MissingMethodException when trying to call a method dynamically with a String for the methodName

[Mark Spritzler]

So you can use

"$methodName"(params)
or

"$methodName" params

And methodName is a string with the real method name.

This works in Groovy, but not everywhere. I seem to have the most problem with this in a Groovy script as opposed to a Groovy class.


(Command pattern)
So in my script I receive some JSON data (the command) and use one of its properties for the String with the method name. If I could call the method dynamically means I don't need to write a switch statement to check the value of that property to determine which method to call. So instead I name the method the same as a value in the property.

In the following code I pass json of {"action": "listOfCountries"}

def commonDataHandler = {json, socket ->
    data = parseText json, socket.writeHandlerID
    if (data != null) {
        sendAmqpMessage json
        def action = data.action
        "$action" data, socket
    }
}

In the script I have

def listOfCountries = { data, socket ->
    socketId = socket.writeHandlerID
    //Other code omited for brevity
}

As you can see the closure/method has the same name as in the json. When I call it I get the MissingMethodException thrown. But if I replace the call to "$action" to listOfCountries it calls that method fine.

I can't find a solution.

I wonder can I do "$action".asClosure().call(data, socket) or something like that, that was off the top of my head, so the method might not be called call.

Thanks

Mark

[Mark Spritzler]

Sorry looks like asClosure is just a method in the vertx project I am using and not something that is a part of the Groovy language.

Also, why is the Groovy codehaus website so slow to scroll down a page?

Mark

[Mark Spritzler]

I resolved it by changing how I create my closure methods.

I was using

def functionName = {param ->

}

Which caused the error I think because

"$functionName" would be the pointer to the closure, not call the actual closure.

So I changed it to

def function(param) {
}

Mark