Spring AOP vs AspectJ

java spring design-patterns aspectj spring-aop
zotherstupidguy picture zotherstupidguy · Oct 22, 2009 · Viewed 77.5k times · Source

I am under the impression that Spring AOP is best used for application specific tasks such as security, logging, transactions, etc. as it uses custom Java5 annotations as a framework. However, AspectJ seems to be more friendly design-patterns wise.

Can anyone highlight the various pros and cons of using Spring AOP vs AspectJ in a Spring application?

Answer

Whiteship picture Whiteship · Oct 22, 2009

Spring-AOP Pros

  • It is simpler to use than AspectJ, since you don't have to use LTW (load-time weaving) or the AspectJ compiler.

  • It uses the Proxy pattern and the Decorator pattern

Spring-AOP Cons

  • This is proxy-based AOP, so basically you can only use method-execution joinpoints.
  • Aspects aren't applied when calling another method within the same class.
  • There can be a little runtime overhead.
  • Spring-AOP cannot add an aspect to anything that is not created by the Spring factory

AspectJ Pros

  • This supports all joinpoints. This means you can do anything.
  • There is less runtime overhead than that of Spring AOP.

AspectJ Cons

  • Be careful. Check if your aspects are weaved to only what you wanted to be weaved.
  • You need extra build process with AspectJ Compiler or have to setup LTW (load-time weaving)

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