Class Loading

Navigate Classes and Objects topic: Defining classes Creating objects Interfaces Using static members Destroying objects Overloading methods and constructors Class Loading Nested classes Generics

One of the main concerns of a developer writing hot re-deployable applications is to understand how class loading works. Within the internals of the class loading mechanism lies the answer to questions like:

• What happens if I pack a newer version of an utility library with my application, while an older version of the same library lingers somewhere in the server's lib directory?
• How can I use two different versions of the same utility library, simultaneously, within the same instance of the application server?
• What version of an utility class I am currently using?
• Why do I need to mess with all this class loading stuff anyway?