Class.forName() vs. Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLo

[bill.burke]

Please do not ever use Class.forName() in any of your code, but instead use Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().loadClass().


Reason? The reason is scoped classloaders. Class.forName() will use the calling class's classloader. So, if your code resides in a jbossesb.jar someplace, your code will use the ESB server's (JBoss) classloader, rather than the scoped one of your ESB deployment. For example, if your actions are deployed in a scoped .esb file, then it will not run.

Bill

[kconner]

You checked JIRA, right? :-)

http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/JBESB-466

[tfennelly]

This is something I've been guilty of in the past (out of ignorance of the scoping stuff).

Doesn't this also apply to getClass().getResourceAsStream(...)?

The likes of this is something we could use Macker to check for - so we get a build error/report if someone adds code matching this pattern.

[kconner]

"tfennelly" wrote:
Doesn't this also apply to getClass().getResourceAsStream(...)?

Yes it does

[kconner]

"tfennelly" wrote:
The likes of this is something we could use <a href="http://innig.net/macker/index.html">Macker</a> to check for

Forgot to add, pmd checks for this.