Getting the qualified class name of generic type with Java 6 annotation processor

Question

I am developing a small code generator using JDK 6's Annotation Processing API and am stuck trying to get the actual generic type of a field in the class. To be clearer, let's say I have a class like this:

@MyAnnotation
public class User {         
    private String id;
    private String username;
    private String password;
    private Set<Role> roles = new HashSet<Role>();
    private UserProfile profile;
}

and here is my annotation processor class:

@SupportedAnnotationTypes({ "xxx.MyAnnotation" })
@SupportedSourceVersion(SourceVersion.RELEASE_6)
public class MongoDocumentAnnotationProcessor extends AbstractProcessor {

    private Types typeUtils = null;
    private Elements elementUtils = null;

    @Override
    public synchronized void init(ProcessingEnvironment processingEnv) {
        super.init(processingEnv);
        typeUtils = processingEnv.getTypeUtils();
        elementUtils = processingEnv.getElementUtils();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean process(Set<? extends TypeElement> annotations, RoundEnvironment roundEnv) {
        debug("Running " + getClass().getSimpleName());
        if (roundEnv.processingOver() || annotations.size() == 0) {
            return false;
        }
        for (Element element : roundEnv.getRootElements()) {
            if (element.getKind() == ElementKind.CLASS && isAnnotatedWithMongoDocument(element)) {
                for (VariableElement variableElement : ElementFilter.fieldsIn(element.getEnclosedElements())) {
                    String fieldName = variableElement.getSimpleName().toString();
                    Element innerElement = typeUtils.asElement(variableElement.asType());
                    String fieldClass = "";
                    if (innerElement == null) { // Primitive type
                        PrimitiveType primitiveType = (PrimitiveType) variableElement.asType();
                        fieldClass = typeUtils.boxedClass(primitiveType).getQualifiedName().toString();
                    } else {
                        if (innerElement instanceof TypeElement) {
                            TypeElement typeElement = (TypeElement) innerElement;
                            fieldClass = typeElement.getQualifiedName().toString();
                            TypeElement collectionType = elementUtils.getTypeElement("java.util.Collection");
                            if (typeUtils.isAssignable(typeElement.asType(), collectionType.asType())) {
                                TypeVariable typeMirror = (TypeVariable)((DeclaredType)typeElement.asType()).getTypeArguments().get(0);
                                TypeParameterElement typeParameterElement = (TypeParameterElement) typeUtils.asElement(typeMirror);
                                // I am stuck here. I don't know how to get the
                                // full qualified class name of the generic type of
                                // property 'roles' when the code processes the User
                                // class as above. What I want to retrieve is the
                                // 'my.package.Role' value
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        return false;
    }

    private boolean isAnnotated(Element element) {
        List<? extends AnnotationMirror> annotationMirrors = element.getAnnotationMirrors();
        if (annotationMirrors == null || annotationMirrors.size() == 0) return false;
        for (AnnotationMirror annotationMirror : annotationMirrors) {
            String qualifiedName = ((TypeElement)annotationMirror.getAnnotationType().asElement()).getQualifiedName().toString();
            if ("xxx.MyAnnotation".equals(qualifiedName)) return true;
        }
        return false;
    }
}

Any hint would be really appreciated!

Answer 1

Copy-paste of my original answer:

This seems to be a common question so, for those arriving from Google: there is hope.

The Dagger DI project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License and contains some utility methods for working with types in an annotation processor.

In particular, the Util class can be viewed in full on GitHub (Util.java) and defines a method public static String typeToString(TypeMirror type). It uses a TypeVisitor and some recursive calls to build up a string representation of a type. Here is a snippet for reference:

public static void typeToString(final TypeMirror type, final StringBuilder result, final char innerClassSeparator)
{
    type.accept(new SimpleTypeVisitor6<Void, Void>()
    {
        @Override
        public Void visitDeclared(DeclaredType declaredType, Void v)
        {
            TypeElement typeElement = (TypeElement) declaredType.asElement();

            rawTypeToString(result, typeElement, innerClassSeparator);

            List<? extends TypeMirror> typeArguments = declaredType.getTypeArguments();
            if (!typeArguments.isEmpty())
            {
                result.append("<");
                for (int i = 0; i < typeArguments.size(); i++)
                {
                    if (i != 0)
                    {
                        result.append(", ");
                    }

                    // NOTE: Recursively resolve the types
                    typeToString(typeArguments.get(i), result, innerClassSeparator);
                }

                result.append(">");
            }

            return null;
        }

        @Override
        public Void visitPrimitive(PrimitiveType primitiveType, Void v) { ... }

