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Object Test

This class can be used to instantiate a class written by a student without calling the class directly. This is advantageous to avoid compilation errors if the student misnames or does not code the class, is missing a method, etc. through the use of the Java reflections API. Features include calling any constructors, methods and fields in the class, testing their modifiers, fetching any field values, and more.

Attributes​

private Class<?> objectClass​

  • This is the class which you are currently testing.

Constructors​

public ObjectTest(String objectClass)​

  • The constructor for this method takes the String of the class name, and uses Java reflections to find the class associated with that class name. Note that the class name is dependent on the package, so if you are trying to find a class called "House" in the package "test.object", the String would be "test.object.House".

Methods​

public boolean hasSuperclass(Class<?> superClass)​

  • Checks if the objectClass class is a subclass of the superClass class. If it is, the method returns true, and if not returns false.

public boolean implementsInterface(Class<?> interfaceClass)​

  • Checks if objectClass implements the interface interfaceClass and returns true if it does, and false if not.

public boolean implementsInterfaces(Class<?>[] interfaces)​

  • Checks if objectClass implements every interface in interfaces, and returns true if it does, and false id not.

public boolean hasConstructor(Class<?>[] argsClass)​

  • Checks if objectClass has a constructor where the parameter classes are the classes in argsClass. Note that order matters, so the parameter {int.class, String.class} is not the same as {String.class, int.class}, as these would be different constructors.

public boolean hasConstructor(Class<?>[] argsClass, String[] modifiers)​

  • Checks if objectClass has a constructor where the parameter classes are the classes in argsClass, and checks that the constructor has the correct modifiers. For example, the calling the methods with the arguments {int.class, String.class}, {"public"}, checks that the object has a public constructor with the parameters of int and String.

public Object createInstance(Object[][] arguments) throws Throwable​

  • Creates an instance of the objectClass class using the parameters in the arguments array. where the arguments array is a 2D array where each inner array has the form {parameterValue, paramaterType}. createInstance tries to match the parameter types to a constructor, and if a match is found, it calls the constructor with the parameter values. If no match is found, the method fails the test stating that a required constructor could not be found.
  • Throws any underlying errors in the constructor it tries to call, or an error if the constructor is not callable.

public Object createInstance() throws Throwable​

  • Creates an instance of the objectClass class using the default constructor
  • Throws any underlying errors as a result of calling the default constructor, and an error if the default constructor cannot be called.

public boolean hasField(String fieldName, Class<?> fieldClass)​

  • Checks if the objectClass class has a field with the name fieldName and class fieldClass. Returns true if a match is found and false if not.

public boolean hasField(String fieldName, Class<?> fieldClass, String[] modifiers)​

  • Checks if the objectClass class has a field with the name fieldName, class fieldClass, and all of the modifiers in the modifiers array. It returns true is a match is found, and false if not.
  • For example, calling hasField(name, String.class, new String[]{"public", "static"}) would return true if objectClass has the field public static String name.

public boolean hasMethod(String methodName, Class<?>[] argsClass, Class<?> methodReturnType)​

  • Checks if the objectClass class has a method with the name methodName, the parameters specified in argsClass, and the return type of methodReturnType. If there is a match, it returns true, and false if not.
  • For example, hasMethod would return true if hasMethod("add", new Class[]{int.class, int.class}, int.class) was called and objectClass contains the method int add(int x, int y).

public boolean hasMethod(String methodName, Class<?>[] argsClass, Class<?> methodReturnType, String[] modifiers)​

  • Checks if the objectClass class has a method with the name methodName, the parameters specified in argsClass, the return type of methodReturnType, and all the modifiers in the modifiers array. If there is a match, it returns true, and false if not.
  • For example, hasMethod would return true if hasMethod("add", new Class[]{int.class, int.class}, int.class, new String[]{"public", "static"}) was called and objectClass contains the method public static int add(int x, int y).

public boolean hasModifier(Field field, String modifier)​

  • Checks if field has the modifier passed in the modifier parameter. If it does, it returns true, and if not it returns false.

