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

If you just want to use reflection to grab a private field, consider using jsni (javascript native interface) instead; it has no notion of private or public, so you can just grab anything you want like so:

package com.foo;

class SomeClass {
    private String someField;
    private static int someInt;
}

//accessors:
native String ripField(SomeClass from)
/*-{
  return from.@com.foo.SomeClass::someField;
}-*/;
native int ripInt()
/*-{
  return @com.foo.SomeClass::someInt;
}-*/;

Also, I am in the middle of finishing up emulation for java.lang.Class newInstance / reflection.

I'll post back here with a link in about two days if you'd like to play with it.

It requires that you pass a class through a method which I route to a custom generator (like GWT.create, except it returns a generated java.lang.Class with field and method accessors that just point to jsni methods / fields. :)