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Spring AOP

Spring AOP Introduction Aspect Oriented Programming

In this Spring AOP Tutorial we are talking about the Aspect Oriented Programming in Short “AOP“, Aspect Oriented Programming is a feature Spring provide in the Dependency Injection, Actually Aspect Oriented Programming is not only feature but also its different style of programming just like as Object Oriented Programming.

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Introduction to Spring AOP

Now I am talking about some other programming before Aspect Oriented Programming…

1. Functional Programming:

In older programming language like C, we have used functional programming style like below in figure.

As above see In this style of programming writing code into couple of functions and each function perform unit task and each function call another function as see above and after last function execution then program is completed. But in this style of programming the main problem is complexity, it is very messy style of coding to write big project programming.

2. Object Oriented Programming:

In this style of programming we would not think about function when we trying to solve problem by writing code, we would think as individual entities as object when writing the program as below Object A, Object B & Object C…

Here each object contain member variables and methods to perform individual tasks of each individual entity so this is fine but here is also a problem that not all rectify common procedure in all of the objects as common logging procedure in all as logMessage() method in all.

In above see that logMessage() method in each objects no matter how many objects are there so this is not good design of programming each object has repeating method. So to solve this type problem we write the separate entity for logger and called in each objects where we want to add read log message as below.

For using this logger entity in each object we have to make dependency injection with each beans of business classes or we have use inheritance for accessing logger method of Logger class that is good but couple of problems are also there.

First Problem is doing the design this type of style there too many dependencies with non business object because logger object does not have any business logic in the project its using just for logging with each objects in the project.

PROBLEMS:

To many relationships with the crosscutting objects.
Code is still required in the all methods
Cannot all be changed at once

CROSS CUTTING CONCERNS: Means non business idea or non business logic its not part of our main problem it is related to below…

Security
Logging
Transaction

To solve the above problems in the Object Oriented Programming we can using Aspect Oriented Programming.

3. Aspects Oriented Programming:

In this style of code we are make Aspects means Aspects are also specific classes which some special methods for particular tasks like logging, security and transactions etc.

Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) complements Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) by providing another way of thinking about program structure. The key unit of modularity in OOP is the class, whereas in AOP the unit of modularity is the aspect. Aspects enable the modularization of concerns such as transaction management that cut across multiple types and objects. (Such concerns are often termed crosscutting concerns in AOP literature.)

Aspect-oriented programming entails breaking down program logic into distinct parts (so-called concerns, cohesive areas of functionality). All programming paradigms support some level of grouping and encapsulation of concerns into separate, independent entities by providing abstractions (e.g., procedures, modules, classes, methods) that can be used for implementing, abstracting, and composing these concerns. But some concerns defy these forms of implementation, and are called crosscutting concerns because they “cut across” multiple abstractions in a program.

First we make different Aspects…

a. Logging Aspect

b. Transaction Aspect

c. Security Aspect

etc… and configure with each of objects as per as our requirement with Aspect Configuration file as see below in figure…

Aspect Configuration file: Its responsible for configuration for all Aspects with the all object where we want to use. Its configure suppose Logging Aspect for a method in Object A Before or After execution of that method,
its just like the…..
–Servlet Filter in Servlet Configuration
-Trigger in Database
-Interceptors in Struts or in Spring MVC.

Aspect Configuration tells which aspect apply which method of which class. Aspect Configuration solve our three problems of Object Oriented Programming

To many relationships with the crosscutting objects– Only single configuration required for every object where we want to use the crosscutting object like Logging Aspect with using Aspect Configuration file
Code is still required in the all methods- No need to code required in all method just put that method on the Aspect Configuration file then code automatically associated with that method and execute Before or After execution of Target Method.
Cannot all be changed at once- We can all be changed at once by using Aspect Configuration file.

There are only two Steps for using Aspects:

Write Aspects
Configure Aspects where the aspects apply

AOP Terminologies:

Aspect: A modularization of a concern that cuts across multiple objects. Transaction management is a good example of a crosscutting concern in J2EE applications. In Spring AOP, aspects are implemented using regular classes (the schema-based approach) or regular classes annotated with the @Aspect annotation (@AspectJ style).
Join point: A point during the execution of a program, such as the execution of a method or the handling of an exception. In Spring AOP, a join point always represents a method execution. Join point information is available in advice bodies by declaring a parameter of type org.aspectj.lang.JoinPoint.
Advice: Action taken by an aspect at a particular join point. Different types of advice include “around,” “before” and “after” advice. Advice types are discussed below. Many AOP frameworks, including Spring, model an advice as an interceptor, maintaining a chain of interceptors “around” the join point.
Pointcut: A predicate that matches join points. Advice is associated with a pointcut expression and runs at any join point matched by the pointcut (for example, the execution of a method with a certain name). The concept of join points as matched by pointcut expressions is central to AOP: Spring uses the AspectJ pointcut language by default.
Introduction: (Also known as an inter-type declaration). Declaring additional methods or fields on behalf of a type. Spring AOP allows you to introduce new interfaces (and a corresponding implementation) to any proxied object. For example, you could use an introduction to make a bean implement an IsModified interface, to simplify caching.
Target object: Object being advised by one or more aspects. Also referred to as the advised object. Since Spring AOP is implemented using runtime proxies, this object will always be a proxied object.
AOP proxy: An object created by the AOP framework in order to implement the aspect contracts (advise method executions and so on). In the Spring Framework, an AOP proxy will be a JDK dynamic proxy or a CGLIB proxy. Proxy creation is transparent to users of the schema-based and @AspectJ styles of aspect declaration introduced in Spring 2.0.
Weaving: Linking aspects with other application types or objects to create an advised object. This can be done at compile time (using the AspectJ compiler, for example), load time, or at runtime. Spring AOP, like other pure Java AOP frameworks, performs weaving at runtime.

Types of advice:

Before advice: Advice that executes before a join point, but which does not have the ability to prevent execution flow proceeding to the join point (unless it throws an exception).
After returning advice: Advice to be executed after a join point completes normally: for example, if a method returns without throwing an exception.
After throwing advice: Advice to be executed if a method exits by throwing an exception.
After (finally) advice: Advice to be executed regardless of the means by which a join point exits (normal or exceptional return).
Around advice: Advice that surrounds a join point such as a method invocation. This is the most powerful kind of advice. Around advice can perform custom behavior before and after the method invocation. It is also responsible for choosing whether to proceed to the join point or to shortcut the advised method execution by returning its own return value or throwing an exception.

Spring AOP Related Posts

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Dinesh Rajput

Dinesh Rajput is the chief editor of a website Dineshonjava, a technical blog dedicated to the Spring and Java technologies. It has a series of articles related to Java technologies. Dinesh has been a Spring enthusiast since 2008 and is a Pivotal Certified Spring Professional, an author of a book Spring 5 Design Pattern, and a blogger. He has more than 10 years of experience with different aspects of Spring and Java design and development. His core expertise lies in the latest version of Spring Framework, Spring Boot, Spring Security, creating REST APIs, Microservice Architecture, Reactive Pattern, Spring AOP, Design Patterns, Struts, Hibernate, Web Services, Spring Batch, Cassandra, MongoDB, and Web Application Design and Architecture. He is currently working as a technology manager at a leading product and web development company. He worked as a developer and tech lead at the Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd and was the first developer in his previous company, Paytm. Dinesh is passionate about the latest Java technologies and loves to write technical blogs related to it. He is a very active member of the Java and Spring community on different forums. When it comes to the Spring Framework and Java, Dinesh tops the list!

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