RetentionPolicy of RUNTIME in old JRE? - java

What will happen when a Class or Interface who is annotated with an annotation of RetentionPolicy#RUNTIME is loaded in old JREs?
#FunctionalInterface // Java8 #Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public interface MyFunctional {
}
Is above interface or any class implement that interface can run in JRE 7 or older?

Annotations are handled slightly different than other normal classes. If the JVM cannot load the annotation class for a runtime annotation, this annotation will be dropped and you cannot find hints anymore that there was an annotation.

Related

How will I know the annotations of a Java class?

I need to know the annotations of a Java class. I am using Lombok.
Sample is:
#Data
#Builder
public class JavaBean {}
I tried java.lang.annotation.Annotation[] annotation = JavaBean.class.getAnnotations but it doesn't show Data and Builder.
I think you cannot see the annotations in JavaBean.class.getAnnotations because the #Retention is equals to SOURCE.
This kind of annotation is not needed at runtime.
For more details : Annotation SOURCE Retention Policy
Have a good day.
The answer is in source of these annotations:
#Target({TYPE, METHOD, CONSTRUCTOR})
#Retention(SOURCE)
public #interface Builder {
.....
#Target(ElementType.TYPE)
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.SOURCE)
public #interface Data {
.....
Your code to get annotation is correct but it's #Retention(RetentionPolicy.SOURCE) which is playing role here.
Java defined 3 types of retention policies through java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy enumeration. It has SOURCE, CLASS and RUNTIME.
1) Annotation with retention policy SOURCE will be retained only with source code, and discarded during compile time.
2) Annotation with retention policy CLASS will be retained till compiling the code, and discarded during runtime.
3) Annotation with retention policy RUNTIME will be available to the JVM through runtime.
#Data and #Builder are marked with #Retention(SOURCE) which means these annotations are not present at runtime with your class hence you are not able to get these annotations..
Lombok annotations are pre-processed before the actual compilation, thus the compiled classes do not contain them as annotation, but rather as the already generated code.

How annotation internally works in java

I know how to create custom annotation. But i am unable to understand how does it work internally. If i take example of spring annontation.
#PropertySource(value = { "classpath:database.properties" }).
if we see internal details of #PropertySource annotation
#Target({ java.lang.annotation.ElementType.TYPE })
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
#Documented
#Repeatable(PropertySources.class)
public #interface PropertySource {
public abstract String name();
public abstract String[] value();
public abstract boolean ignoreResourceNotFound();
}
We do not have provided any implementation here for loading property file.
Then How is it loading property file from classpath. Who is working behind the scene ?
Really simple: framework. That is. All 'custom' annotations processed by frameworks using reflection. Only small scope of annotations are processed by compiler, such as #Override, #SuppressWarnings, #Retention and so on

How to use "declare" instruction within Spring AspectJ?

I have a bunch of classes inside a Spring 4.2 project.
I'd like to have all of them annotated with #Xyz annotation. According to AspectJ documentation it could be done by
declare #type : x.y.z.* : #Xyz;
instruction.
But I have no clue where to place it.
I did some testing on my side and after some struggling, I looked for the concrete implementation. Sadly, #DeclareAnnotation exists but is not implemented.
We can see it here.
https://github.com/eclipse/org.aspectj/blob/V1_8_9/docs/adk15ProgGuideDB/ataspectj.xml#L1017
I thought it would be implemented sinced the annotation appeared in version 1.5.3. My bad.
Original answer (not working, AspectJ v1.8.9).
First you need to enable AspectJ in your configuration. For example, Java configuration :
#Configuration
#EnableAspectJAutoProxy
public class AopConfiguration {}
Then you create a new aspect with the #DeclareAnnotation annotation :
#Aspect
public class XyzAspect {
#DeclareAnnotation("x.y.z.*")
#Xyz class XyzClass {}
#DeclareAnnotation("x.y.z.MyClass.*(..)")
#Xyz void xyzMethod() {}
}

How to implement something similar to the #Override java annotation?

With this jdk code in ../java/lang/Override.java,
package java.lang;
import java.lang.annotation.*;
#Target(ElementType.METHOD)
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.SOURCE)
public #interface Override {
}
having just annotation declaration, java compiler is intelligent enough to detect error(compile time):
The method toString123() of type Example must override or implement a supertype method
in the below problem code.
package annotationtype;
public class Example {
#Override public String toString() {
return "Override the toString() of the superclass";
}
#Override public String toString123() {
return "Override the toString123() of the superclass";
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
}
}
Annotation declaration for Override just gets compiled to,
interface java.lang.Override extends java.lang.annotation.Annotation{
}
which is nothing more than an interface.
So,
How does interface java.lang.Override syntax help java compiler to detect above error at compile time?
The implementation that triggers the compile error doesn't lie in the annotation, it lies in the Java compiler.
If you want to write your own similar annotation processor, you would use the annotation processor API: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/javax/annotation/processing/Processor.html
which is nothing more than an interface.
So,
How does interface java.lang.Override syntax help java compiler to
detect above error at compile time?
That's right. Override is nothing more than an interface. The actual work is done by the java compiler. How the compiler does this is not specified.
Here are some links that explain how to work with an AnnotationProcessor to implement something similar to #Override :
Processor Java doc
Java annotation processing tool
Code generation using AnnotationProcessor
Annotation Processor, generating a compiler error
Source code analysis using Java 6 API
Playing with Java annotation processing

In java how do you refer to a class that is in the default package of a third party library?

I have downloaded a third party library and they have classes I need to refer to in the default package? How do I import these classes?
It's not possible directly with the compiler. Sun removed this capability. If something is in the default namespace, everything must be in the default namespace.
However, you can do it using the ClassLoader. Assuming the class is called Thirdparty, and it has a static method call doSomething(), you can execute it like this:
Class clazz = ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader().loadClass("Thirdparty");
java.lang.reflect.Method method = clazz.getMethod("doSomething");
method.invoke(null);
This is tedious to say the least...
Long ago, sometime before Java 1.5, you used to be able to import Thirdparty; (a class from the unnamed/default namespace), but no longer. See this Java bug report. A bug report asking for a workaround to not being able to use classes from the default namespace suggests to use the JDK 1.3.1 compiler.
To avoid the tedious method.invoke() calls, I adapted the above solution:
Write an interface for the desired functionality in your desired my.package
package my.package;
public interface MyAdaptorInterface{
public void function1();
...
}
Write an adaptor in the default package:
public class MyAdaptor implements my.package.MyAdaptorInterface{
public void function1(){thirdparty.function1();}
...
}
Use ClassLoader/Typecast to access object from my.package
package my.package;
Class clazz = ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader().loadClass("MyAdaptor");
MyAdaptorInterface myObj = (MyAdaptorInterface)clazz.newInstance();
myObj.function1();

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