org.jacorb.util

Class ObjectUtil


public class ObjectUtil
extends java.lang.Object

Version:
$Id: ObjectUtil.java,v 1.16 2004/05/06 22:34:32 phil.mesnier Exp $

Author:
Gerald Brose, FU Berlin

Method Summary

static java.util.Properties
argsToProps(String[] args)
Convenience method to parse an argument vector (typically from the command line) and sets any arguments of the form "-Dy=x" as values in a properties object.
static String
bufToString(bs[] , int start, int len)
static Class
classForName(String name)
Returns the Class object for the class or interface with the given string name.
static Map
createIdentityHashMap()
Creates an IdentityHashMap, using either the JDK 1.4 class or JacORB's drop-in replacement class if the former is not available.
static String
readURL(String url)
static char
toAscii(byte b)
static String
toHex(byte b)
toHex converts a byte into a readable string.

Method Details

argsToProps

public static java.util.Properties argsToProps(String[] args)
Convenience method to parse an argument vector (typically from the command line) and sets any arguments of the form "-Dy=x" as values in a properties object.


bufToString

public static String bufToString(bs[] ,
                                 int start,
                                 int len)


classForName

public static Class classForName(String name)
            throws ClassNotFoundException,
                   IllegalArgumentException
Returns the Class object for the class or interface with the given string name. This method is a replacement for Class.forName(String name). Unlike Class.forName(String name) (which always uses the caller's loader or one of its ancestors), classForName uses a thread-specific loader that has no delegation relationship with the caller's loader. It attempts the load the desired class with the thread-specific context class loader and falls back to Class.forName(String name) only if the context class loader cannot load the class.

Loading a class with a loader that is not necessarily an ancestor of the caller's loader is a crucial thing in many scenarios. As an example, assume that JacORB was loaded by the boot class loader, and suppose that some code in JacORB contains a call Class.forName(someUserClass). Such usage of Class.forName effectively forces the user to place someUserClass in the boot class path. If classForName(someUserClass) were used instead, the user class would be loaded by the context class loader, which by default is set to the system (CLASSPATH) classloader.

In this simple example above, the default setting of the context class loader allows classes in the boot classpath to reach classes in the system classpath. In other scenarios, the context class loader might be different from the system classloader. Middleware systems like servlet containers or EJB containers set the context class loader so that a given thread can reach user-provided classes that are not in the system classpath.

For maximum flexibility, classForName should replace Class.forName(String name) in nearly all cases.

Parameters:
name - the fully qualified name of a class

Returns:
the Class object for that class


createIdentityHashMap

public static Map createIdentityHashMap()
Creates an IdentityHashMap, using either the JDK 1.4 class or JacORB's drop-in replacement class if the former is not available.

Returns:
a newly created IdentityHashMap instance


readURL

public static final String readURL(String url)
            throws java.io.IOException

Returns:
the contents of the resource as a string, or null if the contents of the resource could not be located using url


toAscii

public static final char toAscii(byte b)


toHex

public static final String toHex(byte b)
toHex converts a byte into a readable string.

Parameters:
b - a byte value

Returns:
a String value