Get all values of a generated Annotation in an Annotation Processor

Issue

I have a VariableElement field that is annotated with a generated Annotation (which is why I can't use field.getAnnotation(annotationClass)). I need to get all parameters passed to this annotation.

Note that by "a generated Annotation" I mean that literally the Annotation class itself (not the annotated one) has been generated by an Annotation Processor. The field/class that is being annotated is in the handwritten source code.

It didn't look like it'd be that hard, so far I've come up with this:

for (AnnotationMirror annotation : field.getAnnotationMirrors()) {
    Map<? extends ExecutableElement, ? extends AnnotationValue> annotationValueMap = annotation.getElementValues();

    messager.printMessage(Diagnostic.Kind.WARNING, annotation.toString() + ":" + annotationValueMap.toString());
}

I thought this would do it, but the output for the field is the following:

@MyAnnotation:{}

So, the processor does recognize that the field is annotated, but I'm unable to access the passed parameters. Even though the field is definetely annotated and does pass parameters with the annotation (it has to, since the annotation defines required parameters and no defaults):

@MyAnnotation(max = 387, min = 66876, ...)
private Integer myField;

Here's the generated annotation code:

@Retention(RetentionPolicy.SOURCE)
@Target(ElementType.FIELD)
public @interface MyAnnotation {
  int max();

  boolean allowAuto();

  int min();
}

I've clean-compiled the project multiple times, the processor never sees the values. What am I overlooking here? The processor can obviously see the annotation itself, yet the parameters passed to it are hidden.

Solution

Recall that annotation processors run as part of the compiler, in steps called "rounds". This process runs iteratively until there is no new code to compile, and then processors get one last chance to run (not necessary for this answer, but helpful for more context). Each round only the newly created types are directly given to the processor to examine.

What seems to be happening here is that during a round you are emitting a new annotation type, which should allow the processor to observe certain features about some code submitted to be compiled. However, any types created during a given round are not yet compiled until the next round begins.

For this question, we run into a conflict here - some Java sources are compiled which use an annotation that doesn't exist yet. The processor first creates the annotation, and then tries to read the newly-created annotation out of those partly-compiled sources. Unfortunately, until the annotation has been compiled, we can't actually read the annotation. Instead, we need to wait until the subsequent round (once the annotation itself has compiled), then go back to that class which has finished being compiled and examine it.

This can be implemented yourself without too much trouble, but the easiest way is often to rely on the google/auto project (specifically the auto-common library, see https://github.com/google/auto/tree/master/common), and extend their BasicAnnotationProcessor class. One of the nice features it supports is to automatically examine types and check if there are any compilation issues - if so, they are deferred until a later round so you can handle them without any type resolution issues.

Answered By - Colin Alworth