It can be useful to have bean definitions span multiple XML files. Often each individual XML configuration file represents a logical layer or module in your architecture.

You can use the application context constructor to load bean definitions from all these XML fragments. This constructor takes multiple Resource locations, as was shown in the previous section. Alternatively, use one or more occurrences of the <import/> element to load bean definitions from another file or files. For example:

<beans>
    <import resource="services.xml"/>
    <import resource="resources/messageSource.xml"/>
    <import resource="/resources/themeSource.xml"/>

    <bean id="bean1" class="..."/>
    <bean id="bean2" class="..."/>
</beans>

In the preceding example, external bean definitions are loaded from three files: services.xml, messageSource.xml, and themeSource.xml. All location paths are relative to the definition file doing the importing, so services.xml must be in the same directory or classpath location as the file doing the importing, while messageSource.xml and themeSource.xml must be in a resources location below the location of the importing file. As you can see, a leading slash is ignored, but given that these paths are relative, it is better form not to use the slash at all. The contents of the files being imported, including the top level <beans/> element, must be valid XML bean definitions according to the Spring Schema.

Note

It is possible, but not recommended, to reference files in parent directories using a relative "../" path. Doing so creates a dependency on a file that is outside the current application. In particular, this reference is not recommended for "classpath:" URLs (for example, "classpath:../services.xml"), where the runtime resolution process chooses the "nearest" classpath root and then looks into its parent directory. Classpath configuration changes may lead to the choice of a different, incorrect directory. You can always use fully qualified resource locations instead of relative paths: for example, "file:C:/config/services.xml" or "classpath:/config/services.xml". However, be aware that you are coupling your application’s configuration to specific absolute locations. It is generally preferable to keep an indirection for such absolute locations, for example, through "${…}" placeholders that are resolved against JVM system properties at runtime.

In a bean definition itself, you can supply more than one name for the bean, by using a combination of up to one name specified by the id attribute, and any number of other names in the name attribute. These names can be equivalent aliases to the same bean, and are useful for some situations, such as allowing each component in an application to refer to a common dependency by using a bean name that is specific to that component itself.

Specifying all aliases where the bean is actually defined is not always adequate, however. It is sometimes desirable to introduce an alias for a bean that is defined elsewhere. This is commonly the case in large systems where configuration is split amongst each subsystem, each subsystem having its own set of object definitions. In XML-based configuration metadata, you can use the <alias/> element to accomplish this.

<alias name="fromName" alias="toName"/>

In this case, a bean in the same container which is named fromName, may also, after the use of this alias definition, be referred to as toName.

For example, the configuration metadata for subsystem A may refer to a DataSource via the name subsystemA-dataSource. The configuration metadata for subsystem B may refer to a DataSource via the name subsystemB-dataSource. When composing the main application that uses both these subsystems the main application refers to the DataSource via the name myApp-dataSource. To have all three names refer to the same object you add to the MyApp configuration metadata the following aliases definitions:

<alias name="subsystemA-dataSource" alias="subsystemB-dataSource"/>
<alias name="subsystemA-dataSource" alias="myApp-dataSource" />

Now each component and the main application can refer to the dataSource through a name that is unique and guaranteed not to clash with any other definition (effectively creating a namespace), yet they refer to the same bean.

When you create a bean by the constructor approach, all normal classes are usable by and compatible with Spring. That is, the class being developed does not need to implement any specific interfaces or to be coded in a specific fashion. Simply specifying the bean class should suffice. However, depending on what type of IoC you use for that specific bean, you may need a default (empty) constructor.

The Spring IoC container can manage virtually any class you want it to manage; it is not limited to managing true JavaBeans. Most Spring users prefer actual JavaBeans with only a default (no-argument) constructor and appropriate setters and getters modeled after the properties in the container. You can also have more exotic non-bean-style classes in your container. If, for example, you need to use a legacy connection pool that absolutely does not adhere to the JavaBean specification, Spring can manage it as well.

With XML-based configuration metadata you can specify your bean class as follows:

<bean id="exampleBean" class="examples.ExampleBean"/>

<bean name="anotherExample" class="examples.ExampleBeanTwo"/>

For details about the mechanism for supplying arguments to the constructor (if required) and setting object instance properties after the object is constructed, see Injecting Dependencies.

