Question

I have some class A:

public class A {
    public A(String str) {
        System.out.println("Create A instance: " + str);
    }

    public void methodA() {
        System.out.println("#methodA1()");
    }
}

And my class loader implementation:

public class MyClassLoader extends ClassLoader {
    public MyClassLoader() {    
        super();
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized Class<?> loadClass(String name) 
            throws ClassNotFoundException {

        System.out.println("Load: " + name);

        return super.loadClass(name);
    }
}

And now I try to change default class loader in current thread:

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class ChangeLoaderTest {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Save class loader so that we can restore later.
        ClassLoader oldLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();

        MyClassLoader newLoader = new MyClassLoader();
        try {
            // Set new classloader.
            Thread.currentThread().setContextClassLoader(newLoader);

            // My class.
            A a = new A("1");
            a.methodA();

            // Standard Java class.
            List<Integer> list = new ArrayList<Integer>();
            list.add(2);
            list.add(3);
        } finally {
            // Restore.
            Thread.currentThread().setContextClassLoader(oldLoader);
        }
    }
}

And ChangeLoaderTest output:

Create A instance: 1
#methodA1()

No one

Load: ...

Why? How I can change ClassLoader into some thread?

Answer 1

As Marko Topolnik points out the context classloader is for use by frameworks. To use the classloader yourself you have to call loadClass("somepackage.A") and then use the reflection API to create a new instance of A (Class.newInstance()).

You wont be able to use A or its methods in your source directly since the calling code does not know A – it uses a different classloader. An interface or baseclass of A that can be loaded by the normal classloader can be used to avoid reflection.

interface AIF{
        void someMethod();
 }
class A implements AIF{
      public void someMethod(){}
 }


public void test(){
     MyLoader loader = new MyLoader();
     Class cla = loader.loadClass("A");
     AIF a = (AIF) cla.newInstance();
     a.someMethod();

 }