Contents

• Overview
• Articles
• Tutorial
• Javadocs
• Publications
• Related Work
• Acknowledgements

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Overview

Javassist (Java programming assistant) is a load-time reflective system for Java. It is a class library for editing bytecodes in Java; it enables Java programs to define a new class at runtime and to modify a class file before the JVM loads it. Unlike other similar systems, Javassist provides source-level abstraction; programmers can modify a class file without detailed knowledge of the Java bytecode. They do not have to even write an inserted bytecode sequence; Javassist instead can compile a fragment of source text on line (for example, just a single statement). This ease of use is a unique feature of Javassit against other tools.

Aspect Oriented Programming:	Javassist can be a good tool for introducing new methods into a class and for inserting before/after/around advice at the both caller and callee sides.
Reflection:	One of applications of Javassist is runtime reflection; Javassist enables Java programs to use a metaobject that controls method calls on base-level objects. No specialized compiler or virtual machine are needed.
Remote method invocation:	Another application is remote method invocation. Javassist enables applets to call a method on a remote object running on the web server. Unlike the Java RMI, the programmer does notneed a stub compiler such as rmic; the stub code is dynamically produced by Javassist.

 

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Articles...

Javassist: Java Bytecode Engineering Made Simple
by Shigeru Chiba, Java Developer's Journal, January 2004.

 

Java programming dynamics, Part 4: Class transformation with Javassist
by Dennis M. Sosnoski, IBM developerWorks, September 16, 2003

 

Java programming dynamics, Part 5: Transforming classes on-the-fly
by Dennis M. Sosnoski, IBM developerWorks, February 3, 2004.

 

Java programming dynamics, Part 6: Aspect-oriented changes with Javassist
by Dennis M. Sosnoski, IBM developerWorks, March 2, 2004.

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Publications...

An Easy-to-Use Toolkit for Efficient Java Bytecode Translators	Shigeru Chiba and Muga Nishizawa Proc. of 2nd Int'l Conf. on Generative Programming and Component Engineering (GPCE '03), LNCS 2830, pp.364-376, Springer-Verlag, 2003.
A Bytecode Translator for Distributed Execution of "Legacy" Java Software	Michiaki Tatsubori, Toshiyuki Sasaki, Shigeru Chiba and Kozo Itano ECOOP 2001 -- Object-Oriented Programming, LNCS 2072, Springer Verlag, pp.236-255, 2001.
Load-time Structural Reflection in Java	Shigeru Chiba ECOOP 2000 -- Object-Oriented Programming, LNCS 1850, Springer Verlag, page 313-336, 2000.
Javassist --- A Reflection-based Programming Wizard for Java	Shigeru Chiba In Proceedings of the ACM OOPSLA'98 Workshop on Reflective Programming in C++ and Java October, 1998. (An very early sketch of the design of Javassist)

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Related Work...

We are developing other reflective systems for C++ and Java.

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Acknowledgments...

The development of Javassist is supported in part by Japan Science and Technology Corporation.

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Shigeru Chiba

Copyright (C) 1999-2011 by Shigeru Chiba.
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