MulTEx is a simple, but powerful framework for organizing exceptions and messages is a multi-tier Java software system.

It offers the key features:

• Causal chains/trees as a means to capture low-level error information
• Redundancy-free stack traces and message chains in the case of indirectly caused exceptions
• Internationalized message texts and parameters for exceptions
• Services for reporting an exception chain/tree onto streams and dialogs
• A standard way for writing method bodies with regard to exceptions
• A collection of utilities for centralized exception reporting

Naming conventions

The following naming conventions are used throughout the package multex.

• i_name for an in-parameter of a method, i.e. either a parameter of a primitive type or a parameter of a reference type, which will not be modified by the invoked method.
• o_name for an out-parameter of a method, i.e. a parameter of a reference type, where the referred object will be completely initialized by the method, ignoring all its previous content.
• io_name for an in/out-parameter of a method, i.e. a parameter of a reference type, where the referred object will be modified by the method, possibly using its previous content.
• _name for attributes or methods, which should not be used from outside the class or its subclasses.

Plans

1. 2002-03-26 Prepared means for reporting exceptions with its complete diagnostic information in a servlet/JSP application. You can obtain a project specific Struts solution for this from the author. See applying site http://fb6.tfh-berlin.de/
2. 2003-05-28 Add a class SwingAction with a method actionPerformedWithThrows, which will extend javax.swing.AbstractAction and report any exception coming from lower layers.
3. 2002-04-20 Add buttons for printing or copying the contents of the message window of multex.Awt; place the buttons before the message TextArea.
4. 2005-01-13 Include wrapper exceptions for some exceptions, which do not show all their diagnostic info by toString(). Maybe on reflection basis. I think SQLException is a candidate for this, as its attributes SQLState, and vendorCode are not included in its toString().
5. 2005-01-13 Include private attributes of type Throwable into the {@link multex.ReflectionCauseGetter} in order to get the cause for an exception, which does not implement the getCause() of JDK 1.4. Is there still any such exception?