public boolean hasModifier(String fieldName, String modifier)​

  • Checks if the field called fieldName has the modifier modifier. Note that the method first checks if the field exists in the objectClass class, and then if the field has the correct modifier. If the field has the modifier, it returns true, and false if not.

public boolean hasModifier(Class<?>[] argsClass, String modifier)​

  • Checks if the objectClass constructor matching the passed argsClass array has the modifier modifier. Note that the method first checks if there is a constructor which matches the argsClass array, and then checks if the constructor has the correct modifier. If it has the modifier, it returns true, and false if not.

public boolean hasModifier(Constructor<?> constructor, String modifier)​

  • Checks if the passed constructor has the modifier modifier. Returns true if it does and false if not.

public boolean hasModifier(String modifier)​

  • Checks if the objectClass class has the modifier modifier. The method returns true if it does and false if not.

public boolean hasModifier(String methodName, Class<?>[] argsClass, String modifier)​

  • Checks if the method called methodName in objectClass with the parameters argsClass has the modifier modifier. The method returns true if it does, and false if it does not. Note that it also returns false if it fails to find a match for the method.

public boolean hasModifier(Method method, String modifier​

  • Checks if the method method has the modifier modifier. Returns true if it does and false if not.

public Object getFieldValue(Object testObject, String fieldName)​

  • Attempts to find the field fieldName in testObject. If the field is found, the value is returned in an Object wrapper. If the field is not found or is inaccessible, the test is failed.

public void setFieldValue(Object testObject, Object value, String fieldName)​

  • Attempts to find the field fieldName in testObject. If successful, it sets the value of the field to value. If the field is not found, the test is failed. Note that the test will fail if the field is of the wrong type.

public Object callMethod(String methodName, Object[][] arguments, String[] modifiers, Object object, Clause[] methodTestSentence, String incorrectMethodStructureErrorMessage) throws Throwable​

  • Attempts to call the method methodName in objectClass and return the output of that method. callMethod works by attempting to find a method which matches the class parameters passed in arguments. If a match is found, it calls the method with the parameter values passed in arguments and returns the output. The object returned will be, callMethod will return the output of that method in an object wrapper, and null if the return type is void.
  • Parameters (* indicates a required parameter):
    • methodName - the name of the method to call in objectClass *
    • arguments - the parameters and the values to call methodName with, where each parameter is of the form {parameterValue, parameterClass}. If there are no parameters, this field is not required.
    • modifiers - the modifiers which the method should have. If specified, the test will fail if the method called does not have the correct modifiers.
    • object - the object of type objectClass that the method is called on. This is only not required if the method called is static
    • methodTestSentence - this parameter should be used to check any printed output from the method. If there is no printed output, this value is not required, and callMethod checks that the method prints no output.
    • incorrectMethodStructureErrorMessage - this can be used to specify an error message if the methodTestSentence is used. If the printed output from the method is incorrect, this error message is shown to the student.

public Class<?> getObjectClass()​

  • Returns the objectClass field.

public Class<?> getObjectArrayClass()​

  • Returns the array class for the objectClass class.

public Object createArray(int length)​

  • Creates an empty array of length length of the type objectClass.

public Object createArray(int length, Object[][][] arguments)​

  • Creates an array of length length of the type objectClass. Each item is initialized using the values in the arguments array, with the arguments array configured where the outermost array is each object to go into the array, and the two inner arrays specify the constructor and values to use to initialize each object.
  • For example, if the arguments array is as follows, the method will attempt to initialize the first object using an (int, String) constructor with the specified values, the second object with a (String) constructor, and the third object with the default constructor. 
    {
        {
            {5, int.class},
            {"Hello", String.class}
        },
        {
            {"Hello World!", String.class}
        },
        {}
    }

public Object createArray(int length, Object[][] arguments) throws Throwable​

  • Creates an array of length length of the type objectClass. Each item in the array is created using the objectClass constructor that matches the specified parameter classes in arguments, and initialized to the value in arguments. Note that agurments is of the form {paramaterValue, paramaterClass}.