public class JavassistPropertyStyle
extends JavaBeanPropertyStyle

PropertyStyle for environments that use JavaBeans and have Javassist available.

This PropertyStyle extends JavaBeanPropertyStyle to use the debug line numbering information embedded in JVM bytecode to sort getters and setters according to their original declaration order in the source code.

This saves domain objects having to use the UiComesAfter annotation (or an XML file, or some other method) to impose an ordering.

However, a danger of this approach is that if the domain objects are ever recompiled without debug line numbering information (eg. when moving from development to production) the UI fields will lose their ordering. Such a subtle bug may not be picked up, so as a safeguard JavassistPropertyStyle 'fails hard' with an InspectorException if line numbers are not available.

JavassistPropertyStyle uses the following sorting algorithm:

• superclass public fields come first, sorted by name
• superclass methods come next, sorted by getter line number (or, if no getter, setter line number)
• public fields come next, sorted by name
• methods come last, sorted by getter line number (or, if no getter, setter line number)

Note this algorithm is less flexible than the UiComesAfter annotation, which can interleave superclass and subclass properties. However, it is possible to use both UiComesAfter and JavassistPropertyStyle together to get the best of both worlds.