Bridge API to connect with existing Java APIs.
Google Groups Discussion Forum
Other projects that might be helpful
- node-java-maven - manages your node-java classpath by using maven dependency management.
Installation
$ npm install java
Notes:
- node-gyp requires python 2.x not python 3.x. See https://github.com/TooTallNate/node-gyp/issues/155 for more details.
- If you see an error such as "Call to 'node findJavaHome.js' returned exit status 1"
Try running
node findJavaHome.js
in the node-java directory to see the full failure message. - If you are having problems finding 'jni.h'. Make sure you have the JDK installed not just the JRE. If you are using
OpenJDK you want the openjdk-7-jdk package, not openjdk-7-jre. Mavericks users see Issue #86 if you run into this.
Installation Ubuntu
sudo apt install make g++
- If u've error (on global installation):
EACCES user nobody does not have permission to access the dev dir /root/.cache/node-gyp/10.16.0
, then just run: npm i -g java --unsafe-perm
Installation OSX
- If you run into strange runtime issues, it could be because the Oracle JDK does not advertise itself as available for JNI. See Issue 90 for more details and manual workarounds. If this does occur for you, please update the issue.
Installation Windows
For 64 bit installs with 32 bit node:
If you get ENOENT
errors looking for <nodepath>\node_modules\node-gyp\..
, ensure you have node-gyp installed as a global nodule:
npm install -g node-gyp
If you get D9025
warnings and C1083
errors when looking for .sln
or .h
files, be sure you've got the node-gyp
's dependencies, as explained here.
Alternatively, Windows users can easily install all required tools by running the following command in PowerShell as administrator. For more information see windows-build-tools project page:
npm install --global --production windows-build-tools
Installation ARM (Raspberry Pi)
GYP_DEFINES="armv7=0" CCFLAGS='-march=armv6' CXXFLAGS='-march=armv6' npm install java
Manual compile (Using node-gyp)
./compile-java-code.sh
node-gyp configure build
npm test
NOTE: You will need node-gyp installed using "npm install -g node-gyp"
On Raspian you might need a:
- sudo ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/jdk-7-oracle-arm-vfp-hflt /opt/jdk
Some issues with the OpenSDK7 so take the Oracle version for compiling.
Docker
If you want to play with node-java but don't want to setup the build environment you can run it in docker.
docker run -it joeferner/node-java bash
Then inside the docker container create a directory and run
npm install --unsafe-perm java
Then create a file called test.js
with the following contents
var java = require('java');
var javaLangSystem = java.import('java.lang.System');
javaLangSystem.out.printlnSync('Hello World');
Then run
node test.js
Java 1.8 support
Manual compilation for Java 1.8 support requires additional steps:
./compile-java-code.sh
./compile-java8-code.sh
node-gyp configure build
npm test
Java 1.8 language features can be used in Java classes only if a Java 1.8 JRE is available. The script compile-java8-code.sh is used only to compile java classes used in the 'test8' unit tests, but these classes are checked into the test8/ directory. Note that unit tests in the test8/ directory will pass (by design) if run against a Java 1.7 JRE, provided that a java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError is caught with the message 'Unsupported major.minor version 52.0' (the expected behavior when Java 1.8 language features are used in an older JRE).
Installation node-webkit
npm install -g nw-gyp
npm install java
cd node_modules/java
nw-gyp configure --target=0.10.5
nw-gyp build
See testIntegration/webkit for a working example
Using node-java in existing maven projects
When using node-java in existing maven projects, all the dependencies and the class files of the project have to be pushed to the classpath.
One possible solution would be:
Issue the command:
mvn dependency:copy-dependencies
Then create the following module javaInit:
"use strict";
var fs = require("fs");
var java = require("java");
var baseDir = "./target/dependency";
var dependencies = fs.readdirSync(baseDir);
dependencies.forEach(function(dependency){
java.classpath.push(baseDir + "/" + dependency);
})
java.classpath.push("./target/classes");
java.classpath.push("./target/test-classes");
exports.getJavaInstance = function() {
return java;
}
and then in the consuming class write:
var javaInit = require('./javaInit');
var java = javaInit.getJavaInstance();
Quick Examples
var java = require("java");
java.classpath.push("commons-lang3-3.1.jar");
java.classpath.push("commons-io.jar");
var list1 = java.newInstanceSync("java.util.ArrayList");
console.log(list1.sizeSync());
list1.addSync('item1');
console.log(list1.sizeSync());
java.newInstance("java.util.ArrayList", function(err, list2) {
list2.addSync("item1");
list2.addSync("item2");
console.log(list2.toStringSync());
});
var ArrayList = java.import('java.util.ArrayList');
var list3 = new ArrayList();
list3.addSync('item1');
list3.equalsSync(list1);
Create a char array
var charArray = java.newArray("char", "hello world\n".split(''));
Create a byte array
var byteArray = java.newArray(
"byte",
"hello world\n"
.split('')
.map(function(c) { return java.newByte(String.prototype.charCodeAt(c)); }));
Using java.lang.Long and long
JavaScript only supports 32-bit integers. Because of this java longs must be treated specially.
