[aspectj-users] Re: WebLogic Aspect Framework

["Adrian Colyer" <adrian_colyer@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I took a look through the WebLogic Aspect
framework and I  like the direction this is going in. Ron Bodkin and
I have started work on a similar library as part of the preparations for
the forthcoming "Enterprise Aspect-Oriented Programming with AspectJ"
tutorial (http://oopsla.acm.org/oopsla2003/files/tut-39.html), one of the
key differences being that we expose more context in the pointcut definitions
for use by advice.

Using servlets as an example. we define

public pointcut httpServletRequest(HttpServlet
servlet, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) :
  (execution(public void HttpServlet.doPost(HttpServletRequest,HttpServletResponse
) ||
   execution(public void HttpServlet.doGet(HttpServletRequest,HttpServletResponse))
 && 
  args(request, response) &&

   this(servlet);

It's interesting to note how the properties
of J2EE (and any framework that uses inversion of control) make it possible
to define very robust pointcuts by standardizing interfaces. It also brings
additional challenges (such as adding advice on lifecycle events like init()
that may or may not be overridden in components). We go into some of this
in the tutorial (shameless plug ;) ). 

I think it would be great for the aspectj
community to collaborate on defining a library of pointcuts for J2EE -
which could be done as part of the new AspectJ samples initiative initially
perhaps. 

Ideally the pointcuts would be declared
in interfaces, which allows different application servers to implement
them using app-server specific generated method names etc. where needed,
but still allows users to program to a common interface. To use interfaces
in this way requires a little work in the AspectJ compiler, which I will
describe in a separate post to aspectj-dev for the interested. It's exciting
to see aspect libraries becoming a reality with the new support that was
released in AspectJ 1.1.

-- Adrian. 
Adrian_Colyer@xxxxxxxxxx

gregorkiczales wrote:
>See the weblogic aspects mailing
list for more info.  
>(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/weblogic-aspects/)
>
Here is some additional information:
Short announcement on my blog:  http://freeroller.net/page/cbeust/20030722
TheServerSide thread:  
http://www.theserverside.com/home/thread.jsp?thread_id=20514
-- 
Cédric
http://beust.com/weblog