Apache Commons BSF

Apache Commons BSF stands for the Bean Scripting Framework (BSF).

This package helps developers write JSP files in other languages while still being able to interact and have access to Java's class library.

Basically BSF lets developers use one or more scripting languages in their Java code. The BSF API will handle all the inconsistencies between Java and the scripting language letting the two interact without problems or errors.

Commons BSF can be used as a standalone library, as a class library, or as part of a Java application server.

The project comes in two different versions. Branch 2.x contains the original code donated to Apache by the IBM team, while the newer 3.x branch is a re-work of the original code, with some extra features also added (mainly XML and Java 1.6+ support).

Features:

• Supported BSF 2.x languages:
• Commons JEXL
• JavaScript
• NetRexx
• Python
• Tcl
• XSLT
• Supported BSF 3.x languages:
• Groovy
• Java
• JRuby
• JudoScript
• ObjectScript
• ooRexx
• Prolog

What is new in this release:

• Can be used as an extension package to Java by placing it into "jre/lib/ext" [using the thread's context classloader, ie. the result of 'Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader()']
• Removed experimental 'DebugLog' class, superceded by commons-logging and log4j
• Removed 'org.apache.bsf.engines.activescript.*', as it is not supported anymore (stems from the original IBM codebase, but would need native Windows code to bridge OLE/ActiveX)
• Removed 'org.apache.bsf.engines.jpython', as it is superseded by the newer 'org.apache.bsf.engines.jython'
• 'org.apache.bsf.BSFMain.java': new method "public String getVersion()", returns string in the form of a dewey decimal number 'abc' (three levels, each between 0 and 9) 'abc.yyyymmdd', 'yyyy' four digit year, 'mm' two digit month, 'dd' two digit day;
• New class 'org.apache.bsf.utils.BSFEventProcessorReturningEventInfos'
• 'org.apache.bsf.utils.EngineUtils.java': added the method 'addEventListenerReturningEventInfos(...)'