When getting a long result the value may be truncated. If you need the original value there is
a property off of the result called "longValue" which contains the un-truncated value as a string.
If you are calling a method that takes a long you must create it using java.newInstance.
var javaLong = java.newInstanceSync("java.lang.Long", 5);
console.log('Possibly truncated long value: ' + javaLong);
console.log('Original long value (as a string): ' + javaLong.longValue);
java.callStaticMethodSync("Test", "staticMethodThatTakesALong", javaLong);
Exceptions
Exceptions from calling methods either caught using JavaScript try/catch block or passed
to a callback as the first parameter may have a property named "cause" which has a reference
to the Java Exception object which caused the error.
try {
java.methodThatThrowsExceptionSync();
} catch(ex) {
console.log(ex.cause.getMessageSync());
}
AsyncOptions: control over the generation of sync, async & promise method variants.
As of release 0.4.5 it became possible to create async methods that return promises by setting the asyncOptions
property of the java object. With release 0.4.7 this feature is extended to allow changing the suffix assigned for sync and async method variants, and to further configure this module to optionally omit generation of any of these variants.
Example:
var java = require("java");
java.asyncOptions = {
asyncSuffix: undefined,
syncSuffix: "",
promiseSuffix: "Promise",
promisify: require('util').promisify
};
java.classpath.push("commons-lang3-3.1.jar");
java.classpath.push("commons-io.jar");
java.import("java.util.ArrayList");
java.newInstancePromise("java.util.ArrayList")
.then(function(list) { return list.addPromise("item1"); })
.then(function(list) { return list.addPromise("item2"); })
.catch(function(err) { });
NOTES:
- If you want the defacto standard behavior, simply don't set java.asyncOptions.
- If you do provide asyncOptions, be aware that this module will not generate method variants of a given flavor if you don't provide a string value for the corresponding suffix (
asyncSuffix
, syncSuffix
, promiseSuffix
). In the example above, the application is configured to omit the method variants using node-style async callback functions. - If you provide
asyncOptions.promiseSuffix
then you must also set asyncOptions.promisify
to a function that promisifies a node-style async function. I.e. the provided function must take as input a function whose last argument is a node callback function, and it must return an equivalent promise-returning function. Several Promises/A+ libraries provide such functions, but it may be necessary to provide a wrapper function. See testHelpers.js
for an example. - For
promisify
implementation, if you are using Node.js version 8.0.0 or newer then promisify: require('util').promisify
will work out of the box. If you need to support and older Node.js version then an implementation needs to be provided, for example, promisify: require("when/node").lift
- If you provide
asyncOptions.promisify
then you must provide a non-empty string for asyncOptions.promiseSuffix
. - Either (but not both)
asyncSuffix
or syncSuffix
can be the empty string. If you want the defacto standard behavior for no suffix on async methods, you must provide an empty string for asyncSuffix
. - We've tested promises with five Promises/A+ implementations. See
testHelpers.js
for more information. - NOTE: Due to specifics of initialization order, the methods
java.newInstancePromise
, java.callMethodPromise
, and java.callStaticMethodPromise
are not available until the JVM has been created. You may need to call some other java method such as java.import()
to finalize java initialization, or even better, the function java.ensureJvm()
.
Special note about the exported module functions newInstance
, callMethod
, and callStaticMethod
.
These methods come in both async and sync variants. If you provide the promisify
and promiseSuffix
attributes in asyncOptions then you'll also get the Promises/A+ variant for these three functions. However, if you change the defacto conventions for the syncSuffix
(i.e. 'Sync') and/or asyncSuffix
(i.e. '') it will not affect the naming for these three functions. I.e. no matter what you specify in asyncOptions, the async variants are named newInstance
, callMethod
, and callStaticMethod
, and the sync variants are named newInstanceSync
, callMethodSync
, and callStaticMethodSync
.
Varargs support
With v0.5.0 node-java now supports methods with variadic arguments (varargs). Prior to v0.5.0, a JavaScript call to a Java varargs method had to construct an array of the variadic arguments using java.newArray()
. With v0.5.0 JavaScript applications can simply use the variadic style.
