Groovy :: #Mixin methods override target class methods - groovy

class A {
def test() { println "parent" }
}
#Mixin(A)
class B {
def test() { println "child" }
}
new B().test() // prints "parent", but I am expecting it to print "child"
This looks like some kind of reverse inheritance.
Are mixins only to be used as a means to define new methods?
I can of course use conventional inheritance and go with extends, but the use case entails a form builder where each domain has a unique form implementation and I'd like to, in my application controller, catch form requests and do a MyUniqueDomainForm.mixin DefaultFormMethods (so I only need to define default methods when I need to, as well as not having to import my.package.app.DefaultFormMethods in each form class)

Whatever you mixin will overload whatever is already there...
In this example, at compile time B.test() overloads the inherited A.test() method
But then at runtime, A.test() is added via the mixin, which re-overloads the previously overloaded method
If it was not this way round you would not be able to alter the existing characteristics of a class using mixins
ie (this is a silly example, but I believe it gets my point across):
class AddNotMinus {
static def minus( int a, int b ) {
a + b
}
}
Integer.mixin AddNotMinus
println 10 - 10
prints 20

Related

Why is Groovy metaClass .static changes using MOP not behaving as expected

I have set up a simple dummy class as follows, and used a static initialiser to update the metaClass:
class DynamicExtendableClass {
static String declaredStaticString = "declared static string"
static String getDeclaredMethodStaticString () {
"static method returning string"
}
static {
println "static initialiser - adding dynamic properties and methods to metaClass"
DynamicExtendableClass.metaClass.addedProperty = "added property to class metaClass"
DynamicExtendableClass.metaClass.getAddedMethod = { -> "added closure as method" }
DynamicExtendableClass.metaClass.static.getStaticAddedMethod = { -> "added closure as static method" }
}
}
I have a simple test case like this:
#Test
void testExtendedMetaClassStuff () {
DynamicExtendableClass testInstance = new DynamicExtendableClass()
assertEquals ("added property to class metaClass", testInstance.addedProperty)
assertEquals ("added closure as static method", testInstance.getStaticAddedMethod()) //calls getStaticAddedMethod - groovy trick
assertEquals ("added closure as method", testInstance.addedMethod) //works. calls getAddedMethod - groovy trick for getXxx as property
assertEquals ("added closure as static method", DynamicExtendableClass.staticAddedMethod ) //works class static class Closure
}
Which works only once you create a first instance of the class which forces a switch to ExpandoMetaClass for you.
If you don't do this first the default HandleMetaClassImpl doesn't work for this.
However to get this to work for static you have to create closure like getXxxx = {-> ...}, which if you call 'DynamicExtendableClass.staticAddedMethod' will sneakily invoke the closure for you.
However, there's not really a means to add a property capability here for '.static' as there is on the standard metaClass itself. All you can do is set a closure onto .static. Why is this?
The other problem is having to create an instance of the class first to force the switch to ExpandoMetaClass, is there not a simple way to force the metaClass change when declaring the class in the first class, before creating any instances ?
I want to add some static properties (later some methods maybe ) dynamically to a class, but all you can add is static closures, which is a little limiting on the scenario I had in mind.
PostScript
I managed to force a change of metaClass on class without having to create an instance, but it's a bit hard work:
#Test
void testMetaClassStatic () {
println DynamicExtendableClass.metaClass
MetaClassRegistry registry = GroovySystem.getMetaClassRegistry()
MetaClass origMC = registry.getMetaClass(DynamicExtendableClass)
assert origMC.getClass() == HandleMetaClass //default implementation
ExpandoMetaClass emc = new ExpandoMetaClass (DynamicExtendableClass, true, true)
emc.static.getStaticAddedMethod = {-> "static hello from my emc"}
emc.initialize()
