Java Language Reflection API Dynamic Proxies

Help us to keep this website almost Ad Free! It takes only 10 seconds of your time:
> Step 1: Go view our video on YouTube: EF Core Bulk Insert
> Step 2: And Like the video. BONUS: You can also share it!

Example

Dynamic Proxies do not really have much to do with Reflection but they are part of the API. It's basically a way to create a dynamic implementation of an interface. This could be helpful when creating mockup services.
A Dynamic Proxy is an instance of an interface that is created with a so-called invocation handler that intercepts all method calls and allows the handling of their invocation manually.

public class DynamicProxyTest {

    public interface MyInterface1{
        public void someMethod1();
        public int someMethod2(String s);
    }

    public interface MyInterface2{
        public void anotherMethod();
    }
   
    public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception {
        // the dynamic proxy class 
        Class<?> proxyClass = Proxy.getProxyClass(
                ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader(),
                new Class[] {MyInterface1.class, MyInterface2.class});
        // the dynamic proxy class constructor
        Constructor<?> proxyConstructor = 
            proxyClass.getConstructor(InvocationHandler.class);

        // the invocation handler
        InvocationHandler handler = new InvocationHandler(){
            // this method is invoked for every proxy method call
            // method is the invoked method, args holds the method parameters
            // it must return the method result
            @Override
            public Object invoke(Object proxy, Method method, Object[] args) throws Throwable { 
                String methodName = method.getName();

                if(methodName.equals("someMethod1")){
                    System.out.println("someMethod1 was invoked!");
                    return null;
                }
                if(methodName.equals("someMethod2")){
                    System.out.println("someMethod2 was invoked!");
                    System.out.println("Parameter: " + args[0]);
                    return 42;
                }
                if(methodName.equals("anotherMethod")){
                    System.out.println("anotherMethod was invoked!");
                    return null;
                }
                System.out.println("Unkown method!");
                return null;
            }
        };

        // create the dynamic proxy instances
        MyInterface1 i1 = (MyInterface1) proxyConstructor.newInstance(handler);
        MyInterface2 i2 = (MyInterface2) proxyConstructor.newInstance(handler);

        // and invoke some methods
        i1.someMethod1();
        i1.someMethod2("stackoverflow");
        i2.anotherMethod();
    }
}

The result of this code is this:

someMethod1 was invoked!
someMethod2 was invoked!
Parameter: stackoverflow
anotherMethod was invoked!


Got any Java Language Question?