Using Pugwash modules with Java

Java provides methods in the Class class which allow us to load a class from the classpath given it's name and create a new instance of the class object. Example code to do this is given below.

    try {

        Class provider = Class.forName(name);

	// check this class is a SpamServiceProvider
	Method m = provider.getMethod("getDescription",null);

	// this creates an instance of an object whose methods can be called
	SpamServiceProvider ssp = (SpamServiceProvider)provider.newInstance();

	// i.e
	System.out.println("loaded "+ssp.getName());

    } catch (NoSuchMethodException ex) {
        // not a SpamServiceProvider as it didn't have a method called getDescription
	return;
    }