How can I hide some parameters from C DLL function on JNA Wrapper side? - jna

Question

I've successfully wrapped a C DLL library using JNA.
As I'm not the owner of the C development part, I would like to hide
some parameters of a C function that I've wrapped on java side.
To be more precise my java code is as follows :
public interface IJNALibrary extends Library {
// INIT FUNCTION
public int initFunction(int firstValue, int secondValue, int thirdValue);
}
On the C side I have in the *.h file :
extern "C" CSAMPLE_API int initFunction (
unsigned firstValue,
unsigned secondValue,
unsigned thirdValue);
My purpose is to directly set secondValue and thirdValue parameters to 1 and thus hide those parameters to the java API user.
I don't want the user to know that he could change the values of those parameters.
In fact I would like to have something like :
public interface IJNALibrary extends Library {
// INIT FUNCTION
public int initFunction(int firstValue);
}
and initFunction(int firstValue) calls initFunction(int firstValue, int secondValue, int thirdValue) from the C DLL part.
But this has to be done inside the java Wrapper and not from the code which calls the java Wrapper.
I'm afraid that It cannot be possible, is it?
Unless I create another C DLL (with public int initFunction(int firstValue) function) which calls the first C DLL(which embed initFunction(int firstValue, int secondValue, int thirdValue).But I would rather do it on the java side in order not to have manage 2 C DLLs.
See also below the Sample.java file which calls the mapped method defined in IJNALibrary interface.
public class Sample {
static IJNALibrary IJNAFunctions;
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
System.setProperty("jna.library.path", "./librayPath");
// LOADING LIBRARY
IJNAFunctions = (IJNALibrary) Native.load("c", IJNALibrary.class);
int firstValue = 1;
int secondValue = 2;
int thirdValue = 3;
int initReturn = IJNAFunctions.initFunction(firstValue, secondValue, thirdValue);
}
}
Thanx for your help.

Answer 1

It depends on what you want to archive. If you want to make it easier for users to call the init, this is an option (demonstrated using gethostname from libc), which uses a Java 8 feature, which allows adding default methods to interfaces:
public class TestDefaultMethod {
public static interface LibC extends Library {
LibC INSTANCE = Native.load("c", LibC.class);
// Original binding of method
int gethostname(byte[] name, int len);
// Helper method to make it easier to call gethostname
default String gethostname() {
byte[] result = new byte[255];
LibC.INSTANCE.gethostname(result, result.length);
return Native.toString(result);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Usage
System.out.println(LibC.INSTANCE.gethostname());
}
}
Java developers normally don't arrays to functions, which fill them and a java developer would never pass the length of the array in a separate parameter. These are artifacts of the C nature of the function. In the wrapped function an array is allocated, the native call done and the array then unwrapped. All the ugly C specialties are hidden in the default method.
If you don't want to expose the method on java at all (be warned, if your users can access the JNA library, they can circumvent your protections!), you can use a function pointer directly:
public class TestDefaultMethod {
public static interface LibC extends Library {
NativeLibrary libc = NativeLibrary.getInstance("c");
LibC INSTANCE = Native.load("c", LibC.class);
default String gethostname() {
byte[] result = new byte[255];
libc.getFunction("gethostname").invokeInt(new Object[] {result, result.length});
return Native.toString(result);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println(LibC.INSTANCE.gethostname());
}
}
Same idea as above, the default method will hide the ugly parts. In this case though the function is not accessed through the managed INSTANCE, but access through the function pointer directly.