Utility Classes

The package ulu.ut contains a lot of unrelated code that performs small useful functions. Uncle Unc makes use of a number of them, but their use is not limited to Unc. A few useful ones are briefly highlighted here.

FileLiner can read data in chunks from any text-based InputStream, matching on certain delimiter characters, typically carriage returns.

ArrayEnum is a java.util.Enumeration that operates on a java array. Usefully, it can be instantiated with null arguments in order to return a non-null Enumeration containing no elements.

ClassMap a Hashtable used to map classes to resources (most typically other classes). Used a lot in developing customisable factory classes in Uncle Unc. Initially, the key and value pair are defined as strings in a property sheet, and will be resolved on demand. Matching can take account of superclasses and interfaces, so, for example, if you request a handler class for foo.bar.SpecialCase (extends foo.baz.Generic), and no entry exists for foo.bar.SpecialCase, each parent class and interface will be checked, until a match is found, favouring more specific over generic matching.

ParamString a string that matches specific regular expressions, from which substrings can be extracted associatively. Originally developed as a solution to parsing JDBC urls, the path portion of which may assume any arbitrary format at the whim of the database vendors.

ResourceLoader and FlexiResourceLoader ResourceLoader is a utility for extracting resources from jar files using a class folder. FlexiResourceLoader checks a jar file and a local configuration directory in a filesystem, allowing an application to be shipped as a standalone jar by default, but the user to easily edit their own unjarred config files if they wish.

ProcessChain a generic system for loading nested sets of filters or object processors from XML descriptions and passing objects to them for processing. The filters in Uncle Unc follow the ProcessChain pattern.

Registry a static VM-wide placeholder for sharing configuration information

FileFinder and ClassFinder Search classes that traverse directories recursively, searching into zip and jar files too, if required. These are pre-Uncle Unc, and apt to form the basis of a powerful search gent that traverses Unc Item trees sometime in the future.