Bytecode on Brave New Geek

Implementing Spring-like Classpath Scanning in Android

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 02:53:36 -0600

One of the things that Spring 2.5 introduced back in 2007 was component scanning, a feature which removed the need for XML bean configuration and instead allowed developers to declare their beans using Java annotations. Rather than this:

We can do this:

It’s a pretty simple idea since Java makes it very easy to introspectively check a class’s annotations at runtime through its reflection API. Spring’s component scan feature also allows you to specify the base package(s) to scan for beans.

Dalvik Bytecode Generation

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:03:57 -0600

Earlier, I discussed the use of dynamic proxies and how they can be implemented in Java. As we saw, a necessary part of proxying classes is bytecode generation. From its onset, something I wanted to include in Infinitum was lazy loading. I also wanted to provide support for AOP down the road. Consequently, it was essential to include some way to generate bytecode at runtime.

Proxies: Why They’re Useful and How They’re Implemented

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:22:52 -0600

I wanted to write about lazy loading, but doing so requires some background on proxies. Proxies are such an interesting and useful concept that I decided it would be worthwhile to write a separate post discussing them. I’ve talked about them in the past, for instance on StackOverflow, so this will be a bit of a rehash, but I will go into a little more depth here.

What is a proxy? Fundamentally, it’s a broker, or mediator, between an object and that object’s user, which I will refer to as its client. Specifically, a proxy intercepts calls to the object, performs some logic, and then (typically) passes the call on to the object itself. I say typically because the proxy could simply intercept without ever calling the object.