When defining a bean that you create with a static factory method, you use the class attribute to specify the class containing the static factory method and an attribute named factory-method to specify the name of the factory method itself. You should be able to call this method (with optional arguments as described later) and return a live object, which subsequently is treated as if it had been created through a constructor. One use for such a bean definition is to call static factories in legacy code.

The following bean definition specifies that the bean will be created by calling a factory-method. The definition does not specify the type (class) of the returned object, only the class containing the factory method. In this example, the createInstance() method must be a static method.

<bean id="clientService"
    class="examples.ClientService"
    factory-method="createInstance"/>

public class ClientService {
    private static ClientService clientService = new ClientService();
    private ClientService() {}

    public static ClientService createInstance() {
        return clientService;
    }
}

For details about the mechanism for supplying (optional) arguments to the factory method and setting object instance properties after the object is returned from the factory, see Dependencies and configuration in detail.

Similar to instantiation through a static factory method, instantiation with an instance factory method invokes a non-static method of an existing bean from the container to create a new bean. To use this mechanism, leave the class attribute empty, and in the factory-bean attribute, specify the name of a bean in the current (or parent/ancestor) container that contains the instance method that is to be invoked to create the object. Set the name of the factory method itself with the factory-method attribute.

<!-- the factory bean, which contains a method called createInstance() -->
<bean id="serviceLocator" class="examples.DefaultServiceLocator">
    <!-- inject any dependencies required by this locator bean -->
</bean>

<!-- the bean to be created via the factory bean -->
<bean id="clientService"
    factory-bean="serviceLocator"
    factory-method="createClientServiceInstance"/>

public class DefaultServiceLocator {

    private static ClientService clientService = new ClientServiceImpl();
    private DefaultServiceLocator() {}

    public ClientService createClientServiceInstance() {
        return clientService;
    }
}

One factory class can also hold more than one factory method as shown here:

<bean id="serviceLocator" class="examples.DefaultServiceLocator">
    <!-- inject any dependencies required by this locator bean -->
</bean>

<bean id="clientService"
    factory-bean="serviceLocator"
    factory-method="createClientServiceInstance"/>

<bean id="accountService"
    factory-bean="serviceLocator"
    factory-method="createAccountServiceInstance"/>

public class DefaultServiceLocator {

    private static ClientService clientService = new ClientServiceImpl();
    private static AccountService accountService = new AccountServiceImpl();

    private DefaultServiceLocator() {}

    public ClientService createClientServiceInstance() {
        return clientService;
    }

    public AccountService createAccountServiceInstance() {
        return accountService;
    }

}

This approach shows that the factory bean itself can be managed and configured through dependency injection (DI). See Dependencies and configuration in detail.

	Note
	In Spring documentation, factory bean refers to a bean that is configured in the Spring container that will create objects through an instance or static factory method. By contrast, FactoryBean (notice the capitalization) refers to a Spring-specific FactoryBean.

Constructor-based DI is accomplished by the container invoking a constructor with a number of arguments, each representing a dependency. Calling a static factory method with specific arguments to construct the bean is nearly equivalent, and this discussion treats arguments to a constructor and to a static factory method similarly. The following example shows a class that can only be dependency-injected with constructor injection. Notice that there is nothing special about this class, it is a POJO that has no dependencies on container specific interfaces, base classes or annotations.

public class SimpleMovieLister {

    // the SimpleMovieLister has a dependency on a MovieFinder
    private MovieFinder movieFinder;

    // a constructor so that the Spring container can inject a MovieFinder
    public SimpleMovieLister(MovieFinder movieFinder) {
        this.movieFinder = movieFinder;
    }

    // business logic that actually uses the injected MovieFinder is omitted...