In most cases it is still acceptable to use java.newArray()
. But it is now possible to pass a plain JavaScript array, or use the variadic style. For example, consider these snippets from the unit test file test/varargs-test.js
:
test.equal(Test.staticVarargsSync(5, 'a', 'b', 'c'), '5abc');
test.equal(Test.staticVarargsSync(5, ['a', 'b', 'c']), '5abc');
test.equal(Test.staticVarargsSync(5, java.newArray('java.lang.String', ['a', 'b', 'c'])), '5abc');
Note that when passing a JavaScript array (e.g. ['a', 'b', 'c']
) for a varargs parameter, node-java must infer the Java type of the array. If all of the elements are of the same JavaScript primitive type (string
in this example) then node-java will create a Java array of the corresponding type (e.g. java.lang.String
). The Java types that node-java can infer are: java.lang.String
, java.lang.Boolean
, java.lang.Integer
, java.lang.Long
, and java.lang.Double
. If an array has a mix of Integer
, Long
, and Double
, then the inferred type will be java.lang.Number
. Any other mix will result in an inferred type of java.lang.Object
.
Methods accepting varargs of a generic type are also problematic. You will need to fall back to using java.newArray()
. See Issue #285.
JVM Creation
With v0.5.1 a new API is available to make it easier for a complex application to have full control over JVM creation. In particular, it is now easier to compose an application from several modules, each of which must add to the Java classpath and possibly do other operations just before or just after the JVM has been created. See the methods ensureJvm and registerClient. See also several of the tests in the testAsyncOptions directory.
Release Notes
v0.5.0
- Support for varargs. This change is not 100% backwards compatible, but the fix is generally easy and results in more natural code.
v0.2.0
Index
java
java objects
API Documentation
java
classpath
java.classpath*
Array of paths or jars to pass to the creation of the JVM.
All items must be added to the classpath before calling any other node-java methods.
Example
java.classpath.push('commons.io.jar');
java.classpath.push('src');
options
java.options*
Array of options to pass to the creation of the JVM.
All items must be added to the options before calling any other node-java methods.
Example
java.options.push('-Djava.awt.headless=true');
java.options.push('-Xmx1024m');
asyncOptions
java.asyncOptions = {
asyncSuffix: undefined,
syncSuffix: "",
promiseSuffix: "Promise",
promisify: require('util').promisify
ifReadOnlySuffix: "_alt"
};
See Async Options for details.
import
java.import(className)*
Loads the class given by className such that it acts and feels like a JavaScript object.
Arguments
- className - The name of the class to create. Separate nested classes using
'$'
(eg. com.nearinfinty.MyClass$NestedClass
).
Example
var Test = java.import('Test');
Test.someStaticMethodSync(5);
console.log(Test.someStaticField);
var value1 = Test.NestedEnum.Value1;
var test = new Test();
list.instanceMethodSync('item1');
newInstance
java.newInstance(className, [args...], callback)*
java.newInstanceSync(className, [args...]) : result
Creates an instance of the specified class. If you are using the sync method an exception will be throw if an error occurs,
otherwise it will be the first argument in the callback.
Arguments
- className - The name of the class to create. Separate nested classes using
'$'
(eg. com.nearinfinty.MyClass$NestedClass
). - callback(err, item) - Callback to be called when the class is created.
Example
var list = java.newInstanceSync("java.util.ArrayList");
java.newInstance("java.util.ArrayList", function(err, list) {
if(err) { console.error(err); return; }
// new list
});
instanceOf
java.instanceOf(javaObject, className)*
Determines of a javaObject is an instance of a class.
Arguments
- javaObject - Instance of a java object returned from a method or from newInstance.
- className - A string class name.
Example
var obj = java.newInstanceSync("my.package.SubClass");
if(java.instanceOf(obj, "my.package.SuperClass")) {
console.log("obj is an instance of SuperClass");
}
callStaticMethod
java.callStaticMethod(className, methodName, [args...], callback)*
java.callStaticMethodSync(className, methodName, [args...]) : result
Calls a static method on the specified class. If you are using the sync method an exception will be throw if an error occurs,
otherwise it will be the first argument in the callback.
Arguments
Example
var result = java.callStaticMethodSync("com.nearinfinty.MyClass", "doSomething", 42, "test");
java.callStaticMethod("com.nearinfinty.MyClass", "doSomething", 42, "test", function(err, results) {
if(err) { console.error(err); return; }
// results from doSomething
});
callMethod
java.callMethod(instance, methodName, [args...], callback)*
java.callMethodSync(instance, methodName, [args...]) : result
Calls a method on the specified instance. If you are using the sync method an exception will be throw if an error occurs,
otherwise it will be the first argument in the callback.
