Annotation processing

Presenter:

Angelika Langer

Abstract:

Annotations were added to the Java programming language in release 5.0 and were rapidly adopted as a means for building tools of all sorts. For this reason, annotations are usually defined and processed by tool providers (such as Junit, EJB 3, etc.). While Java developers use pre-defined "tool" annotation, they rarely ever define and process annotations of their own. However, definition and processing of annotations is fairly easy, especially since Java 6.0, where the Java compiler support annotation processing on the source code level by means of compiler plug-ins. Knowledge of annotation processing enables developers to build utilities of their own.
 
This tutorial aims to provide a brief overview of annotations and annotation processing at runtime via reflection and on the source code level via compiler plug-ins.

Audience:

Java developers with an interest in less commonly used language features in general or annotations in particular.

Level:

introductory

Prerequisite:

basic knowledge of Java

Language:

Angelika Langer  AngelikaLanger.com Angelika Langer works as an independent trainer with a course curriculum of challenging Java and C++ workshops. She writes the "Effective Java" column for the German JavaMagazin and is author of the Java Generics FAQ, which is the most comprehensive resource on Java generics. She is co-author of the authoritative book on "C++ Standard IOStreams and Locales" published at Addison Wesley. She enjoys speaking at conferences all over the world, including JavaOne, OOPLSA, JAX to name a few. Her teaching focuses on advanced C++ and Java programming and concurrent programming. Further information can be found at www.AngelikaLanger.com.

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