registry.removeMetaClass(DynamicExtendableClass)
registry.setMetaClass(DynamicExtendableClass, emc)
assert DynamicExtendableClass.metaClass.getClass() == ExpandoMetaClass
assert DynamicExtendableClass.staticAddedMethod == "static hello from my emc"
registry.removeMetaClass(DynamicExtendableClass)
registry.setMetaClass(DynamicExtendableClass, origMC)
}
But doing this breaks my previously working tests (not sure why) with:
Could not initialize class extensible.DynamicExtendableClass
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class extensible.DynamicExtendableClass
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:77)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstanceWithCaller(Constructor.java:499)
at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:480)
at org.codehaus.groovy.reflection.CachedConstructor.invoke(CachedConstructor.java:73)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.ConstructorSite$ConstructorSiteNoUnwrapNoCoerce.callConstructor(ConstructorSite.java:108)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.CallSiteArray.defaultCallConstructor(CallSiteArray.java:59)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.callConstructor(AbstractCallSite.java:263)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.callConstructor(AbstractCallSite.java:268)
at extensible.DynamicExtendableClassTest.testExtendedMetaClassStuff(DynamicExtendableClassTest.groovy:22)
at ...
Another postscript
I did a little exploration with a debugger. 1st the metaClass.static returns a class of type ExpandoMetaClass.ExpandoMetaProperty which of itself isn't terribly useful. You can do a direct .#this$0 field access however which just points the same metaClass instance as the target class you start with.
Therefore ignoring this you can do a direct field grab on <yourClass>.metaClass.#expandoProperties (I tried to get this via reflection using:
PropertyValue expandoProperties = clazz.metaClass.getMetaPropertyValues().find{it.name == 'expandoProperties'}
List<MetaBeanProperty> MBprops2= properties.getValue()
Map m2 = MBprops.findAll{Modifier.isPublic(it.modifiers)}.collectEntries{[(it.name), it.getProperty(clazz)] }
but it doesn't get the same content as the direct field access does.
The direct field access returns a Map where the key is the string value of any added closures or properties added dynamically to the metaClass, and the value is a MetaBeanProperty reference.
On that MetaBeanProperty you can invoke the getProperty (object) using with the class metaClass or per instance metaClass - and it returns the value of that property (whether it's just a closure or a real property) for you. You can also test whether its static or not:
Map m4 = thisMc.#expandoProperties
MetaBeanProperty asm = m4['addedStaticMethod']
def val2 = asm.getProperty(clazz)
boolean isstatic = Modifier.isStatic(asm.modifiers)
Kind of brutal but it sort of works if you want to dynamically query the dynamic editions to the metaclass.
The problem of forcing the switch from default metaClass to the ExpandoMetaClass remains a problem. The best way seems to create a throw away class instance as this does the one time switch for you.
I tried to force this myself using the metaClass registry which you can do, but then the future create new instance for your class seems to stop working ie. doing somethings like this and putting the original back afterwords seems to break any future new <MyClass>() calls.
MetaClassRegistry registry = GroovySystem.getMetaClassRegistry()
MetaClass origMC = registry.getMetaClass(DynamicExtendableClass)
assert origMC.getClass() == MetaClassImpl //default implementation
def constructors = MetaClassImpl.getConstructors()
ExpandoMetaClass emc = new ExpandoMetaClass (DynamicExtendableClass, true, true)
emc.static.getStaticAddedMethod = {-> "static hello from my emc"}
emc.constructor = { new DynamicExtendableClass() }
emc.initialize()
registry.removeMetaClass(DynamicExtendableClass)
registry.setMetaClass(DynamicExtendableClass, emc)
assert DynamicExtendableClass.metaClass.getClass() == ExpandoMetaClass
assert DynamicExtendableClass.staticAddedMethod == "static hello from my emc"
registry.removeMetaClass(DynamicExtendableClass)
registry.setMetaClass(DynamicExtendableClass, origMC)

