Class and Runtime Retention Policy

http://bethecoder.com/applications/tutorials/java-annotations-class-and-runtime-retention-policy.html

Class and Runtime Retention Policy 

Annotations with Retention Policy CLASS and RUNTIME are accessible from class byte code.We need to use a byte code manipulation library to access the Annotations available in byte code.This example uses ASM to fetch Annotations from class byte code.

Annotations with Retention Policy CLASS,

File Name  :   com/bethecoder/tutorials/annotations/retention2/Author.java  Author  :   Sudhakar KV Email  :   kvenkatasudhakar@gmail.com

package com.bethecoder.tutorials.annotations.retention2; import java.lang.annotation.ElementType; import java.lang.annotation.Retention; import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy; import java.lang.annotation.Target; /**  * Permitted types for annotation attributes  *   * 1. primitive type  * 2. String  * 3. Class  * 4. annotation   * 5. enumeration   * 6. 1-dimensional arrays  */ @Retention(RetentionPolicy.CLASS) @Target(ElementType.TYPE) public @interface Author {   String name() default "admin";   String creationDate(); }

Annotations with Retention Policy RUNTIME,

File Name  :   com/bethecoder/tutorials/annotations/retention2/VersionHistory.java  Author  :   Sudhakar KV Email  :   kvenkatasudhakar@gmail.com

package com.bethecoder.tutorials.annotations.retention2; import java.lang.annotation.ElementType; import java.lang.annotation.Retention; import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy; import java.lang.annotation.Target; /**  * Permitted types for annotation attributes  *   * 1. primitive type  * 2. String  * 3. Class  * 4. annotation   * 5. enumeration   * 6. 1-dimensional arrays  */ @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME) @Target(ElementType.TYPE) public @interface VersionHistory {   String [] value(); }

Its usage is shown below,

File Name  :   com/bethecoder/tutorials/annotations/retention2/Source.java  Author  :   Sudhakar KV Email  :   kvenkatasudhakar@gmail.com

package com.bethecoder.tutorials.annotations.retention2; @Author(name="BTC", creationDate="01/01/2500") @VersionHistory({ "1.0", "2.0", "3.0" }) public class Source {   private int fieldOne;   private String fieldTwo;      public Source(int fieldOne, String fieldTwo) {     super();     this.fieldOne = fieldOne;     this.fieldTwo = fieldTwo;   }   public int getFieldOne() {     return fieldOne;   }      public void setFieldOne(int fieldOne) {     this.fieldOne = fieldOne;   }      public String getFieldTwo() {     return fieldTwo;   }      public void setFieldTwo(String fieldTwo) {     this.fieldTwo = fieldTwo;   }    }

The ASM Tree API code to access Annotations is shown below,

File Name  :   com/bethecoder/tutorials/annotations/retention2/Test.java  Author  :   Sudhakar KV Email  :   kvenkatasudhakar@gmail.com

package com.bethecoder.tutorials.annotations.retention2; import java.util.List; import org.objectweb.asm.ClassReader; import org.objectweb.asm.tree.AnnotationNode; import org.objectweb.asm.tree.ClassNode; public class Test {   /**    * @param args    */   public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {     //ASM Tree API     ClassNode cn = new ClassNode();          //Read the class byte code from stream     ClassReader cr = new ClassReader(         ClassLoader.getSystemResourceAsStream(             "com/bethecoder/tutorials/annotations/retention2/Source.class"));     cr.accept(cn, 0);          System.out.println("Class Name : " + cn.name);     System.out.println("Source File : " + cn.sourceFile);        //Annotations with RetentionPolicy.CLASS     //@Retention(RetentionPolicy.CLASS)     System.out.println("\n==Invisible Annotations==");     printAnnotation(cn.invisibleAnnotations);     //Annotations with RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME     //@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)     System.out.println("\n==Visible Annotations==");     printAnnotation(cn.visibleAnnotations);   }      private static void printAnnotation(List annotationList) {     if (annotationList != null && !annotationList.isEmpty()) {       AnnotationNode anNode = null;       for (Object annotation : annotationList) {         anNode = (AnnotationNode) annotation;         System.out.println("Annotation Descriptor : " + anNode.desc);         System.out.println("Annotation attribute pairs : " + anNode.values);       }     } else {       System.out.println("No annotations found..");     }   } }

It gives the following output,

Class Name : com/bethecoder/tutorials/annotations/retention2/Source
Source File : Source.java

==Invisible Annotations==
Annotation Descriptor : Lcom/bethecoder/tutorials/annotations/retention2/Author;
Annotation attribute pairs : [name, BTC, creationDate, 01/01/2500]

==Visible Annotations==
Annotation Descriptor : Lcom/bethecoder/tutorials/annotations/retention2/VersionHistory;
Annotation attribute pairs : [value, [1.0, 2.0, 3.0]]