EhCache config with BeanUtils

byBartek Zdanowski
April 16, 2015
1 minute read

BeanUtils allows you to set Bean properties.
If you have configuration stored in a Map it’s tempting to use BeanUtils to automagically setup EhCache configuration.
Sadly this class has mixed types in setters and getter and thus BeanUtils that use Introspector behind won’t get getter and setter pairs properly. It will get only getters and thus inform you that these properties are read only: “Skipping read-only property”.

My fast solution is to use BeanUtils and have a fallback to Reflection.

public static void setProperty(Object obj, String propertyName, Object propertyValue, boolean silently) {
        try {
            PropertyDescriptor desc = PropertyUtils.getPropertyDescriptor(obj, propertyName);
            Method writeMethod = desc.getWriteMethod(); 
                 
            if (writeMethod == null) {
                writeMethod = getAlternativeWriteMethod(obj, propertyName, propertyValue.getClass());
            }
            
            if (writeMethod == null) {
                if (silently) {
                    return;
                }
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Can't find writerMethod for " + propertyName);
            }

            if (LOG.isTraceEnabled()) {
                LOG.trace(String.format("Setting %s property of %s", propertyName, obj.getClass().getSimpleName()));
            }
            
            writeMethod.invoke(obj, propertyValue);
        } catch (IllegalAccessException | NoSuchMethodException | InvocationTargetException e) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Error when setting object property.", e);
        }
    }

    private static Method getAlternativeWriteMethod(Object obj, String propertyName, Class paramClass) throws NoSuchMethodException {
        String setterMethod = "set" + propertyName.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() + propertyName.substring(1);
        Method m; 
        if ((m = getMethod(obj, paramClass, setterMethod)) != null) {
            return m;
        }
        Class altClass = paramClass.isPrimitive() ? ClassUtils.primitiveToWrapper(paramClass) : ClassUtils.wrapperToPrimitive(paramClass);
        if ((m = getMethod(obj, altClass, setterMethod)) != null) {
            return m;
        }
        
        return null;
    }

    private static Method getMethod(Object obj, Class paramClass, String setterMethod) {

        try {
            return obj.getClass().getMethod(setterMethod, paramClass);
        } catch (NoSuchMethodException e) {
            return null;
        }
    }

I will think about PR to Configuration class but it’s complicated as EhCache 2.x is not present on GitHub.

Bartek Zdanowski

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DDevelopment & Design

Simple trick to DRY your Grails controller

byTomasz Kalkosiński
June 5, 2013

Grails controllers are not very DRY. It's easy to find duplicated code fragments in default generated controller. Take a look at code sample below. It is duplicated four times in show, edit, update and delete actions:

class BookController {
def show() {
def bookInstance = Book.get(params.id)
if (!bookInstance) {
flash.message = message(code: 'default.not.found.message', args: [message(code: 'book.label', default: 'Book'), params.id])
redirect(action: "list")
return
        }
        [bookInstance: bookInstance]
    }
}

Why is it duplicated?

There is a reason for that duplication, though. If you move this snippet to a method, it can redirect to "list" action, but it can't prevent controller from further execution. After you call redirect, response status changes to 302, but after method exits, controller still runs subsequent code.

Solution

At TouK we've implemented a simple trick to resolve that situation:

wrap everything with a simple withStoppingOnRender method,
whenever you want to render or redirect AND stop controller execution - throw EndRenderingException.

We call it Big Return - return from a method and return from a controller at once. Here is how it works:

class BookController {
def show(Long id) {
withStoppingOnRender {
Book bookInstance = Book.get(id)
validateInstanceExists(bookInstance)
            [bookInstance: bookInstance]
        }
    }

protected Object withStoppingOnRender(Closure closure) {
try {
return closure.call()
        } catch (EndRenderingException e) {}
    }

private void validateInstanceExists(Book instance) {
if (!instance) {
flash.message = message(code: 'default.not.found.message', args: [message(code: 'book.label', default: 'Book'), params.id])
redirect(action: "list")
throw new EndRenderingException()
        }
    }
}

class EndRenderingException extends RuntimeException {}

Example usage

For simple CRUD controllers, you can use this solution and create some BaseController class for your controllers. We use withStoppingOnRender in every controller so code doesn't look like a spaghetti, we follow DRY principle and code is self-documented. Win-win-win! Here is a more complex example:

class DealerController {
@Transactional
def update() {
withStoppingOnRender {
Dealer dealerInstance = Dealer.get(params.id)
validateInstanceExists(dealerInstance)
validateAccountInExternalService(dealerInstance)
checkIfInstanceWasConcurrentlyModified(dealerInstance, params.version)
            dealerInstance.properties = params
saveUpdatedInstance(dealerInstance)
redirectToAfterUpdate(dealerInstance)
        }
    }
}