groovy immutable object with parent class

I have two immutable groovy classes that have a few shared values that I'm trying to abstract to a parent class. However when I create the following, the second test case always fails. Although everything compiles correctly and no error is thrown at runtime, when I assign the parent property int he constructor, it is never set, resulting in a null value. I havent found any documentation that forbids this, but I'm wondering is this even possible? I've tried a number of configuration of Annotations and class-types (e.g. removing abstract from the parent) but nothing seems to work short of just removing the #Immutable tag altogether.
abstract class TestParent {
String parentProperty1
}
#ToString(includeNames = true)
#Immutable
class TestChild extends TestParent {
String childProperty1
String childProperty2
}
class TestCase {
#Test
void TestOne() {
TestChild testChild = new TestChild(
childProperty1: "childOne",
childProperty2: "childTwo",
parentProperty1: "parentOne"
)
assert testChild
assert testChild.parentProperty1
}
}
Based on the code for the ImmutableASTTransformation, the Map-arg constructor added by the createConstructorMapCommon method does not include a call to super(args) in the method body.
which means that immutable classes are self contained by default
Now if you want to do it you need to use composition instead of inheritance and this is an example of how you can do it :
import groovy.transform.*
#TupleConstructor
class A {
String a
}
#Immutable(knownImmutableClasses=[A])
class B {
#Delegate A base
String b
}
def b = new B(base: new A("a"), b: "b")
assert b.a
i hope this will help :)

Groovy Copying / Combining MetaMethods From Multiple Objects

I have two classes. At runtime, I want to "clone" the methods of one object, over to another. Is this possible? My failed attempt using leftshift is shown below.
(Note: I also tried currMethod.clone() with the same result.)
class SandboxMetaMethod2 {
String speak(){
println 'bow wow'
}
}
class SandboxMetaMethod1{
void leftShift(Object sandbox2){
sandbox2.metaClass.getMethods().each{currMethod->
if(currMethod.name.contains("speak")){
this.speak()
this.metaClass."$currMethod.name" = currMethod
this.speak()
}
}
}
String speak(){
println 'woof'
}
}
class SandboxMetaMethodSpec extends Specification {
def "try this"(){
when:
def sandbox1 = new SandboxMetaMethod1()
def sandbox2 = new SandboxMetaMethod2()
sandbox1 << sandbox2
then:
true
}
}
//Output
woof
speak
woof
Per Request, I am adding background as to the goal / use case:
It's very much like a standard functional type of use case. In summary, we have a lot of methods on a class which applies to all of our client environments (50-100). We apply those to process data in a certain default order. Each of those methods may be overridden by client specific methods (if they exist with the same method name), and the idea was to use the approach above to "reconcile" the method set. Based on the client environment name, we need a way to dynamically override methods.
Note: Overriding methods on the metaclass is very standard (or should i say, it's the reason the amazing capability exists). And it works if my method exists as text like String currMethod = "{x-> x+1}", then i just say this.metaClass."$currMethodName" = currMethod. My challenge in this case is that my method is compiled and exists on another class, rather than being defined as text somewhere.
The goal of having all the custom methods compiled in client-specific classes at build time was to avoid the expense of compilation of these dynamic methods at runtime for each calculation, so all client-specific methods are compiled into a separate client-specific JAR at build time. This way also allows us to only deploy the client-specific code to the respective client, without all the other clients calculations in some master class.
I hope that makes sense.
New Approach, in Response to Jeremie B's suggestion:
Since I need to choose the trait to implement by name at runtime, will something like this work:
String clientName = "client1"
String clientSpeakTrait = "${clientName}Speak"
trait globalSpeak {
String speak() {
println 'bow wow'
}
}
trait client1Speak {
String speak() {
println 'woof'
}
}
def mySpeaker = new Object().withTraits globalSpeak, clientSpeakTrait
A basic example with Traits :
trait Speak {
String speak() {
println 'bow wow'
}
}
class MyClass {
}
def instance = new MyClass()
def extended = instance.withTraits Speak
extended.speak()
You can choose which trait to use at runtime :
def clientTrait = Speak
def sb = new Object().withTraits(clientTrait)
sb.speak()
And dynamically load the trait with a ClassLoader :
def clientTrait = this.class.classLoader.loadClass "my.package.${client}Speak"
def sb = new Object().withTraits(clientTrait)

What is the Groovy way to copy arguments to properties in a Groovy class?

