Compiler Plugins

Compiler Plugins

All-open compiler plugin

Kotlin has classes and their members final by default, which makes it inconvenient to use frameworks and libraries such as Spring AOP that require classes to be open. The all-open compiler plugin adapts Kotlin to the requirements of those frameworks and makes classes annotated with a specific annotation and their members open without the explicit open keyword. For instance, when you use Spring, you don't need all the classes to be open, but only classes annotated with specific annotations like @Configuration or @Service. The all-open plugin allows to specify these annotations.

We provide all-open plugin support both for Gradle and Maven, as well as the IDE integration. For Spring you can use the kotlin-spring compiler plugin (see below).

How to use all-open plugin

You add the plugin in build.gradle and specify the annotations that will make the class open:

buildscript {
    dependencies {
        classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-allopen:$kotlin_version"
    }
}

apply plugin: "kotlin-allopen"

allOpen {
    annotation("com.my.Annotation")
}

If the class (or any of its superclasses) is annotated with com.my.Annotation, the class itself and all its members will become open.

It also works with meta-annotations:

@com.my.Annotation
annotation class MyFrameworkAnnotation

@MyFrameworkAnnotation
class MyClass // will be all-open

MyFrameworkAnnotation is also the annotation that makes the class open, because it's annotated with com.my.Annotation.

Here's how to use all-open with Maven:

<plugin>
    <artifactId>kotlin-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
    <version>${kotlin.version}</version>

    <configuration>
        <compilerPlugins>
            <!-- Or "spring" for the Spring support -->
            <plugin>all-open</plugin>
        </compilerPlugins>

        <pluginOptions>
            <!-- Each annotation is placed on its own line -->
            <option>all-open:annotation=com.my.Annotation</option>
            <option>all-open:annotation=com.their.AnotherAnnotation</option>
        </pluginOptions>
    </configuration>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
            <artifactId>kotlin-maven-allopen</artifactId>
            <version>${kotlin.version}</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</plugin>

Kotlin-spring compiler plugin

You don't need to specify Spring annotations by hand, you can use the kotlin-spring plugin, which automatically configures the all-open plugin according to the requirements of Spring.

buildscript {
    dependencies {
        classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-allopen:$kotlin_version"
    }
}

apply plugin: "kotlin-spring"

The Maven example is similar to the one above.

The plugin specifies the following annotations: @Component, @Async, @Transactional, @Cacheable. Thanks to meta-annotations support classes annotated with @Configuration, @Controller, @RestController, @Service or @Repository are automatically opened since these annotations are meta-annotated with @Component.

Of course, you can use both kotlin-allopen and kotlin-spring in the same project. Note that if you use start.spring.io the kotlin-spring plugin will be enabled by default.

No-arg compiler plugin

The no-arg compiler plugin generates an additional zero-argument constructor for classes with a specific annotation. The generated constructor is synthetic so it can’t be directly called from Java or Kotlin, but it can be called using reflection. This allows the Java Persistence API (JPA) to instantiate the data class although it doesn't have the no-arg constructor from Kotlin or Java point of view (see the description of kotlin-jpa plugin below).

How to use no-arg plugin

The usage is pretty similar to all-open. You add the plugin and specify the list of annotations that must lead to generating a no-arg constructor for the annotated classes.

How to use no-arg in Gradle:

buildscript {
    dependencies {
        classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-noarg:$kotlin_version"
    }
}

apply plugin: "kotlin-noarg"

noArg {
    annotation("com.my.Annotation")
}

How to use no-arg in Maven:

<plugin>
    <artifactId>kotlin-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
    <version>${kotlin.version}</version>

    <configuration>
        <compilerPlugins>
            <!-- Or "jpa" for JPA support -->
            <plugin>no-arg</plugin>
        </compilerPlugins>

        <pluginOptions>
            <option>no-arg:annotation=com.my.Annotation</option>
        </pluginOptions>
    </configuration>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
            <artifactId>kotlin-maven-noarg</artifactId>
            <version>${kotlin.version}</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</plugin>

Kotlin-jpa compiler plugin

The plugin specifies @Entity and @Embeddable annotations as markers that no-arg constructor should be generated for a class. That's how you add the plugin in Gradle:

buildscript {
    dependencies {
        classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-noarg:$kotlin_version"
    }
}

apply plugin: "kotlin-jpa"

The Maven example is similar to the one above.