InvocationHandler handler = new MyInvocationHandler(...);Class<?>proxyClass=Proxy.getProxyClass(Foo.class.getClassLoader(),Foo.class);Foof=(Foo)proxyClass.getConstructor(InvocationHandler.class).newInstance(handler);
     ormoresimply:Foo f = (Foo) Proxy.newProxyInstance(Foo.class.getClassLoader(),
                                          new Class<?>[] { Foo.class },
                                          handler);
 

A dynamicproxy class (simply referred to as a proxy class below)is a class created at runtime that implements a specified list of interfaces specified at runtime when the class is created, with behavior, known as described below. A proxy interface is such an interface that is implemented by a proxy classinterfaces . A proxy instance is an instance of a proxy class. Each proxy instance has an associated invocation handler object, which implements the interface InvocationHandler. A method invocation on a proxy instance through one of its proxy interfaces will be dispatched to the invoke method of the instance's invocation handler, passing the proxy instance, a java.lang.reflect.Method object identifying the method that was invoked, and an array of type Object containing the arguments. The invocation handler processes the encoded method invocation as appropriate and the result that it returns will be returned as the result of the method invocation on the proxy instance.

A proxy class has the following properties:

To create a proxy for some interface Foo:

     InvocationHandler handler = new MyInvocationHandler(...);
     Class<?> proxyClass = Proxy.getProxyClass(Foo.class.getClassLoader(), Foo.class);
     Foo f = (Foo) proxyClass.getConstructor(InvocationHandler.class).
                     newInstance(handler);
 

     Foo f = (Foo) Proxy.newProxyInstance(Foo.class.getClassLoader(),
                                          new Class<?>[] { Foo.class },
                                          handler);
 

A dynamic proxy class (simply referred to as a proxy class below) is a class that implements a list of interfaces specified at runtime when the class is created, with behavior as described below. A proxy interface is such an interface that is implemented by a proxy class. A proxy instance is an instance of a proxy class. Each proxy instance has an associated invocation handler object, which implements the interface InvocationHandler. A method invocation on a proxy instance through one of its proxy interfaces will be dispatched to the invoke method of the instance's invocation handler, passing the proxy instance, a java.lang.reflect.Method object identifying the method that was invoked, and an array of type Object containing the arguments. The invocation handler processes the encoded method invocation as appropriate and the result that it returns will be returned as the result of the method invocation on the proxy instance.

A proxy class has the following properties:

• Proxy classes are public, final, and not abstract if all proxy interfaces are public.
• Proxy classes are non-public, final, and not abstract if any of the proxy interfaces is non-public.
• The unqualified name of a proxy class is unspecified. The space of class names that begin with the string "$Proxy" should be, however, reserved for proxy classes.
• A proxy class extends java.lang.reflect.Proxy.
• A proxy class implements exactly the interfaces specified at its creation, in the same order.
• If a proxy class implements a non-public interface, then it will be defined in the same package as that interface. Otherwise, the package of a proxy class is also unspecified. Note that package sealing will not prevent a proxy class from being successfully defined in a particular package at runtime, and neither will classes already defined by the same class loader and the same package with particular signers.
• Since a proxy class implements all of the interfaces specified at its creation, invoking getInterfaces on its Class object will return an array containing the same list of interfaces (in the order specified at its creation), invoking getMethods on its Class object will return an array of Method objects that include all of the methods in those interfaces, and invoking getMethod will find methods in the proxy interfaces as would be expected.
• The Proxy.isProxyClass method will return true if it is passed a proxy class-- a class returned by Proxy.getProxyClass or the class of an object returned by Proxy.newProxyInstance-- and false otherwise.
• The java.security.ProtectionDomain of a proxy class is the same as that of system classes loaded by the bootstrap class loader, such as java.lang.Object, because the code for a proxy class is generated by trusted system code. This protection domain will typically be granted java.security.AllPermission.
• Each proxy class has one public constructor that takes one argument, an implementation of the interface InvocationHandler, to set the invocation handler for a proxy instance. Rather than having to use the reflection API to access the public constructor, a proxy instance can be also be created by calling the Proxy.newProxyInstance method, which combines the actions of calling Proxy.getProxyClass with invoking the constructor with an invocation handler.

