IllegalArgumentException: error wildcard type pattern not allowed, must use type name

Please review the following code:

Code:

---

package com.simple.aspect.system;
@Aspect
public class SystemArchitectureAspect
{
        @Pointcut("witin(com.simple.web..*)")
        public void inWebLayer() {}

        @Pointcut("within(com.simple.aspect..*)")
        public void inAspectLayer() {}

        @Pointcut("execution(* com.simple..*.*(..)) && !inAspectLayer()")
        public void allOperations() {}
}

---

Code:

---

package com.simple.aspect.log;
@Aspect
public class LogManagerAspect
{
        private Log log = LogFactory.getLog(getClass());

        @Before("com.simple.aspect.system.SystemArchitectureAspect.allOperations()")
        public void beforeTraced(JoinPoint pjp)
        {
                Signature sig = pjp.getSignature();

                if (sig != null)
                        log.info("Entering [" + sig.toShortString() + "]");
        }

        @After("com.simple.aspect.system.SystemArchitectureAspect.allOperations()")
        public void afterTraced(JoinPoint pjp)
        {
                Signature sig = pjp.getSignature();

                if (sig != null)
                        log.info("Leaving [" + sig.toShortString() + "]");
        }
}

---

Code:

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org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'simpleConfig': Initialization of bean failed; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: error wildcard type pattern not allowed, must use type name
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:519)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:450)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:290)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:222)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:287)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:189)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:557)
        at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:842)
        at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:416)
        at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.createWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:261)
        at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:192)
        at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:47)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:3934)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4429)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:791)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:771)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:526)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory(HostConfig.java:987)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectories(HostConfig.java:909)

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org.springframework.context-3.0.0.RELEASE.jar (spring latest stable release)
org.springframework.orm-3.0.0.RELEASE.jar
org.springframework.core-3.0.0.RELEASE.jar
org.springframework.context.support-3.0.0.RELEASE.jar
org.springframework.beans-3.0.0.RELEASE.jar
cglib-2.2.jar
org.springframework.web.servlet-3.0.0.RELEASE.jar
org.springframework.oxm-3.0.0.RELEASE.jar
org.springframework.jdbc-3.0.0.RELEASE.jar
org.springframework.expression-3.0.0.RELEASE.jar
org.springframework.aspects-3.0.0.RELEASE.jar
asm-3.2.jar
org.springframework.web-3.0.0.RELEASE.jar
org.springframework.asm-3.0.0.RELEASE.jar
org.springframework.aop-3.0.0.RELEASE.jar
log4j-1.2.15.jar
commons-dbcp-1.2.2.jar
commons-pool-1.5.4.jar
commons-logging-1.1.1.jar
org.springframework.transaction-3.0.0.RELEASE.jar
jstl.jar
standard.jar
com.springsource.org.aopalliance-1.0.0.jar
aspectjrt.jar (version: 1.5.4-1)
aspectjweaver.jar (veresion: 1.5.4-1)

In LogManagerAspect, if I replace the two pointcuts

Code:

---

@Before("com.fundserv.simple.aspect.system.SystemArchitectureAspect.allOperations()")
@After("com.fundserv.simple.aspect.system.SystemArchitectureAspect.allOperations()")

---

with

Code:

---

@Before("execution(* com.fundserv.simple..*.*(..))")
@After("execution(* com.fundserv.simple..*.*(..))")

---

Then everything works without any problem.
It seems my current environment does not allow referencing any pointcut expression by name, (i.e. allOperations()..etc)

I made some small changes to test the problem. I consolidated the SystemArchitectAspect and LogManagerAspect into one single Aspect as follow; To my surprise it works without any problem.

Code:

---

package com.simple.aspect.log;
@Aspect
public class LogManagerAspect
{
        private Log log = LogFactory.getLog(getClass());

        @Pointcut("within(com.simple.aspect..*)")
        public void inAspectLayer() {}

        @Pointcut("execution(* com.simple..*.*(..)) && !inAspectLayer()")
        public void allOperations() {}


      @Before("allOperations()")
        public void beforeTraced(JoinPoint pjp)
        {
                Signature sig = pjp.getSignature();

                if (sig != null)
                        log.info("Entering [" + sig.toShortString() + "]");
        }

        @After("allOperations()")
        public void afterTraced(JoinPoint pjp)
        {
                Signature sig = pjp.getSignature();

                if (sig != null)
                        log.info("Leaving [" + sig.toShortString() + "]");
        }
}

---

Code:

---

@Before("com.simple.aspect.system.SystemArchitectureAspect.allOperations()")
@After("com.simple.aspect.system.SystemArchitectureAspect.allOperations()")

---

My investigation so far leads me to believe that this type of cross-package pointcut name referencing is either not supported, or the above referencing syntax is not quite correct.

http://static.springsource.org/sprin...#aop-ataspectj

According to section 7.2.3.3 and 7.2.4, it is considered a good practice to consolidate all basic pointcuts into a shared aspect (i.e. SystemArchitecture..etc). The cross-package pointcut name referencing is clearly supported. Further more in section 7.2.4, the sample advices have the exact same pointcut name referencing syntax as my code. My early conclusions were wrong. More investigation is under way.

I finally got it!! There was a pointcut expression error in one of the unused pointcut in SystemArchitectureAspect.

Code:

---

package com.simple.aspect.system;
@Aspect
public class SystemArchitectureAspect
{
        @Pointcut("witin(com.simple.web..*)")
        public void inWebLayer() {}

        @Pointcut("within(com.simple.aspect..*)")
        public void inAspectLayer() {}

        @Pointcut("execution(* com.simple..*.*(..)) && !inAspectLayer()")
        public void allOperations() {}
}

---