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Version 9.1 by Jerome on 2010/12/06 12:59
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1 {{include document='ExtensionCode.ExtensionSheet' /}}
2 {{toc start="2" depth="4"/}}
3 {{/box}}
4
5 = Component Module =
6
7 [[XWiki's Architecture>>platform:DevGuide.Architecture]] is based on [[Component-oriented Development>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component-based_software_engineering]] (see [[Why use Components?>>http://plexus.codehaus.org/ref/why-use-components.html]] to understand the benefits of using Components - Even though we're not using Plexus the advantages listed are the same).
8
9 There are several Component Manager solutions out there for Java. To name a few:
10
11 * [[Guice>>http://code.google.com/p/google-guice/]]
12 * [[OSGi>>http://www.osgi.org/]]
13 * CDI (JSR299) and its implementations ([[Weld>>http://seamframework.org/Weld]] for example)
14
15 So far, XWiki has chosen to be independent of all existing Components Managers and instead to define some simple Component interfaces that can then be bound on any existing Component Manager. XWiki is currently implementing its own [[lightweight Component Manager>>http://svn.xwiki.org/svnroot/xwiki/platform/core/trunk/xwiki-component/xwiki-component-default/src/main/java/org/xwiki/component/embed/EmbeddableComponentManager.java]]. The future will depend on whether there'll be a standard solution in JavaSE (CDI is the best candidate so far). When a standard solution exists, we'll probably move to it.
16
17 == Features ==
18
19 The Component Module defines the following features:
20
21 * Annotations to declare Component interfaces, Component implementations and Component dependencies (a.k.a as Component Requirements). Note that as soon as [[JSR299>>http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=299]]/[[JSR330>>http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=330]] become official we'll drop our annotations and use these instead.
22 * Ability to have Singleton Components and Per-lookup Components (a new instance is created when the component is retrieved).
23 * Ability to define a Hint to separate different Components implementations implementing the same Component interface.
24 * Automatic Field-based injection of Component Dependencies. Support for List and Map injections.
25 * Ability for Components to perform some initialization when they are instantiated.
26 * Ability for Components to log things.
27 * Component Events to be notified when a new Component is registered/unregistered in the system.
28 * [Future] Ability to define Component Realms, i.e. the ability to isolate groups of components.
29
30 == Component Registration ==
31
32 There are two ways to register a Component:
33
34 * By setting Java Annotations on the Component Interface and the Component implementation and declaring the Component implementation in a ##META-INF/components.txt## file.
35 * By programatically registering the Component against the Component Manager instance.
36
37 === Using Annotations ===
38
39 The following Annotations are available:
40
41 * ##[[ComponentRole>>http://svn.xwiki.org/svnroot/xwiki/platform/core/trunk/xwiki-component/xwiki-component-api/src/main/java/org/xwiki/component/annotation/ComponentRole.java]]##: Used to declare an Interface as a Component Interface (a.k.a Role)
42 * ##[[Component>>http://svn.xwiki.org/svnroot/xwiki/platform/core/trunk/xwiki-component/xwiki-component-api/src/main/java/org/xwiki/component/annotation/Component.java]]##: Used to declare a class implementing a Component Interface as a Component implementation
43 * ##[[InstantiationStrategy>>http://svn.xwiki.org/svnroot/xwiki/platform/core/trunk/xwiki-component/xwiki-component-api/src/main/java/org/xwiki/component/annotation/InstantiationStrategy.java]]##: Used to declare a Component implementation as being a singleton or not
44 * ##[[Requirement>>http://svn.xwiki.org/svnroot/xwiki/platform/core/trunk/xwiki-component/xwiki-component-api/src/main/java/org/xwiki/component/annotation/Requirement.java]]##: Used to declare a field as requiring a Component implementation to be injected at runtime
45
46 Here's a quick example:
47
48 {{code language="java"}}
49 @ComponentRole
50 public interface Macro
51 {
52 List<Block> execute();
53 }
54 {{/code}}
55
56 {{code language="java"}}
57 @Component("message")
58 public class MessageMacro implements Macro
59 {
60 @Requirement
61 private Execution execution;
62
63 @Requirement("box")
64 private Macro boxMacro;
65
66 public List<Block> execute()
67 {
68 ...
69 }
70 }
71 {{/code}}
72
73 In this example:
74
75 * The ##Macro## interface is the Component Interface
76 * The ##MessageMacro## class is declared as a Macro with a ##message## Hint (to differentiate it from other implementations). Note that you can leave the hint empty, in which case it'll be the default hint.
77 * The ##MessageMacro## needs 2 other components injected: ##Execution## and ##Macro##. The implementation injected will be found at runtime by the Component Manager. An ##Execution## implementation with a default Hint will be injected and a ##Macro## implementation with the ##box## Hint will be injected.
78
79 {{info}}
80 A Component Interface + a Hint must be unique across the system. If you have 2 Components registered with the same Component Interface and the same Hint then the Component Manager will only register one of them and a warning will be printed in the logs. That's unless you really want this and have [[defined an override>>#override]].
