Compiler Plugins

All-open compiler plugin

Kotlin has classes and their members final by default, which makes it inconvenient to use frameworks and libraries such as Spring AOP that require classes to be open. The all-open compiler plugin adapts Kotlin to the requirements of those frameworks and makes classes annotated with a specific annotation and their members open without the explicit open keyword.

For instance, when you use Spring, you don’t need all the classes to be open, but only classes annotated with specific annotations like @Configuration or @Service. All-open allows to specify such annotations.

We provide all-open plugin support both for Gradle and Maven with the complete IDE integration.

Note: For Spring you can use the kotlin-spring compiler plugin (see below).

Using in Gradle

Add the plugin artifact to the buildscript dependencies and apply the plugin:

  1. buildscript {
  2.     dependencies {
  3.         classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-allopen:$kotlin_version"
  4.     }
  5. }
  7. apply plugin: "kotlin-allopen"

As an alternative, you can enable it using the plugins block:

  1. plugins {
  2.   id "org.jetbrains.kotlin.plugin.allopen" version "1.4.21"
  3. }

Then specify the list of annotations that will make classes open:

  1. allOpen {
  2.     annotation("com.my.Annotation")
  3.     // annotations("com.another.Annotation", "com.third.Annotation")
  4. }

If the class (or any of its superclasses) is annotated with com.my.Annotation, the class itself and all its members will become open.

It also works with meta-annotations:

  1. @com.my.Annotation
  2. annotation class MyFrameworkAnnotation
  4. @MyFrameworkAnnotation
  5. class MyClass // will be all-open

MyFrameworkAnnotation is annotated with the all-open meta-annotation com.my.Annotation, so it becomes an all-open annotation as well.

Using in Maven

Here’s how to use all-open with Maven:

  1. <plugin>
  2.     <artifactId>kotlin-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  3.     <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
  4.     <version>${kotlin.version}</version>
  6.     <configuration>
  7.         <compilerPlugins>
  8.             <!-- Or "spring" for the Spring support -->
  9.             <plugin>all-open</plugin>
  10.         </compilerPlugins>
  12.         <pluginOptions>
  13.             <!-- Each annotation is placed on its own line -->
  14.             <option>all-open:annotation=com.my.Annotation</option>
  15.             <option>all-open:annotation=com.their.AnotherAnnotation</option>
  16.         </pluginOptions>
  17.     </configuration>
  19.     <dependencies>
  20.         <dependency>
  21.             <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
  22.             <artifactId>kotlin-maven-allopen</artifactId>
  23.             <version>${kotlin.version}</version>
  24.         </dependency>
  25.     </dependencies>
  26. </plugin>

Please refer to the “Using in Gradle” section above for the detailed information about how all-open annotations work.

Spring support

If you use Spring, you can enable the kotlin-spring compiler plugin instead of specifying Spring annotations manually. The kotlin-spring is a wrapper on top of all-open, and it behaves exactly the same way.

As with all-open, add the plugin to the buildscript dependencies:

  1. buildscript {
  2.     dependencies {
  3.         classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-allopen:$kotlin_version"
  4.     }
  5. }
  7. apply plugin: "kotlin-spring" // instead of "kotlin-allopen"

Or using the Gradle plugins DSL:

  1. plugins {
  2.   id "org.jetbrains.kotlin.plugin.spring" version "1.4.21"
  3. }

In Maven, the spring plugin is provided by the kotlin-maven-allopen plugin dependency, so to enable it:

  1. <configuration>
  2.     <compilerPlugins>
  3.         <plugin>spring</plugin>
  4.     </compilerPlugins>
  5. </configuration>
  7. <dependencies>
  8.     <dependency>
  9.         <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
  10.         <artifactId>kotlin-maven-allopen</artifactId>
  11.         <version>${kotlin.version}</version>
  12.     </dependency>
  13. </dependencies>

The plugin specifies the following annotations: @Component, @Async, @Transactional, @Cacheable and @SpringBootTest. Thanks to meta-annotations support classes annotated with @Configuration, @Controller, @RestController, @Service or @Repository are automatically opened since these annotations are meta-annotated with @Component.

Of course, you can use both kotlin-allopen and kotlin-spring in the same project.

Note that if you use the project template generated by the start.spring.io service, the kotlin-spring plugin will be enabled by default.

Using in CLI

All-open compiler plugin JAR is available in the binary distribution of the Kotlin compiler. You can attach the plugin by providing the path to its JAR file using the Xplugin kotlinc option:

  1. -Xplugin=$KOTLIN_HOME/lib/allopen-compiler-plugin.jar

You can specify all-open annotations directly, using the annotation plugin option, or enable the “preset”. The only preset available now for all-open is spring.

  1. # The plugin option format is: "-P plugin:<plugin id>:<key>=<value>". 
  2. # Options can be repeated.
  4. -P plugin:org.jetbrains.kotlin.allopen:annotation=com.my.Annotation
  5. -P plugin:org.jetbrains.kotlin.allopen:preset=spring

No-arg compiler plugin

The no-arg compiler plugin generates an additional zero-argument constructor for classes with a specific annotation.

The generated constructor is synthetic so it can’t be directly called from Java or Kotlin, but it can be called using reflection.

This allows the Java Persistence API (JPA) to instantiate a class although it doesn’t have the zero-parameter constructor from Kotlin or Java point of view (see the description of kotlin-jpa plugin below).

Using in Gradle

The usage is pretty similar to all-open.