A proxy instance has the following properties:

• Given a proxy instance proxy and one of the interfaces implemented by its proxy class Foo, the following expression will return true:

       
  
   proxy instanceof Foo
   
  
  

  and the following cast operation will succeed (rather than throwing a ClassCastException):

       
  
   (Foo) proxy
   
  
  

• Each proxy instance has an associated invocation handler, the one that was passed to its constructor. The static Proxy.getInvocationHandler method will return the invocation handler associated with the proxy instance passed as its argument.
• An interface method invocation on a proxy instance will be encoded and dispatched to the invocation handler's invoke method as described in the documentation for that method.
• An invocation of the hashCode, equals, or toString methods declared in java.lang.Object on a proxy instance will be encoded and dispatched to the invocation handler's invoke method in the same manner as interface method invocations are encoded and dispatched, as described above. The declaring class of the Method object passed to invoke will be java.lang.Object. Other public methods of a proxy instance inherited from java.lang.Object are not overridden by a proxy class, so invocations of those methods behave like they do for instances of java.lang.Object.

Methods Duplicated in Multiple Proxy Interfaces

When two or more interfaces of a proxy class contain a method with the same name and parameter signature, the order of the proxy class's interfaces becomes significant. When such a duplicate method is invoked on a proxy instance, the Method object passed to the invocation handler will not necessarily be the one whose declaring class is assignable from the reference type of the interface that the proxy's method was invoked through. This limitation exists because the corresponding method implementation in the generated proxy class cannot determine which interface it was invoked through. Therefore, when a duplicate method is invoked on a proxy instance, the Method object for the method in the foremost interface that contains the method (either directly or inherited through a superinterface) in the proxy class's list of interfaces is passed to the invocation handler's invoke method, regardless of the reference type through which the method invocation occurred.

If a proxy interface contains a method with the same name and parameter signature as the hashCode, equals, or toString methods of java.lang.Object, when such a method is invoked on a proxy instance, the Method object passed to the invocation handler will have java.lang.Object as its declaring class. In other words, the public, non-final methods of java.lang.Object logically precede all of the proxy interfaces for the determination of which Method object to pass to the invocation handler.

Note also that when a duplicate method is dispatched to an invocation handler, the invoke method may only throw checked exception types that are assignable to one of the exception types in the throws clause of the method in all of the proxy interfaces that it can be invoked through. If the invoke method throws a checked exception that is not assignable to any of the exception types declared by the method in one of the proxy interfaces that it can be invoked through, then an unchecked UndeclaredThrowableException will be thrown by the invocation on the proxy instance. This restriction means that not all of the exception types returned by invoking getExceptionTypes on the Method object passed to the invoke method can necessarily be thrown successfully by the invoke method.

     InvocationHandler handler = new MyInvocationHandler(...);
     Foo f = (Foo) Proxy.newProxyInstance(Foo.class.getClassLoader(),
                                          new Class<?>[] { Foo.class },
                                          handler);
 

A proxy class is a class created at runtime that implements a specified list of interfaces, known as proxy interfaces . A proxy instance is an instance of a proxy class. Each proxy instance has an associated invocation handler object, which implements the interface InvocationHandler. A method invocation on a proxy instance through one of its proxy interfaces will be dispatched to the invoke method of the instance's invocation handler, passing the proxy instance, a java.lang.reflect.Method object identifying the method that was invoked, and an array of type Object containing the arguments. The invocation handler processes the encoded method invocation as appropriate and the result that it returns will be returned as the result of the method invocation on the proxy instance.

A proxy class has the following properties:

• The unqualified name of a proxy class is unspecified. The space of class names that begin with the string "$Proxy" should be, however, reserved for proxy classes.
• The package and module in which a proxy class is defined is specified below.
• A proxy class is final and non-abstract .
• A proxy class extends java.lang.reflect.Proxy.
• A proxy class implements exactly the interfaces specified at its creation, in the same order. Invoking getInterfaces on its Class object will return an array containing the same list of interfaces (in the order specified at its creation), invoking getMethods on its Class object will return an array of Method objects that include all of the methods in those interfaces, and invoking getMethod will find methods in the proxy interfaces as would be expected.
• The ProtectionDomain of a proxy class is the same as that of system classes loaded by the bootstrap class loader, such as java.lang.Object, because the code for a proxy class is generated by trusted system code. This protection domain will typically be granted java.security.AllPermission.
• The Proxy.isProxyClass method can be used to determine if a given class is a proxy class.

