Spring AOP currently supports only method execution joint points. Field interception is not implemented. But there is no need for compilation process.

 

Spring’s AOP functionality is normally used in conjunction with the Spring IoC container.

 

Spring – proxy based framework

AspectJ – full blown framework

 

Around advice is the most general kind of advice

 

Aspect: a modularization of a concern that cuts across multiple classes. Transaction management is a good example of a crosscutting concern in enterprise Java applications. In Spring AOP, aspects are implemented using regular classes (the schema-based approach) or regular classes annotated with the @Aspect annotation (the @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.

 

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, and Spring uses the AspectJ pointcut expression language by default.

 

Introduction: declaring additional methods or fields on behalf of a type. Spring AOP allows you to introduce new interfaces (and a corresponding implementation) to any advised object. For example, you could use an introduction to make a bean implement an IsModified interface, to simplify caching. (An introduction is known as an inter-type declaration in the AspectJ community.)

 

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.

 

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.

 

Type 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 Spring Framework 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.

 

Some examples of common pointcut expressions are given below.

 

• the execution of any public method:

execution(public * *(..))

 

• the execution of any method with a name beginning with "set":

execution(* set*(..))

 

• the execution of any method defined by the AccountService interface:

execution(* com.xyz.service.AccountService.*(..))

 

• the execution of any method defined in the service package:

execution(* com.xyz.service.*.*(..))

 

• the execution of any method defined in the service package or a sub-package:

execution(* com.xyz.service..*.*(..))

 

• any join point (method execution only in Spring AOP) within the service package:

within(com.xyz.service.*)

 

• any join point (method execution only in Spring AOP) within the service package or a sub- package:

within(com.xyz.service..*)

 

• any join point (method execution only in Spring AOP) where the proxy implements the AccountService interface:

this(com.xyz.service.AccountService)