selective AOP invocation - spring

Question

I have a class on which there are several methods and the interface for the class looks something like this
Some main program calls the method doSomeOperation which in turn calls the other methods in the class based on business rule. I have a situation where I have to populate some stats after some of the methods in this class is invoked.
For example, after calling doSomeOperation which in turn calls say doOps1, populate some stats table on the database indicating how many records were inserted/updated/deleted etc in specific table and how much time it took etc by doOps1 method. I am trying to use Spring AOP for this purpose. However the issue that I am facing is that the intended code is not getting invoked.
Here is the full code (for sample purpose only)
package spring.aop.exp;
public interface Business {
void doSomeOperation();
void doOps1();
}
package spring.aop.exp;
public class BusinessImpl implements Business {
public void doSomeOperation() {
System.out.println("I am within doSomeOperation");
try {
Thread.sleep(200);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
System.out.println("Thread interrupted");
}
System.out.println("Done with sleeping.");
doOps1();
}
public void doOps1() {
System.out.println("within Ops1");
}
}
The aspect class
package spring.aop.exp;
import org.aspectj.lang.ProceedingJoinPoint;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.After;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Around;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Pointcut;
#Aspect
public class BusinessProfiler {
#Pointcut("execution(* doOps1*(..))")
public void businessMethods1() { }
#After("businessMethods1()")
public void profile1() throws Throwable {
//this method is supposed to populate the db stats and other statistics
System.out.println("populating stats");
}
}
-- the main class
package spring.aop.exp;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;
public class SpringAOPDemo {
/**
* #param args
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(
"ExpAOP.xml");
Business bc = (Business) context.getBean("myBusinessClass");
bc.doSomeOperation();
}
}
*and the configuration file***
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-2.5.xsd">
<!-- Enable the #AspectJ support -->
<aop:aspectj-autoproxy />
<bean id="businessProfiler" class="spring.aop.exp.BusinessProfiler" />
<bean id="myBusinessClass" class="spring.aop.exp.BusinessImpl" />
</beans>
On running the main program, I am getting the output (and it is not calling profile1 rom the Aspect class - BusinessProfiler). however if I directly call the doOps1 from main class then the aspect method gets invoked. I would like to know if aspect is supposed to work if only called from the main method and not otherwise.
Oct 26, 2012 11:56:19 AM
org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext
prepareRefresh INFO: Refreshing
org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext#be2358:
display name
[org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext#be2358];
startup date [Fri Oct 26 11:56:19 EDT 2012]; root of context hierarchy
Oct 26, 2012 11:56:19 AM
org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader
loadBeanDefinitions INFO: Loading XML bean definitions from class path
resource [ExpAOP.xml] Oct 26, 2012 11:56:19 AM
org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext
obtainFreshBeanFactory INFO: Bean factory for application context
[org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext#be2358]:
org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory#1006d75
Oct 26, 2012 11:56:19 AM
org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory
preInstantiateSingletons INFO: Pre-instantiating singletons in
org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory#1006d75:
defining beans
[org.springframework.aop.config.internalAutoProxyCreator,businessProfiler,myBusinessClass];
root of factory hierarchy
*I am within doSomeOperation
Done with sleeping.
within Ops1***

Answer 1

Spring AOP is by default proxy-based and when you call a method on the same class from within another method on that calss, your call doesn't go through the aspect proxy, but directly to the method - that's why your aspect code is not invoked. To understand it better read this chapter of Spring documentation on Understanding AOP proxies.