Hyaline is a simple library for creating Data Transfer Objects (DTO) Dynamically Typed Objects in a single instruction.
Let's say you have a REST service and you want to return a specific JSON object without having to create a new type for that.
With Hyaline (+Spring) you can just write something like this:
@RequestMapping("/myJSON")
public Object myJSON() throws HyalineException {
return Hyaline.dtoFromScratch(new DTO(){
String what = "The JSON I want.";
String how = "Without creating a new class!";
String when = "Now!!!! -> " + new Date();
});
}and you get something like this:
{
"what":"The JSON I want.",
"how":"Without creating a new class!",
"when":"Now!!!! -> Sun Apr 19 14:50:41 BST 2015"
}Well, pretty useless, but it basically shows that you can prototype your objects by putting whatever you need inside and get exactly what you expect.
####Use it with any annotation-based framework Hyaline handles annotations, which means you can use it with most of the frameworks you like. If, for instance, I want to rename one of the fields above in a quite dumb way, I might not rename the variable, but I could use a Jackson annotation:
return Hyaline.dtoFromScratch(new DTO(){
String what = "The JSON I want.";
String how = "Without creating a new class!";
@JsonProperty("deadline")
String when = "Now!!!! -> " + new Date();
});###One more thing Hyaline works pretty well when it comes to create DTOs, but it is basically a tool that accepts stuff with annotations and spits out new types, so you can imagine a lot of possible scenarios (what about dynamic pojo validation or dynamic persistence mappings?). Imagination is the limit :-)
##Where to go from here?
The Getting started page is probably the best place :-) You can also give a look at the Spring boot example to see Hyaline in action!
A simple Maven dependency:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hyalinedto</groupId>
<artifactId>hyalinedto</artifactId>
<version>0.9.1</version>
</dependency>
or if you prefer Gradle:
compile 'org.hyalinedto:hyalinedto:0.9.1'
Release 0.9.1 is out. Hyaline objects can now be passed as prototypes for new calls.
Check out the Spring Boot example(/withFullName endpoint) to see how!
Release 0.9.0 is finally out!
A new snapshot providing dynamic access to dynamically created fields and new tests is now available. You can now access dynamic fields as follows:
Person person = methodReturningInitializedPerson();
Person dto = Hyaline.dtoFromScratch(person, new DTO() {
private String myNewField = "Hello World!";
});
HyalineDTO proxy = (HyalineDTO) dto;
String hello = (String) proxy.getAttribute("myNewField");Remember that this way to access fields should be used only for dynamic fields. Inherited fields can be accessed in a more efficient way by using getters and setters.
A new snapshot containing several bug fixes is now available.
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hyalinedto</groupId>
<artifactId>hyalinedto</artifactId>
<version>0.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>
<repository>
<id>oss-sonatype</id>
<name>oss-sonatype</name>
<url>https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots/</url>
<snapshots>
<enabled>true</enabled>
</snapshots>
</repository>