In this episode we go over Aspects (and AspectJ), what really is, and when to use them. It turns out, that there is nothing misterious about them! We also cover how to set-up Aspects for J2SE so you can start using them immediately!

Questions, feedback or comments! comments@javapubhouse.com

VM Parameter
-javaagent:dep/aspectjweaver.jar

Example Aspect

@Aspect

public class OrderAspect {

    @Before("execution(* *.*(Order))") // must qualify
    public void anyCall() {
         System.out.println("Was called from anywhere");
     }
}

Example aop.xml file

          <aspectj>
            <aspects>
              <aspect name="OrderAspect"/>
            </aspects>
            <weaver options="-verbose -showWeaveInfo">
            </weaver>
          </aspectj>

Example Folder Structure

src
 |
 |-META-INF
    |
    |-aop.xml

References:

http://www.eclipse.org/aspectj/doc/released/adk15notebook/ataspectj-pcadvice.html

http://www.eclipse.org/aspectj/doc/next/quick5.pdf

http://blog.espenberntsen.net/2010/03/20/aspectj-cheat-sheet/

(Using aspects with annotations)
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2011089/aspectj-pointcut-for-all-methods-of-a-class-with-specific-annotation

In this episode of Java pub house, we talk about Deadlocks, livelocks (and other spooky things). Most importantly we talk on how to spot them (using jstack, or visualvm), and how to program defensively against them. We also talk about escaped locks (the source of most deadlocks), and the wait/notify language construct. Finally we describe the unfairness of the lock (locks are not "fair" by default), and why is it so.