net.sf.mmm.util.reflect.api (JavaDocs for mmm-all dev-SNAPSHOT)

Interface Summary
Interface	Description
AnnotationUtil	This is the interface for a collection of utility functions to deal with `annotations`.
ClassResolver	This is the callback interface used to resolve a type by some logical name to the `Class` reflecting that type.
CollectionReflectionUtil	This is the interface for a collection of utility functions to deal with `Collection`s reflectively.
GenericType<T>	This is the interface of a generic type and allows simple and powerful access to the complex generic type-system introduced in Java5.
GenericTypeFactory	This is the interface for a factory with ability to create `GenericType`s.
ReflectionUtil	This is the interface for a collection of utility functions to deal with `reflection`.
ReflectionUtilLimited	This is a limited subset of `ReflectionUtil` that is GWT compatible.

Class Summary
Class	Description
Arguments	This class represents an argument list.
ClassName	This is a simple identifier for a `Class`.
NamedSignature	This class extends `Signature` with a `name` honored by `NamedSignature.equals(Object)`, `Signature.hashCode()` and `Signature.toString()`.
Signature	This class represents a `"method signature"`.

Enum Summary
Enum Description

VisibilityModifier
This enum contains the possible modifiers for the visibility of a java element (type, field, method or constructor).

Enum Summary
Enum	Description
VisibilityModifier	This enum contains the possible modifiers for the visibility of a java element (type, field, method or constructor).

Exception Summary
Exception	Description
AccessFailedException	An `AccessFailedException` is thrown if a `reflective` call failed because the executing code does NOT have access to the according definition.
AnnotationNotForTargetException	A `AnnotationNotForTargetException` is thrown if an `Annotation` should be resolved for a specific `ElementType` that it is NOT `targeted` for.
AnnotationNotRuntimeException	A `AnnotationNotRuntimeException` is thrown if an `Annotation` should be resolved at runtime but has NOT the `Retention` `RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME`.
InstantiationFailedException	An `InstantiationFailedException` indicates that the `instantiation` of a `Class` failed for arbitrary reasons.
InvocationFailedException	An `InvocationFailedException` is thrown if an invocation failed.
ReflectionException	A `ReflectionException` is thrown if an operation based on `reflection` failed.
TypeNotFoundException	A `TypeNotFoundException` is thrown if a `Type` was requested (e.g.

Package net.sf.mmm.util.reflect.api Description

Provides the API for utilities that help to deal with reflection.

Reflection-Util API

Java reflection is a powerful mechanism that allows flexible and generic programming. With Java5 a generic type-system was introduced. However this is quite a wild animal and this way hard to deal with via the reflection API. Therefore this package provides the interface GenericType that allows simple access to the complex generic type-system.
You will also find utilities that make reflection a lot easier and may offer features that you may not even know they where possible such as finding all classes located in the classpath or a specific package.
Therefore ReflectionUtil will help you to deal with reflection. For advanced support when reading annotations have a look at AnnotationUtil. Additionally CollectionReflectionUtil offers reflective and generic operations on Collections.
Further the interface ClassResolver allows to retrieve Classes by name in order to abstract from ClassLoaders as well as to do name mappings (e.g. Object to java.lang.Object).