Spring AOP

Spring AOP AspectJ @Before Annotation Advice Example

In this spring aop before advice example, we will discuss how to use aspectj @Before annotation with java configuration in the application. In Spring AOP Before Advice is that executes before a join point i.e a method which annotated with AspectJ @Before annotation run exactly before the all methods matching with pointcut expression. But Before Advice does not have the ability to prevent execution flow proceeding to the join point.Let’s create a simple spring application and add logging aspect to be invoked every joint point in the service class in the application. This example is also available with XML configuration in the application Spring AOP Before Advice Example.

AspectJ @Before Annotation

@Before annotation is not spring annotation, it is aspectj lib annotation so we have add aspectj maven dependency with spring aop in this application. Let’s see below LoggingAspect class with before advice annotation.

 

/**
 * 
 */
package com.doj.aopapp.aspect;

import org.aspectj.lang.JoinPoint;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Before;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Pointcut;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

/**
 * @author Dinesh.Rajput
 *
 */
@Aspect
@Component
public class LoggingAspect {
 
 /**
  * Declaring before advice 
  * @param jp
  * @throws Throwable
  */
 //@Before("execution(* com.doj.aopapp.service.*.*(..))") // before advice with pointcut expression directly
 @Before("logForAllMethods()") //before advice with named pointcut that declared as name logForAllMethods()
 public void beforeAdviceForAllMethods(JoinPoint jp) throws Throwable {
        System.out.println("****LoggingAspect.beforeAdviceForAllMethods() " + jp.getSignature().getName());
    }
 
 /**
  * Declaring before advice for all transfer methods whose taking three arguments of any type 
  * of all classes in the package com.doj.aopapp.service
  * @param jp
  * @throws Throwable
  */
 @Before("execution(* com.doj.aopapp.service.*.transfer(*,*,*))")
 public void beforeAdviceForTransferMethods(JoinPoint jp) throws Throwable {
        System.out.println("****LoggingAspect.beforeAdviceForTransferMethods() " + jp.getSignature().getName());
    }
 
 /**
  * Declaring named pointcut
  */
 @Pointcut("execution(* com.doj.aopapp.service.*.*(..))")
 public void logForAllMethods(){}
}

Pointcut expressions

1. Following pointcut expression for before advice is valid for all public methods with any arguments of any type and any return type of all classes in the com.doj.aopapp.service package.

@Before("execution(* com.doj.aopapp.service.*.*(..))")

2. Following pointcut expression for before advice is valid for all public methods whose name are transfer() with taking three arguments of any type and any return type of all classes in the com.doj.aopapp.service package.

@Before("execution(* com.doj.aopapp.service.*.transfer(*,*,*))")

Named Pointcut

We can also define pointcut methods for named pointcut. Actually named pointcut is nothing but it is simple way to declaring common pointcut expressions above a method with @Pointcut annotation. This helps to reduce the complexity of writing common complex pointcut expression.

/**
* Declaring named pointcut
 */
@Pointcut("execution(* com.doj.aopapp.service.*.*(..))")
public void logForAllMethods(){}

/**
* before advice with named pointcut that declared as name logForAllMethods()
 */
@Before("logForAllMethods()") //before advice with name pointcut that declared as name logForAllMethods()
public void beforeAdviceForAllMethods(JoinPoint jp) throws Throwable {
       System.out.println("****LoggingAspect.beforeAdviceForAllMethods() " + jp.getSignature().getName());
}

Spring AOP AspectJ @Before Annotation Example

Now let’s see complete example of Spring AOP aspectj @Before annotation.

Spring AOP and AspectJ Maven Dependencies

<properties>
   <spring.version>4.3.7.RELEASE</spring.version>
   <aspectj.version>1.8.9</aspectj.version>
  </properties>
  
  <dependencies>
   <dependency>
         <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
         <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
         <version>${spring.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
         <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
         <artifactId>spring-context-support</artifactId>
         <version>${spring.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
         <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
         <artifactId>spring-aop</artifactId>
         <version>${spring.version}</version>
     </dependency>
     
     <dependency>
          <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
          <artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
          <version>${aspectj.version}</version>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
          <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
          <artifactId>aspectjweaver</artifactId>
          <version>${aspectj.version}</version>
      </dependency>
  </dependencies>