A proxy instance has the following properties:

• Given a proxy instance proxy and one of the interfaces, Foo, implemented by its proxy class, the following expression will return true:

       
  
  proxy instanceof Foo
   
  
  

  and the following cast operation will succeed (rather than throwing a ClassCastException):

       
  
  (Foo) proxy
   
  
  

• Each proxy instance has an associated invocation handler, the one that was passed to its constructor. The static Proxy.getInvocationHandler method will return the invocation handler associated with the proxy instance passed as its argument.
• An interface method invocation on a proxy instance will be encoded and dispatched to the invocation handler's invoke method as described in the documentation for that method.
• An invocation of the hashCode, equals, or toString methods declared in java.lang.Object on a proxy instance will be encoded and dispatched to the invocation handler's invoke method in the same manner as interface method invocations are encoded and dispatched, as described above. The declaring class of the Method object passed to invoke will be java.lang.Object. Other public methods of a proxy instance inherited from java.lang.Object are not overridden by a proxy class, so invocations of those methods behave like they do for instances of java.lang.Object.

Package and Module Membership of Proxy Class

1. If all the proxy interfaces are in exported or open packages:
   1. if all the proxy interfaces are public, then the proxy class is public in a package exported by the unnamed module of the specified loader. The name of the package is unspecified.
   2. if at least one of all the proxy interfaces is non-public, then the proxy class is non-public in the package and module of the non-public interfaces. All the non-public interfaces must be in the same package and module; otherwise, proxying them is not possible .
2. If at least one proxy interface is in a package that is non-exported and non-open:
   1. if all the proxy interfaces are public, then the proxy class is public in a non-exported, non-open package of dynamic module . The names of the package and the module are unspecified.
   2. if at least one of all the proxy interfaces is non-public, then the proxy class is non-public in the package and module of the non-public interfaces. All the non-public interfaces must be in the same package and module; otherwise, proxying them is not possible .

Note that if proxy interfaces with a mix of accessibilities -- for example, an exported public interface and a non-exported non-public interface -- are proxied by the same instance, then the proxy class's accessibility is governed by the least accessible proxy interface.

Note that it is possible for arbitrary code to obtain access to a proxy class in an open package with setAccessible, whereas a proxy class in a non-open package is never accessible to code outside the module of the proxy class.

Throughout this specification, a "non-exported package" refers to a package that is not exported to all modules, and a "non-open package" refers to a package that is not open to all modules. Specifically, these terms refer to a package that either is not exported/open by its containing module or is exported/open in a qualified fashion by its containing module.

Dynamic Modules

A dynamic module is a named module generated at runtime. A proxy class defined in a dynamic module is encapsulated and not accessible to any module. Calling Constructor.newInstance(Object...) on a proxy class in a dynamic module will throw IllegalAccessException; Proxy.newProxyInstance method should be used instead.

A dynamic module can read the modules of all of the superinterfaces of a proxy class and the modules of the types referenced by all public method signatures of a proxy class. If a superinterface or a referenced type, say T, is in a non-exported package, the module of T is updated to export the package of T to the dynamic module.

Methods Duplicated in Multiple Proxy Interfaces

When two or more proxy interfaces contain a method with the same name and parameter signature, the order of the proxy class's interfaces becomes significant. When such a duplicate method is invoked on a proxy instance, the Method object passed to the invocation handler will not necessarily be the one whose declaring class is assignable from the reference type of the interface that the proxy's method was invoked through. This limitation exists because the corresponding method implementation in the generated proxy class cannot determine which interface it was invoked through. Therefore, when a duplicate method is invoked on a proxy instance, the Method object for the method in the foremost interface that contains the method (either directly or inherited through a superinterface) in the proxy class's list of interfaces is passed to the invocation handler's invoke method, regardless of the reference type through which the method invocation occurred.

If a proxy interface contains a method with the same name and parameter signature as the hashCode, equals, or toString methods of java.lang.Object, when such a method is invoked on a proxy instance, the Method object passed to the invocation handler will have java.lang.Object as its declaring class. In other words, the public, non-final methods of java.lang.Object logically precede all of the proxy interfaces for the determination of which Method object to pass to the invocation handler.

Note also that when a duplicate method is dispatched to an invocation handler, the invoke method may only throw checked exception types that are assignable to one of the exception types in the throws clause of the method in all of the proxy interfaces that it can be invoked through. If the invoke method throws a checked exception that is not assignable to any of the exception types declared by the method in one of the proxy interfaces that it can be invoked through, then an unchecked UndeclaredThrowableException will be thrown by the invocation on the proxy instance. This restriction means that not all of the exception types returned by invoking getExceptionTypes on the Method object passed to the invoke method can necessarily be thrown successfully by the invoke method.