java-bridge

java-bridge

A bridge between Node.js programs and Java APIs written in Rust using napi-rs to provide a fast and memory-safe interface between the two languages.

The pre-compiled binaries will be provided with the package, the only thing you need to do on your machine is install a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) for this package to use. In contrast to other node.js <-> java interfaces, the binary is not hard linked to the JDK it has been compiled with but rather loads the jvm native library dynamically when the program first starts up.

The full documentation of this package is available here.

NOTE: As of version 2.1.0, this package has been renamed from @markusjx/java to java-bridge.

Installation

npm i java-bridge

Note: In order to use this package on windows, you'll need to install the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015.

Command line interface

This module also provides a command line interface that allows you to generate typescript definitions for your java classes. The command line interface is called java-ts-definition-generator and can be installed using npm install -g java-ts-definition-generator. The full documentation can be found here.

Build instructions

This is only required for development purposes. When installing the package using npm i, you can skip this.

In order to build this project, you should install

• Node.js
• npm
• rustc, the rust compiler
• cargo
• Java JDK 8+
• clang

Then, to build the project, run:

npm install
npm run build

Support Matrix

✅ = Pre-compiled binaries are available
- = Pre-compiled binaries are not available

Operating System	i686	x64	arm	arm64
Linux	-	✅	-	✅
Windows	✅	✅	-	-
macOS	-	✅	-	✅

Known working linux distros

Distro	Version
Ubuntu	>= 20.04
Debian	>= bullseye

Usage

Example: Hello world from Java

import { importClass } from './java-bridge';

const System = importClass('java.lang.System');
System.out.println('Hello world!');

Create the JVM

Create a new Java VM using the ensureJvm method. Calling this after the jvm has already been created will do nothing. Destroying the jvm manually is not (yet) supported.

Create the JVM with no extra options

This will first search for a suitable jvm native library on the system and then start the jvm with no extra options. This is also called when any call to the jvm is made but the jvm is not yet started.

import { ensureJvm } from 'java-bridge';

ensureJvm();

Create the JVM with extra options

You can pass extra options to the jvm when creating it, for example requesting a specific jvm version, specifying the location of the jvm native library or passing additional arguments to the jvm.

import { ensureJvm, JavaVersion } from 'java-bridge';

ensureJvm({
    libPath: 'path/to/jvm.dll',
    version: JavaVersion.VER_9,
    opts: ['-Xms512m', '-Xmx512m'],
});

All threads will be attached as daemon threads, allowing the jvm to exit when the main thread exits. This behavior can not be changed, as it may introduce undefined behaviour.

Important note on jvm options: Different arguments must be parsed as separate strings in the opts array. Otherwise, the jvm will not be able to parse the arguments correctly.

Notes on electron

When using this package in a packaged electron application, you should unpack this package and the appropriate binaries for your platform into the app.asar.unpacked folder. When using electron-builder, you can do this by adding the following to your package.json:

{
    "build": {
        "asarUnpack": [
            "node_modules/java-bridge/**",
            "node_modules/java-bridge-*/**"
        ]
    }
}

Additionally, you should set the isPackagedElectron option to true when creating the jvm:

ensureJvm({
    isPackagedElectron: true,
});

This option should not have any effect when not using electron or not having the application packaged.

Inject a JAR into the class path

In order to import your own classes into the node environment, you need to add the JAR file to the class path. You can do that with the appendClasspath or classpath.append methods. After loading a JAR, you can import classes from it like any other class from the JVM using importClass or importClassAsync.

import { appendClasspath } from 'java-bridge';

// Append a single jar to the class path
appendClasspath('/path/to/jar.jar');

// Append multiple jars to the class path
appendClasspath(['/path/to/jar1.jar', '/path/to/jar2.jar']);

or

import { classpath } from 'java-bridge';

// Append a single jar to the class path
classpath.append('/path/to/jar.jar');

Synchronous calls

If you want to use Java APIs in a synchronous way, you can use the synchronous API of this module. Any call to the Java API will be executed in the same thread as your node process so this may cause your program to hang until the execution is finished. But - in contrast to the asynchronous API - these calls are a lot faster as no extra threads need to be created/attached to the JVM.

All synchronous java methods are proceeded with the postfix Sync. This means, all methods of a class (static and non-static) are generated twice, once as a synchronous call and once as an asynchronous call.

If you are looking for asynchronous calls, take a look at the next section. In order to import a class synchronously, you can use the importClass function. Using this method does not affect your ability to call any method of the class asynchronously.

import { importClass } from 'java-bridge';

// Import a class
const JString = importClass('java.lang.String');

// Create a new instance of the class
const str = new JString('Hello World');

// Call a method on the instance
str.lengthSync(); // 11

// Supported native types will be automatically converted
// to the corresponding type in the other language
str.toStringSync(); // 'Hello World'

Asynchronous calls

If you want to use Java APIs in an asynchronous way, you can use the asynchronous API of this module. Any call to the Java API will be executed in a separate thread and the execution will not block your program. This is in general a lot slower as the synchronous API but allows the program to run more smoothly.

