Scripting in Java 6.0 - Part 1

by Krishna Srinivasan
11/02/2007

Introduction

In this article i will write a small program using Scripting feature in Java 6.0, a new feature introduced in Java 6.0 mustang. This is cool and more useful when we are working with the scripting languages. I am not going to explain in depth, will explain with very small example. In my next article i will write about the advanced features in script programming in java. Follow the steps to run your first script program in Java 6.0 :

Setting Environments

• download and Install Java 6.0 from sun site
• download Rhino script engine from Mozilla site
• Get the js.jar file from the package and add into the classpath

Writing HelloWorld.js

function testMessage(msg){
        print("Printing : " + msg);
    }

Writing HelloWorld.java

New package javax.script is added to the java 6.0 version. It provides necessary APIs to work with script engines. Sun's implementation of JDK 6 is co-bundled with the Mozilla Rhino based JavaScript script engine.

 import javax.script.*;
    class HelloWorld{
        public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception{
            ScriptEngineManager factory = new ScriptEngineManager();
            ScriptEngine engine = factory.getEngineByName("JavaScript");
            engine.eval(new java.io.FileReader("helloworld.js"));
            Invocable inv = (Invocable) engine;
            inv.invokeFunction("testMessage", "Hello World!!!" );
        }
    }

Run the application

type in the command prompt

	>> javac HelloWorld.java
	>> java HelloWorld

	Will be printed as :

	Printing : Hello World!!!

Bookmark This Page :