I have a set of statements to be executed repeatedly every time a web method is called with a new service.I tried writing in the constructor but, the constructor gets invoked only once when the server starts. Instead, I need the set of stmts to be executed each time a Service is created at the client.
As per your other quuestion: maybe interceptors will help
You're looking for #PostConstruct:
#javax.annotation.PostConstruct
public void postConstruct(){
// initialization code
}
A method annotated with #PostConstruct is called by the container once after the bean is instantiated.
EDIT: I think, I misunderstood your question. You're probably looking for interceptors as suggested by djna, i.e., javax.ejb.Interceptors annotation. You can find a good introduction here (as soon as maintenance of java.net is over).
Related
I'm just started to look at Java EE but I'm struggling to understand what callbacks are exactly and what they are used for.
Does anyone have a clear explanation of what they are? I've looked around the site but been unable to find much information.
The Formal Definition
Callback is a mechanism by which life cycle of an enterprise bean can be intercepted.
A Practical Example
I think a single example will help show off the usefulness of these callback annotations. Let's take a look at the #PreDestroy callback. From the JBoss docs on EJB, we can see that:
PreDestroy - is invoked when the bean is removed from the pool or destroyed.
And you've got a Bean that has some kind of File Resource. You want to ensure that when the Bean is destroyed, that file lock goes with it. Well, we know that it's "risky" practise to wait for the Garbage Collector to handle these things for us; we don't know when it's going to run.
But what we can do is put in place some logic that is called when the bean is removed.
#PreDestroy
public void cleanUp() {
// Clean up your FileOutputStreams etc.
}
In your bean, it's very clear that this method is executed when the bean is destroyed and it requires no extra code from the outside. This ensures that your resources are cleaned up, as and when the bean is destroyed.
Callbacks are your primary opportunity to execute custom code at specific points in the EJB (or the container's lifecycle).
So take for example, you want to initialize specific fields or components
inside the EJB,
after the EJB has been instantiated, but
before it starts to service requests
You'll implement the #PostConstruct callback method. A method annotated with this is an advertisement to the JavaEE runtime that that method must be run immediately after an instance of that class has been created. A common use of this annotation is to instamtiate class-level variables or to prepare shared resources.
The JavaEE specification has designated several annotations such as this one, as lifecycle callbacks. What this means is that at startup, the container knows to scan the deployment kit for artifacts that implement any of the available callbacks. In doing so, it knows to notify the interested components (EJBs, CDI components , JAX-WS bean implementations) of specific events, or call specific methods when...specific actions occur in the app server.
The callback mechanism is in itself an implementation of the Callback pattern (or event-driven programming if you're coming from a UI programming world)
Further Reading:
Oracle's intro to lifecycle callbacks
I'd like to know what the expected lifecycle behavior is for a class that responds to REST requests.
I have a class that's derived from javax.ws.rs.core.Application that identifies another class for responding to requests.
In that other class, it is annotated with #Path("foo") and methods within this class are annotated with #Path("bar"). When a request is made to foo/bar, I can see that the constructor is executed, then the PostConstruct method is properly called. After the method returns a response to the client, I can see that PreDestroy is called and then the class is squashed. On the next request, the process repeats.
Is this the correct behavior? Or is there a way that this class can remain in memory so that it doesn't need to go through the constructor and PostConstruct each time a request is made? This method relies on JAXB marshalling and various XSL transformations - I would like to cache the compiled XSLT transformation objects as well as the results of some transformations, but if the class is reinstantiated each time it is called, it makes it impossible for local caching.
This is running with Java 7, Wink, and Tomcat 7. Can someone please let me know if this is the expected behavior, or am I missing something that will just keep this class alive?
Thanks.
By JAX-RS specification, the Resources (the classes annotated with #Path) are created per request.
There are several ways to override this behavior.
The simplest way that can be used according to the JAX-RS specification, is to create a resource instance yourself (you are responsible to call the PostConstruct, not sure when and how you call to PostDestroy in this case) and return it using javax.ws.rs.core.Application.getSingletons()
Alternately, you can put #org.apache.wink.common.annotations.Scope(ScopeType.SINGLETON) annotation on your resource.
If you use Spring, Wink has a neat Spring integration module, so the Spring's lifecycle will be used. See http://incubator.apache.org/wink/1.0/html/5.5%20Spring%20Integration.html
Please pardon this Spring beginner question. I am reading chapter 4 of first edition and being introduced to both call-back method and Bean post processor.
Now I am just getting confused about the two, it seems like they both do sth. when the bean instance is created, so how can I differentiate the two? Maybe an example would be good?
My personal understanding is, if we have to find a difference, then call-back method is initiated when the bean gets actually created, the Bean post processor gets called slightly after the creation of the bean?Also, I think the diference might also be that initalization call-back method focus on one bean only while Beanpost procsso will pocess all the bean instances one by one?
