Java™ Platform
Standard Ed. 6

java.lang.reflect
Class Proxy

java.lang.Object
  extended by java.lang.reflect.Proxy
All Implemented Interfaces:
Serializable

public class Proxy
extends Object
implements Serializable

Proxy provides static methods for creating dynamic proxy classes and instances, and it is also the superclass of all dynamic proxy classes created by those methods.

To create a proxy for some interface Foo:

     InvocationHandler handler = new MyInvocationHandler(...);
     Class proxyClass = Proxy.getProxyClass(
         Foo.class.getClassLoader(), new Class[] { Foo.class });
     Foo f = (Foo) proxyClass.
         getConstructor(new Class[] { InvocationHandler.class }).
         newInstance(new Object[] { handler });
 
or more simply:
     Foo f = (Foo) Proxy.newProxyInstance(Foo.class.getClassLoader(),
                                          new Class[] { Foo.class },
                                          handler);
 

A dynamic proxy class (simply referred to as a proxy class below) is a class that implements a list of interfaces specified at runtime when the class is created, with behavior as described below. A proxy interface is such an interface that is implemented by a proxy class. A proxy instance is an instance of a proxy class. Each proxy instance has an associated invocation handler object, which implements the interface InvocationHandler. A method invocation on a proxy instance through one of its proxy interfaces will be dispatched to the invoke method of the instance's invocation handler, passing the proxy instance, a java.lang.reflect.Method object identifying the method that was invoked, and an array of type Object containing the arguments. The invocation handler processes the encoded method invocation as appropriate and the result that it returns will be returned as the result of the method invocation on the proxy instance.

A proxy class has the following properties:

A proxy instance has the following properties:

Methods Duplicated in Multiple Proxy Interfaces

When two or more interfaces of a proxy class contain a method with the same name and parameter signature, the order of the proxy class's interfaces becomes significant. When such a duplicate method is invoked on a proxy instance, the Method object passed to the invocation handler will not necessarily be the one whose declaring class is assignable from the reference type of the interface that the proxy's method was invoked through. This limitation exists because the corresponding method implementation in the generated proxy class cannot determine which interface it was invoked through. Therefore, when a duplicate method is invoked on a proxy instance, the Method object for the method in the foremost interface that contains the method (either directly or inherited through a superinterface) in the proxy class's list of interfaces is passed to the invocation handler's invoke method, regardless of the reference type through which the method invocation occurred.

If a proxy interface contains a method with the same name and parameter signature as the hashCode, equals, or toString methods of java.lang.Object, when such a method is invoked on a proxy instance, the Method object passed to the invocation handler will have java.lang.Object as its declaring class. In other words, the public, non-final methods of java.lang.Object logically precede all of the proxy interfaces for the determination of which Method object to pass to the invocation handler.

Note also that when a duplicate method is dispatched to an invocation handler, the invoke method may only throw checked exception types that are assignable to one of the exception types in the throws clause of the method in all of the proxy interfaces that it can be invoked through. If the invoke method throws a checked exception that is not assignable to any of the exception types declared by the method in one of the proxy interfaces that it can be invoked through, then an unchecked UndeclaredThrowableException will be thrown by the invocation on the proxy instance. This restriction means that not all of the exception types returned by invoking getExceptionTypes on the Method object passed to the invoke method can necessarily be thrown successfully by the invoke method.

Since:
1.3
See Also:
InvocationHandler, Serialized Form

Field Summary
protected  InvocationHandler h
          the invocation handler for this proxy instance.
 
Constructor Summary
protected Proxy(InvocationHandler h)
          Constructs a new Proxy instance from a subclass (typically, a dynamic proxy class) with the specified value for its invocation handler.
 