81 {{/info}}
82
83 In addition, for our ##MessageMacro## component to be available at runtime, you need to list it with its fully-qualified name in a ##META-INF/components.txt## file:
84
85 {{code language="none"}}
86 org.xwiki.rendering.internal.macro.message.MessageMacro
87 {{/code}}
88
89 ==== Registering a Component with several Hints ====
90
91 You can register a component several times, for different hints. For example, to register our ##MessageMacro## for the 3 hints ##info##, ##error##, ##warning## we could use:
92
93 {{code language="java"}}
94 @Component(hints = {"info", "warning", "error" })
95 public class MessageMacro implements Macro
96 ...
97 {{/code}}
98
99 ==== List and Map injections ====
100
101 You may want to have all the Component implementations of a given Component Interface injected. To do this you simply need to have a field of type List or Map defined.
102
103 For example to have all ##Macro## implementations injected you'd use:
104
105 {{code language="java"}}
106 @Requirement
107 private List<Macro> macros;
108 {{/code}}
109
110 or
111
112 {{code language="java"}}
113 @Requirement
114 private Map<String, Macro> macros;
115 {{/code}}
116
117 In the second example the Map keys are the Hint values.
118
119 ==== Getting access to the Component Manager ====
120
121 Automatic dependency injection is great and easy, but there are times when you don't know at compile time what you want injected. For these situations you can inject the ##ComponentManager##. For example:
122
123 {{code language="java"}}
124 @Requirement
125 private ComponentManager componentManager;
126 {{/code}}
127
128 See below for the API available on ##ComponentManager##.
129
130 {{id name="override"/}}
131
132 ==== Overrides ====
133
134 Sometimes you'll have several JARs with Component implementations for the Component Interface and same Hint. In this case you need to tell the Component Manager which implementation to use. This is done by creating a ##META-INF/component-overrides.txt## file and listing the implementation to use (using the same format as for the ##components.txt## file).
135
136 Note: When overriding a component's implementation, make sure to specify the new implementation in //both// a normal ##META-INF/components.txt## file (because the new implementation is a component itself) and in ##META-INF/component-overrides.txt## as well.
137
138 == Component Manager ==
139
140 The Component Manager is a key class when using Components. It allows you to lookup components and register new components programatically. Here's the API it offers:
141
142 {{code language="java"}}
143 <T> boolean hasComponent(Class<T> role);
144 <T> boolean hasComponent(Class<T> role, String roleHint);
145 <T> T lookup(Class<T> role) throws ComponentLookupException;
146 <T> T lookup(Class<T> role, String roleHint) throws ComponentLookupException;
147 <T> void release(T component) throws ComponentLifecycleException;
148 <T> Map<String, T> lookupMap(Class<T> role) throws ComponentLookupException;
149 <T> List<T> lookupList(Class<T> role) throws ComponentLookupException;
150 <T> void registerComponent(ComponentDescriptor<T> componentDescriptor) throws ComponentRepositoryException;
151 <T> void registerComponent(ComponentDescriptor<T> componentDescriptor, T componentInstance) throws ComponentRepositoryException;
152 void unregisterComponent(Class< ? > role, String roleHint);
153 <T> ComponentDescriptor<T> getComponentDescriptor(Class<T> role, String roleHint);
154 <T> List<ComponentDescriptor<T>> getComponentDescriptorList(Class<T> role);
155 {{/code}}
156
157 There's only one instance of the Component Manager in the system.
158
159 Note that when you're writing a Component you normally don't even need to have access to it since all you need to do is declare dependencies using Annotations as explained above.
160
161 == Component Initialization ==
162
163 If your Component implementation needs to perform some initialization, you'll need to make it implement the ##org.xwiki.component.phase.Initializable## interface. For example:
164
165 {{code language="java"}}
166 @Component
167 public class DefaultObservationManager implements ObservationManager, Initializable
168 {
169 ...
170
171 public void initialize() throws InitializationException
172 {
173 // Perform some init here.
174 }
175 }
176 {{/code}}
177
178 You are then guaranteed that when your component is instantiated its ##initialize()## method will be called.
179
180 {{info}}
181 Using a constructor doesn't always work since you might need dependency injections to be done prior to the initialization happening.
182 {{/info}}
183
184 == Component Logging ==
185
186 If your Component implementation needs to log something it'll need to implement the ##org.xwiki.component.phase.LogEnabled## interface. However in order to make it even easier we're providing a ##org.xwiki.component.logging.AbstractLogEnabled## class that your component can simply extend.
187
188 For example:
189
190 {{code language="java"}}
191 @Component
192 public class DefaultObservationManager extends AbstractLogEnabled implements ObservationManager
193 {
194 public void doSomething()
195 {
196 getLogger().info("Some info level logging");
197 ...
198 }
199 }
200 {{/code}}
201
202 See the [[Logger interface>>http://svn.xwiki.org/svnroot/xwiki/platform/core/trunk/xwiki-component/xwiki-component-api/src/main/java/org/xwiki/component/logging/Logger.java]] for more details on the logging API.
203
204 == Tutorial ==
205
206 See the [["Writing a XWiki Component" tutorial>>platform:DevGuide.WritingComponents]].

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