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RESOLVED!!! RE: (RESOLVED?) RE: [aspectj-users] Important aspects of JDK1.4weaving

 
Hello all --
 
In software development, when things aren't working the way you expect, a programmer will sometimes begin a process I like to call "Poking".  Poking is the activity of altering code, runtime variables, or build environment variables to see how they affect execution, often in the hopes that your software will miraculously start working, but at the least learning something about the nature of your problem.
 
Well, Poking has worked for me once again to clear up the problems I was having with Alex's JDK14 weaving method in weblogic, described here:
 
First off, boot-time java.lang.NullPointerExceptions that occur during classloading (see my previous post), while appearing very very ugly, don't seem to have any impact whatsoever on anything.  They _can_ be eliminated from weblogic altogether by creating exceptions for the following class packages:
javax/management/
weblogic/xml/
weblogic/utils/
weblogic/apache/xerces/
weblogic/j2ee/
weblogic/application/
weblogic/management/
Of course, if you need to weave with any of those packages, that's another story.  Since my own application didn't require it, I have no idea what the weaving consequences of the boot-time java.lang.NullPointerExceptions would be.
 
Secondly, ClassNotFoundExceptions, despite being ugly in appearance, are even Uglier in impact.  In my case the problem was that I was including my Aspects in the same jar package with my ClassPreProcessorAdapter.  Since they were "jarred" together, both the aspects (superfluous to the bootclasspath solution) and the preprocessor (necessary to the bootclasspath) got thrown into the same bootclasspath context.  Without going into too much more detail, this appeared to cause my Aspect classes to always be referenced in the same context as that "meta" bootclasspath, even after boot.  Any other classes or packages which were being included by the Aspect classes, but not included in the bootclasspath were coming back ClassNotFound.  Separating the two proved the solution.
 
Thirdly, and along those lines, including extraneous or superfluous packages in the bootclasspath, for good reasons real or imagined, WILL cause problems.  Don't try it.  Put only the absolutely necessary stuff -- the classpreprocessor, aspectwerkz, aspectj.  Nothing more.
 
Fourthly, it is absolutely positively necessary that the Hook.Plug command (shown in the URL as part of an ANT script) be executed against the EXACT same Sun JDK tools.jar file that will be used at runtime.  It is not possible, apparantly, to hook.plug with an older JDK version and pray for forward compatibility.  It may work with one version of the JDK, and crash the entire JVM on another.  Don't try it.
 
Hoping the lessons of my own bruises benefit others,
- Bo Zimmerman
 
 

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