}

package x.y;

public class Foo {

    public Foo(Bar bar, Baz baz) {
        // ...
    }

}

<beans>
    <bean id="foo" class="x.y.Foo">
        <constructor-arg ref="bar"/>
        <constructor-arg ref="baz"/>
    </bean>

    <bean id="bar" class="x.y.Bar"/>

    <bean id="baz" class="x.y.Baz"/>
</beans>

package examples;

public class ExampleBean {

    // Number of years to calculate the Ultimate Answer
    private int years;

    // The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything
    private String ultimateAnswer;

    public ExampleBean(int years, String ultimateAnswer) {
        this.years = years;
        this.ultimateAnswer = ultimateAnswer;
    }

}

<bean id="exampleBean" class="examples.ExampleBean">
    <constructor-arg type="int" value="7500000"/>
    <constructor-arg type="java.lang.String" value="42"/>
</bean>

<bean id="exampleBean" class="examples.ExampleBean">
    <constructor-arg index="0" value="7500000"/>
    <constructor-arg index="1" value="42"/>
</bean>

<bean id="exampleBean" class="examples.ExampleBean">
    <constructor-arg name="years" value="7500000"/>
    <constructor-arg name="ultimateAnswer" value="42"/>
</bean>

package examples;

public class ExampleBean {

    // Fields omitted

    @ConstructorProperties({"years", "ultimateAnswer"})
    public ExampleBean(int years, String ultimateAnswer) {
        this.years = years;
        this.ultimateAnswer = ultimateAnswer;
    }

}

Setter-based DI is accomplished by the container calling setter methods on your beans after invoking a no-argument constructor or no-argument static factory method to instantiate your bean.

The following example shows a class that can only be dependency-injected using pure setter injection. This class is conventional Java. It is a POJO that has no dependencies on container specific interfaces, base classes or annotations.

public class SimpleMovieLister {

    // the SimpleMovieLister has a dependency on the MovieFinder
    private MovieFinder movieFinder;

    // a setter method so that the Spring container can inject a MovieFinder
    public void setMovieFinder(MovieFinder movieFinder) {
        this.movieFinder = movieFinder;
    }

    // business logic that actually uses the injected MovieFinder is omitted...

}

The ApplicationContext supports constructor-based and setter-based DI for the beans it manages. It also supports setter-based DI after some dependencies have already been injected through the constructor approach. You configure the dependencies in the form of a BeanDefinition, which you use in conjunction with PropertyEditor instances to convert properties from one format to another. However, most Spring users do not work with these classes directly (i.e., programmatically) but rather with XML bean definitions, annotated components (i.e., classes annotated with @Component, @Controller, etc.), or @Bean methods in Java-based @Configuration classes. These sources are then converted internally into instances of BeanDefinition and used to load an entire Spring IoC container instance.

The container performs bean dependency resolution as follows:

The Spring container validates the configuration of each bean as the container is created. However, the bean properties themselves are not set until the bean is actually created. Beans that are singleton-scoped and set to be pre-instantiated (the default) are created when the container is created. Scopes are defined in Section 5.5, “Bean scopes”. Otherwise, the bean is created only when it is requested. Creation of a bean potentially causes a graph of beans to be created, as the bean’s dependencies and its dependencies' dependencies (and so on) are created and assigned. Note that resolution mismatches among those dependencies may show up late, i.e. on first creation of the affected bean.

You can generally trust Spring to do the right thing. It detects configuration problems, such as references to non-existent beans and circular dependencies, at container load-time. Spring sets properties and resolves dependencies as late as possible, when the bean is actually created. This means that a Spring container which has loaded correctly can later generate an exception when you request an object if there is a problem creating that object or one of its dependencies. For example, the bean throws an exception as a result of a missing or invalid property. This potentially delayed visibility of some configuration issues is why ApplicationContext implementations by default pre-instantiate singleton beans. At the cost of some upfront time and memory to create these beans before they are actually needed, you discover configuration issues when the ApplicationContext is created, not later. You can still override this default behavior so that singleton beans will lazy-initialize, rather than be pre-instantiated.

If no circular dependencies exist, when one or more collaborating beans are being injected into a dependent bean, each collaborating bean is totally configured prior to being injected into the dependent bean. This means that if bean A has a dependency on bean B, the Spring IoC container completely configures bean B prior to invoking the setter method on bean A. In other words, the bean is instantiated (if not a pre-instantiated singleton), its dependencies are set, and the relevant lifecycle methods (such as a configured init method or the InitializingBean callback method) are invoked.

