[aspectj-users] DirtinessAspect

["Ricardo Giacomin" <ricardo.giacomin@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

I wrote the aspect below to keep track of modification of entities' state
(assuming all entity attributes have corresponding getter and setter method)

public aspect EntityAspect
{
    private boolean Entity.dirty = false;

    private Class[] argTypes = new Class[]{};
    private Object[] args = new Object[] {};

    void around(Entity entity, Object newValue) throws
IllegalArgumentException:
        target(entity) && args(newValue) && execution(* Entity+.set*(..))
    {
        try
        {
            String m = "g" +
thisJoinPoint.getSignature().getName().substring(1);
            Object value = entity.getClass().getMethod(m,
argTypes).invoke(entity, args);
            boolean clean = (newValue==null)? value==null :
newValue.equals(value);
            if (!clean)
            {
                proceed(entity, newValue);
                entity.dirty = true;
            }
        }
        catch(Exception ex)
        {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(ex.getMessage());
        }
    }
}


Just wondering if it is possible to accomplish the same without using
reflection (without invoking the getter to get the current value).

Thanks in advance,
Ricardo.