Certain edge cases around return type covariance can trigger an
IntrospectionException when trying to create a new PropertyDescriptor;
particularly around the addition of write methods with parameter types
that do not match read method return types.
These type mismatch exceptions are raised during normal Introspector
operations as well (i.e. without ExtendedBeanInfo in the mix), but
the Introspector intentionally supresses them. In covariance cases,
there is often already a suitable write method present, e.g. discovered
in a supertype or superinterface, that, with the benefit of bridge
methods works just fine in practice at runtime. That is to say, in
these suppression cases, the rejection of the write method is 'OK' in
that there is already a write method present that can handle a call.
ExtendedBeanInfo now mirrors this suppression behavior, but does issue
a WARN-level log message to let the user know.
An important effect of this change is that ExtendedBeanInfo now modifies
the delegate BeanInfo object, whereas previously it did not. In practice
this probably matters very little, but it is a design change worth
noting. The reason for this change was to avoid the need to create new
PropertyDescriptors wherever possible. It was discovered that by updating
existing PDs, one can avoid these IntrospectionExceptions a greater
percentage of the time.
Issue: SPR-8806
Chris Beams
b2ae3dbb47