The following example uses XML-based configuration metadata for setter-based DI. A small part of a Spring XML configuration file specifies some bean definitions:

<bean id="exampleBean" class="examples.ExampleBean">
    <!-- setter injection using the nested ref element -->
    <property name="beanOne">
        <ref bean="anotherExampleBean"/>
    </property>

    <!-- setter injection using the neater ref attribute -->
    <property name="beanTwo" ref="yetAnotherBean"/>
    <property name="integerProperty" value="1"/>
</bean>

<bean id="anotherExampleBean" class="examples.AnotherBean"/>
<bean id="yetAnotherBean" class="examples.YetAnotherBean"/>

public class ExampleBean {

    private AnotherBean beanOne;
    private YetAnotherBean beanTwo;
    private int i;

    public void setBeanOne(AnotherBean beanOne) {
        this.beanOne = beanOne;
    }

    public void setBeanTwo(YetAnotherBean beanTwo) {
        this.beanTwo = beanTwo;
    }

    public void setIntegerProperty(int i) {
        this.i = i;
    }

}

In the preceding example, setters are declared to match against the properties specified in the XML file. The following example uses constructor-based DI:

<bean id="exampleBean" class="examples.ExampleBean">
    <!-- constructor injection using the nested ref element -->
    <constructor-arg>
        <ref bean="anotherExampleBean"/>
    </constructor-arg>

    <!-- constructor injection using the neater ref attribute -->
    <constructor-arg ref="yetAnotherBean"/>

    <constructor-arg type="int" value="1"/>
</bean>

<bean id="anotherExampleBean" class="examples.AnotherBean"/>
<bean id="yetAnotherBean" class="examples.YetAnotherBean"/>

public class ExampleBean {

    private AnotherBean beanOne;
    private YetAnotherBean beanTwo;
    private int i;

    public ExampleBean(
        AnotherBean anotherBean, YetAnotherBean yetAnotherBean, int i) {
        this.beanOne = anotherBean;
        this.beanTwo = yetAnotherBean;
        this.i = i;
    }

}

The constructor arguments specified in the bean definition will be used as arguments to the constructor of the ExampleBean.

Now consider a variant of this example, where instead of using a constructor, Spring is told to call a static factory method to return an instance of the object:

<bean id="exampleBean" class="examples.ExampleBean" factory-method="createInstance">
    <constructor-arg ref="anotherExampleBean"/>
    <constructor-arg ref="yetAnotherBean"/>
    <constructor-arg value="1"/>
</bean>

<bean id="anotherExampleBean" class="examples.AnotherBean"/>
<bean id="yetAnotherBean" class="examples.YetAnotherBean"/>

public class ExampleBean {

    // a private constructor
    private ExampleBean(...) {
        ...
    }

    // a static factory method; the arguments to this method can be
    // considered the dependencies of the bean that is returned,
    // regardless of how those arguments are actually used.
    public static ExampleBean createInstance (
        AnotherBean anotherBean, YetAnotherBean yetAnotherBean, int i) {

        ExampleBean eb = new ExampleBean (...);
        // some other operations...
        return eb;
    }

}

Arguments to the static factory method are supplied via <constructor-arg/> elements, exactly the same as if a constructor had actually been used. The type of the class being returned by the factory method does not have to be of the same type as the class that contains the static factory method, although in this example it is. An instance (non-static) factory method would be used in an essentially identical fashion (aside from the use of the factory-bean attribute instead of the class attribute), so details will not be discussed here.

The value attribute of the <property/> element specifies a property or constructor argument as a human-readable string representation. Spring’s conversion service is used to convert these values from a String to the actual type of the property or argument.

<bean id="myDataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" destroy-method="close">
    <!-- results in a setDriverClassName(String) call -->
    <property name="driverClassName" value="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"/>
    <property name="url" value="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/mydb"/>
    <property name="username" value="root"/>
    <property name="password" value="masterkaoli"/>
</bean>

The following example uses the p-namespace for even more succinct XML configuration.

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd">

    <bean id="myDataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource"
        destroy-method="close"
        p:driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
        p:url="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/mydb"
        p:username="root"
        p:password="masterkaoli"/>

</beans>

The preceding XML is more succinct; however, typos are discovered at runtime rather than design time, unless you use an IDE such as IntelliJ IDEA or the Spring Tool Suite (STS) that support automatic property completion when you create bean definitions. Such IDE assistance is highly recommended.

