Can you use Java Reflection api in GWT client

Question

IS it possible to use the java reflection api in GWT client side? I want to use reflections to find the value of a property on a Javabean. Is this possible?

Answer 1

You can use the GWT Generators functionality that allows you to generate code during the GWT compile phase.

Your bean, that you want to introspect, can extend a class that has a method defined as

public Object getProperty(String propertyName){}

Let's call this class IntrospectionBean.

Let's say that you then have your bean defined as:

public class MyBean extends IntrospectionBean {
    private String prop1;
    private String prop2;
}

The GWT generator will have access to all fields of MyBean and it can generate the getProperty(String propertyName) method during GWT compile time, after iterating through all fields of MyBean.

The generated class might look like this:

public class MyBean extends IntrospectionBean {
    private String prop1;
    private String prop2;

    public Object getProperty(String propertyName) {
        if ("propr1".equals(propertyName)) {
            return prop1;
        }
        if ("propr2".equals(propertyName)) {
            return prop2;
        }

        return null;
    }
}

You could simply then use myBean.getProperty("prop1") in order to retrieve a property based on it's name at runtime.

Here you can find an example of how to implement a gwt generator