new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/library/log4php/LoggerReflectionUtils.php
@@ -0,0 +1,152 @@
+<?php
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ *
+ * @package log4php
+ */
+
+/**
+ * Provides methods for reflective use on php objects
+ * @package log4php
+ */
+class LoggerReflectionUtils {
+    /** the target object */
+    private $obj;
+
+    /**
+     * Create a new LoggerReflectionUtils for the specified Object.
+     * This is done in prepartion for invoking {@link setProperty()}
+     * one or more times.
+     * @param object &$obj the object for which to set properties
+     */
+    public function __construct($obj) {
+        $this->obj = $obj;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Set the properties of an object passed as a parameter in one
+     * go. The <code>properties</code> are parsed relative to a
+     * <code>prefix</code>.
+     *
+     * @param object $obj The object to configure.
+     * @param array $properties An array containing keys and values.
+     * @param string $prefix Only keys having the specified prefix will be set.
+     */
+    // TODO: check, if this is really useful
+    public static function setPropertiesByObject($obj, $properties, $prefix) {
+        $pSetter = new LoggerReflectionUtils($obj);
+        return $pSetter->setProperties($properties, $prefix);
+    }
+
+
+    /**
+     * Set the properites for the object that match the
+     * <code>prefix</code> passed as parameter.
+     *
+     * Example:
+     *
+     * $arr['xxxname'] = 'Joe';
+     * $arr['xxxmale'] = true;
+     * and prefix xxx causes setName and setMale.
+     *
+     * @param array $properties An array containing keys and values.
+     * @param string $prefix Only keys having the specified prefix will be set.
+     */
+    public function setProperties($properties, $prefix) {
+        $len = strlen($prefix);
+        reset($properties);
+        while (list($key,) = each($properties)) {
+            if (strpos($key, $prefix) === 0) {
+                if (strpos($key, '.', ($len + 1)) > 0) {
+                    continue;
+                }
+                $value = $properties[$key];
+                $key = substr($key, $len);
+                if ($key == 'layout' and ($this->obj instanceof LoggerAppender)) {
+                    continue;
+                }
+                $this->setProperty($key, $value);
+            }
+        }
+        $this->activate();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Set a property on this PropertySetter's Object. If successful, this
+     * method will invoke a setter method on the underlying Object. The
+     * setter is the one for the specified property name and the value is
+     * determined partly from the setter argument type and partly from the
+     * value specified in the call to this method.
+     *
+     * <p>If the setter expects a String no conversion is necessary.
+     * If it expects an int, then an attempt is made to convert 'value'
+     * to an int using new Integer(value). If the setter expects a boolean,
+     * the conversion is by new Boolean(value).
+     *
+     * @param string $name name of the property
+     * @param string $value String value of the property
+     */
+    public function setProperty($name, $value) {
+        if ($value === null) {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        $method = "set" . ucfirst($name);
+
+        if (!method_exists($this->obj, $method)) {
+            throw new Exception("Error setting log4php property $name to $value: no method $method in class " . get_class($this->obj) . "!");
+        } else {
+            return call_user_func(array($this->obj, $method), $value);
+        }
+    }
+
+    public function activate() {
+        if (method_exists($this->obj, 'activateoptions')) {
+            return call_user_func(array($this->obj, 'activateoptions'));
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Creates an instances from the given class name.
+     *
+     * @param string $classname
+     * @return an object from the class with the given classname
+     */
+    public static function createObject($class) {
+        if (!empty($class)) {
+            return new $class();
+        }
+        return null;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @param object $object
+     * @param string $name
+     * @param mixed $value
+     */
+    public static function setter($object, $name, $value) {
+        if (empty($name)) {
+            return false;
+        }
+        $methodName = 'set' . ucfirst($name);
+        if (method_exists($object, $methodName)) {
+            return call_user_func(array($object, $methodName), $value);
+        } else {
+            return false;
+        }
+    }
+
+}