You can also configure a java.util.Properties instance as:

<bean id="mappings"
    class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">

    <!-- typed as a java.util.Properties -->
    <property name="properties">
        <value>
            jdbc.driver.className=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
            jdbc.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/mydb
        </value>
    </property>
</bean>

The Spring container converts the text inside the <value/> element into a java.util.Properties instance by using the JavaBeans PropertyEditor mechanism. This is a nice shortcut, and is one of a few places where the Spring team do favor the use of the nested <value/> element over the value attribute style.

The idref element

The idref element is simply an error-proof way to pass the id (string value - not a reference) of another bean in the container to a <constructor-arg/> or <property/> element.

<bean id="theTargetBean" class="..."/>

<bean id="theClientBean" class="...">
    <property name="targetName">
        <idref bean="theTargetBean" />
    </property>
</bean>

The above bean definition snippet is exactly equivalent (at runtime) to the following snippet:

<bean id="theTargetBean" class="..." />

<bean id="client" class="...">
    <property name="targetName" value="theTargetBean" />
</bean>

The first form is preferable to the second, because using the idref tag allows the container to validate at deployment time that the referenced, named bean actually exists. In the second variation, no validation is performed on the value that is passed to the targetName property of the client bean. Typos are only discovered (with most likely fatal results) when the client bean is actually instantiated. If the client bean is a prototype bean, this typo and the resulting exception may only be discovered long after the container is deployed.

	Note
	The local attribute on the idref element is no longer supported in the 4.0 beans xsd since it does not provide value over a regular bean reference anymore. Simply change your existing idref local references to idref bean when upgrading to the 4.0 schema.

A common place (at least in versions earlier than Spring 2.0) where the <idref/> element brings value is in the configuration of AOP interceptors in a ProxyFactoryBean bean definition. Using <idref/> elements when you specify the interceptor names prevents you from misspelling an interceptor id.

The ref element is the final element inside a <constructor-arg/> or <property/> definition element. Here you set the value of the specified property of a bean to be a reference to another bean (a collaborator) managed by the container. The referenced bean is a dependency of the bean whose property will be set, and it is initialized on demand as needed before the property is set. (If the collaborator is a singleton bean, it may be initialized already by the container.) All references are ultimately a reference to another object. Scoping and validation depend on whether you specify the id/name of the other object through the bean, local, or parent attributes.

Specifying the target bean through the bean attribute of the <ref/> tag is the most general form, and allows creation of a reference to any bean in the same container or parent container, regardless of whether it is in the same XML file. The value of the bean attribute may be the same as the id attribute of the target bean, or as one of the values in the name attribute of the target bean.

<ref bean="someBean"/>

Specifying the target bean through the parent attribute creates a reference to a bean that is in a parent container of the current container. The value of the parent attribute may be the same as either the id attribute of the target bean, or one of the values in the name attribute of the target bean, and the target bean must be in a parent container of the current one. You use this bean reference variant mainly when you have a hierarchy of containers and you want to wrap an existing bean in a parent container with a proxy that will have the same name as the parent bean.

<!-- in the parent context -->
<bean id="accountService" class="com.foo.SimpleAccountService">
    <!-- insert dependencies as required as here -->
</bean>

<!-- in the child (descendant) context -->
<bean id="accountService" <!-- bean name is the same as the parent bean -->
    class="org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactoryBean">
    <property name="target">
        <ref parent="accountService"/> <!-- notice how we refer to the parent bean -->
    </property>
    <!-- insert other configuration and dependencies as required here -->
</bean>

	Note
	The local attribute on the ref element is no longer supported in the 4.0 beans xsd since it does not provide value over a regular bean reference anymore. Simply change your existing ref local references to ref bean when upgrading to the 4.0 schema.

A <bean/> element inside the <property/> or <constructor-arg/> elements defines a so-called inner bean.

<bean id="outer" class="...">
    <!-- instead of using a reference to a target bean, simply define the target bean inline -->
    <property name="target">
        <bean class="com.example.Person"> <!-- this is the inner bean -->
            <property name="name" value="Fiona Apple"/>
            <property name="age" value="25"/>
        </bean>
    </property>
</bean>

An inner bean definition does not require a defined id or name; the container ignores these values. It also ignores the scope flag. Inner beans are always anonymous and they are always created with the outer bean. It is not possible to inject inner beans into collaborating beans other than into the enclosing bean.

