to do the same thing myself. My solution was to use dynamic proxy wrappers using Javassist. I would generate a class that implements the same interface as the class of my target object, wrap my proxy class around original class, and delegate all method calls on proxy to the original, except setters which would also fire the PropertyChangeEvent.
Anyway I posted the full explanation and the code on my blog here:
http://clockwork-fig.blogspot.com/2010/11/javabean-property-change-listener-with.html