If you want to improve the performance of the asynchronous API, you can force the module to attach any thread as a daemon thread to the JVM. This allows the program to not constantly attach new threads to the JVM as the old ones can be reused and thus improves the performance.

In order to import a class asynchronously, you can use the importClassAsync function.

import { importClassAsync } from 'java-bridge';

const JString = await importClassAsync('java.lang.String');

// Create a new instance asynchrnously using 'newInstanceAsync'
const str = await JString.newInstanceAsync('Hello World');

// Call methods asynchronously
await str.length(); // 11
await str.toString(); // 'Hello World'

Setting the number of threads

When using asynchronous functions, by default, the number of threads used by these functions is determined by the number of physical CPUs available. In order to change this behavior, set the JAVA_BRIDGE_THREAD_POOL_SIZE environment variable to the desired amount of threads.

Note: Setting this to a non-numeric value will cause an error to be thrown during startup.

Implement a Java interface

You can also implement a Java interface in node.js using the newProxy method. Please note that when calling a java method that uses an interface defined by this method, you must call that method using the interface asynchronously as Node.js is single threaded and can't wait for the java method to return while calling the proxy method at the same time.

import { newProxy } from 'java-bridge';

const proxy = newProxy('path.to.MyInterface', {
    // Define methods...
});

// Do something with the proxy
instance.someMethod(proxy);

// Destroy the proxy
proxy.reset();

Redirect the stdout and stderr from the java process

If you want to redirect the stdout and/or stderr from the java process to the node.js process, you can use the enableRedirect method.

import { stdout } from 'java-bridge';

const guard = stdout.enableRedirect(
    (_, data) => {
        console.log('Stdout:', data);
    },
    (_, data) => {
        console.error('Stderr:', data);
    }
);

Errors

Errors thrown in the java process are returned as JavaError objects. These objects contain the error message, the full stack trace (including the java, node and rust process) and the java throwable that caused the error. The throwable is only available when the error was thrown in the java process and not in the node process and if the call was a synchronous call.

The throwable can be accessed using the cause property of the JavaError object.

import type { JavaError } from 'java-bridge';

try {
    // Call a method that throws an error
    someInstance.someMethodSync();
} catch (e: unknown) {
    const throwable = (e as JavaError).cause;
    throwable.printStackTraceSync();
}

If you want to access the Java throwable from an asynchronous call, you need to enable the asyncJavaExceptionObjects config option before or while importing the class. Enabling this will cause the stack trace of the JavaScript error to be lost.

import { importClass } from 'java-bridge';

const SomeClass = importClass('path.to.SomeClass', {
    asyncJavaExceptionObjects: true,
});

try {
    await SomeClass.someMethod();
} catch (e: unknown) {
    const throwable = (e as JavaError).cause;
    throwable.printStackTraceSync();
}

Logging

If you want to enable logging for this module, you need to re-compile the module with the log feature. Please install the dependencies listed in the build section and run npm run build:all to build the module with all features enabled.

Logged events include:

• Class loading
• Method calls
• Class instance creation
• Method and class lookup

Note: Logging affects the performance of the module. Thus, it is recommended to only enable logging when debugging.

For further information on how to use the logging feature, please take a look at the logging module documentation.

Value conversion rules

• Any basic value such as string, number, boolean or BigInt may be passed to methods accepting matching types
• string values will always be converted to java.lang.String
• string values with just one character may be converted to char or java.lang.Char if required
• Thus, in order to pass a char to a java method, use a string containing just one character
• number values will be converted to int, long, double, float, java.lang.Integer, java.lang.Long, java.lang.Double or java.lang.Float depending on the type the java function to call requires
• boolean values will be converted to either boolean or java.lang.Boolean
• BigInt values will be converted to either long or java.lang.Long
• Arrays will be converted to java arrays. Java arrays may only contain a single value type, therefore the type of the first element in the array will be chosen as the array type, empty arrays need no conversions.
• java.lang.String values will be converted to string
• int, double, float, java.lang.Integer, java.lang.Double or java.lang.Float values will be converted to number
• long or java.lang.Long values will always be converted to BigInt
• boolean or java.lang.Boolean values will be converted to boolean
• char or java.lang.Character values will be converted to string
• Java arrays will be converted to javascript arrays, applying the rules mentioned above except
• Byte arrays will be converted to Buffer and vice-versa