Spring MVC #RequestMapping Inheritance - java

Coming from Struts2 I'm used to declaring #Namespace annotation on super classes (or package-info.java) and inheriting classes would subsequently pick up on the value in the #Namespace annotation of its ancestors and prepend it to the request path for the Action. I am now trying to do something similar in Spring MVC using #RequestMapping annotation as follows (code trimmed for brevity):
package au.test
#RequestMapping(value = "/")
public abstract class AbstractController {
...
}
au.test.user
#RequestMapping(value = "/user")
public abstract class AbstractUserController extends AbstractController {
#RequestMapping(value = "/dashboard")
public String dashboard() {
....
}
}
au.test.user.twitter
#RequestMapping(value = "/twitter")
public abstract class AbstractTwitterController extends AbstractUserController {
...
}
public abstract class TwitterController extends AbstractTwitterController {
#RequestMapping(value = "/updateStatus")
public String updateStatus() {
....
}
}
/ works as expect
/user/dashboard works as expected
However when I would have expected /user/twitter/updateStatus to work it does not and checking the logs I can see a log entry which looks something like:
org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.DefaultAnnotationHandlerMapping
- Mapped URL path [/tweeter/updateStatus] onto handler
'twitterController'
Is there a setting I can enable that will scan the superclasses for #RequestMapping annotations and construct the correct path?
Also I take it that defining #RequestMapping on a package in package-info.java is illegal?

The following basically becomes /tweeter/updateStatus and not /user/tweeter/updateStatus
public abstract class TwitterController extends AbstractTwitterController {
#RequestMapping(value = "/updateStatus")
public String updateStatus() {
....
}
}
That's the expected behavior since you've overriden the original #RequestMapping you've declared in the AbstractController and AbstractUserController.
In fact when you declared that AbstractUserController it also overriden the #RequestMapping for AbstractController. It just gives you the illusion that the / from the AbstractController has been inherited.
"Is there a setting I can enable that will scan the superclasses for #RequestMapping annotations and construct the correct path?" Not that I know of.

According to the technique explained in Modifying #RequestMappings on startup,
yes, it's possible to construct a URL pattern from superclasses in a way you want.
In essence, you have to subclass RequestMappingHandlerMapping (most likely, it will be your HandlerMapping implementation, but please check first)
and override protected getMappingForMethod method.
Once this renders to be feasible, you are in full control of URL pattern generation.
From the example you gave it's not completely clear the exact merging policy, for example, what path you want to have if
a superclass AbstractTwitterController also implements updateStatus() method with its own #RequestMapping, or how would you like to concatenate the URL patterns across the hierarchy, top-down or bottom-up, (I assumed the former below),
but, hopefully, the following snippet will give you some ideas :
private static class PathTweakingRequestMappingHandlerMapping extends RequestMappingHandlerMapping {
#Override
protected RequestMappingInfo getMappingForMethod(Method method, Class<?> handlerType) {
RequestMappingInfo methodMapping = super.getMappingForMethod(method, handlerType);
if (methodMapping == null)
return null;
List<String> superclassUrlPatterns = new ArrayList<String>();
boolean springPath = false;
for (Class<?> clazz = handlerType; clazz != Object.class; clazz = clazz.getSuperclass())
if (clazz.isAnnotationPresent(RequestMapping.class))
if (springPath)
superclassUrlPatterns.add(clazz.getAnnotation(RequestMapping.class).value()[0]);// TODO handle other elements in the array if necessary
else
springPath = true;
if (!superclassUrlPatterns.isEmpty()) {
RequestMappingInfo superclassRequestMappingInfo = new RequestMappingInfo("",
new PatternsRequestCondition(String.join("", superclassUrlPatterns)), null, null, null, null, null, null);// TODO implement specific method, consumes, produces, etc depending on your merging policies
return superclassRequestMappingInfo.combine(methodMapping);
} else
return methodMapping;
}
}
Another good question is how to intercept the instantiation of RequestMappingHandlerMapping. In the Internet there are quite a number of various examples for various configuration strategies.
With JavaConfig, however, remember that if you provide WebMvcConfigurationSupport in your #Configuration set, then your #EnableWebMvc(explicit or implicit) will stop to work. I ended up with the following:
#Configuration
public class WebConfig extends DelegatingWebMvcConfiguration{
#Configuration
public static class UnconditionalWebMvcAutoConfiguration extends WebMvcAutoConfiguration {//forces #EnableWebMvc
}
#Override
protected RequestMappingHandlerMapping createRequestMappingHandlerMapping() {
return new PathTweakingRequestMappingHandlerMapping();
}
#Bean
#Primary
#Override
public RequestMappingHandlerMapping requestMappingHandlerMapping() {
return super.requestMappingHandlerMapping();
}
}
but would like to learn about better ways.

