non-releases/trunk_before_flattening/src/java/org/apache/cocoon/util/ClassUtils.java

/*
 * Copyright 1999-2004 The Apache Software Foundation.
 * 
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 * 
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 * 
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */
package org.apache.cocoon.util;

import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;

/**
 * A collection of class management utility methods.
 *
 * @version $Id$
 */
public class ClassUtils {

    /**
     * Create a new instance given a class name
     *
     * @param className A class name
     * @return A new instance
     * @exception Exception If an instantiation error occurs
     */
    public static Object newInstance(String className) throws Exception {
        return ClassUtils.loadClass(className).newInstance();
    }

    /**
     * Load a class given its name.
     * BL: We wan't to use a known ClassLoader--hopefully the heirarchy
     *     is set correctly.
     *
     * @param className A class name
     * @return The class pointed to by <code>className</code>
     * @exception ClassNotFoundException If a loading error occurs
     */
    public static Class loadClass(String className) throws ClassNotFoundException {
        return ClassUtils.getClassLoader().loadClass(className);
    }

    /**
     * Return a resource URL.
     * BL: if this is command line operation, the classloading issues
     *     are more sane.  During servlet execution, we explicitly set
     *     the ClassLoader.
     *
     * @return The context classloader.
     * @exception MalformedURLException If a loading error occurs
     */
    public static URL getResource(String resource) throws MalformedURLException {
        return ClassUtils.getClassLoader().getResource(resource);
    }

    /**
     * Return the context classloader.
     * BL: if this is command line operation, the classloading issues
     *     are more sane.  During servlet execution, we explicitly set
     *     the ClassLoader.
     *
     * @return The context classloader.
     */
    public static ClassLoader getClassLoader() {
        return Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
    }

}