Version history

• 7.1 of 2006-11-04 Added {@link multex.tool.ExceptionMessagesDoclet}. You can use this doclet to extract the main comment of each Throwable into a .properties file as message text.
  Added constructor {@link multex.Failure#Failure(String)} without a cause.
• 7 of 2006-05-11: Added parameter cause in constructors of class {@link multex.Exc}; Added method getCause() in interface {@link multex.MultexException}.
  Added list exception facility: All parameters of a {@link multex.MultexException}, which are of type java.lang.Throwable, are reported by {@link multex.Msg#printMessages}, thus resulting in a causal exception tree instead of an exception chain.
  {@link multex.Msg#printStackTrace} prints thus a redundancy-free stack trace of all exceptions, contained in the causal exception tree.
  As the tree is symbolized by an indentation by multiple + signs, the layout of printMessages and printStackTrace is no longer the same as in MulTEx 6.
• 6c of 2006-02-16 Added in User's Guide: How to assure centralized exception reporting in a Java Server Faces application.
• 6b of 2005-04-26 Added User's Guide documenting, how to introduce MulTEx. Main chapter: How to assure centralized exception reporting.
• 6a of 2005-04-14 Added method {@link multex.Awt#setAwtExceptionHandlerClass} to set a general exception handler, which can report any exception propagated through to the AWT EventDispatchThread. Uses the undocumented system property "sun.awt.exception.handler", which enables a single place handling for all exceptions in methods called from a AWT or Swing GUI. See example in class multex.demo.AwtFile.
• 6 of 2005-01-13
  Improvement: The methods in class {@link multex.Msg} for printing the stack trace of a Throwable chain betterly recognize low level causes in an exception chain. They follow the chain by the {@link multex.ReflectionCauseGetter} instead of leaving this to Throwable.printStackTrace().
  Restriction: Now needs JRE >= 1.4, which exists already >= 3 years.
  Incompatible: Much utility functionality moved from class {@link multex.Failure} to the new class {@link multex.Util}.
• 5d of 2004-12-10:
  Restriction: MulTEx now needs JRE >= 1.2 for execution, JDK >= 1.4 for testing.
  Improvement: The methods in class {@link multex.Msg} for printing the messages of a Throwable chain, suppress redundant info caused by legacy exception chaining as String, e.g. Root cause is ..., or nested exception is ...
• 5c of 2004-11-05:
  Bugfix: The methods in class {@link multex.Msg} for printing the stack trace of a Throwable chain, report a null Throwable instead of throwing NullPointerException.
  Improvement: The methods in class {@link multex.Msg} for printing the messages of a Throwable chain, a) report a null Throwable instead of printing nothing, b) suppress reporting an object of the exact class Failure without any own info. See {@link multex.Failure#Failure(Throwable)} shortly for the concept of a tunneling exception.
  Packaging: The release is a .zip file, which contains a -class.jar file with all core framework classes, and a -java.jar file with the source code of the framework, the test suite, and the demo programs.
• 5b of 2004-05-11:
  Bugfix: Method {@link multex.Msg#printReport(StringBuffer, Throwable, ResourceBundle)} now passes its ResourceBundle to multex.Msg.printMessages(...).
  Bug avoiding: Now {@link multex.Awt} and {@link multex.Swing} show the reporting dialog in the AWT event queue thread, instead of the callers thread. See http://java.sun.com/developer/JDCTechTips/2003/tt1208.html
  Comfort: Method {@link multex.Awt#countLines(String)} is now public.
• 5a of 2003-11-25:
  Bugfix: Report any exception with message text pattern, but without exception parameters or Throwable.getMessage() without ": null".. Corresponding testcases added.
• 5 of 2003-09-12:
  Added class {@link multex.Swing} for reporting into a Swing dialog with dynamic or static internationalization. Interface of class {@link multex.Awt} simplified (incompatible change) and made uniform with Swing.
  Added method {@link multex.Util#getContainedException(java.lang.Throwable,java.lang.Class)}, originally to class Failure.
  Simpler dynamic internationalization using only a java.util.ResourceBundle
  Takes the cause marker from the used ResourceBundle by key {@link multex.MsgText#causeMarker} instead of giving it as a separate argument (incompatible change).
  Class MultexLocale deprecated, see there (incompatible change). Unnecessary parameter i_lineSeparator removed in all methods. See class description {@link multex.Msg} (incompatible change).
• 4a of 2003-07-01 (unpublished) Bugfix: Failure.getOriginalException(Throwable): corrected endless loop.
• 4 of 2003-05-22: With dynamic internationalization as for web servers. The new class multex.MultexLocale bundles a ResourceBundle for the message texts, the Locale for the message parameter substitution, and a cause marker text. The MultexLocale is electable for each exception message report. The line separator for low level exception reports is electable, too. See {@link multex.Msg#printMessages(StringBuffer,Throwable,java.util.ResourceBundle)}.