Also, could anybody help me further explain the difference by comaring and contrasting JSR250 annotation #PreDestroy and #PostConstruct with the two concepts above?
Thank you very much for helping!
It's been a while since I've used either of these, but I think the callback method and #PostConstruct methods you are referring to are the same thing. But to answer your question, the difference....
1) The #PostConstruct (or afterPropertiesSet) method is a method internal to a specific class that will be called after a bean is instantiated. This is really where you put type-specific actions.
2) The BeanPostProcessor will touch all Spring beans. So here's where you can put cross-cutting functionality, not necessarily class-specific.
A small example... say I have a small address book application for keeping track of my friends and their addresses. If I have some crazy bug I can't track down, I might use a BeanPostProcessor to wrap all my Spring beans with some logging, such as "now invoking Address.getStreet()..., now invoking Address.getCity()...".
Now I might use a #PostConstruct method in Address to verify and look up zip codes against some web service for addresses where I only have city/state.
Now, I might not actually have one of my domain objects hitting a web service in reality, but the idea is to illustrate that a #PostConstruct can handle class specific stuff and a BeanPostProcessor can take care of things that span multiple classes.
Also it's worth noting, that BeanPostProcessor has two methods to override: postProcessBeforeInitialization and postProcessAfterInitialization, which will let you decide what to run before and after the bean's #PostConstruct method.
Bean post processors interface has two callback methods: 1. PostProcessBeforeInitialization and PostProcessAfterInitialization.
PostProcessBeforeInitialization method is invoked just before calling your init-method or afterPropertySet method of the bean.
PostProcessAfterInitialization method is just called after just after the initialization of bean completed.
Bean Post Processors gives chance to do something before and after initialization of bean.
I have an asynchronous method in my EJB singleton that's called from another method in the same class. I already know that I can't call the asynchronous method directly, I have to obtain an EJB proxy. The problem is, I don't want the asynchronous method to be visible outside the class; but when I make it private, it's not executed asynchronously. (I'm using Glassfish v3.)
The javadocs don't say anything about the required access level. So should this be considered a bug in Glassfish?
method annotation cannot be used in private methods. When Glassfish is compiling your EJB it will basically convert your annotation into a piece of code that will surround your code in a proxy. If your method is private it will bypass the proxy Glassfish created... So, in your case I suggest to create a new EJB with your asynchronous method in inject it in your current EJB
That's a very interesting bit of feedback. I can see the value in what you are trying to do. Try marking your bean as an #LocalBean and annotating your #Asynchronous method as protected.
As #LocalBean support is basically done via subclassing the bean class (dynamically or statically), it isn't really possible for the container to override the private method. But I can certainly see your use case. If the protected method approach doesn't work, we can probably add this as an enhancement to EJB.next.
Would still give access to other beans in the same package, but it's at least less public. I've often wished Java had an 'only subclasses' scope. I've almost never used protected and thought, "great, now everyone in my package can access this too."
I want to know what actually happens when you annotate a method with #Transactional?
Of course, I know that Spring will wrap that method in a Transaction.
But, I have the following doubts:
I heard that Spring creates a proxy class? Can someone explain this in more depth. What actually resides in that proxy class? What happens to the actual class? And how can I see Spring's created proxied class
I also read in Spring docs that:
Note: Since this mechanism is based on proxies, only 'external' method calls coming in through the proxy will be intercepted. This means that 'self-invocation', i.e. a method within the target object calling some other method of the target object, won't lead to an actual transaction at runtime even if the invoked method is marked with #Transactional!
Source: http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/2.0.x/reference/transaction.html
Why only external method calls will be under Transaction and not the self-invocation methods?
This is a big topic. The Spring reference doc devotes multiple chapters to it. I recommend reading the ones on Aspect-Oriented Programming and Transactions, as Spring's declarative transaction support uses AOP at its foundation.
But at a very high level, Spring creates proxies for classes that declare #Transactional on the class itself or on members. The proxy is mostly invisible at runtime. It provides a way for Spring to inject behaviors before, after, or around method calls into the object being proxied. Transaction management is just one example of the behaviors that can be hooked in. Security checks are another. And you can provide your own, too, for things like logging. So when you annotate a method with #Transactional, Spring dynamically creates a proxy that implements the same interface(s) as the class you're annotating. And when clients make calls into your object, the calls are intercepted and the behaviors injected via the proxy mechanism.
Transactions in EJB work similarly, by the way.
As you observed, through, the proxy mechanism only works when calls come in from some external object. When you make an internal call within the object, you're really making a call through the this reference, which bypasses the proxy. There are ways of working around that problem, however. I explain one approach in this forum post in which I use a BeanFactoryPostProcessor to inject an instance of the proxy into "self-referencing" classes at runtime. I save this reference to a member variable called me. Then if I need to make internal calls that require a change in the transaction status of the thread, I direct the call through the proxy (e.g. me.someMethod().) The forum post explains in more detail.