Related

Best way for imlement Strategy design pattern in Spring

I want implement strategy design pattern in spring boot application. I create BeanPostProcessor for construct strategy resolver:
#Component
public class HandlerInAnnotationBeanPostProcessor implements BeanPostProcessor {
private final UnpHandlersResolver unpHandlersResolver;
public HandlerInAnnotationBeanPostProcessor(UnpHandlersResolver unpHandlersResolver) {
this.unpHandlersResolver = unpHandlersResolver;
}
#Override
public Object postProcessBeforeInitialization(Object bean, String beanName) throws BeansException {
Annotation[] annotations = bean.getClass().getAnnotations();
for (Annotation annotation : annotations) {
if (annotation instanceof HandlerIn) {
if (bean.getClass() != UnpHandler.class)
throw new RuntimeException("Not UnpHandler bean annotated by HandlerIn");
SmevMessageType[] type = ((HandlerIn) annotation).type();
for (SmevMessageType smevMessageType : type) {
unpHandlersResolver.setHandler(smevMessageType, (UnpHandler) bean);
}
}
}
return bean;
}
}
And I create resolver:
#Slf4j
#Component
public class UnpHandlersResolverImpl implements UnpHandlersResolver {
private Map<SmevMessageType, UnpHandler> map = new HashMap<>();
#Override
public void setHandler(SmevMessageType messageType, UnpHandler unpHandler) {
map.put(messageType, unpHandler);
}
#Override
public UnpHandler getUnpHandler(SmevMessageType type) {
UnpHandler sendRequestHandler = map.get(type);
if (sendRequestHandler == null)
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid SendRequestHandler type: " + type);
return sendRequestHandler;
}
}
My BeanPostProcessor scan all beans with annotation HandlerIn and add to resolver's mup. I think it's wrong to do that:
unpHandlersResolver.setHandler(smevMessageType, (UnpHandler) bean);
But I not understand how can I add find beans to resolver. Before this implementation I faind beans in #Postconstruct method of resolver like:
context.getBeansWithAnnotation(HandlerIn.class);
But in this solution I have context in resolver and I think is bad.
Tell me how to properly implement what I want? In short, I want to have a set of classes that implement different behaviors. And the class that controls them. Give the class a parameter so that he chooses the right strategy and gives it to me. Like this:
Handler handler = handlersResolver.getHandler(messageType);
Result result = handler.somthing(param);
I'm going to try to make a simple example.
Interface Greeting {
void sayHello();
String getSupportedLanguage();
}
Then you have X number of implementations and you can loop through them in your "resolver"'s constructor to build the map. (I've seen this called a Proxy or a Decorator in code though, i.e. GreetingProxy or GreetingDecorator)
#Service
public GreetingResolver {
private Map<String, Greeting> languageToGreetingMap = new HashMap<>();
#Autowired
public GreetingResolver(List<Greeting> greetings) {
for (Greeting greeting : greetings) {
languageToGreetingMap.put(greeting.getSupportedLanguage(), greeting);
}
}
public void sayGreetingForLanguage(String language) {
languageToGreetingMap.get(language).sayHello();
}
}
This is a basic example of how one can do the strategy pattern in Spring. Every interface implementation of "Greeting" only knows about itself and what it can support. We then autowire all implementations in a list and loop through to create the map once and then during runtime only the relevant entry from the map in retrieved and used.
Note: this was typed "free hand" directly in the web page so please forgive any typos in the code.