Add the plugin and specify the list of annotations that must lead to generating a no-arg constructor for the annotated classes.

  1. buildscript {
  2.     dependencies {
  3.         classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-noarg:$kotlin_version"
  4.     }
  5. }
  7. apply plugin: "kotlin-noarg"

Or using the Gradle plugins DSL:

  1. plugins {
  2.   id "org.jetbrains.kotlin.plugin.noarg" version "1.4.21"
  3. }

Then specify the list of no-arg annotations:

  1. noArg {
  2.     annotation("com.my.Annotation")
  3. }

Enable invokeInitializers option if you want the plugin to run the initialization logic from the synthetic constructor. Starting from Kotlin 1.1.3-2, it is disabled by default because of KT-18667 and KT-18668 which will be addressed in the future.

  1. noArg {
  2.     invokeInitializers = true
  3. }

Using in Maven

  1. <plugin>
  2.     <artifactId>kotlin-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  3.     <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
  4.     <version>${kotlin.version}</version>
  6.     <configuration>
  7.         <compilerPlugins>
  8.             <!-- Or "jpa" for JPA support -->
  9.             <plugin>no-arg</plugin>
  10.         </compilerPlugins>
  12.         <pluginOptions>
  13.             <option>no-arg:annotation=com.my.Annotation</option>
  14.             <!-- Call instance initializers in the synthetic constructor -->
  15.             <!-- <option>no-arg:invokeInitializers=true</option> -->
  16.         </pluginOptions>
  17.     </configuration>
  19.     <dependencies>
  20.         <dependency>
  21.             <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
  22.             <artifactId>kotlin-maven-noarg</artifactId>
  23.             <version>${kotlin.version}</version>
  24.         </dependency>
  25.     </dependencies>
  26. </plugin>

JPA support

As with the kotlin-spring plugin wrapped on top of all-open, kotlin-jpa is wrapped on top of no-arg. The plugin specifies @Entity, @Embeddable and @MappedSuperclass no-arg annotations automatically.

That’s how you add the plugin in Gradle:

  1. buildscript {
  2.     dependencies {
  3.         classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-noarg:$kotlin_version"
  4.     }
  5. }
  7. apply plugin: "kotlin-jpa"

Or using the Gradle plugins DSL:

  1. plugins {
  2.   id "org.jetbrains.kotlin.plugin.jpa" version "1.4.21"
  3. }

In Maven, enable the jpa plugin:

  1. <compilerPlugins>
  2.     <plugin>jpa</plugin>
  3. </compilerPlugins>

Using in CLI

As with all-open, add the plugin JAR file to the compiler plugin classpath and specify annotations or presets:

  1. -Xplugin=$KOTLIN_HOME/lib/noarg-compiler-plugin.jar
  2. -P plugin:org.jetbrains.kotlin.noarg:annotation=com.my.Annotation
  3. -P plugin:org.jetbrains.kotlin.noarg:preset=jpa

SAM-with-receiver compiler plugin

The sam-with-receiver compiler plugin makes the first parameter of the annotated Java “single abstract method” (SAM) interface method a receiver in Kotlin. This conversion only works when the SAM interface is passed as a Kotlin lambda, both for SAM adapters and SAM constructors (see the documentation for more details).

Here is an example:

  1. public @interface SamWithReceiver {}
  3. @SamWithReceiver
  4. public interface TaskRunner {
  5.     void run(Task task);
  6. }
  1. fun test(context: TaskContext) {
  2.     val runner = TaskRunner { 
  3.         // Here 'this' is an instance of 'Task'
  5.         println("$name is started")
  6.         context.executeTask(this)
  7.         println("$name is finished")
  8.     }
  9. }

Using in Gradle

The usage is the same to all-open and no-arg, except the fact that sam-with-receiver does not have any built-in presets, and you need to specify your own list of special-treated annotations.

  1. buildscript {
  2.     dependencies {
  3.         classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-sam-with-receiver:$kotlin_version"
  4.     }
  5. }
  7. apply plugin: "kotlin-sam-with-receiver"

Then specify the list of SAM-with-receiver annotations:

  1. samWithReceiver {
  2.     annotation("com.my.SamWithReceiver")
  3. }

Using in Maven

  1. <plugin>
  2.     <artifactId>kotlin-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  3.     <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
  4.     <version>${kotlin.version}</version>
  6.     <configuration>
  7.         <compilerPlugins>
  8.             <plugin>sam-with-receiver</plugin>
  9.         </compilerPlugins>
  11.         <pluginOptions>
  12.             <option>
  13.                 sam-with-receiver:annotation=com.my.SamWithReceiver
  14.             </option>
  15.         </pluginOptions>
  16.     </configuration>
  18.     <dependencies>
  19.         <dependency>
  20.             <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
  21.             <artifactId>kotlin-maven-sam-with-receiver</artifactId>
  22.             <version>${kotlin.version}</version>
  23.         </dependency>
  24.     </dependencies>
  25. </plugin>

Using in CLI

Just add the plugin JAR file to the compiler plugin classpath and specify the list of sam-with-receiver annotations:

  1. -Xplugin=$KOTLIN_HOME/lib/sam-with-receiver-compiler-plugin.jar
  2. -P plugin:org.jetbrains.kotlin.samWithReceiver:annotation=com.my.SamWithReceiver

Parcelable implementations generator

kotlin-parcelize compiler plugin provides a Parcelable implementation generator. To learn how to use it, refer to the Android documentation.