Note that the BeanFactoryPostProcessor code would be a little different now, as it was written back in the Spring 1.x timeframe. But hopefully it gives you an idea. I have an updated version that I could probably make available.
When Spring loads your bean definitions, and has been configured to look for #Transactional annotations, it will create these proxy objects around your actual bean. These proxy objects are instances of classes that are auto-generated at runtime. The default behaviour of these proxy objects when a method is invoked is just to invoke the same method on the "target" bean (i.e. your bean).
However, the proxies can also be supplied with interceptors, and when present these interceptors will be invoked by the proxy before it invokes your target bean's method. For target beans annotated with #Transactional, Spring will create a TransactionInterceptor, and pass it to the generated proxy object. So when you call the method from client code, you're calling the method on the proxy object, which first invokes the TransactionInterceptor (which begins a transaction), which in turn invokes the method on your target bean. When the invocation finishes, the TransactionInterceptor commits/rolls back the transaction. It's transparent to the client code.
As for the "external method" thing, if your bean invokes one of its own methods, then it will not be doing so via the proxy. Remember, Spring wraps your bean in the proxy, your bean has no knowledge of it. Only calls from "outside" your bean go through the proxy.
Does that help?
As a visual person, I like to weigh in with a sequence diagram of the proxy pattern. If you don't know how to read the arrows, I read the first one like this: Client executes Proxy.method().
The client calls a method on the target from his perspective, and is silently intercepted by the proxy
If a before aspect is defined, the proxy will execute it
Then, the actual method (target) is executed
After-returning and after-throwing are optional aspects that are
executed after the method returns and/or if the method throws an
exception
After that, the proxy executes the after aspect (if defined)
Finally the proxy returns to the calling client
(I was allowed to post the photo on condition that I mentioned its origins. Author: Noel Vaes, website: https://www.noelvaes.eu)
The simplest answer is:
On whichever method you declare #Transactional the boundary of transaction starts and boundary ends when method completes.
If you are using JPA call then all commits are with in this transaction boundary.
Lets say you are saving entity1, entity2 and entity3. Now while saving entity3 an exception occur, then as enitiy1 and entity2 comes in same transaction so entity1 and entity2 will be rollback with entity3.
Transaction :
entity1.save
entity2.save
entity3.save
Any exception will result in rollback of all JPA transactions with DB.Internally JPA transaction are used by Spring.
All existing answers are correct, but I feel cannot give this complex topic justice.
For a comprehensive, practical explanation you might want to have a look at this Spring #Transactional In-Depth guide, which tries its best to cover transaction management in ~4000 simple words, with a lot of code examples.
It may be late but I came across something which explains your concern related to proxy (only 'external' method calls coming in through the proxy will be intercepted) nicely.
For example, you have a class that looks like this
#Component("mySubordinate")
public class CoreBusinessSubordinate {
public void doSomethingBig() {
System.out.println("I did something small");
}
public void doSomethingSmall(int x){
System.out.println("I also do something small but with an int");
}
}
and you have an aspect, that looks like this:
#Component
#Aspect
public class CrossCuttingConcern {
#Before("execution(* com.intertech.CoreBusinessSubordinate.*(..))")
public void doCrossCutStuff(){
System.out.println("Doing the cross cutting concern now");
}
}
When you execute it like this:
#Service
public class CoreBusinessKickOff {
#Autowired
CoreBusinessSubordinate subordinate;
// getter/setters
public void kickOff() {
System.out.println("I do something big");
subordinate.doSomethingBig();
subordinate.doSomethingSmall(4);
}
}
Results of calling kickOff above given code above.
I do something big
Doing the cross cutting concern now
I did something small
Doing the cross cutting concern now
I also do something small but with an int
but when you change your code to
#Component("mySubordinate")
public class CoreBusinessSubordinate {
public void doSomethingBig() {
System.out.println("I did something small");
doSomethingSmall(4);
}
public void doSomethingSmall(int x){
System.out.println("I also do something small but with an int");
}
}
public void kickOff() {
System.out.println("I do something big");
subordinate.doSomethingBig();
//subordinate.doSomethingSmall(4);
}
You see, the method internally calls another method so it won't be intercepted and the output would look like this:
I do something big
Doing the cross cutting concern now
I did something small
I also do something small but with an int
You can by-pass this by doing that
public void doSomethingBig() {
System.out.println("I did something small");
//doSomethingSmall(4);
((CoreBusinessSubordinate) AopContext.currentProxy()).doSomethingSmall(4);
}
Code snippets taken from:
https://www.intertech.com/Blog/secrets-of-the-spring-aop-proxy/
The page doesn't exist anymore.