AJDT 2.1.1 - New and Noteworthy

Overview In this release, we have focussed on searching and refactoring support for Intertype Declarations (ITDs) and Declare declarations. This will particularly benefit users of Spring Roo who will be better able to search and refactor source code that contains Roo-style aspects.

Searching
Searching and hovers for ITD target types Target types of intertype declarations now appear in the search results when searching for type references:


Notice here that simple as well as fully qualified names are found through searches.

Similarly, hovering over ITD target types will display its type information:


Navigation (i.e., hyperlinks and F3) works as well.
Searching inside Declare parents Types referenced inside of declare parents declarations are also returned in search results where appropriate:

Searching inside Declare annotation And finally, types referenced inside of declare annotation declarations are similarly found when searching for references:



The annotation itself is also found through searching:



There are some limitations to these new searching features:
  • Wild cards are not supported.
  • Type bindings are sometimes not respected, meaning that two types with the same name, but different packages may be inappropriately matched. You will notice that the search result for @Loggable inside of the declare parents is marked as potential. This means that we could not match on the fully qualified name, but only the type's simple name.
  • Field and method references in declare annotations are not returned in search results. See, Bug 327117.
  • Hovers and navigation are not yet implemented inside of declare declarations.

Refactoring
Rename refactoring Rename refactoring is working in almost all situations. Intertype declarations can be renamed; fields, methods, and types referenced inside of Aspects will be appropriately renamed; and AspectJ Compilation units will be renamed when appropriate. Most of this work was completed for the 2.1.0 release, with some small fixes included in this release.

The most significant improvement in this area is that package renames are properly reflected in fully qualified names that are referenced in aspects:



AJDT does not currently support the renaming of named pointcuts.
Move refactoring Similarly, move refactoring is AspectJ-aware. Import statements and fully qualified names will be properly updated in Aspects when types and compilation units move. For example, moving a type referenced by an Aspect will force import statements to be added/removed and fully qualified names to be updated:



Note that you will sometimes receive an error message like this:



This message means that there are some type reference matches that the refactoring is not sure about. This happens because there are some situations where AJDT cannot determine type bindings and performs matches on simple, rather than qualified, names. This message can generally be ignored, but you may want to examine all changes to make sure.

It is also possible to drag and drop types, fields, and methods into aspects, with the same behavior as you would expect when the project is pure Java. For example, when dragging and dropping a type into an AspectJ compilation unit, fully qualifed references to that type are properly updated:



Note that currently, only drag and dropping of fields and methods into aspects are working. Using the Move Refactoring wizard is throwing exceptions.
Catalog of working refactorings in AJ files In this release, we have done significant work in making sure that the standard JDT refactorings are available when inside an Aspect. We have focussed on the more widely used refactorings, and left some of the less popular refactorings unimplemented. In addition to the AspectJ-specific Push in and Pull out refactorings, and the standard Rename and Move here are the JDT refactorings that are currently known to work in AJDT:
  • Extract Class
  • Pull up
  • Push down
  • Use super type where possible
  • Inline
  • Extract Method
  • Extract Local Variable
  • Extract Constant
  • Introduce indirection
  • Introduce parameter (non-advice)
The following refactorings will produce correct results, even though the refactoring wizard complains about compilation errors:
  • Change method signature
  • Introduce Parameter Object (inside non-ITD method)
And finally, the following refactorings produce errors and do not work inside aspects:
  • Extract super class
  • Infer generic arguments where possible
  • Introduce Parameter (inside advice)
  • Introduce Parameter Object
  • Convert Local variable to a field
  • Encapsulate field
  • Move type to new file, when the type is an inner type of an Aspect
  • Move static field or method into aspect (using move wizard, drag and drop is working)
If you want us to fix any of the above refactorings, or you notice a problem with one of the existing refactorings, please notify us on the mailing list or raise a bugzilla request for it.
AspectJ 1.6.10 AJDT 2.1.0 includes AspectJ 1.6.10. See the readme for details.
Bug Fixes See bugzilla for a list of bugs addressed in this release.
Previous Releases See here for information on the new features in AJDT 2.1.0.
Thanks! Thanks for community help and feedback during this release cycle. You can contact the AJDT team on the mailing list, and raise bugs on bugzilla. We also lurk on the AspectJ users list, and on the SpringSource Tool Suite forum.