BoxLang Interceptors

Overview

BoxLang's interceptor system implements the Observer and Intercepting Filter design patterns. Interceptors listen for named events (interception points) announced by the runtime, modules, or application code. They enable cross-cutting concerns like logging, security, AOP, routing, and content manipulation without modifying core code.

Interceptor Pools

Three pools exist in the runtime. Each pool is an independent event emitter:

Pool	Scope	Use Case
Global Runtime	Entire BoxLang process	Module events, parse events, global AOP
Application Request Listener	Per-application request lifecycle	Auth, routing, request logging
CacheProviders	Per cache instance	Cache event hooks

Creating a BoxLang Class Interceptor

Method names in the class directly correspond to interception point names:

// interceptors/RequestLogger.bx
class {

    // Auto-injected by the runtime
    property name="name"              setter="false"
    property name="properties"        setter="false"
    property name="log"               setter="false"  // module logger
    property name="interceptorService" setter="false"
    property name="boxRuntime"        setter="false"
    property name="moduleRecord"      setter="false"  // if module-based

    /**
     * Called when the interceptor is registered.
     * Use this to validate properties and set up resources.
     */
    function configure() {
        // Access settings passed at registration time
        log.info( "RequestLogger interceptor configured. Level: #properties.logLevel ?: 'INFO'#" )
    }

    // ---------------------------------------------------------------
    // Interception point methods — name must EXACTLY match the event
    // ---------------------------------------------------------------

    /**
     * Fires before every HTTP request.
     * @event Struct with request context data (mutable)
     */
    function onRequestStart( struct event={} ) {
        log.info( "→ #cgi.request_method# #cgi.script_name##cgi.query_string ?: ''#" )
        event.requestStartTime = getTickCount()
    }

    /**
     * Fires after every HTTP request.
     */
    function onRequestEnd( struct event={} ) {
        var elapsed = getTickCount() - (event.requestStartTime ?: getTickCount())
        log.info( "← #cgi.script_name# completed in #elapsed#ms" )
    }

    /**
     * Fires when an unhandled exception occurs.
     */
    function onException( struct event={} ) {
        var ex = event.exception ?: {}
        log.error( "Exception: #ex.message ?: 'unknown'# | #ex.stackTrace ?: ''#" )
    }

}

Creating a Java Interceptor

// src/main/java/com/example/interceptors/RequestLogger.java
package com.example.interceptors;

import ortus.boxlang.runtime.events.BaseInterceptor;
import ortus.boxlang.runtime.events.InterceptionPoint;
import ortus.boxlang.runtime.scopes.Key;
import ortus.boxlang.runtime.types.IStruct;

@ortus.boxlang.runtime.events.Interceptor
public class RequestLogger extends BaseInterceptor {

    @Override
    public void configure() {
        // this.properties is available for config
        // this.log is available for logging
        // this.interceptorService is available
        // this.boxRuntime is available
    }

    // @InterceptionPoint marks this method as an event handler
    @InterceptionPoint
    public void onRequestStart( IStruct event ) {
        String method = (String) event.getOrDefault( Key.of("requestMethod"), "GET" );
        this.log.info( "Request started: " + method );
        event.put( Key.of("startTime"), System.currentTimeMillis() );
    }

    @InterceptionPoint
    public void onRequestEnd( IStruct event ) {
        Long startTime = (Long) event.getOrDefault( Key.of("startTime"), System.currentTimeMillis() );
        long elapsed   = System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime;
        this.log.info( "Request completed in " + elapsed + "ms" );
    }

    @InterceptionPoint
    public void preFunctionInvoke( IStruct event ) {
        // event contains: functionName, arguments, context
        String fnName = event.getAsString( Key.of("functionName") );
        this.log.debug( "Invoking function: " + fnName );
    }

}

Lambda and Closure Interceptors

Closures/lambdas must explicitly specify which events they handle:

// Closure interceptor — must specify states
var myListener = function( struct event={} ) {
    writeOutput( "Request started!" )
}

// Register for specific events
boxRegisterInterceptor(
    myListener,
    ["onRequestStart", "onRequestEnd"]
)

// Lambda form
boxRegisterInterceptor(
    (event) -> logEvent( event ),
    ["onHTTPRequest"]
)

Registering Interceptors

Method 1: ModuleConfig.bx (Recommended for Modules)

// ModuleConfig.bx
class {

    this.interceptors = [
        {
            // Full invocation path to the interceptor class
            class      : "#moduleRecord.invocationPath#.interceptors.RequestLogger",
            properties : {
                logLevel  : "INFO",
                maxErrors : 100
            }
        },
        {
            class      : "#moduleRecord.invocationPath#.interceptors.SecurityFilter",
            properties : { enabled: true }
        }
    ]

