Spring AOP - why do i need aspectjweaver?

java spring aop aspectj spring-aop

Spring AOP implementation I think is reusing some classes from the aspectj-weaver. It still uses dynamic proxies - doesn't do byte code modification.

The following comment from the spring forum might clarify.

Spring isn't using the AspectJ weaver in this case. It is simply reusing some of the classes from aspectjweaver.jar.
-Ramnivas

java spring aop aspectj spring-aop

You are using AspectJ style pointcut-expression @Aspect and @Before are part of AspectJ. Check this link.

Regarding the AspectJ-weaver, its actually a bytecode weaver which weaves aspects into classes at load time.

java spring aop aspectj spring-aop

To use Spring AoP without an AspectJ dependency it must be done in xml. The annotations are a part of AspectJ.

Also, the really cool expression language is only supported by AspectJ. So you have to define explicit point-cuts. See Section 6.3.2. Declaring a pointcut:http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/2.0.x/reference/aop.html section

I'm still having trouble finding any elaborate documentation on this technique.

CodeHunter