• 3e of 2002-07-02: Compiles unchanged on JDK 1.1 up to 1.4. Uses by default ReflectionCauseGetter. Thus code compiled on one JDK-version should run on another version. Includes JUnit tests in subdirectory 'test'.
• 3d of 2002-06-27: Will compile unchanged on JDK 1.4 and on earlier ones, automatically adapting itself to using Jdk1_4CauseGetter or Jdk1_1CauseGetter.
• 3c of 2002-06-26: Corrected compilation error of classes Awt and Msg using MsgText.appendMessageChain()
• 3b of 2002-06-25: Added java.sql.SQLWarning to JDK1_1CauseGetter and JDK1_4CauseGetter, Corrected package name in demo/MsgText_de.properties to 'multex.demo', MsgText.appendMessageChain() allows to specify a lineSeparator, useful for HTML-output, first version of errorPage.jsp.
• 3a of 2002-05-21: New presentation slides: Actualized, landscape format.
• 3 of 2002-04-29: Adaptation to JDK 1.4
  • As JDK 1.4 finally introduced the concept of a causal chain for the exception base class Throwable, MulTEx 3 now makes use of this feature instead of managing the causal chain itself.
  • Thus requires JDK 1.4.
  • gendocs.bat: Generation error in JDK 1.4 corrected
• 2c of 2002-03-26:
  • class Failure: Example message text parameters in constructor correctly quoted. Analoguous correction in demo class File.
  • This is the last release destinated for JDK versions 1.1 up to 1.3 and produced with JDK 1.3.
• 2b of 2001-12-18:
  • source files in package correct directory multex, achieved by introducing an automated release procedure.
• 2a of 2001-06-28:
  • Awt.report(...): Now accepts any AWT-Component as owner hook. The owner Window is determined by searching the Window which is the nearest parent of the hook component. Although some report-methods were deleted, this should be upwards compatible to version 2.
• 2 of 2001-04-19:
  • Msg.printStackTrace(...) does no longer delete the last lines, which indicate the place, where it has been invoked. So the compactified multi-tier trace contains all lines of the trace of the lowest exception.
  • Again only unnamed indexed exception parameters for message text placeholders {0} ... {9}, but with a default text pattern in the exception object. In the stack trace is included the default text pattern (if provided). The parameters are each on a separate line.
  • Added convenience constructors to multex.Exc and multex.Failure with 0..10 parameters of type Object for filling the parameter Object[].
  • class Failure: Method name getCause(...) instead of cause(...), getOriginalException(...) instead of originalException(...)
  • All inner classes repositioned as outer classes: CauseGetter, Jdk1_1CauseGetter, AssertionFailure.
  • class MethodFailure removed, Failure as non-abstract class. For a more comfortable ad hoc usage you can directly throw a newly created Failure-object, each time with an individual message text, but then without internationalization possibility.
  • Now its possible to redefine the method checkClass() in order to modify or deactivate the checking of the naming conventions of the descendants of Exc and Failure.
  • class multex.Awt: After showing the stack trace scrolls upwards in order to show its beginning.
• 1c of 2000-02-27:
  • Internationalization of message texts is now optional. You can activate it by initially calling multex.MsgText.setInternationalization(true);
  • Failure.Jdk1_1CauseGetter now knows java.sql.SQLException
• 1b of 2000-12-13:
  • class multex.Awt: a) Now offers new methods reportNonmodal in order to report into a non-modal dialog. b) Now offers a new method report(Throwable), which reports using an anomymous, shared, hidden Frame as owner.
  • class multex.Msg: Now offers methods for reporting a) only the message chain, b) only the compact stack trace, c) both in one.
  • class multex.Failure:
    • Enabled to encapsulate a cause of type Throwable rather than only Exception.
    • cause(Throwable) returns by default for all known exceptions of JDK 1.1 with a causing exception this causing exception. The method for getting the causing exception of an exception is configurable by a call to Failure.setCauseGetter(...);
    • Added function Throwable originalException(Throwable i_throwable) to get the original exception, which is i_throwable itself or (may be indirectly) caused it.
• 1.1 of 2000-10-26 Reporting methods separated: Low level in class Msg, onto sreen in class Awt.
• 1.0 of 2000-10-21 Big revolution.
  • New convenience class MethodFailure. No longer 0..10 unnamed parameters in Failure-constructor.
  • Each exception object has a default message text pattern, which is used, if there is no corresponding message text found in file MsgText.properties or one of its localized variants.
  • New classes Assertion and Assertion.Failure
  • Requires only JDK 1.1, no longer 1.2
• 0.2 of 2000-10-08 Failure extends java.lang.RuntimeException by default.
• 0.1 of 2000-09-29 Failure extends java.lang.Exception instead of multex.Exc. Thus it is easily switchable to extends java.lang.RuntimeException. Named parameters are the only parameters, that can be inserted into a message text. Nevertheless for easiest providing of diagnostic information in a Failure exception, the constructor of Failure accepts 0..10 unnamed parameters of type Object.
• 0.0 of 1999..2000 Evolution of this framework. The name MulTEx was not yet used.