EDIT
Take this answer with a grain of salt. Much has changed since I asked this question years ago. I recommend now using Lombok instead of my EL solution. Leaving the original question for historical reasons.
I'm serious tired of getters/setters clogging my code, when I don't need to control access to the internal state of an object. The only real reason I have to still generate getters/setters is because EL works by locating methods, not fields: ${myBean.fieldName}. where fieldName refers to the method getFieldName(). Would it be possible to extend an EL Resolver to just return the public field value unless a getter was found?
Update based on answer of Steve Atkinson: I hope this helps someone else. Notice how I explicitly check that I only use this elresolver on Form or Lead objects, which are my domain objects.
public class PublicFieldSupportingELResolver extends ELResolver {
@Override
public Class<?> getCommonPropertyType(ELContext context, Object base) {
if (base instanceof Form || base instanceof Lead) {
try {
context.setPropertyResolved(true);
return base.getClass();
} catch (Exception e) {
context.setPropertyResolved(false);
return null;
}
} else {
context.setPropertyResolved(false);
return null;
}
}
@Override
public Iterator<FeatureDescriptor> getFeatureDescriptors(ELContext context, Object base) {
return null;
}
@Override
public Class<?> getType(ELContext context, Object base, Object property) {
if (base instanceof Form || base instanceof Lead) {
try {
Field field = base.getClass().getField((String) property);
context.setPropertyResolved(true);
return field.getType();
} catch (Exception e) {
context.setPropertyResolved(false);
return null;
}
} else {
context.setPropertyResolved(false);
return null;
}
}
@Override
public Object getValue(ELContext context, Object base, Object property) {
if (base instanceof Form || base instanceof Lead) {
try {
Field field = base.getClass().getField((String) property);
Object value = field.get(base);
context.setPropertyResolved(true);
return value;
} catch (Exception e) {
context.setPropertyResolved(false);
return null;
}
} else {
context.setPropertyResolved(false);
return null;
}
}
@Override
public boolean isReadOnly(ELContext context, Object base, Object property) {
if (base instanceof Form || base instanceof Lead) {
try {
base.getClass().getField((String) property);
context.setPropertyResolved(true);
return true;
} catch (Exception e) {
context.setPropertyResolved(false);
return false;
}
} else {
context.setPropertyResolved(false);
return false;
}
}
@Override
public void setValue(ELContext context, Object base, Object property, Object value) {
if (base instanceof Form || base instanceof Lead) {
try {
Field field = base.getClass().getField((String) property);
field.set(base, value);
context.setPropertyResolved(true);
} catch (Exception e) {
context.setPropertyResolved(false);
}
} else {
context.setPropertyResolved(false);
}
}
}