Setup

Setup

Make sure you have the following ready.

• Java 8
• Maven
• a text editor or IDE you’re comfortable with

Get the code

Clone this repository and check out the initial commit. I have tagged it as initial.

git clone https://github.com/glts/safer-spring-petclinic.git
cd safer-spring-petclinic
git checkout initial

This is our codebase. Now is a good time to check whether we’re starting out all green.

Before we do, let’s upgrade to Java 8. In the POM, change java.version to 1.8. I’ve made that my first commit e7ab16a.

-        <java.version>1.7</java.version>
+        <java.version>1.8</java.version>

In the project root, run the install Maven goal.

mvn install

This can take quite a while the first time, because all the project’s dependencies need to be downloaded. At some point you should see the ‘BUILD SUCCESS’ message.

Now start the web server:

mvn tomcat7:run

Open a browser at http://localhost:9966/petclinic/. This is the Pet Clinic.

You can browse around a little to get familiar with the app. Hit Control-C to stop the server when you’re done.

JSR 305 annotations

The annotations @Nullable and @NonNull are provided by the Checker Framework in the package org.checkerframework.checker.nullness.qual. In this tutorial I am going to deviate a little and use the equivalent annotations from the JSR 305 effort instead. Nullness annotations have been reinvented a couple of times. ‘JSR 305: Annotations for Software Defect Detection’, was an attempt to standardise such annotations. Unfortunately, this effort fizzled out. Still, the JSR 305 annotations are the closest thing to a standard that we have today and the Checker Framework understands them without trouble.

The JSR 305 annotations have a nicer package name (javax.annotation) than the ones from the Checker Framework, but bear in my mind that they are less powerful. Only the Checker Framework annotations can be applied to the use of a type. The following, ‘a non-null List of nullable Strings’ cannot be expressed with the JSR 305 annotations.

private @NonNull List<@Nullable String> list;

Anyway, I’m adding the appropriate <dependency> in the POM in my second commit 7d039ae:

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.google.code.findbugs</groupId>
  <artifactId>jsr305</artifactId>
  <!-- no version necessary, provided by io.spring.platform:platform-bom -->
</dependency>

Should you decide to use the Checker Framework annotations substitute the following dependency instead:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.checkerframework</groupId>
  <artifactId>checker-qual</artifactId>
  <version>1.9.8</version>
</dependency>

The checker profile

The next step is to integrate the Checker Framework into our build.

I think it is best to keep this stuff separate from the original build, so I will create a separate Maven profile for compiling with the Checker Framework.

Keeping the Checker Framework compilation separate makes sense for a number of reasons. The most important reason is that the class files that the compiler produces when an annotation processor like the Nullness Checker is attached are different from the class files produced without it. This is usually not an issue, but with annotation-heavy frameworks like Spring and Hibernate there is a small risk of unwanted interaction.

Here is the checker profile. You can see in my third commit 71fe129 that I’ve added it at the bottom of the POM, just before the final <url> tag.

<profiles>
  <profile>
    <id>checker</id>
    <dependencies>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>org.checkerframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>checker</artifactId>
        <version>1.9.8</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>org.checkerframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>jdk8</artifactId>
        <version>1.9.8</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
      </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
      <plugins>
        <plugin>
          <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
          <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
          <executions>
            <execution>
              <goals>
                <goal>properties</goal>
              </goals>
            </execution>
          </executions>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
          <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.3</version>
          <configuration>
            <source>${java.version}</source>
            <target>${java.version}</target>
            <annotationProcessors>
              <annotationProcessor>org.checkerframework.checker.nullness.NullnessChecker</annotationProcessor>
            </annotationProcessors>
            <compilerArgs>
              <arg>-Xbootclasspath/p:${org.checkerframework:jdk8:jar}</arg>
            </compilerArgs>
          </configuration>
        </plugin>
      </plugins>
    </build>
  </profile>
</profiles>

All this does is define a new profile checker, add the Checker Framework dependencies, and register the NullnessChecker annotation processor.

The Checker Framework comes with an ‘annotated JDK 8’, to be put on the bootclasspath for the annotation processor. The annotated JDK contains the method signatures of the JDK, annotated as appropriate with @Nullable and @NonNull. The annotated JDK isn’t strictly necessary but it does help reduce false positives, so there goes.

With that set up, the checker profile is ready to go.

Kick off the build with mvn -Pchecker compile and turn the page.