Java - Not able to get value of Custom Annotation

I have a custom Annotation like this -
#Target(ElementType.METHOD)
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public #interface ControllerAction {
String value();
}
I have a class that uses this annotation like this -
public class TestController extends AbstractController {
public TestController () {
super();
}
#ControllerAction("add")
public void addCandidate(){
}
}
The super class looks like this -
public abstract class AbstractController {
public AbstractController (){
}
public CustomBean processRequest(ServletAction action, HttpServletRequest request) {
Class<AbstractController > controllerClass = AbstractController.class;
for (Method method : controllerClass.getDeclaredMethods()) {
if (method.isAnnotationPresent(ControllerAction.class)) {
Annotation annotation = (ControllerAction) method.getAnnotation(ControllerAction.class);
if(annotation != null){
if(annotation.value().equals(action.getAction())){
method.invoke(controllerClass.newInstance());
}
}
}
}
return null;
}
}
The processRequest(...) method in AbstractController is called from a servlet directly. The processRequest() method figures out the servlet action, and based on that, it should call the method appropriately.
For example, if the ServletAction.getAction() == 'add', processRequest() should automatically call addCandidate() in TestController. But I am not able to get the value of the Annotation. Somehow annotation.value() is giving a compilation error in eclipse. Eclipse is not showing any method I can use to get the annotation value.
I want to know if there is a way to get value() of the Custom Annotation. I dont want to define my Annotation with anything else other than String value(). I want to know if it is possible to achieve what I want with just String value() in my custom Annotation?
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
You probably need to change
Annotation annotation = (ControllerAction) method.getAnnotation(ControllerAction.class);
To
ControllerAction annotation = method.getAnnotation(ControllerAction.class);
Otherwise the methods specific to ControllerAction will not be known to the compiler as annotation is of type Annotation
Additionally - as pointed out by Sharon Ben Asher - instead of AbstractController.class you should use getClass() to get the class of the actual implementation at runtime. Given the current code only the methods of AbstractController will be checked but not the ones of implementing classes.

