public Notifying build(Object sender,
    Object o) 
{
        if (o instanceof Notifying) {
            return (Notifying) o;
        } else if (o instanceof Throwable) {
            Throwable t = (Throwable) o;
            SimpleNotifyingBean n = new SimpleNotifyingBean(sender);
            n.setType(Notifying.ERROR_NOTIFICATION);
            n.setTitle("An Error Occurred");
            if (t != null) {
                Throwable rootCause = getRootCause(t);
                n.setSource(t.getClass().getName());
                // NullPointerException usually does not have a message
                if (rootCause.getMessage() != null) {
                    n.setMessage(rootCause.getMessage());
                } else {
                    n.setMessage(t.getMessage());
                }
                n.setDescription(t.toString());
                n.addExtraDescription(Notifying.EXTRA_CAUSE, rootCause.toString());
                if (rootCause instanceof SAXParseException) {
                    SAXParseException saxParseException = (SAXParseException) rootCause;
                    n.addExtraDescription(Notifying.EXTRA_LOCATION,
                                          String.valueOf(saxParseException.getSystemId()));
                    n.addExtraDescription(Notifying.EXTRA_LINE,
                                          String.valueOf(saxParseException.getLineNumber()));
                    n.addExtraDescription(Notifying.EXTRA_COLUMN,
                                          String.valueOf(saxParseException.getColumnNumber()));
                } else if (rootCause instanceof TransformerException) {
                    TransformerException transformerException = (TransformerException) rootCause;
                    SourceLocator sourceLocator = transformerException.getLocator();
                    if (null != sourceLocator) {
                        n.addExtraDescription(Notifying.EXTRA_LOCATION,
                                              String.valueOf(sourceLocator.getSystemId()));
                        n.addExtraDescription(Notifying.EXTRA_LINE,
                                              String.valueOf(sourceLocator.getLineNumber()));
                        n.addExtraDescription(Notifying.EXTRA_COLUMN,
                                              String.valueOf(sourceLocator.getColumnNumber()));
                    }
                }
                // Add root cause exception stacktrace
                StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
                rootCause.printStackTrace(new PrintWriter(sw));
                n.addExtraDescription(Notifying.EXTRA_STACKTRACE, sw.toString());
                // Add full exception chain
                sw = new StringWriter();
                appendTraceChain(sw, t);
                n.addExtraDescription(Notifying.EXTRA_FULLTRACE, sw.toString());
            }
            return n;
        } else {
            SimpleNotifyingBean n = new SimpleNotifyingBean(sender);
            n.setType(Notifying.UNKNOWN_NOTIFICATION);
            n.setTitle("Object Notification");
            n.setMessage(String.valueOf(o));
            n.setDescription("No details available.");
            return n;
        }
}

Builds a Notifying object (SimpleNotifyingBean in this case) that tries to explain what the Object o can reveal.

 public Notifying build(Object sender,
    Object o,
    String type,
    String title,
    String source,
    String message,
    String description,
    Map extra) 
{
        // NKB Cast here is secure, the method is of this class
        SimpleNotifyingBean n = (SimpleNotifyingBean) build (sender, o);
        if (type != null)
            n.setType(type);
        if (title != null)
            n.setTitle(title);
        if (source != null)
            n.setSource(source);
        if (message != null)
            n.setMessage(message);
        if (description != null)
            n.setDescription(description);
        if (extra != null)
            n.addExtraDescriptions(extra);
        return n;
}

Builds a Notifying object (SimpleNotifyingBean in this case) that explains a notification.

 public static Throwable getRootCause(Throwable t) 
{
      Throwable rootCause = ExceptionUtils.getRootCause(t);
      return rootCause != null ? rootCause : t;
}

Get root cause Throwable.