annotation

annotation

This section gives examples on how to use annotations to control which elements should be excluded from the obfuscation process (i.e., keep their names). The following assumes that there is an annotation class named com.yworks.util.annotation.Obfuscation in the classpath that follows the convention as described above.

Obfuscation Exclusion per Item

@Obfuscation(exclude = true, applyToMembers = false)
public class Person {

  public String name;

  public String occupation;

  @Obfuscation(exclude = true)
  public int age;
}

Obfuscation

Element	Obfuscated?
class Person	No
field name	Yes
field occupation	Yes
field age	No

The table above shows the obfuscation results for this example. The Person class is annotated to be excluded from the obfuscation, but the applyToMembers attribute is set to false, which means that the child elements of the class (the String and int fields) do not inherit this setting from its parent. The name and occupation fields are not annotated and do not inherit the annotation configuration from their parent, so they are obfuscated. The age field however is also annotated to be excluded from obfuscation and thus keeps its name.

Obfuscation Exclusion for Members Using applyToMembers

@Obfuscation( exclude = true, applyToMembers = true)
public class Employee {

  @Obfuscation(exclude = false)
  public String name;

  public String position;

  public String businessUnit;
}

Obfuscation

Element	Obfuscated?
class Employee	No
field name	Yes
field position	No
field businessUnit	No

Again, the class Employee keeps its name, but the configuration is inherited by its members, too. The fields position and businessUnit have no annotation set and inherit the configuration of its parent, which is exclude = true, so they keep their names. The field name however specifies its own annotation and thus overrides the configuration of its parent and sets its own exclusion to false, so it is obfuscated.

Obfuscation Exclusion for Members using applyToMembers in the Case of Nested Classes

@Obfuscation (exclude = true, applyToMembers = true)
public class Organisation {

  public String name;

  public String category;

  @Obfuscation (exclude = false, applyToMembers = true)
  public static class Address {

    public String countryCode;

    public String street;

    public String houseNumber;
  }
}

Obfuscation

Element	Obfuscated?
class Organisation	No
field name	No
field category	No
class Address	Yes
field countryCode	Yes
field street	Yes
field houseNumber	Yes

The applyToMembers configuration is also applicable to inner classes: In the above example, the top level class Organisation is annotated so that the class itself and all its members should be excluded from obfuscation. However, the inner class Address overrides this configuration by setting exclude to false for itself and all of its members.

Default Behavior

public class Company {

  public String name;

  @Obfuscation
  public String taxNumber;
}

Annotation

Element	Obfuscated?
class Company	Yes
field name	Yes
field taxNumber	No

This example shows the default behavior of yGuard without specifying an annotation and when not assigning the attributes of the annotation. The class Company and its field name are obfuscated, while the field taxNumber is annotated. The default value for exclude is true, so the field taxNumber is not obfuscated.