Aspect deactivates Spring Controller Mapping

I created a Spring website.
I used an abstract generic controller class, with different implementations.
It works well if I don't activate the Aspect class on any Controllers.
If I activate an Aspect, then all Mappings seem to be deactivated:
DEBUG: org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping - Did not find handler method for [/contact/2]
WARN : org.springframework.web.servlet.PageNotFound - No mapping found forHTTP request with URI [/clubhelperbackend/contact/2] in DispatcherServlet with name 'appServlet'
This is my abstract controller:
public abstract class AbstractController<T extends Data> implements ClubController<T> {
protected Dao<T> dao;
private Class<T> elementClass;
public AbstractController(Dao<T> dao, Class<T> element) {
super();
this.dao = dao;
this.elementClass = element;
}
#Override
#RequestMapping(value = "/{id}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String getAsView(#PathVariable("id") long id, #RequestParam(required = false) boolean ajax, Model m) {
String mapping = elementClass.getSimpleName();
m.addAttribute(mapping, getById(id));
return mapping + "Get" + (ajax ? "Ajax" : "");
}
#Override
#RequestMapping(value = "/{id}", method = RequestMethod.DELETE, produces = "application/json")
public T delete(#PathVariable("id") long id) {
T obj = getById(id);
// dao.delete(id);
return obj;
}
}
And an implementation:
#Controller
#RequestMapping("/contact")
public class ContactController extends AbstractController<Contact> {
#Autowired
public ContactController(Dao<Contact> contactDao) {
super(contactDao, Contact.class);
}
}
This is my Aspect:
#Aspect
#Component
public class DeletedStorageAspect {
//
// private DeletedEntriesDao deletedEntriesDao;
//
// #Autowired
// public DeletedStorageAspect(DeletedEntriesDao deletedEntriesDao) {
// super();
// this.deletedEntriesDao = deletedEntriesDao;
// }
#Pointcut("execution (public * de.kreth.clubhelperbackend.controller.abstr.AbstractController.delete(..))")
private void invocation() {
}
#AfterReturning(pointcut = "invocation()", returning = "deleted")
public void storeDeleted(JoinPoint joinPoint, Data deleted) {
System.out.println("Deleted: " + deleted);
String tableName = deleted.getClass().getSimpleName();
long id = deleted.getId();
Date now = new Date();
DeletedEntries entry = new DeletedEntries(-1L, tableName, id, now, now);
System.out.println(entry);
// deletedEntriesDao.insert(entry);
}
}
This is part of my beans.xml:
<aop:aspectj-autoproxy>
<aop:include name="mysqlDbCheckAspect" />
<aop:include name="daoLoggerAspect" />
<aop:include name="controllerSecurityAspect" />
<aop:include name="deletedStorageAspect" />
</aop:aspectj-autoproxy>
I can restore full functionality by commenting deletedStorageAspect.
What causes this behaviour? Why are the mappings not recognized with an aspect on them? Are aspects not allowed on Controllers?
Hoping for some help, please.
When using AOP with Spring by default spring creates proxies. Depending on the fact if you implement interfaces on your class (or not) it will create a JDK Dynamic proxy (interface based) or CGLIB based proxy (class based).
public abstract class AbstractController<T extends Data> implements ClubController<T> {
In the case of an interface based proxy (which applies to you) the MVC infrastructure isn't able to see the #RequestMapping annotations anymore and will not detect your mappings anymore. This is also the case that applies to you as you are implementing an interface. Also see the reference guide on the matter of proxying with request mappings.
To fix it you must force the use of class based proxies, to do so add proxy-target-class="true" to the <aop:aspectj-auto-proxy />.
<aop:aspectj-autoproxy proxy-target-class="true">
I am not a AOP expert.But by looking at your code I can say Abstract class in not executing and that may be the root cause. So have to modify Pointcut execution expression.
Solution 1
If you are not using delete signature for child classes you can easlily move to bello like abstract expression. It say's only within package like thing.
#Pointcut("execution (public * de.kreth.clubhelperbackend.controller.*.*.delete(..))")
private void invocation() {
}
Solution 2
You can use logic gates for expression like this
#Pointcut("target(de.kreth.clubhelperbackend.controller.abstr.AbstractController)")
private void anyAbstractOperation() {}
#Pointcut("execution(public * *.delete(..))")
private void anyDeleteOperation() {}
#Pointcut("anyAbstractOperation() && anyDeleteOperation()")
private void invocation() {}
reference :
1.http://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/2.5.x/reference/aop.html#aop-pointcuts-combining
2.http://www.baeldung.com/spring-aop-pointcut-tutorial
3.http://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/spring-framework-reference/html/aop.html#aop-using-aspectj
Explanation
About this and target
this limits matching to join points where the bean reference is an instance of the given type, while target limits matching to join points where the target object is an instance of the given type. The former works when Spring AOP creates a CGLIB-based proxy, and the latter is used when a JDK-based proxy is created. Suppose that the target class implements an interface:
public class FooDao implements BarDao {
...
}
In this case, Spring AOP will use the JDK-based proxy and you should use the target PCD because the proxied object will be an instance of Proxy class and implement the BarDao interface:
#Pointcut("target(org.baeldung.dao.BarDao)")
On the other hand if FooDao doesn’t implement any interface or proxyTargetClass property is set to true then the proxied object will be a subclass of FooDao and the this PCD could be used:
#Pointcut("this(org.baeldung.dao.FooDao)")