Arguments
Example
var instance = java.newInstanceSync("com.nearinfinty.MyClass");
var result = java.callMethodSync("com.nearinfinty.MyClass", "doSomething", 42, "test");
java.callMethodSync(instance, "doSomething", 42, "test", function(err, results) {
if(err) { console.error(err); return; }
// results from doSomething
});
getStaticFieldValue
java.getStaticFieldValue(className, fieldName)*
Gets a static field value from the specified class.
Arguments
- className - The name of the class to get the value from. Separate nested classes using
'$'
(eg. com.nearinfinty.MyClass$NestedClass
). - fieldName - The name of the field to get the value from.
Example
var data = java.getStaticFieldValue("com.nearinfinty.MyClass", "data");
setStaticFieldValue
java.setStaticFieldValue(className, fieldName, newValue)*
Sets a static field value on the specified class.
Arguments
- className - The name of the class to set the value on. Separate nested classes using
'$'
(eg. com.nearinfinty.MyClass$NestedClass
). - fieldName - The name of the field to set the value on.
- newValue - The new value to assign to the field.
Example
java.setStaticFieldValue("com.nearinfinty.MyClass", "data", "Hello World");
newArray
java.newArray(className, values[])*
Creates a new java array of given glass type. To create array of primitive types like char
, byte
, etc, pass the primitive type name (eg. java.newArray("char", "hello world\n".split(''))
).
Arguments
- className - The name of the type of array elements. Separate nested classes using
'$'
(eg. com.nearinfinty.MyClass$NestedClass
). - values - A JavaScript array of values to assign to the java array.
Example
var newArray = java.newArray("java.lang.String", ["item1", "item2", "item3"]);
newByte
java.newByte(val)*
Creates a new java byte. This is needed because JavaScript does not have the concept of a byte.
Arguments
- val - The value of the java byte.
Example
var b = java.newByte(12);
newShort
java.newShort(val)*
Creates a new java short. This is needed because JavaScript does not have the concept of a short.
Arguments
- val - The value of the java short.
Example
var s = java.newShort(12);
newLong
java.newLong(val)*
Creates a new java long. This is needed because JavaScript does not have the concept of a long.
Arguments
- val - The value of the java long.
Example
var s = java.newLong(12);
newChar
java.newChar(val)*
Creates a new java char. This is needed because JavaScript does not have the concept of a char.
Arguments
- val - The value of the java char.
Example
var ch = java.newChar('a');
newDouble
java.newDouble(val)*
Creates a new java double. This is needed to force JavaScript's number to a double to call some methods.
Arguments
- val - The value of the java double.
Example
var d = java.newDouble(3.14);
newFloat
java.newFloat(val)*
Creates a new java float. This is needed to force JavaScript's number to a float to call some methods.
Arguments
- val - The value of the java float.
Example
var f = java.newFloat(3.14);
newProxy
java.newProxy(interfaceName, functions)*
Creates a new java Proxy for the given interface. Functions passed in will run on the v8 main thread and not a new thread.
The returned object has a method unref() which you can use to free the object for
garbage collection.
Arguments
- interfaceName - The name of the interface to proxy. Separate nested classes using
'$'
(eg. com.nearinfinty.MyClass$NestedClass
). - functions - A hash of functions matching the function in the interface.
Example
var myProxy = java.newProxy('java.lang.Runnable', {
run: function () {
// This is actually run on the v8 thread and not the new java thread
console.log("hello from thread");
}
});
var thread = java.newInstanceSync("java.lang.Thread", myProxy);
thread.start();
isJvmCreated
java.isJvmCreated()*
Returns true if the JVM has been created. The JVM can only be created once.
registerClient
java.registerClient(before, after)*
Register that a client wants to be called back immediately before and/or immediately after the JVM is created. If used, this function must be called before the JVM has been created. The before function is typically used to add to the classpath. The function may execute asynchronous operations (such as a async glob function). The after function is sometimes useful for doing one-time initialization that requires the JVM to first be initialized. If either function is unnecessary, use null
or undefined
. See also registerClientP
and ensureJvm
. See the unit tests in testAsyncOptions
for examples.
registerClientP
java.registerClientP(before, after)*
Like java.registerClient, but before and after are assumed to be functions returning promises.
ensureJvm
java.ensureJvm(callback)*
If the JVM has not yet been created, execute the full JVM initialization process, then call callback function when initialization is complete. If the JVM has been created, just call the callback. Note that the full initialization process includes: 1) executing all registered client before hooks, 2) creating the JVM, then 3) executing all registered client after hooks.
java
object
Call Method
obj.methodName([args...], callback)*
obj.methodNameSync([args...]) : result
Once you have a java object either by creating a new instance or as a result of a method call you can then call methods on that object.