Given an object with properties and a constructor, I wish to copy the constructor arguments into properties, and then do some additional work in the Constructor.
import groovy.transform.TupleConstructor
#TupleConstructor
class Thing{
def one
def two
public Thing(one, two){
doSomething()
}
def doSomething(){
println "doing something with one : $one and two: $two"
}
}
println new Thing(1, 2).dump()
This will successfully copy the args to the properties if I do nothing else in the constructor, but if I call "doSomething()" in the constructor, the properties are not copied.
I'm seeking "The Groovy" Way for copying args to properties.
As tim_yates mentioned, the TupleConstructor AST transformation won't do anything if you have another constructor defined (you can blame this line of code =P). If you need to run some other code in the construction of the object, you may add that in a static factory method and use that instead of the tuple constructor directly:
import groovy.transform.TupleConstructor
#TupleConstructor
class Thing {
def one
def two
def doSomething(){
println "doing something with one : $one and two: $two"
}
static create(...args) {
def thing = new Thing(*args)
thing.doSomething()
thing
}
}
println Thing.create(1, 2).dump()
Notice that i'm using a variable-argument static method to receive an arbitrary number of parameters and then calling the tuple constructor with those parameters (used the "spread" (*) operator for that).
Unfortunately, the TupleConstructor AST transform does not seem to have an option for adding the tuple constructor as private, which would be useful in this case.
If you use TupleConstructor, it will not run if you have defined your own constructor.
And as you have defined a duplicate constructor to the one TupleConstructor will generate in the bytecode, even doing #TupleConstructor( force=true ) won't help you as you will just get a java.lang.ClassFormatError: Duplicate method name&signature in class file Thing
The best I can think of at the moment is to do:
class Thing{
def one
def two
public Thing( Map params ){
this.class.declaredFields.grep { !it.synthetic }.name.each { name ->
this[ name ] = params[ name ]
}
doSomething()
}
def doSomething(){
println "doing something with one : $one and two: $two"
}
}
println new Thing(one:1, two:2).dump()
Though there is probably a better way that I'm missing

Groovy adding code to a constructor

Is there a way in Groovy that I can add code to a constructor when a class is instantiated? I have a Groovy class (but I can't modify the source of this particular one), but I was hoping there was a way to inject code (maybe via the metaclass) so my code gets run as part of the constructor (in this case there is only one, default constructor).
Thanks,
Jeff
You can override the constructor, but it's a little tricky, particularly if you're overriding the default constructor. You need to assign a closure to the class's metaClass.constructor, and the closure should return a new instance. The tricky part is that if you call the constructor you've overriden, you'll get into a recursive loop and generate a stack overflow. You need another way to get an instance of the class, such as a different constructor.
For testing, it's sometimes possible to get around this limitation. Usually, it's enough to first instantiate an object, then override the constructor to return the existing instance. Example:
class MyObject {
String something
MyObject() { something = "initialized" }
}
testInstance = new MyObject()
testInstance.something = "overriden"
MyObject.metaClass.constructor = { -> testInstance }
aNewObject = new MyObject()
assert aNewObject.is(testInstance)
assert aNewObject.something == "overriden"
It is possible to add new constructors or replace the old one. If you need the original constructor, you can use reflection for that:
MyObject.metaClass.constructor = { -> // for the no-arg ctor
// use reflection to get the original constructor
def constructor = MyObject.class.getConstructor()
// create the new instance
def instance = constructor.newInstance()
// ... do some further stuff with the instance ...
println "Created ${instance}"
instance
}
Note that you have to change this if you have parameters to your constructors, e.g:
// Note that the closure contains the signature of the constructor
MyObject.metaClass.constructor = { int year, String reason ->
def constructor = MyObject.class.getConstructor(Integer.TYPE, String.class)
def instance = constructor.newInstance(
2014, "Boy, am I really answering a question three years old?")
// ... do some further stuff with the instance ...
println "Created ${instance}"
instance
}
PS: Note that when you want to add constructors which are not yet existent, use the << operator instead: MyObject.metaClass.constructor << { /* as above */ }.
You can bypass the limitations in the solution proposed by storing the original constructor using standard Java reflection. For example, this is what I do initialize a class (basic injection) in a spock test:
def setupSpec() {
MockPlexusContainer mockPlexusContainer = new MockPlexusContainer()
def oldConstructor = MY_CLASS.constructors[0]
MY_CLASS.metaClass.constructor = { ->
def mojo = oldConstructor.newInstance()
mockPlexusContainer.initializeContext(mojo)
return mojo
}
}
This gets invoked only once, but eveytime someone calls a constructor I get a different instance avoiding cleaning values and ensuring thread safety.

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