Guice inject based on annotation value

I would like to use goolge/guice inject a value based on a class i provide with the annotation.
AutoConfig annotation
#BindingAnnotation
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
#Target({ ElementType.PARAMETER, ElementType.FIELD })
public #interface AutoConfig {
// default null not possible
Class<? extends Provider<? extends ConfigLoader<?>>> provider() default XMLAutoConfigProvider.class;
}
This is my annotation which allows configuring the type of config, that should be used for the annotated fields.
Usecase:
#AutoConfig()
ConfigLoader<?> defaultConfig;
#AutoConfig(provider = JsonConfigProvider)
ConfigLoader<?> jsonConfig;
I want to have two configs, one default/xml one and a json one. They will probably never occur in the same class at the same time. But i don't know when the one or the other is used. I used the approach with a class because they are provided by some dependencies/libs and this annotation will be used for some (plugable) submodules.
MyGuiceModule
public class MyGuiceModule extends AbstractModule {
#Override
protected void configure() {
bind(new TypeLiteral<ConfigLoader<?>>() {})
.annotatedWith(AutoConfig.class)
.toProvider(autoConfig.provider());
}
}
This the critical part, i just cannot imagine how to implement it.
So basically i just want to use the provider class specified in the annotation.
Its not necessary to use the provider class here too. Because autoConfig.provider().newInstance() is basically all i need. (I need to use a setter on the new instance but thats all i want to do at this place)
To sum it up all i really want to do is push the annotation (or its values to the provider) either using the get(AutoConfig autoConfig) or in the constructor.
Currently i only use the constructor to inject the configFile value i want to set on the newly generated config instance.
If you know that #AutoConfig(provider = JsonConfigProvider) ConfigLoader<?> jsonConfig is going to return you exactly the results of jsonConfigProvider.get(), and JsonConfigProvider obviously has a public parameterless constructor for newInstance to work, why wouldn't you just ask for a JsonConfigProvider in the first place?
Fundamentally Guice is just a Map<Key, Provider> with fancy wrapping. The bad news is that this makes variable bindings like "bind Foo<T> for all T" impossible to express concisely, and that includes your "bind #Annotation(T) Foo for all T". The good news is that you still have two options.
Bind each provider separately
Though you can't inspect annotations during provision (or tell Guice to do so for you), Guice will compare annotations using their equals methods if you bind an annotation instance rather than an annotation class (the way you would with Names.named("some-name")). This means that you can bind a ConfigLoader<?> with each expected annotation in a Module. Of course, this also means you'll have to have a list of possible ConfigLoader Providers available at configuration time, but they have to be compile-time constants anyway if you're using them as annotation parameters.
This solution works with constructor injection as well, but for fields you'll need both #Inject and #AutoConfig(...), and AutoConfig will need to keep its #BindingAnnotation meta-annotation.
To do this, you're going to have to write an implementation of your annotation, the way Guice does with NamedImpl. Note that the implementations of equals and hashCode must match the ones Java provides in java.lang.Annotation. Then it's just a matter of (redundantly) binding like this:
for(Class<ConfigLoader<?>> clazz : loaders) {
bind(ConfigLoader.class).annotatedWith(new AutoConfigImpl(clazz))
.toProvider(clazz);
}
The definition of equals is up to you, which means you can (and should) bind #AutoConfig(ConfigEnum.JSON) and keep the Guice bindings in your modules rather than specifying your requested implementation all over your codebase.
Use custom injections
You can also use custom injections to search your injected types for custom annotations like #AutoConfig. At this point, you'd be using Guice as a platform to interpret #AutoConfig instead of #Inject, which means that constructor injection won't work but that you can control your injection based on the injected instance, field name, field annotation, annotation parameters, or any combination thereof. If you choose this style, you can drop #BindingAnnotation from AutoConfig.
Use the example in the wiki article linked above as your template, but at minimum you'll need to:
Use bindListener on Binder or AbstractModule to match types that need this custom injection.
