Description:

The Jakarta Commons BeanUtils project serves developers when they need dynamic access to Java object properties (without calling compiled-in knowledge of the property getter and setter methods). Customarily, developers create Java classes that conform to the JavaBeans naming patterns for property getters and setters. It is natural to then access these methods directly, using calls to the corresponding getXxx and setXxx methods. When this is not possible, Commons BeanUtils comes in handy.

Usage Notes:

Example of this situation include:

• Building scripting languages that interact with the Java object model (such as the Bean Scripting Framework).
• Building template language processors for web presentation and similar uses (such as Java Server Pages (JSP) or Velocity).
• Building custom tag libraries for JSP and XSP environments (such as Jakarta Taglibs, Struts, Cocoon).
• Consuming XML-based configuration resources like Ant build scripts, web application deployment descriptors or Tomcat"s server.xml file.

Additionally, the Java language provides Reflection and Introspection APIs (see the java.lang.reflect and java.beans packages in the JDK Javadocs) that can be quite complex. The Commons BeanUtils component provides easy-to-use wrappers around these capabilities.