Spring AOP and AspectJ are usually used for Exception handling and Logging. Is there any other feature for which we are using aspectJ and spring AOP.
Yes, transactional behavior is the first to come to mind. Take a look at the #Transactional annotation. You mark a method with the annotation and the container will take the necessary steps to start a transaction before your method executes and commit or roll back the transaction when it ends.
Security is another nice application of AOP. You can annotate a method to mark it as requiring certain permissions. For example, in a web application, you might have a few handler methods for requests that require the user to be an administrator. Instead of implementing that logic in each handler method, you extract it to some AOP advice and put a joinpoint at each of those methods.
Aspects can be used as any type of filter really. You can allow, prevent, modify access to a method.
Note that Spring's support for AOP is limited to method invocation join points.
Related
I was studying about the Proxy Object which spring gives when we autowire any interface. This is a very good link for understanding that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEvGdWjeCy4&t=310s. Here he explains that If a POJO implements any interface then Spring proxy bean also implements that interface (using JDK Proxy mechanism) and adds additional logic such as transactional logic (if the method was annotated using jdbc code or delegating it to PlatformTransactionManager). Spring gives us a wrapper object which has the reference to the real object and it has additional code which it runs before and after the original method is invoked using MethodInvocationHandler. So My question is that how exactly spring is managing that transaction.Where that jdbc code to get connection and start transaction is written. Is it in the Spring Proxy object or any Aspect Class.
As in AOP there as Aspects which are basically the cross cutting concerns such as transaction common to the whole application. Is Spring inserting Transaction behavior code in the Proxy Object or is it Using PlatformTransactionManager to do that And Where does This AOP fits in this Flow. How the Aspect handling Transactional behavior getting invoked here if it is. How the call is getting transferred to it?
In term of JDK proxy , you have to supply a InvocationHandler implementation when creating a proxy object. When the proxy object is invoked , this InvocationHandler will be invoked around the actual object. (see this for a hello world example for how does JDK proxy works)
In term of the spring transaction , it already shipped with an InvocationHandler implementation (i.e. JdkDynamicAopProxy). It will then somehow invoke the transaction aspect (i.e. TransactionInterceptor). The transaction aspect is responsible for controlling the whole workflow such as when to create , commit or rollback the transaction and when to actually execute the actual method etc.
The transaction aspect also delegates to the PlatformTransactionManager to actually start , commit and rollback a transaction. Because different technologies has their own ways to start , commit and rollback a transaction , it is necessary to introduce a PlatformTransactionManager as an interface to abstract these operations such that we can switch different transaction technology by simply switching the PlatformTransactionManager implementation inside the transaction aspect .
So back to your questions :
Where that jdbc code to get connection and start transaction is
written. Is it in the Spring Proxy object or any Aspect Class.
None of them. It is actually the PlatformTransactionManager to get the connection and start the transaction which is invoked by the aspect.
Is Spring inserting Transaction behaviour code in the Proxy Object or
is it Using PlatformTransactionManager to do that And Where does This
AOP fits in this Flow.
Spring inserts the transaction behaviour in the aspect object (i.e. TransactionInterceptor). The aspects then delegate to the PlatformTransactionManager to actually start , commit and rollback the transaction.
How the Aspect handling Transactional behaviour getting invoked here
if it is. How the call is getting transferred to it?
Assuming the JDK proxy is used , the call flow is something like :
Someone invokes on the JDK proxy
InvocationHandler of this proxy will be invoked (i.e JdkDynamicAopProxy)
InvocationHandler somehow calls spring transaction aspect (i.e TransactionInterceptor)
Transaction aspect delegates to PlatformTransactionManager to actually start , commit and rollback the transaction if necessary.
I there any predefined way in Spring to catch or handle ServletException?
I mean any annotation or class that catches them and provide utility methods for them?
There are several techniques and approaches to handle Servlet Exceptions with Spring.
I can redirect you to this interesting link:
Exception Handling for REST with Spring
Exceptions can be managed at the DispatchServlet level, Controller level or application level. You can chose the method that better fit your needs.
Exception handling can be implemented per controller (using the old #ExceptionHandler or more recent and easy to use ResponseStatusException), or within global exception handler that centralize all exception management (using #ControllerAdvice)
I have a j2ee web application running on Spring framework. I want to implement logging using log4j and Spring's AOP. I am able to log the public methods using custom annotation. I am not able to log private methods using custom annotation. can any one please give reference how to implement custom annotation for private methods.
Spring AOP
Spring AOP doesn't support interception of private methods.
11. Supported Pointcut Designators
Due to the proxy-based nature of Spring’s AOP framework, calls within the target object are by definition not intercepted. For JDK proxies, only public interface method calls on the proxy can be intercepted. With CGLIB, public and protected method calls on the proxy will be intercepted, and even package-visible methods if necessary. However, common interactions through proxies should always be designed through public signatures.
Note that pointcut definitions are generally matched against any intercepted method. If a pointcut is strictly meant to be public-only, even in a CGLIB proxy scenario with potential non-public interactions through proxies, it needs to be defined accordingly.
If your interception needs include method calls or even constructors within the target class, consider the use of Spring-driven native AspectJ weaving instead of Spring’s proxy-based AOP framework. This constitutes a different mode of AOP usage with different characteristics, so be sure to make yourself familiar with weaving first before making a decision.
AspectJ Source Weaving
You can intercept private methods by taking advantage of AspectJ source weaving. Here is a complete working example.
how to log message on Spring AOP aspect start up?
The only way I see is to specify flag on every intercepted method and check. May be any other options? Thanks
If you want to get that line every time a pointcut is done by Spring AOP, you could
pointcut all the AOP methods with a new pointcut
make all pointcuts extend some super-pointcut
which you target to write that line.
If you want to have the AOP class write something when it gets loaded, you can use #BeforeClass to have it do something before the class gets used.
Can anyone explain what I need to do to implement my own annotation that would add functionality to my web requests?
For example:
#Controller
public class MyController {
#RequestMapping("/abc")
#RequiresSomeSpecialHandling
public void handleSecureRequest() {
}
}
Here #RequiresSomeSpecialHandling would be my own annotation that causes some special work to be done before or after the given web request /abc.
I know that on a very high level I would need to write a bean post processor, scan classes for my annotations, and inject custom mvc interceptors when needed. But are there any shortcuts to simplify this task? Especially for the two examples above.
Thanks in advance,
This kind of Annotations, (that add additional functionality when invoking a method) looks like annotations that trigger an AOP Advice.
#see Spring Reference Chapter 7. Aspect Oriented Programming with Spring
The idea is to use the Annotation to trigger the AOP Advice.
like:
#Pointcut("#target(com.example.RequiresAuth)")
Depends on what you want to do as a result of #RequiresSomeSpecialHandling. E.g. do you want it to influence request mappings or the invocation of the method (i.e. resolving method arguments, processing the return value)?
The support for annotated classes in Spring 3.1 became much more customizable. You can browse some examples in this repo.
Also keep in mind that a HandlerInterceptor in Spring 3.1 can cast the handler Object to HandlerMethod, which gives you access to the exact method including its annotations. That may be enough for what you need to do.
If caching is one of your goals, take a look at the #Cacheable annotation (and its siblings #CachePut, #CacheEvict and #Caching), available as of Spring 3.1.