Feather

About Feather

Feather is an ultra-lightweight dependency injection (JSR-330) library for Java and Android. Dependency injection frameworks are often perceived as "magical" and complex. Feather - with just a few hundred lines of code - is probably the easiest, tiniest, most obvious one, and is quite efficient too (see comparison section below).

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.codejargon.feather</groupId>
    <artifactId>feather</artifactId>
    <version>1.0</version>
</dependency>

Usage - code examples

Create Feather (the injector)

Feather feather = Feather.with();

An application typically needs a single Feather instance.

Instantiating dependencies

Dependencies with @Inject constructor or a default constructor can be injected by Feather without the need for any configuration. Eg:

public class A {
    @Inject
    public A(B b) {
        // ...
    }
}

public class B {
    @Inject
    public B(C c, D d) {
        // ...
    }
}

public class C {}

@Singleton
public class D {
    // something expensive or other reasons for being singleton
}

Creating an instance of A:

A a = feather.instance(A.class);

Providing additional dependencies to Feather

When injecting an interface, a 3rd party class or an object needing custom instantiation, Feather relies on configuration modules providing those dependencies:

public class MyModule {
    @Provides
    @Singleton // an app will probably need a single instance 
    DataSource ds() {
        DataSource dataSource = // instantiate some DataSource
        return dataSource;
    }
}

Setting up Feather with module(s):

Feather feather = Feather.with(new MyModule());

The DataSource dependency will now be available for injection:

public class MyApp {
    @Inject 
    public MyApp(DataSource ds) {
        // ...
    }
}

Feather injects dependencies to @Provides methods aguments. This is particularly useful for binding an implementation to an interface:

public interface Foo {}

public class FooBar implements Foo {
    @Inject
    public FooBar(X x, Y y, Z z) {
        // ...
    }
}

public class MyModule {
    @Provides
    Foo foo(FooBar fooBar) {
        return fooBar;
    }
}

// injecting an instance of Foo interface will work using the MyModule above:
public class A {
    @Inject
    public A(Foo foo) {
        // ...
    }
}

Note that the @Provides method serves just as a binding declaration here, no manual instantiation needed

Qualifiers

Feather supports Qualifiers (@Named or custom qualifiers)

public class MyModule {
    @Provides
    @Named("greeting")
    String greeting() {
        return "hi";
    }

    @Provides
    @SomeQualifier
    Foo some(FooSome fooSome) {
        return fooSome;
    };
}

Injecting:

public class A {
    @Inject
    public A(@SomeQualifier Foo foo, @Named("greeting") String greet) {
        // ...
    }
}

Or directly from feather:

String greet = feather.instance(String.class, "greeting");
Foo foo = feather.instance(Key.of(Foo.class, SomeQualifier.class));

Provider injection

Feather injects Providers to facilitate lazy loading or circular dependencies:

public class A {
    @Inject
    public A(Provider<B> b) {
        B b = b.get(); // fetch a new instance when needed
    }
}

Or getting a Provider directly from Feather:

Provider<B> bProvider = feather.provider(B.class);

Override modules

public class Module {
    @Provides
    DataSource dataSource() {
        // return a mysql datasource
    }

    // other @Provides methods
}

public class TestModule extends Module {
    @Override
    @Provides
    DataSource dataSource() {
        // return a h2 datasource
    }
}

Field injection

Feather supports Constructor injection only when injecting to a dependency graph. It inject fields also if it's explicitly triggered for a target object - eg to facilitate testing. A simple example with a junit test:

public class AUnitTest {
    @Inject
    private Foo foo;
    @Inject
    private Bar bar;

    @Before
    public void setUp() {
        Feather feather = // obtain a Feather instance
        feather.injectFields(this);
    }
}

Method injection

Not supported. The need for it can be generally avoided by a Provider / solid design (favoring immutability, injection via constructor).

Android example

class ExampleApplication extends Application {
    private Feather feather;

    @Override public void onCreate() {
        // ...
        feather = Feather.with( /* modules if needed*/ );
    }

    public Feather feather() {
        return feather;
    }
}

class ExampleActivity extends Activity {
    @Inject
    private Foo foo;
    @Inject
    private Bar bar;

  @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedState) {
    // ...
    ((ExampleApplication) getApplication())
        .feather()
            .injectFields(this);
  }
}

For best possible performance, dependencies should be immutable and @Singleton. See full example in android-test on GitHub.

Footprint, performance, comparison

Small footprint and high performance is in Feather's main focus.

• compared to Guice: 1/50 the library size, about 10x startup speed
• compared to Dagger: 1/4 the library size (of just Dagger's run-time part), about 2x startup speed

Note: startup means creation of the container and instantiation of an object graph. Executable comparison including Spring, Guice, Dagger, PicoContainer is in 'performance-test' module on GitHub.

How it works under the hood

Feather is based on optimal use of reflection to provide dependencies. No code generating, classpath scanning, proxying or anything costly involved.

A simple example with some explanation:

class A {
    @Inject
    A(B b) {

    }
}

class B {

}

Without the use of Feather, class A could be instantiated with the following factory methods:

A a() {
    return new A(b());
}

B b() {
    return new B();
}

Feather avoids the need for writing such factories - by doing the same thing internally: When an instance of A is injected, Feather calls A's constructor with the necessary arguments - an instance of B. That instance of B is created the same way - a simple recursion, this time with no further dependencies - and the instance of A is created.