package annotations can't be obtained

    public void testPackageAnnotation()
    {
        String source = "@Anot\r\n" + 
            "package net.jcs.jboilerdowntest;\r\n" + 
            "import net.jcs.annotation.Anot;";
        
        JavaProjectBuilder builder = new JavaProjectBuilder();
        JavaPackage pckg = builder.addSource( new StringReader( source) ).getPackage();
        assertEquals( "net.jcs.jboilerdowntest", pckg.getName() );
        assertEquals( 1, pckg.getAnnotations().size() );
    }

This succeeds. Most important difference is that I don't search the package based on a field. The package of a JavaClass and of the package-info are two different instances, that's why you got an empty list. However, I see there is still some work to do here, because I can't get enough details of the Anot.

Ok, I tried like this:

JavaPackage packageByName = builder.getPackageByName(javaField.getDeclaringClass().getPackage().getName());
JavaAnnotation javaAnnotation = packageByName.getAnnotations();

and this give me the annotation back or well, at least there is a result in the list. But as you pointed out, we can't get most info from it.

java.lang.NullPointerException
        at com.thoughtworks.qdox.model.impl.DefaultJavaType.resolveRealClass(DefaultJavaType.java:281)
        at com.thoughtworks.qdox.model.impl.DefaultJavaType.getCanonicalName(DefaultJavaType.java:894)

As 'another' work around (in my specific case) I can use:

javaAnnotation.getType().getFullyQualifiedName();

Another thing, I really think that getting a package from a class, from a field should give me the same data than if I get the package directly. it's the same to me if I get a class from one of it's field or directly from it's className, the class representation should be exactly the same (and I suppose it's already the case for classes.)

Thank you for looking into this.

For you it might be the same, but how to distinguish the following:

@Info
package com.foo.bar

@Info
package com.foo.bar

public class MyClass {
  private String someField
}

You wanted to get the first one, but used the code of the second one.

I didn't know you could set an annotation in a class package definition, afaik, that's probably a very bad idea, since the annotation is still applied for the whole package, meaning every class in that package, not only the current file. To get the matter worst, you can't annotate a package more than once.

The jls is clear about that: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se5.0/html/packages.html#26626 or in java 8 http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se8/html/jls-7.html#jls-7.4

So in any case, whatever how I get it, from whatever class I get it, I should always get exactly the same packages definitions.

Do you understand the same thing as me?

Keep in mind that the main task of QDox is to parse code by syntax. If developers produce invalid constructions like these, it shouldn't block QDox from parsing. I don't know what the different compilers do when multiple {{package}}s are annotated. For me the most important thing is that every Annotation can be reached. I will leave this issue open until I know all the details.