GroovyInterceptable & introduced attribute - groovy

Question

I have a class that implements GroovyInterceptable, and I thought it should make all method invocation to go through the 'invokeMethod'. But I find that this is not the case.
class Test implements GroovyInterceptable{
String name
#Override
Object invokeMethod(String name, Object args) {
def metaMethod = this.metaClass.getMetaMethod(name, args)
return metaMethod.invoke(this, "BAR")
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
Test.metaClass.NEWATTRIBUTE = null
def test = new Test()
test.NEWATTRIBUTE = "MEOW1"
println test.NEWATTRIBUTE // shouldnt this be BAR ?
test.setNEWATTRIBUTE("MEOW2")
println test.NEWATTRIBUTE // prints 'BAR'
// much simpler example ....
test.name = "MOOO"
println test.name // shouldnt this be BAR ?
test.setName("MOOO")
println test.name // prints 'BAR'
}
}
I think I read somewhere, that
test.NEWATTRIBUTE = "MEOW1"
doesnt really access the field directly. Groovy will still call the setter method - and hence the invokeMethod should get invoked, shouldnt it?
Thanks
Alex

Answer 1

When setting a property, Groovy invokes setProperty. Add this method to the class:
void setProperty(String prop, val) {
System.out.println "set property $prop with $val"
}

Answer 2

WillP: Thanks a lot. Here is the complete code:
class Test implements GroovyInterceptable{
String name
#Override
Object invokeMethod(String name, Object args) {
def metaMethod = this.metaClass.getMetaMethod(name, args)
return metaMethod.invoke(this, "BAR")
}
void setProperty(String prop, val) {
getMetaClass().setProperty(this, prop, "BAR2");
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
Test.metaClass.NEWATTRIBUTE = null
def test = new Test()
test.NEWATTRIBUTE = "MEOW1"
println test.NEWATTRIBUTE // prints BAR2
test.setNEWATTRIBUTE("MEOW2")
println test.NEWATTRIBUTE // prints BAR
test.name = "MOOO"
println test.name // prints BAR2
test.setName("MOOO")
println test.name // prints BAR
}
}
as it turns out, setProperty() is called regardless the class implements GroovyInterceptable or not. But invokeMethod() is only called when the class implements GroovyInterceptable