Re: [hibernate-dev] HV - Follow-Up: meta data API for method constraints

Hi, I pretty much finished the implementation of the meta data API related to method level constraints for Hibernate Validator (see https://github.com/gunnarmorling/hibernate-validator/commits/HV-371). The implementation conforms with what we currently discussed, but right now I'm wondering whether exposing java.lang.reflect.Method on the API is actually a good idea. I see two issues: * Retrieving method objects via the reflection APIs is somewhat nasty, in particular it requires to handle a checked NoSuchMethodException: try { Method bar = Foo.class.getDeclaredMethod( "bar", String.class ); } catch(Exception e) { throw new RuntimeException(e); } * The handling in inheritance hierarchies with overridden/implemented methods can be confusing to users not overly familiar with the reflection API. In particular there are different method objects for a base method and its implementation/overriding methods. This can be irritating when invoking MethodDescriptor#getMethod() for instance. Therefore I would be interested in feedback on the following change: public interface TypeDescriptor extends ElementDescriptor { MethodDescriptor getConstraintsForMethod(String name, Class<?>... parameterTypes); //instead of MethodDescriptor getConstraintsForMethod(Method method); ... } public interface MethodDescriptor extends ElementDescriptor { String getName(); List<Class<?>> parameterTypes(); //instead of Method getMethod() ... } WDYT? Thanks, Gunnar