}

Method 2: BIF Registration

// Global runtime interceptor
boxRegisterInterceptor( new interceptors.MyInterceptor() )

// With properties
boxRegisterInterceptor(
    new interceptors.AuditLog(),
    [],           // states: empty = listen to all matching methods
    { logPath: "/var/log/audit.log" }
)

// Application request listener (web context)
boxRegisterRequestInterceptor( new interceptors.AuthFilter() )

Method 3: InterceptorService API (Java)

InterceptorService service = BoxRuntime.getInstance().getInterceptorService();

// Register a Java-based interceptor
service.register( new RequestLogger() );

// Register with properties
IStruct props = new Struct();
props.put( Key.of("logLevel"), "DEBUG" );
service.register( new RequestLogger(), props );

// Register a BoxLang class
IClassRunnable bxInterceptor = (IClassRunnable) context.loadClass("interceptors.MyBxInterceptor");
service.register( bxInterceptor );

// Register a closure for specific states
service.register(
    (IInterceptorLambda) event -> System.out.println("Event: " + event),
    Key.of("onRequestStart"), Key.of("onRequestEnd")
);

Common Interception Points

All canonical event names are defined in the BoxEvent enum: ortus.boxlang.runtime.events.BoxEvent

Use BoxEvent.ON_REQUEST_START.key() in Java, or the string name in BoxLang.

Runtime Events

Event	When	Payload Keys
onRuntimeStart	Runtime fully started	runtime
onRuntimeShutdown	Before shutdown	runtime
onRuntimeConfigurationLoad	Config loaded	config
onRuntimeBoxContextStartup	First context created	context
onServerScopeCreation	Server scope initialized	serverScope
onConfigurationLoad	Config file loaded	config
onConfigurationOverrideLoad	Override config loaded	config
onParse	Before source is parsed	source, result
onMissingMapping	Mapping cannot be resolved	mapping
onPreSourceInvoke	Before any source file runs	context, source
onPostSourceInvoke	After any source file runs	context, source

Module Events

Event	When
onModuleServiceStartup	Module service starts
onModuleServiceShutdown	Module service stops
afterModuleRegistrations	All modules registered
preModuleRegistration	Before a module is registered
postModuleRegistration	After a module is registered
afterModuleActivations	All modules activated
preModuleLoad	Before a module is loaded
postModuleLoad	After a module is loaded
preModuleUnload	Before a module is unloaded
postModuleUnload	After a module is unloaded

Application / Request Events (Web Context)

Event	When	Notes
onApplicationStart	Application started
onApplicationEnd	Application ended
onApplicationRestart	Application restarted
onApplicationDefined	Application.bx found
beforeApplicationListenerLoad	Before Application.bx loads
afterApplicationListenerLoad	After Application.bx loads
onRequestStart	Before request starts	Fires before Application.bx lifecycle
onRequest	Main request handling
onRequestEnd	After request completes
onClassRequest	Class/component requested
onRequestFlushBuffer	Output buffer flushed
onSessionStart	New session created	Session struct available
onSessionEnd	Session expires or is invalidated	Session data available
onSessionCreated	Session object created
onSessionDestroyed	Session object destroyed
onError	Unhandled exception
onMissingTemplate	Template not found
onAbort	Execution aborted
onRequestContextConfig	Request context configured

HTTP Events

Event	When
onHTTPRequest	Every HTTP request
onHTTPRawResponse	Before raw HTTP response sent
onHTTPResponse	Before HTTP response sent
onWebExecutorRequest	Web executor request (route modification)

BIF / Component Lifecycle Events

Event	When
onBIFInstance	BIF instantiated
onBIFInvocation	Before BIF invoked
postBIFInvocation	After BIF invoked
onComponentInstance	Component instantiated
onComponentInvocation	Component invoked
onCacheComponentAction	Cache component action
onFileComponentAction	File component action
onCreateObjectRequest	createObject() called
afterDynamicObjectCreation	Java object wrapped in DynamicObject

Template / Function Events

Event	When	Payload
preTemplateInvoke	Before template executes	template, context
postTemplateInvoke	After template executes	template, context
preFunctionInvoke	Before any function call	functionName, arguments, context
postFunctionInvoke	After any function call	functionName, result
onFunctionException	Function throws exception	functionName, exception

Query / Transaction Events

Event	When
onQueryBuild	Before query is built
preQueryExecute	Before query executes
postQueryExecute	After query executes
queryAddRow	Row added to query
onTransactionBegin	Transaction started
onTransactionEnd	Transaction ended
onTransactionAcquire	Connection acquired
onTransactionRelease	Connection released
onTransactionCommit	Transaction committed
onTransactionRollback	Transaction rolled back
onTransactionSetSavepoint	Savepoint created