Method Summary
static InvocationHandler getInvocationHandler(Object proxy)
          Returns the invocation handler for the specified proxy instance.
static Class<?> getProxyClass(ClassLoader loader, Class<?>... interfaces)
          Returns the java.lang.Class object for a proxy class given a class loader and an array of interfaces.
static boolean isProxyClass(Class<?> cl)
          Returns true if and only if the specified class was dynamically generated to be a proxy class using the getProxyClass method or the newProxyInstance method.
static Object newProxyInstance(ClassLoader loader, Class<?>[] interfaces, InvocationHandler h)
          Returns an instance of a proxy class for the specified interfaces that dispatches method invocations to the specified invocation handler.
 
Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait
 

Field Detail

h

protected InvocationHandler h
the invocation handler for this proxy instance.

Constructor Detail

Proxy

protected Proxy(InvocationHandler h)
Constructs a new Proxy instance from a subclass (typically, a dynamic proxy class) with the specified value for its invocation handler.

Parameters:
h - the invocation handler for this proxy instance
Method Detail

getProxyClass

public static Class<?> getProxyClass(ClassLoader loader,
                                     Class<?>... interfaces)
                              throws IllegalArgumentException
Returns the java.lang.Class object for a proxy class given a class loader and an array of interfaces. The proxy class will be defined by the specified class loader and will implement all of the supplied interfaces. If a proxy class for the same permutation of interfaces has already been defined by the class loader, then the existing proxy class will be returned; otherwise, a proxy class for those interfaces will be generated dynamically and defined by the class loader.

There are several restrictions on the parameters that may be passed to Proxy.getProxyClass:

If any of these restrictions are violated, Proxy.getProxyClass will throw an IllegalArgumentException. If the interfaces array argument or any of its elements are null, a NullPointerException will be thrown.

Note that the order of the specified proxy interfaces is significant: two requests for a proxy class with the same combination of interfaces but in a different order will result in two distinct proxy classes.

Parameters:
loader - the class loader to define the proxy class
interfaces - the list of interfaces for the proxy class to implement
Returns:
a proxy class that is defined in the specified class loader and that implements the specified interfaces
Throws:
IllegalArgumentException - if any of the restrictions on the parameters that may be passed to getProxyClass are violated
NullPointerException - if the interfaces array argument or any of its elements are null

newProxyInstance

public static Object newProxyInstance(ClassLoader loader,
                                      Class<?>[] interfaces,
                                      InvocationHandler h)
                               throws IllegalArgumentException
Returns an instance of a proxy class for the specified interfaces that dispatches method invocations to the specified invocation handler. This method is equivalent to:
     Proxy.getProxyClass(loader, interfaces).
         getConstructor(new Class[] { InvocationHandler.class }).
         newInstance(new Object[] { handler });
 

Proxy.newProxyInstance throws IllegalArgumentException for the same reasons that Proxy.getProxyClass does.

Parameters:
loader - the class loader to define the proxy class
interfaces - the list of interfaces for the proxy class to implement
h - the invocation handler to dispatch method invocations to
Returns:
a proxy instance with the specified invocation handler of a proxy class that is defined by the specified class loader and that implements the specified interfaces
Throws:
IllegalArgumentException - if any of the restrictions on the parameters that may be passed to getProxyClass are violated
NullPointerException - if the interfaces array argument or any of its elements are null, or if the invocation handler, h, is null

isProxyClass

public static boolean isProxyClass(Class<?> cl)
Returns true if and only if the specified class was dynamically generated to be a proxy class using the getProxyClass method or the newProxyInstance method.

The reliability of this method is important for the ability to use it to make security decisions, so its implementation should not just test if the class in question extends Proxy.

Parameters:
cl - the class to test
Returns:
true if the class is a proxy class and false otherwise
Throws:
NullPointerException - if cl is null

getInvocationHandler

public static InvocationHandler getInvocationHandler(Object proxy)
                                              throws IllegalArgumentException
Returns the invocation handler for the specified proxy instance.

Parameters:
proxy - the proxy instance to return the invocation handler for
Returns:
the invocation handler for the proxy instance
Throws:
IllegalArgumentException - if the argument is not a proxy instance

Java™ Platform
Standard Ed. 6

Submit a bug or feature
For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java SE Developer Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.

Copyright 2006 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms. Also see the documentation redistribution policy.