public ElementHandle<TypeElement> getElementHandle(Project p, final String fqn)
{
    FileObject projRoot = p.getProjectDirectory();

    // actually, should find srcRoot using p.getLookup().lookup(Sources.class) and iterating over the SourceGroups.
    // This is cheating, but illustrative...
    FileObject srcRoot = projRoot.getFileObject("src").getFileObject("java");
        
    ClasspathInfo ci = ClasspathInfo.create(srcRoot);
    JavaSource js = JavaSource.create(ci);
    Searcher searcher = new Searcher(fqn);
    try
    {
        js.runUserActionTask(searcher, true);
    }
    catch (IOException ex)
    {
        // kvetch
    }
      
    if (searcher.handle == null)
    {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Cannot find class: " + fqn);
    }
}

private class Searcher implements CancellableTask<CompilationController>
{
    private String fqn;
    ElementHandle<TypeElement> handle;
    
    Searcher(String fqn)
    {
        this.fqn = fqn;
    }

    public void cancel() {}

    public void run(CompilationController info) throws Exception {
        TypeElement te = info.getElements().getTypeElement(fqn);
        handle = ElementHandle.create(te);
    }
}