Cache Events

Event	When
afterCacheElementInsert	Item inserted
beforeCacheElementRemoved	Before item removed
afterCacheElementRemoved	After item removed
afterCacheElementUpdated	Item updated
afterCacheClearAll	Cache cleared
afterCacheRegistration	Cache provider registered
afterCacheRemoval	Cache provider removed
beforeCacheRemoval	Before cache provider removed
beforeCacheReplacement	Before cache entry replaced
beforeCacheShutdown	Before cache shuts down
afterCacheShutdown	After cache shuts down
afterCacheServiceStartup	CacheService started
beforeCacheServiceShutdown	Before CacheService shuts down
afterCacheServiceShutdown	After CacheService shuts down

Scheduler Events

Event	When
onSchedulerStartup	Scheduler started
onSchedulerShutdown	Scheduler stopped
onSchedulerRestart	Scheduler restarted
schedulerBeforeAnyTask	Before any task runs
schedulerAfterAnyTask	After any task runs
schedulerOnAnyTaskSuccess	Task succeeded
schedulerOnAnyTaskError	Task threw an error
onSchedulerServiceStartup	SchedulerService started
onSchedulerServiceShutdown	SchedulerService stopped
onAllSchedulersStarted	All schedulers running
onSchedulerRemoval	Scheduler removed
onSchedulerRegistration	Scheduler registered

Datasource Events

Event	When
onDatasourceConfigLoad	Datasource config loaded
onDatasourceServiceStartup	DatasourceService started
onDatasourceServiceShutdown	DatasourceService stopped
onDatasourceStartup	Datasource initialized

Object Marshaller Events

Event	When
beforeObjectMarshallSerialize	Before serialization
afterObjectMarshallSerialize	After serialization
beforeObjectMarshallDeserialize	Before deserialization
afterObjectMarshallDeserialize	After deserialization
onJSONQuerySerialize	Query serialized to JSON

Dump / Other Events

Event	When
onBXDump	writeDump() called
onMissingDumpOutput	No dump output handler found
logMessage	Log message emitted

Announcing Custom Events

You can announce your own events for other interceptors to listen to:

// Announce a custom event with a data payload
boxAnnounce( "onUserRegistered", {
    userId  : newUser.getId(),
    email   : newUser.getEmail(),
    source  : "web"
})

// Listeners elsewhere can react to this:
// function onUserRegistered( struct event={} ) {
//     sendWelcomeEmail( event.email )
//     createDefaultWorkspace( event.userId )
// }

// Java: announce via InterceptorService
IStruct data = new Struct();
data.put( Key.of("userId"), userId );
data.put( Key.of("email"),  email );

BoxRuntime.getInstance()
    .getInterceptorService()
    .announce( Key.of("onUserRegistered"), data );

Use Cases

A/B Routing and Feature Flags (pre-request)

// interceptors/FeatureFlagRouter.bx
// v1.11+: fires BEFORE Application.bx onRequestStart — enables rerouting
class {
    function onRequestStart( struct event={} ) {
        var userId = session.userId ?: ""
        if ( len(userId) && featureFlags.isEnabled("new-ui", userId) ) {
            event.overridePath = "/new-ui" & cgi.path_info
        }
    }
}

Maintenance Mode

// interceptors/MaintenanceMode.bx
class {
    function onRequestStart( struct event={} ) {
        if ( application.maintenanceMode && !isAdminIp( cgi.remote_addr ) ) {
            include "maintenance.bxm"
            abort
        }
    }
}

AOP Method Tracing

// interceptors/MethodTracer.bx
class {
    function preFunctionInvoke( struct event={} ) {
        var fn    = event.functionName ?: "unknown"
        var start = getTickCount()
        event.traceStart = start
        log.debug( "→ #fn# called" )
    }

    function postFunctionInvoke( struct event={} ) {
        var elapsed = getTickCount() - (event.traceStart ?: getTickCount())
        log.debug( "← #event.functionName ?: 'unknown'# completed in #elapsed#ms" )
    }
}

Content Manipulation

// interceptors/HtmlMinifier.bx
class {
    function onRequestEnd( struct event={} ) {
        // Minify HTML output before sending to client
        var output = event.output ?: ""
        if ( len(output) ) {
            event.output = minifyHtml( output )
        }
    }
}

Unregistering Interceptors

// Unregister by reference
boxUnregisterInterceptor( myInterceptorInstance )

// Via InterceptorService (Java)
BoxRuntime.getInstance().getInterceptorService().unregister( myInterceptor )

References

• Interceptors
• BaseInterceptor
• InterceptorService
• BoxLang Source