In the TypeListener you bind, search injected types for #AutoConfig-annotated fields, and if they have any matching methods then bind those matching methods to a MembersInjector or InjectionListener. You'll probably want to tease the class literal out of the annotation instance here, and pass in the Field and Class as constructor arguments to the MembersInjector/InjectionListener.
In the MembersInjector or InjectionListener you write, instantiate the provider and set the field to the instance the provider provides.
This is a very powerful feature, which would futher allow you to--for instance--automatically provide the configuration based on which instance you're injecting into or based on the name of the field. However, use it carefully and document it heavily, because it may be counter-intuitive to your coworkers that Guice is providing for an annotation other than #Inject. Also bear in mind that this won't work for constructor injection, so refactoring from field injection to constructor injection will cause Guice to complain that it's missing a required binding to instantiate the class.
I had a similar problem. I wanted to use a custom annotation that receives a enum param to choose the implementation. After a lot of research, debug and testing, I came to the following solution:
//enum to define authentication types
public enum AuthType {
Ldap, Saml
}
//custom annotation to be used in injection
#Target({ ElementType.FIELD, ElementType.PARAMETER, ElementType.METHOD })
#BindingAnnotation
public #interface Auth {
AuthType value();
}
//defintion of authenticator
public interface Authenticator {
public void doSomehting();
}
//Authenticator implementations
public class LdapAuthenticator implements Authenticator {
#Override
public void doSomehting() {
// doing ldap stuff
}
}
public class SamlAuthenticator implements Authenticator {
#Override
public void doSomehting() {
// doing saml stuff
}
}
public class MyModule extends AbstractModule {
// annotate fields to bind to implementations
private #Auth(AuthType.Ldap) Authenticator ldap;
private #Auth(AuthType.Saml) Authenticator saml;
#Override
protected void configure() {
//bind the implementation to the annotation from field
bindAnnotated("ldap", LdapAuthenticator.class);
bindAnnotated("saml", SamlAuthenticator.class);
}
private void bindAnnotated(String fieldName, Class<? extends Authenticator> implementation) {
try {
//get the annotation from fields, then bind it to implementation
Annotation ann = MyModule.class.getDeclaredField(fieldName).getAnnotation(Auth.class);
bind(Authenticator.class).annotatedWith(ann).to(implementation);
} catch (NoSuchFieldException | SecurityException e) {
throw new RuntimeException(e);
}
}
}
//usage: add #Auth(<AuthType>) to the dependency
public class ClientClass {
private Authenticator authenticator;
#Inject
public ClientClass(#Auth(AuthType.Ldap) Authenticator authenticator) {
this.authenticator = authenticator;
}
}
Check the documentation of Binder
I tested the Jeff Bowman solution, but it apparently works only binding to providers
As a BindingAnnotations#binding-annotations-with-attributes states equals() and hashCode() should be properly implemented. So given that there is MyAnnotation
#Qualifier
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
#Target({ElementType.FIELD, ElementType.PARAMETER})
public #interface MyAnnotation {
SomeEnum value() default SomeEnum.A;
}
which is used to specify SomeInterface implementation(SomeDefault and SomeOther), SomeModule class could look like
public class SomeModule extends AbstractModule {
#Override
protected void configure() {
bind(Key.get(SomeInterface.class, createAnnotationClass(A))).to(SomeDefault.class);
// more common binding expresion
bind(SomeInterface.class).annotatedWith(createAnnotationClass(B)).to(SomeDefault.class);
}
private Annotation createAnnotationClass(SomeEnum someEnum) {
return new MyAnnotation() {
#Override
public SomeEnum value() {
return someEnum;
}
#Override
public Class<? extends Annotation> annotationType() {
return MyAnnotation.class;
}
#Override
public boolean equals(Object o) {
if (this == o) return true;
if (o == null || getClass() != o.getClass()) return false;
MyAnnotationCl myAnnoCl = (MyAnnotationCl) o;
return A == myAnnoCl.getValue();
}
#Override
public int hashCode() {
// from java annotation documentation
return (127 * "value".hashCode()) ^ value().hashCode();
}
};
}
}
Then annotation could be used as follows:
public class DoSomethingWithSomething {
private final SomeInterface someImplementation;
#Inject
public DoSomethingWithSomething(
#MyAnnotation SomeInterface someDefault
// #MyAnnotation(A) SomeInterface someDefault
// #MyAnnotation(B) SomeInterface someOther
) {
this.someImplementation = someDefault;
}
}

