What is a ClassLoader?
Among commercially popular programming languages, the Java language distinguishes itself by running on a Java virtual machine (JVM). This means that compiled programs are expressed in a special, platform-independent format, rather than in the format of the machine they are running on. This format differs from traditional executable program formats in a number of important ways. In particular, a Java program, unlike one written in C or C++, isn't a single executable file, but instead is composed of many individual class files, each of which corresponds to a single Java class. Additionally, these class files are not loaded into memory all at once, but rather are loaded on demand, as needed by the program. The ClassLoader is the part of the JVM that loads classes into memory. The Java ClassLoader, furthermore, is written in the Java language itself. This means that it's easy to create your own ClassLoader without having to understand the finer details of the JVM.
* Automatically verify a digital signature before executing untrusted code
* Transparently decrypt code with a user-supplied password
* Create dynamically built classes customized to the user's specific needs
Anything you can think of to write that can generate Java bytecode can be integrated into your application.
A Custom Class Loader:
The following code is an example of a custom class loader. For details you can go through this PDF Article.
Here is the source code for CompilingClassLoader.java
// $Id$
import java.io.*;
/*
A CompilingClassLoader compiles your Java source on-the-fly. It
checks for nonexistent .class files, or .class files that are older
than their corresponding source code.
*/
public class CompilingClassLoader extends ClassLoader
{
// Given a filename, read the entirety of that file from disk
// and return it as a byte array.
private byte[] getBytes( String filename ) throws IOException {
// Find out the length of the file
File file = new File( filename );
long len = file.length();
// Create an array that's just the right size for the file's
// contents
byte raw[] = new byte[(int)len];
// Open the file
FileInputStream fin = new FileInputStream( file );
// Read all of it into the array; if we don't get all,
// then it's an error.
int r = fin.read( raw );
if (r != len)
throw new IOException( "Can't read all, "+r+" != "+len );
// Don't forget to close the file!
fin.close();
// And finally return the file contents as an array
return raw;
}
// Spawn a process to compile the java source code file
// specified in the 'javaFile' parameter. Return a true if
// the compilation worked, false otherwise.
private boolean compile( String javaFile ) throws IOException {
// Let the user know what's going on
System.out.println( "CCL: Compiling "+javaFile+"..." );
// Start up the compiler
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec( "javac "+javaFile );
// Wait for it to finish running
try {
p.waitFor();
} catch( InterruptedException ie ) { System.out.println( ie ); }
// Check the return code, in case of a compilation error
int ret = p.exitValue();
// Tell whether the compilation worked
return ret==0;
}
// The heart of the ClassLoader -- automatically compile
// source as necessary when looking for class files
public Class loadClass( String name, boolean resolve )
throws ClassNotFoundException {
// Our goal is to get a Class object
Class clas = null;
// First, see if we've already dealt with this one
clas = findLoadedClass( name );
//System.out.println( "findLoadedClass: "+clas );
// Create a pathname from the class name
// E.g. java.lang.Object => java/lang/Object
String fileStub = name.replace( '.', '/' );
// Build objects pointing to the source code (.java) and object
// code (.class)
String javaFilename = fileStub+".java";
String classFilename = fileStub+".class";
File javaFile = new File( javaFilename );
File classFile = new File( classFilename );
//System.out.println( "j "+javaFile.lastModified()+" c "+
// classFile.lastModified() );
// First, see if we want to try compiling. We do if (a) there
// is source code, and either (b0) there is no object code,
// or (b1) there is object code, but it's older than the source
if (javaFile.exists() &&
(!classFile.exists() ||
javaFile.lastModified() > classFile.lastModified())) {
try {
// Try to compile it. If this doesn't work, then
// we must declare failure. (It's not good enough to use
// and already-existing, but out-of-date, classfile)
if (!compile( javaFilename ) || !classFile.exists()) {
throw new ClassNotFoundException( "Compile failed: "+javaFilename );
}
} catch( IOException ie ) {
// Another place where we might come to if we fail
// to compile
throw new ClassNotFoundException( ie.toString() );
}
}
// Let's try to load up the raw bytes, assuming they were
// properly compiled, or didn't need to be compiled
try {
// read the bytes
byte raw[] = getBytes( classFilename );
// try to turn them into a class
clas = defineClass( name, raw, 0, raw.length );
} catch( IOException ie ) {
// This is not a failure! If we reach here, it might
// mean that we are dealing with a class in a library,
// such as java.lang.Object
}
//System.out.println( "defineClass: "+clas );
// Maybe the class is in a library -- try loading
// the normal way
if (clas==null) {
clas = findSystemClass( name );
}
//System.out.println( "findSystemClass: "+clas );
// Resolve the class, if any, but only if the "resolve"
// flag is set to true
if (resolve && clas != null)
resolveClass( clas );
// If we still don't have a class, it's an error
if (clas == null)
throw new ClassNotFoundException( name );
// Otherwise, return the class
return clas;
}
}
Author:-----------------------
Kazi Masudul Alam
Software Engineer
