Dynamic loading a class in java with a different package name

Question

Is it possible to load a class in Java and 'fake' the package name/canonical name of a class? I tried doing this, the obvious way, but I get a "class name doesn't match" message in a ClassDefNotFoundException.

The reason I'm doing this is I'm trying to load an API that was written in the default package so that I can use it directly without using reflection. The code will compile against the class in a folder structure representing the package and a package name import. ie:

./com/DefaultPackageClass.class

// ...
import com.DefaultPackageClass;
import java.util.Vector;
// ...

My current code is as follows:

public Class loadClass(String name) throws ClassNotFoundException {
    if(!CLASS_NAME.equals(name))
            return super.loadClass(name);

    try {
        URL myUrl = new URL(fileUrl);
        URLConnection connection = myUrl.openConnection();
        InputStream input = connection.getInputStream();
        ByteArrayOutputStream buffer = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        int data = input.read();

        while(data != -1){
            buffer.write(data);
            data = input.read();
        }

        input.close();

        byte[] classData = buffer.toByteArray();

        return defineClass(CLASS_NAME,
                classData, 0, classData.length);

    } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
        throw new UndeclaredThrowableException(e);
    } catch (IOException e) {
        throw new UndeclaredThrowableException(e); 
    }

}

Answer 1

As Pete mentioned, this can be done using the ASM bytecode library. In fact, that library actually ships with a class specifically for handling these class name re-mappings (RemappingClassAdapter). Here is an example of a class loader using this class:

public class MagicClassLoader extends ClassLoader {

    private final String defaultPackageName;

    public MagicClassLoader(String defaultPackageName) {
        super();
        this.defaultPackageName = defaultPackageName;
    }

    public MagicClassLoader(String defaultPackageName, ClassLoader parent) {
        super(parent);
        this.defaultPackageName = defaultPackageName;
    }

    @Override
    public Class<?> loadClass(String name) throws ClassNotFoundException {
        byte[] bytecode = ...; // I will leave this part up to you
        byte[] remappedBytecode;

        try {
            remappedBytecode = rewriteDefaultPackageClassNames(bytecode);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Could not rewrite class " + name);
        }

        return defineClass(name, remappedBytecode, 0, remappedBytecode.length);
    }

    public byte[] rewriteDefaultPackageClassNames(byte[] bytecode) throws IOException {
        ClassReader classReader = new ClassReader(bytecode);
        ClassWriter classWriter = new ClassWriter(classReader, 0);

        Remapper remapper = new DefaultPackageClassNameRemapper();
        classReader.accept(
                new RemappingClassAdapter(classWriter, remapper),
                0
            );

        return classWriter.toByteArray();
    }

    class DefaultPackageClassNameRemapper extends Remapper {

        @Override
        public String map(String typeName) {
            boolean hasPackageName = typeName.indexOf('.') != -1;
            if (hasPackageName) {
                return typeName;
            } else {
                return defaultPackageName + "." + typeName;
            }
        }

    }

}

To illustrate, I created two classes, both of which belong to the default package:

public class Customer {

}

and

public class Order {

    private Customer customer;

    public Order(Customer customer) {
        this.customer = customer;
    }

    public Customer getCustomer() {
        return customer;
    }

    public void setCustomer(Customer customer) {
        this.customer = customer;
    }

}

This is the listing of Order before any re-mapping:

> javap -private -c Order
Compiled from "Order.java"
public class Order extends java.lang.Object{
private Customer customer;

public Order(Customer);
  Code:
   0:   aload_0
   1:   invokespecial   #10; //Method java/lang/Object."":()V
   4:   aload_0
   5:   aload_1
   6:   putfield    #13; //Field customer:LCustomer;
   9:   return

public Customer getCustomer();
  Code:
   0:   aload_0
   1:   getfield    #13; //Field customer:LCustomer;
   4:   areturn

public void setCustomer(Customer);
  Code:
   0:   aload_0
   1:   aload_1
   2:   putfield    #13; //Field customer:LCustomer;
   5:   return

}

This is the listing of Order after remapping (using com.mycompany as the default package):

> javap -private -c Order
Compiled from "Order.java"
public class com.mycompany.Order extends com.mycompany.java.lang.Object{
private com.mycompany.Customer customer;

public com.mycompany.Order(com.mycompany.Customer);
  Code:
   0:   aload_0
   1:   invokespecial   #30; //Method "com.mycompany.java/lang/Object"."":()V
   4:   aload_0
   5:   aload_1
   6:   putfield    #32; //Field customer:Lcom.mycompany.Customer;
   9:   return

public com.mycompany.Customer getCustomer();
  Code:
   0:   aload_0
   1:   getfield    #32; //Field customer:Lcom.mycompany.Customer;
   4:   areturn

public void setCustomer(com.mycompany.Customer);
  Code:
   0:   aload_0
   1:   aload_1
   2:   putfield    #32; //Field customer:Lcom.mycompany.Customer;
   5:   return

}

As you can see, the remapping has changed all Order references to com.mycompany.Order and all Customer references to com.mycompany.Customer.

This class loader would have to load all classes that either:

• belong to the default package, or
• use other classes that belong to the default package.