ApplicationContext Configuration file based on Java Config

AppConfig.java

/**
 * 
 */
package com.doj.aopapp.config;

import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.EnableAspectJAutoProxy;

/**
 * @author Dinesh.Rajput
 *
 */
@Configuration
@EnableAspectJAutoProxy
@ComponentScan(basePackages={"com.doj.aopapp.aspect", "com.doj.aopapp.service"})
public class AppConfig {
 
}

@EnableAspectJAutoProxy in Java Configuration:

This spring aop annotation is used to enable @AspectJ support with Java @Configuration add this @EnableAspectJAutoProxy annotation to the application context file.

@Configuration
@EnableAspectJAutoProxy
public class AppConfig {

}

Enabling @AspectJ Support with XML Configuration:

To enable @AspectJ support with XML based configuration use the <aop:aspectj-autoproxy/> element.

<!-- Enable @AspectJ annotation support  -->
    <aop:aspectj-autoproxy />

Target method of Service class on which aspects needs to apply

TransferService.java

/**
 * 
 */
package com.doj.aopapp.service;

/**
 * @author Dinesh.Rajput
 *    
 */
public interface TransferService {
 
 void transfer(String accountA, String accountB, Long amount);
 
 Double checkBalance(String account);
 
 Long withdrawal(String account, Long amount);
 
 void diposite(String account, Long amount);
}

TransferServiceImpl.java

/**
 * 
 */
package com.doj.aopapp.service;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;

/**
 * @author Dinesh.Rajput
 *
 */
@Service
public class TransferServiceImpl implements TransferService {

 @Override
 public void transfer(String accountA, String accountB, Long amount) {
  System.out.println(amount+" Amount has been tranfered from "+accountA+" to "+accountB);
 }

 @Override
 public Double checkBalance(String account) {
  return new Double(50000);
 }

 @Override
 public Long withdrawal(String account, Long amount) {
  return amount;
 }

 @Override
 public void diposite(String account, Long amount) {
  System.out.println(amount+" Amount has been diposited to "+account);
 }

}

Aspect class:
LoggingAspect.java as given above in this tutorial.

Test Class for Spring AspectJ Configuration and Execution

Now let’s see how to run and what would be output of this application when above configured aspects execute on given pointcut information.

/**
 * 
 */
package com.doj.aopapp.test;

import org.springframework.context.ConfigurableApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext;

import com.doj.aopapp.config.AppConfig;
import com.doj.aopapp.service.TransferService;

/**
 * @author Dinesh.Rajput
 *
 */
public class Main {

 /**
  * @param args
  */
 public static void main(String[] args) {
  ConfigurableApplicationContext applicationContext = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(AppConfig.class);
  TransferService transferService = applicationContext.getBean(TransferService.class);
  transferService.transfer("accountA", "accountB", 50000l);
  System.out.println("Available balance: " +transferService.checkBalance("accountA"));
  transferService.diposite("accountA",  50000l);
  System.out.println("Withdrawal amount: " +transferService.withdrawal("accountB", 40000l));
  applicationContext.close();
 }

}

Output on the Console:

Mar 07, 2017 4:39:17 PM org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext prepareRefresh
INFO: Refreshing org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext@6576fe71: startup date [Tue Mar 07 16:39:17 IST 2017]; root of context hierarchy
****LoggingAspect.beforeAdviceForAllMethods() transfer
****LoggingAspect.beforeAdviceForTransferMethods() transfer
50000 Amount has been tranfered from accountA to accountB
****LoggingAspect.beforeAdviceForAllMethods() checkBalance
Available balance: 50000.0
****LoggingAspect.beforeAdviceForAllMethods() diposite
50000 Amount has been diposited to accountA
****LoggingAspect.beforeAdviceForAllMethods() withdrawal
Withdrawal amount: 40000
Mar 07, 2017 4:39:17 PM org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext doClose
INFO: Closing org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext@6576fe71: startup date [Tue Mar 07 16:39:17 IST 2017]; root of context hierarchy

Analyse the output, all join points execute with given information in this example.

Project Structure

Application Source Code

Spring AOP AspectJ @Before Annotation Advice Example on GitHub.

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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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