Is this a good pattern for annotation processing?

I've got a fairly standard Spring webapp, and I have a number of custom annotations that I would like to use to denote the requirements and constraints applied to a given web-service method. For instance, I might apply an #RequiresLogin annotation to any method that requires a valid user session, and #RequiresParameters(paramNames = {"name", "email"}) on a method that requires that "name" and "email" be set, and so on.
In support of this I implemented an ad-hoc utility for validating a method's annotated constraints at runtime, which basically followed a pattern of:
Map<Class<? extends Annotation>, Annotation> annotations = mergeConstraintsFromClassAndMethod(serviceClass, serviceMethod);
if (annotations.containsKey(AnnotationType1.class)) {
AnnotationType1 annotation = (AnnotationType1)annotations.get(AnnotationType1.class);
//do validation appropriate to 'AnnotationType1'
}
if (annotations.containsKey(AnnotationType2.class)) {
AnnotationType2 annotation = (AnnotationType2)annotations.get(AnnotationType2.class);
//do validation appropriate to 'AnnotationType2'
}
//...
This works fine, but has become a bit unwieldy as I have added additional annotations. I'd like to replace it with something a bit more maintainable. Ideally I'd like to be able to do:
List<ValidatableAnnotation> annotations = mergeConstraintsFromClassAndMethod(serviceClass, serviceMethod);
for (ValidatableAnnotation annotation : annotations) {
annotation.validate(request);
}
But I'm pretty sure that is not possible since annotations themselves cannot contain executable code and since the compiler will not let me extend java.lang.annotation.Annotation (not that I'd know how to go about allowing executable code to be contained in an annotation even if the compiler let me try).
What annotations can contain, however, is a nested inner class, and that inner class can do anything that a normal Java class can do. So what I've come up with based upon that and in the interest of keeping my validation code as closely associated with the annotation being validated as possible is:
public interface AnnotationProcessor {
public boolean processRequest(Annotation theAnnotation, HttpServletRequest request);
}
And then the annotations can be implemented like:
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
#Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.TYPE})
public #interface RequiresLogin {
public static class Processor implements AnnotationProcessor {
#Override
public boolean processRequest(Annotation theAnnotation, HttpServletRequest request) {
if (! (theAnnotation instanceof RequiresLogin)) {
//someone made an invalid call, just return true
return true;
}
return request.getSession().getAttribute(Constants.SESSION_USER_KEY) != null;
}
}
}
Which keeps the validation logic nice and tightly coupled with the annotation that is being validated. Then all my ad-hoc validation code can be replaced with:
List<Annotation> annotations = mergeConstraintsFromClassAndMethod(serviceClass, serviceMethod);
for (Annotation annotation : annotations) {
processAnnotation(annotation, request);
}
private static boolean processAnnotation(Annotation annotation, HttpServletRequest request) {
AnnotationProcessor processor = null;
for (Class<?> processorClass : annotation.annotationType().getDeclaredClasses()) {
if (AnnotationProcessor.class.isAssignableFrom(processorClass)) {
try {
processor = (AnnotationProcessor)processorClass.newInstance();
break;
}
catch (Exception ignored) {
//couldn't create it, but maybe there is another inner
//class that also implements the required interface that
//we can construct, so keep going
}
}
}
if (processor != null) {
return processor.processRequest(annotation, request);
}
//couldn't get a a processor and thus can't process the
//annotation, perhaps this annotation does not support
//validation, return true
return true;
}
Which leaves no more ad-hoc code that needs to be revised every time I add a new annotation type. I just implement the validator as part of the annotation, and I'm done.
Does this seem like a reasonable pattern to use? If not then what might work better?
You may want to investigate AOP. You can advise methods that expose certain annotations and perform pre/post processing accordingly.
I would just like to add that while AOP would be a good solution, the Spring framework already provides this functionality by way of the #Secured annotation.
#Secured("ROLE_USER")
public void foo() {
}
Spring also supports JSR-303 validation with the #Valid annotation. So for these use cases at least, it seems you are re-inventing the wheel.
IMHO one could think about the Visitor pattern in combination with a factory. The factory will return a wrapper object that knows the exact annotation type and which the visitor will be able...
class MyVisitor {
public void visit(VisitableAnnotationType1 at) {
//something AnnotationType1 specific
}
public void visit(VisitableAnnotationType2 at) {
//something AnnotationType2 specific
}
... // put methods for further annotation types here
}
class VisitableFactory {
public abstract class VisitableAnnotation {
public abstract void accept(MyVisitor visitor);
}
class VisitableAnnotationType1 implements VisitableAnnotation {
public void accept(MyVisitor visitor) {
visitor.visit(this);
}
}
public static VisitableAnnotation getVisitable(Annotation a) {
if(AnnotationType1.class.isAssignableFrom(a.getClass()) {
//explicitely cast to the respective AnnotationType
return new VisitableAnnotationType1((AnnotationType1)a);
} else if (AnnotationType2.class.isAssignableFrom(a.getClass()) {
//explicitely cast to the respective AnnotationType
return new VisitableAnnotationType1((AnnotationType1)a);
}
}
}
As we cannot extend Annotation, we need those wrapper classes in the factory. You could also pass the original annotation which is then contained in that wrapper class.
What you have to do: For each new AnnotationType add a new "wrapper" class to the factory, extend the factory's
getVisitable()
method accordingly and also add an according method to the Visitor:
public void doSomething(VisitableAnnotationTypeXYZ at) {
//something AnnotationTypeXYZ specific
}
now the generic validation (or whatever) code looks like:
List<ValidatableAnnotation> annotations = mergeConstraintsFromClassAndMethod(serviceClass, serviceMethod);
MyVisitor visitor = new MyVisitor();
for (ValidatableAnnotation annotation : annotations) {
VisitableFactory.getVisitable(annotation).accept(visitor);
}
The visiting works by the indirection that the visited object calls the visitor with itself as the argument and thus the correct visit method will be invoked.
Hope that helps ;-)
Code is not tested, though...

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