1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
|
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!--
Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
(the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
-->
<document>
<properties>
<title>Commons</title>
<author email="dev@commons.apache.org">Commons Documentation Team</author>
</properties>
<body>
<section name="Commons BeanUtils">
<p>
Most Java developers are used to creating Java classes that conform to the
JavaBeans naming patterns for property getters and setters. It is natural to
then access these methods directly, using calls to the corresponding
<code>getXxx</code> and <code>setXxx</code> methods. However, there are some
occasions where dynamic access to Java object properties (without compiled-in
knowledge of the property getter and setter methods to be called) is needed.
Example use cases include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Building scripting languages that interact with the Java object model
(such as the Bean Scripting Framework).</li>
<li>Building template language processors for web presentation and similar
uses (such as JSP or Velocity).</li>
<li>Building custom tag libraries for JSP and XSP environments (such as Jakarta
Taglibs, Struts, Cocoon).</li>
<li>Consuming XML-based configuration resources (such as Ant build scripts, web
application deployment descriptors, Tomcat's <code>server.xml</code>
file).</li>
</ul>
<p>
The Java language provides <em>Reflection</em> and <em>Introspection</em>
APIs (see the <code>java.lang.reflect</code> and <code>java.beans</code>
packages in the JDK Javadocs). However, these APIs can be quite complex to
understand and utilize. The <em>BeanUtils</em> component provides
easy-to-use wrappers around these capabilities.
</p>
<subsection name='BeanUtils Core And Modules'>
<p>
Since the 1.7.0 release BeanUtils has distributed three jars:
<ul>
<li><code>commons-beanutils.jar</code> - contains everything</li>
<li><code>commons-beanutils-core.jar</code> - excludes <i>Bean Collections</i> classes</li>
<li><code>commons-beanutils-bean-collections.jar</code> - only <i>Bean Collections</i> classes</li>
</ul>
The main <code>commons-beanutils.jar</code> has an <b><i>optional</i></b> dependency on
<a href='http://commons.apache.org/collections'>Commons Collections</a>
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name='Bean Collections'>
<p>
Bean collections is a library combining BeanUtils with
<a href='http://commons.apache.org/collections'>Commons Collections</a>
to provide services for collections of beans. One class (<code>BeanComparator</code>)
was previously released, the rest are new. This new distribution strategy should allow
this sub-component to evolve naturally without the concerns about size and scope
that might otherwise happen.
</p>
<p>
Bean Collections has an additional dependency on
<a href='http://commons.apache.org/collections'>Commons Collections</a>.
</p>
</subsection>
</section>
<section name="Documentation">
<p>The <a href="apidocs/org/apache/commons/beanutils/package-summary.html#package_description">
User Guide</a> is part of the <i>package</i> JavaDocs.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://commons.apache.org/beanutils/RELEASE-NOTES.txt">
Release Notes</a> document the new features and bug fixes that have been
included in this release.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://commons.apache.org/beanutils/api/index.html">
JavaDoc API documents</a> are available online. In particular, you should
note the property reference syntax options described in the
<code>PropertyUtils</code> class description.</p>
</section>
<section name="Releases">
<subsection name='Mirrored Releases'>
<p>
Releases after 1.7.0 should be downloaded from a mirror. Please remember to verify the
sigature of the release from the
<a href='http://www.apache.org/dist/commons/beanutils/'>main apache site</a>
when downloading from a mirror.
</p>
<p>
Binary and Source releases are available
<a href="http://commons.apache.org/downloads/download_beanutils.cgi">here</a>.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name='1.7.x Releases (Mirrored)'>
<p>
<strong>BeanUtils 1.7.0</strong> is a service release which removes the dependency
upon a specific commons-collection library version. It may be safely used together
with either the 2.x or 3.x series of commons-collections releases.
It also introduces a number of important enhancements. It is backward compatible
with the 1.6 release.
</p>
<p>
This important service release is intended to help downstream applications solve
dependency issues. The dependency on commons collections (which has become problematic
now that there are two incompatible series of commons collections releases)
has been factored into a separate optional sub-component plus a small number of
stable and mature <code>org.apache.commons.collections</code> packaged classes
(which are distributed with the BeanUtils core). This arrangement means that the
BeanUtils core sub-component (which is the primary dependency for most downsteam
applications) can now be safely included on the same classpath as commons collections
2.x, 3.x or indeed neither.
</p>
<p>
The distribution now contains alternative jar sets. The all-in-one
jar contains all classes. The modular jar set consists of a core jar dependent only
on commons logging and an optional bean collections jar (containing classes that
provide easy and efficient ways to manage collections of beans) which depends on
commons collections 3.
</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name='Older Releases (Not Mirrored)'>
<p>
<ul>
<li>Version 1.6.1 - 18 Feb 2003
<a href="http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/beanutils/binaries/">binary</a> and
<a href="http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/beanutils/source/">source</a></li>
<li>Version 1.6 - 21 Jan 2003
<a href="http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/beanutils/binaries/">binary</a> and
<a href="http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/beanutils/source/">source</a></li>
<li><a href="http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/beanutils/old/v1.5/">Version 1.5 </a> - 23 Oct 2002</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/beanutils/old/v1.4.1/">Version 1.4.1</a> - 28 Aug 2002</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/beanutils/old/v1.4/">Version 1.4</a> - 13 Aug 2002</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/beanutils/old/v1.3/">Version 1.3</a> - 29 Apr 2002</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/beanutils/old/v1.2/">Version 1.2</a> - 24 Dec 2001</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/beanutils/old/v1.1/">Version 1.1</a> - 22 Sep 2001</li>
<li><a href="http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/beanutils/old/v1.0/">Version 1.0</a> - 14 July 2001</li>
</ul>
</p>
</subsection>
</section>
<section name="Support">
<p>
The <a href="mail-lists.html">commons mailing lists</a> act as the main support forum.
The user list is suitable for most library usage queries.
The dev list is intended for the development discussion.
Please remember that the lists are shared between all commons components,
so prefix your email by [beanutils].
</p>
<p>
Issues may be reported via <a href="issue-tracking.html">ASF JIRA</a>.
</p>
</section>
</body>
</document>
|
