General

What is AspectWerkz?

AspectWerkz is a dynamic, lightweight and high-performant AOP/AOSD framework for Java.

How can I use it without starting up the application or application server with the command line tool?

You can post-process (instrument/transform) your source files before use. See t he Startup and transformations section.

You can also use one of the several options to start your application with AspectWerkz enabled without the command line tool.

For a complete discussion on this topic, see the Online architecture section.

What does the aspectwerkz command line tool do?

Basically it just invokes the normal java command line tool by calling a class that intercepts the normal class loading scheme before it invokes the main class specified. This means that you can just substitute the normal call to:

java -cp .. -D.. mainclass args with: aspectwerkz -cp .. -D.. mainclass args and everything should work as before, the only difference is that all classes that are loaded will be transformed (if they are defined to). You can even hack the startup script of your favorite application server and start it up using the aspectwerkz command line tool as outlined above, or using directly aspectwerkz-core- version .jar facilities.

The key advantage of the command line tool when you startup your application thru it is that it provides an autodetection mechanism for java 1.3 / java 1.4 support. The online architecture differs between these two java version.

For full control on the behavior of AspectWerkz on line mode (dump class, verbosity), you should avoid using the command line tool.

Read more in the Online architecture section.

If I use the post-processor, I'll lose the possibility to change my configurations at runtime, right?

Actually no. You will still be able to to all the things covered in the Hot deployment section of the documentation. Like swapping the implementation of a Introduction or change the order or of advices and so on. The only things you can not do are introducing new Introductions and advise new methods.

Is there any DTD or XML Schema I can use to write the AspectWerkz XML definition file ?

The DTD is provided since 0.8. Each distribution comes with a bundled DTD so that it is not looked for on the web at runtime.

When you write your XML definition file, add the following at the top of your XML.

<!DOCTYPE aspectwerkz PUBLIC
    "-//AspectWerkz//DTD 0.8.1//EN"
    "http://aspectwerkz.codehaus.org/dtd/aspectwerkz_0_8_1.dtd">
                    
The 0.8 and 0.8.1 DTD are the same so you can also use
<!DOCTYPE aspectwerkz PUBLIC
    "-//AspectWerkz//DTD 0.8//EN"
    "http://aspectwerkz.codehaus.org/dtd/aspectwerkz_0_8.dtd">
                    
The DTD for the latest release is also referen ced with
<!DOCTYPE aspectwerkz PUBLIC
    "-//AspectWerkz//DTD//EN"
    "http://aspectwerkz.codehaus.org/dtd/aspectwerkz.dtd">
                    

0.8 migration

What should I change in my project running on 0.7.4 to make it run on 0.8 and later ?

The 0.8 brings a new architecture, and we limited the impact it has on end users and added value projects redistributing AspectWerkz. There might still be some change to reflect in your projects.

The command line tool bin/aspectwerkz hides you the details. For online mode, you have nothing to change if you are using this script. For offline mode, the definition file must now be the first argument given - as detailled here .

If you were using directly the java classes instead of the command line tool, note the following changes:

  • org.codehaus.aspectwerkz.hook.ProcessStarter can be used to start a JVM in online mode (instead of org.cs3.jmangler.hook.starter.CLSubstitutor ). This class is packaged in aspectwerkz-core- < version > .jar , and you will need to add in the classpath bcel.jar and JAVA_HOME/lib/tools.jar .

    Refer to the online architecture section since there are now several other options to start a JVM in online mode.

  • org.codehaus.aspectwerkz.compiler.AspectWerkzC must be used for offline compilation (instead of org.cs3.jmangler.offline.starter.Main ). This class is packaged in aspectwerkz- < version > .jar , and you will need to add in the classpath bcel.jar and ant-1.5.2.jar (or any Ant version 1.5 or later).

Are there any files not needed starting from 0.8 release ?

The JMangler jars are not needed. AspectWerkz has now total source and architecture control over the low layer part of enabling online mode, which allow us to bring state of the art features.

As a consequence, the JMangler specific configuration files have been removed ( ASPECTWERKZ_HOME/config ).

Other

Does AspectWerkz supports custom JRE like IBM ones ?
AspectWerkz supports all java environment thru offline mode. With online mode, AspectWerkz hooks at the class loader level. Since the IBM JRE bundles a specific java.lang.ClassLoader , a work is in progress to fully support it (planned for 0.9).