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

[Gunnar Morling]

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