All public, non-static methods are exposed in synchronous and asynchronous flavors.
Arguments
- args - The arguments to pass to the method.
- callback(err, item) - Callback to be called when the method has completed.
Example
var list = java.newInstanceSync("java.util.ArrayList");
list.addSync("item1");
list.add("item2", function(err, result) {
if(err) { console.error(err); return; }
});
Field Access
obj.fieldName = val*
val = obj.fieldName
Once you have a java object either by creating a new instance or as a result of a method call you can get instance
field values.
Example
var list = java.newInstanceSync("com.nearinfinty.MyClass");
list.data = "test";
var data = list.data;
Getting the Full Method Signature
Run javap -s -classpath <your-class-path> <your-class-name>
. Find the method name you are looking for. For example:
public int methodAmbiguous(java.lang.Double);
Signature: (Ljava/lang/Double;)I
The full method signature would be methodAmbiguous(Ljava/lang/Double;)I
.
If you have grep, a shortcut is javap -s -classpath . my.company.MyClass | grep -A1 myMethodName
.
Signal Handling
The JVM intercepts signals (Ctrl+C, etc.) before node/v8 gets to handle them. To fix this there are a couple options.
Signal Handling Option 1
One option to capture these events is to add the following flag:
java.options.push('-Xrs');
As man java
says, the -Xrs
flag will “reduce usage of operating-system signals by [the] Java virtual machine (JVM)”, to avoid issues when developing “applications that embed the JVM”.
Signal Handling Option 2
Hook into the runtime shutdown hook.
First create a java wrapper around the Runtime.addShutdownHook method to allow using a proxy object.
public class ShutdownHookHelper {
public static void setShutdownHook(final Runnable r) {
Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(new Thread() {
@Override
public void run() {
r.run();
}
});
}
}
Compile ShutdownHookHelper and then use it as follows.
var java = require('./');
java.classpath.push('.');
var ShutdownHookHelper = java.import('ShutdownHookHelper');
ShutdownHookHelper.setShutdownHookSync(java.newProxy('java.lang.Runnable', {
run: function () {
console.log("do shutdown stuff here instead.");
}
}));
Object lifetime
When you call a Java method through node-java, any arguments (V8/JavaScript objects) will be converted to Java objects on the v8 main thread via a call to v8ToJava (found in utils.cpp). The JavaScript object is not held on to and can be garbage collected by v8. If this is an async call, the reference count on the Java objects will be incremented. The Java method will be invoked in a node.js async thread (see uv_queue_work). When the method returns, the resulting object will be returned to the main v8 thread and converted to JavaScript objects via a call to javaToV8 and the Java object's reference count will then be decremented to allow for garbage collection. The resulting v8 object will then be returned to the callers callback function.
Static member name conflicts ('name', 'arguments', 'caller')
The JavaScript object returned by java.import(classname)
is a JavaScript constructor Function, implemented such that you can create instances of the Java class. For example:
var Test = java.import('Test');
var test = new Test();
Test.someStaticMethod(function(err, result) { ... });
var value1 = Test.NestedEnum.Value1;
But JavaScript reserves a few property names of Function objects: name
, arguments
, and caller
. If your class has public static members (either methods or fields) with these names, node-java is unable to create the necessary property to implement the class's API. For example, suppose your class Test
implements a static method named caller
, or has a NestedEnum
with a value name
:
public class Test {
...
public static String caller() { return "something"; }
public enum NestedEnum { foo, name };
}
In JavaScript, you would expect to be able to use those static members like this:
var Test = java.import('Test');
Test.caller(function(err, result) { ... });
var value = Test.NestedEnum.name;
Node-java can't create those properties, so the above code won't work. Instead, node-java appends a suffix to the name. The default suffix is simply an underscore _
, but you can change the suffix using asyncOptions
:
var java = require('java');
java.asyncOptions = {
asyncSuffix: "",
syncSuffix: "Sync",
ifReadOnlySuffix: "_alt"
};
var Test = java.import('Test');
Test.caller_alt(function(err, result) { ... });
var value = Test.NestedEnum.name_alt;
Troubleshooting
Error: Cannot find module '../build/jvm_dll_path.json'
Either postInstall.js
didn't run or there was a problem detecting java. Try running postInstall.js
manually.
Debugging
npm install
node-gyp build --debug
gdb --args `which node` ./node_modules/.bin/nodeunit test
License
(The MIT License)
Copyright (c) 2012 Near Infinity Corporation
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE
LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.