Oracle8i Java Developer's Guide
Release 3 (8.1.7)

Part Number A83728-01

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Class.forName() on JServer

The Java Language Specification provides the following description of Class.forName():

Given the fully-qualified name of a class, this method attempts to locate, load, and link the class. If it succeeds, a reference to the Class object for the class is returned. If it fails, a ClassNotFoundException is thrown.

Class lookup is always on behalf of a referencing class through a ClassLoader. The difference between the JDK implementation and JServer's implementation is the method on which the class is found:

You can receive unexpected results if you try to locate a class with an unexpected resolver. For example, if a class X in schema X requests a class Y in schema Y to look up class Z, you can experience an error if you expected class X's resolver to be used. Because class Y is performing the lookup, the resolver associated with class Y is used to locate class Z. In summary, if the class exists in another schema and you specified different resolvers for different classes--as would happen by default if they are in different schemas-- you might not find the class.

You can solve this resolver problem as follows:

Supply the ClassLoader in Class.forName

JServer uses resolvers for locating classes within schemas. Every class has a specified resolver associated with it. Each class can have a different resolver associated with it. Thus, the locating of classes is dependent on the definition of the associated resolver. The ClassLoader knows which resolver to use based upon the class specified. When you supply a ClassLoader to Class.forName(), your class is looked up in the schemas defined within the resolver of the class. The syntax for this variant of Class.forName is as follows:

Class forName (String name, boolean initialize, ClassLoader loader);

The following examples show how to supply the class loader of either the current class instance or the calling class instance.

Example 2-3 Retrieve Resolver from Current Class

You can retrieve the class loader of any instance through the Class.getClassLoader method. The following example retrieves the class loader of the class represented by instance x.

Class c1 = Class.forName (x.whatClass(), true, x.getClass().getClassLoader());

Example 2-4 Retrieve Resolver from Calling Class

You can retrieve the class of the instance that invoked the executing method through the oracle.aurora.vm.OracleRuntime.getCallerClass method. Once you retrieve the class, invoke the Class.getClassLoader method on the returned class. The following example retrieves the class of the instance that invoked the workForCaller method. Then, its class loader is retrieved and supplied to the Class.forName method. Thus, the resolver used for looking up the class is the resolver of the calling class.

void workForCaller() {
     
ClassLoader c1 =
oracle.aurora.vm.OracleRuntime.getCallerClass().getClassLoader(); ... Class c = Class.forName (name, true, c1);

Supply Class and Schema Names to classForNameAndSchema

You can resolve the problem of where to find the class by either supplying the resolver, which knows the schemas to search, or by supplying the schema in which the class is loaded. If you know in which schema the class is loaded, you can use the classForNameAndSchema method. JServer provides a method in the DbmsJava class, which takes in both the name of the class and the schema that the class resides in. This method locates the class within the designated schema.

Example 2-5 Providing Schema and Class Names

The following example shows how you can save the schema and class names in the save method. Both names are retrieved and the class is located using the DbmsJava.classForNameAndSchema method.

import oracle.aurora.rdbms.ClassHandle;
import oracle.aurora.rdbms.Schema;
import oracle.aurora.rdbms.DbmsJava;

void save (Class c1) {
     
ClassHandle handle = ClassHandle.lookup(c1);
Schema schema = handle.schema();
writeNmae (schema.getName());
writeName (c1.getName());
} Class restore() {
String schemaName = readName();
String className = readName();
return DbmsJava.classForNameAndSchema (schemaName, className);
}

Supply Class and Schema Names to lookupClass

You can supply a single String, containing both the schema and class names, to the oracle.aurora.util.ClassForName.lookupClass method. When invoked, this method locates the class in the specified schema. The string must be in the following format:

"<schema>:<class>"

For example, to locate com.package.myclass in schema SCOTT, you would execute the following:

oracle.aurora.util.ClassForName.lookupClass("SCOTT:com.package.myclass");


Note:

You must uppercase the schema name. In this case, the schema name is case-sensitive.  


Supply Class and Schema Names when Serializing

When you de-serialize a class, part of the operation is to lookup a class based on a name. In order to ensure that the lookup is successful, the serialized object must contain both the class and schema names.

JServer provides the following classes for serializing and deserializing objects:

This class extends java.io.ObjectOutputStream and adds schema names in the appropriate places.

This class extends java.io.ObjectInputStream and reads streams written by DbmsObjectOutputStream. This class can be used on any environment. If used within JServer, the schema names are read out and used when performing the class lookup. If used on a client, the schema names are ignored.

Class.forName Example

The following example shows several methods for looking up a class.



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