        @Override
        public Void visitArray(ArrayType arrayType, Void v) { ... }

        @Override
        public Void visitTypeVariable(TypeVariable typeVariable, Void v) 
        {
            result.append(typeVariable.asElement().getSimpleName());
            return null;
        }

        @Override
        public Void visitError(ErrorType errorType, Void v) { ... }

        @Override
        protected Void defaultAction(TypeMirror typeMirror, Void v) { ... }
    }, null);
}

I am busy with my own project which generates class extensions. The Dagger method works for complex situations, including generic inner classes. I have the following results:

My test class with field to extend:

public class AnnotationTest
{
    ...

    public static class A
    {
        @MyAnnotation
        private Set<B<Integer>> _bs;
    }

    public static class B<T>
    {
        private T _value;
    }
}

Calling the Dagger method on the Element the processor provides for the _bs field:

accessor.type = DaggerUtils.typeToString(element.asType());

The generated source (custom, of course). Note the awesome nested generic types.

public java.util.Set<AnnotationTest.B<java.lang.Integer>> AnnotationTest.A.getBsGenerated()
{
    return this._bs;
}

EDIT: adapting the concept to extract a TypeMirror of the first generic argument, null otherwise:

public static TypeMirror getGenericType(final TypeMirror type)
{
    final TypeMirror[] result = { null };

    type.accept(new SimpleTypeVisitor6<Void, Void>()
    {
        @Override
        public Void visitDeclared(DeclaredType declaredType, Void v)
        {
            List<? extends TypeMirror> typeArguments = declaredType.getTypeArguments();
            if (!typeArguments.isEmpty())
            {
                result[0] = typeArguments.get(0);
            }
            return null;
        }
        @Override
        public Void visitPrimitive(PrimitiveType primitiveType, Void v)
        {
            return null;
        }
        @Override
        public Void visitArray(ArrayType arrayType, Void v)
        {
            return null;
        }
        @Override
        public Void visitTypeVariable(TypeVariable typeVariable, Void v)
        {
            return null;
        }
        @Override
        public Void visitError(ErrorType errorType, Void v)
        {
            return null;
        }
        @Override
        protected Void defaultAction(TypeMirror typeMirror, Void v)
        {
            throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
        }
    }, null);

    return result[0];
}

Answer 2

Looks like there are a couple of problems. One, the isAssignable() isnt working as expected. Second, in the above code you are trying to get the generic parameters of the Set type (T), rather than the variable declaration (Role).

Nevertheless, the following code should demonstrate what you need:

@SupportedAnnotationTypes({ "xxx.MyAnnotation" })
@SupportedSourceVersion(SourceVersion.RELEASE_6)
public class MongoDocumentAnnotationProcessor extends AbstractProcessor {
    @Override
    public synchronized void init(ProcessingEnvironment processingEnv) {
        super.init(processingEnv);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean process(Set<? extends TypeElement> annotations, RoundEnvironment roundEnv) {
        if (roundEnv.processingOver() || annotations.size() == 0) {
            return false;
        }
        for (Element element : roundEnv.getRootElements()) {
            if (element.getKind() == ElementKind.CLASS && isAnnotatedWithMongoDocument(element)) {
                System.out.println("Running " + getClass().getSimpleName());
                for (VariableElement variableElement : ElementFilter.fieldsIn(element.getEnclosedElements())) {
                    if(variableElement.asType() instanceof DeclaredType){
                        DeclaredType declaredType = (DeclaredType) variableElement.asType();

                        for (TypeMirror typeMirror : declaredType.getTypeArguments()) {
                            System.out.println(typeMirror.toString());
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        return true;  //processed
    }

    private boolean isAnnotatedWithMongoDocument(Element element) {
        return element.getAnnotation(MyAnnotation.class) != null;
    }
}

This code should output:

xxx.Role

Answer 3

All the other answers, while having lots of good points. Don't really show you the problem you have and it's solution.

The problem in your code is here

TypeElement collectionType = elementUtils.getTypeElement("java.util.Collection");
if (typeUtils.isAssignable(typeElement.asType(), collectionType.asType())) {
...

Your type is not extending java.util.Collection but rather java.util.Collection<*>. Let's rewrite the above block to reflect this:

WildcardType WILDCARD_TYPE_NULL = this.typeUtils.getWildcardType(null, null);
final TypeElement collectionTypeElement = this.elementUtils.getTypeElement(Collection.class.getName());
TypeMirror[] typex = {WILDCARD_TYPE_NULL};
DeclaredType collectionType=this.typeUtils.getDeclaredType(collectionTypeElement, typex);
if (typeUtils.isAssignable(typeElement.asType(), collectionType)){ 
 ...

That should make it work