Is runtime hotdeploy of jar/aop.xml bundle possible?

[neil_g_avery]

Hi All,
Is it possible to have a running application, and then hotdeploy a jar which has an associated aop.xml to be applied?

I imagine this may be tricky as it would require reweaving of already loaded classes and only work on the those classes that are 'prepared'.

However, what it the new deployment was only applied to a jar, or set of jars not deployed in the container?

If this is not possible, would a sensible alternative be to go offline; prepare (aopc) the jar, rebundle and deploy that? Would this approach cause problems?

Regards Neil.

[bill.burke]

you mean in application server? Yes...you must package your aspects/xml in a .aop package. See reference manual and tutorial for more detail.

You are correct about the problems you will encounter. JBoss AOP does not currently re-weave (or weave) already loaded classes. We're currently researching the possibility of using the Hot Swap feature of java.lang.instrument, but til then, you'll have to do some of the tricks you suggest to yourself :)