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Class java.lang.ClassLoader

java.lang.Object
   |
   +----java.lang.ClassLoader

public abstract class ClassLoader

extends Object

Normally, the Java Virtual Machine loads classes from the local file system in a platform-dependent manner. For example, on UNIX systems, the Virtual Machine loads classes from the directory defined by the CLASSPATH environment variable.

However, some classes may not originate from a file; they may originate from other sources, such as the network, or they could be constructed by an application. The method defineClass converts an array of bytes into an instance of class Class. Instances of this newly defined class can be created using the newInstance method in class Class.

The methods and constructors of objects created by a class loader may reference other classes. To determine the class(es) referred to, the Java Virtual Machine calls the loadClass method of the class loader that originally created the class. If the Java Virtual Machine only needs to determine if the class exists and if it does exist to know its superclass, the resolve flag is set to false. However, if an instance of the class is being created or any of its methods are being called, the class must also be resolved. In this case the resolve flag is set to true, and the resolveClass method should be called.

For example, an application could create a network class loader to download class files from a server. Sample code might look like:

ClassLoader loader = new NetworkClassLoader(host, port);
Object main = loader.loadClass("Main", true).newInstance();
 . . .

The network class loader subclass must define the method loadClass to load a class from the network. Once it has downloaded the bytes that make up the class, it should use the method defineClass to create a class instance. A sample implementation is:

     class NetworkClassLoader {
         String host;
         int port;
         Hashtable cache = new Hashtable();
         private byte loadClassData(String name)[] {
         // load the class data from the connection
          . . .
         }
         public synchronized Class loadClass(String name,
                                             boolean resolve) {
             Class c = cache.get(name);
             if (c == null) {
                 byte data[] = loadClassData(name);
                 c = defineClass(data, 0, data.length);
                 cache.put(name, c);
             }
             if (resolve)
                 resolveClass(c);
             return c;
         }
     }
 

See Also:

Class, newInstance, defineClass, loadClass, resolveClass

ClassLoader()

Constructs a new class loader and initializes it.

defineClass(byte[], int, int)

Converts an array of bytes into an instance of class Class. Deprecated.

defineClass(String, byte[], int, int)

Converts an array of bytes to an instance of class Class.

findLoadedClass(String)

findSystemClass(String)

Finds the system class with the specified name, loading it in if necessary.

getResource(String)

Find a resource with a given name.

getResourceAsStream(String)

Get an InputStream on a given resource.

getSystemResource(String)

Find a resource with a given name.

getSystemResourceAsStream(String)

Get an InputStream on a given resource..

loadClass(String)

Requests the class loader to load a class with the specified name.

loadClass(String, boolean)

Resolves the specified name to a Class.

resolveClass(Class)

Resolves the class so that an instance of the class can be created, or so that one of its methods can be called.

setSigners(Class, Object[])

Sets the signers of a class.

 protected ClassLoader()

Constructs a new class loader and initializes it.

If there is a security manager, its checkCreateClassLoader method is called. This may result in a security exception.

Throws: SecurityException

if the current thread does not have permission to create a new class loader.

See Also:

SecurityException, checkCreateClassLoader

 public Class loadClass(String name) throws ClassNotFoundException

Requests the class loader to load a class with the specified name. The loadClass method is called by the Java Virtual Machine when a class loaded by a class loader first references another class. Every subclass of class ClassLoader must define this method.

If the resolve flag is true, the method should call the resolveClass method on the resulting class object.

Class loaders should use a hashtable or other cache to avoid defining classes with the same name multiple times.

Parameters:

name - the name of the desired Class.

resolve - true if the Class must be resolved.

Returns:

the resulting Class, or null if it was not found.

Throws: ClassNotFoundException

if the class loader cannot find a definition for the class.

 protected abstract Class loadClass(String name,
                                    boolean resolve) throws ClassNotFoundException

Resolves the specified name to a Class. The method loadClass() is called by the virtual machine. As an abstract method, loadClass() must be defined in a subclass of ClassLoader. By using a Hashtable, you can avoid loading the same Class more than once.

Parameters:

name - the name of the desired Class.

resolve - true if the Class needs to be resolved.

Returns:

the resulting Class, or null if it was not found.

Throws: ClassNotFoundException

if the class loader cannot find a definition for the class.

See Also:

Hashtable

 protected final Class defineClass(byte data[],
                                   int offset,
                                   int length)

Note: defineClass() is deprecated. Replaced by defineClass(java.lang.String, byte[], int, int).

Converts an array of bytes into an instance of class Class. Before the Class can be used it must be resolved. This method is deprecated in favor of the version that takes a "name" as a first argument, and is more secure.

Parameters:

data - the bytes that make up the Class.

offset - the start offset of the Class data.

length - the length of the Class data.

Returns:

the Class object that was created from the data.

Throws: ClassFormatError

if the data does not contain a valid Class.

See Also:

loadClass, resolveClass

 protected final Class defineClass(String name,
                                   byte data[],
                                   int offset,
                                   int length)

Converts an array of bytes to an instance of class Class. Before the Class can be used it must be resolved.

Parameters:

name - the expected name of the class; null if unknown; using '.' and not '/' as separator, and without a trailing ".class" suffix.

data - the bytes that make up the Class.

offset - the start offset of the Class data.

length - the length of the Class data.

Returns:

the Class object that was created from the data.

Throws: ClassFormatError

if the data does not contain a valid Class.

See Also:

loadClass, resolveClass

 protected final void resolveClass(Class c)

Resolves the class so that an instance of the class can be created, or so that one of its methods can be called. This method should be called by loadClass if the resolve flag is true.

Parameters:

c - the Class instance to be resolved.

See Also:

defineClass

 protected final Class findSystemClass(String name) throws ClassNotFoundException

Finds the system class with the specified name, loading it in if necessary.

A system class is a class loaded from the local file system in a platform- dependent way. It has no class loader.

Parameters:

name - the name of the system class.

Returns:

a system class with the given name.

Throws: ClassNotFoundException

if it could not find a definition for the class.

Throws: NoClassDefFoundError

if the class is not found.

 protected final void setSigners(Class cl,
                                 Object signers[])

Sets the signers of a class. This is called after defining a class, by signature-aware class loading code.

 protected final Class findLoadedClass(String name)

 public static final InputStream getSystemResourceAsStream(String name)

Get an InputStream on a given resource.. Will return null if no resource with this name is found.

The resource name may be any system resource (e.g. follows CLASSPATH order).

Parameters:

name - the name of the resource, to be used as is.

Returns:

an InputStream on the resource, or null if not found.

 public static final URL getSystemResource(String name)

Find a resource with a given name. The return is a URL to the resource Doing a getContent() on the URL may return an Image, an AudioClip, or an InputStream.

The resource name may be any system resource (e.g. follows CLASSPATH order).

Parameters:

name - the name of the resource, to be used as is.

Returns:

the URL on the resource, or null if not found.

 public InputStream getResourceAsStream(String name)

Get an InputStream on a given resource. Will return null if no resource with this name is found.

The class loader can choose what to do to locate the resource.

Parameters:

name - the name of the resource, to be used as is.

Returns:

an InputStream on the resource, or null if not found.

 public URL getResource(String name)

Find a resource with a given name. The return is a URL to the resource. Doing a getContent() on the URL may return an Image, an AudioClip, or an InputStream.

The class loader can choose what to do to locate the resource.

Parameters:

name - the name of the resource, to be used as is.

Returns:

an InputStream on the resource, or null if not found.

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