java - Can I dynamically unload and reload (other versions of the same) JAR?

Question

I am writing a server program which is used to run unit tests of an API (displaying lots of information and providing web access to control / monitor the whole thing)...

This API is known to the server during compile time and is provided as a JAR.

To be able to compare between unit test results of different versions of the API (without restarting the server), I want to be able to unload the 'current' version of the API, and to reload a newer one (or an older one).

I don't want to use URLClassLoader and invoke every single method by name
( using getDeclaredMethod("someMethod") ),
because the server heavily depends on the API and it would be complicated to 'wrap' every method call in such dirty way.

I was thinking: Since all interfaces of all versions of the JAR are same, couldn't I do it by somehow reloading an other version of the JAR (without that by-name-invokation?).

Note: I am using latest Java SE (6) and Java EE (5).

If you think, what I'm trying to achieve is not possible, please suggest a 'workaround' or a different concept.

Answer 1

I think if you load a class using

Class.forName(clsname, init, classloader); 

(Javadoc here) you will get an instance of the class provided by the given classloader. Everything loaded because of that class will also be loaded via the same classloader.

As long as you're very careful with the objects instantiated from this point on (to allow for GC), you should be able to reload different versions. I did this once before with Java 1.3, it took a lot of debugging, but at the end I had a "bootstrap" application that loaded a Runnable class by name and was able to "soft-restart" by instantiating a new classloader against a different URL and going again.