In the <list/>, <set/>, <map/>, and <props/> elements, you set the properties and arguments of the Java Collection types List, Set, Map, and Properties, respectively.

<bean id="moreComplexObject" class="example.ComplexObject">
    <!-- results in a setAdminEmails(java.util.Properties) call -->
    <property name="adminEmails">
        <props>
            <prop key="administrator">[email protected]</prop>
            <prop key="support">[email protected]</prop>
            <prop key="development">[email protected]</prop>
        </props>
    </property>
    <!-- results in a setSomeList(java.util.List) call -->
    <property name="someList">
        <list>
            <value>a list element followed by a reference</value>
            <ref bean="myDataSource" />
        </list>
    </property>
    <!-- results in a setSomeMap(java.util.Map) call -->
    <property name="someMap">
        <map>
            <entry key="an entry" value="just some string"/>
            <entry key ="a ref" value-ref="myDataSource"/>
        </map>
    </property>
    <!-- results in a setSomeSet(java.util.Set) call -->
    <property name="someSet">
        <set>
            <value>just some string</value>
            <ref bean="myDataSource" />
        </set>
    </property>
</bean>

The value of a map key or value, or a set value, can also again be any of the following elements:

bean | ref | idref | list | set | map | props | value | null

<beans>
    <bean id="parent" abstract="true" class="example.ComplexObject">
        <property name="adminEmails">
            <props>
                <prop key="administrator">[email protected]</prop>
                <prop key="support">[email protected]</prop>
            </props>
        </property>
    </bean>
    <bean id="child" parent="parent">
        <property name="adminEmails">
            <!-- the merge is specified on the child collection definition -->
            <props merge="true">
                <prop key="sales">[email protected]</prop>
                <prop key="support">[email protected]</prop>
            </props>
        </property>
    </bean>
<beans>

administrator=[email protected]
sales=[email protected]
support=[email protected]

public class Foo {

    private Map<String, Float> accounts;

    public void setAccounts(Map<String, Float> accounts) {
        this.accounts = accounts;
    }
}

<beans>
    <bean id="foo" class="x.y.Foo">
        <property name="accounts">
            <map>
                <entry key="one" value="9.99"/>
                <entry key="two" value="2.75"/>
                <entry key="six" value="3.99"/>
            </map>
        </property>
    </bean>
</beans>

Spring treats empty arguments for properties and the like as empty Strings. The following XML-based configuration metadata snippet sets the email property to the empty String value ("").

<bean class="ExampleBean">
    <property name="email" value=""/>
</bean>

The preceding example is equivalent to the following Java code:

exampleBean.setEmail("")

The <null/> element handles null values. For example:

<bean class="ExampleBean">
    <property name="email">
        <null/>
    </property>
</bean>

The above configuration is equivalent to the following Java code:

exampleBean.setEmail(null)

The p-namespace enables you to use the bean element’s attributes, instead of nested <property/> elements, to describe your property values and/or collaborating beans.

Spring supports extensible configuration formats with namespaces, which are based on an XML Schema definition. The beans configuration format discussed in this chapter is defined in an XML Schema document. However, the p-namespace is not defined in an XSD file and exists only in the core of Spring.

The following example shows two XML snippets that resolve to the same result: The first uses standard XML format and the second uses the p-namespace.

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd">

    <bean name="classic" class="com.example.ExampleBean">
        <property name="email" value="[email protected]"/>
    </bean>

    <bean name="p-namespace" class="com.example.ExampleBean"
        p:email="[email protected]"/>
</beans>

The example shows an attribute in the p-namespace called email in the bean definition. This tells Spring to include a property declaration. As previously mentioned, the p-namespace does not have a schema definition, so you can set the name of the attribute to the property name.

This next example includes two more bean definitions that both have a reference to another bean:

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd">

    <bean name="john-classic" class="com.example.Person">
        <property name="name" value="John Doe"/>
        <property name="spouse" ref="jane"/>
    </bean>

    <bean name="john-modern"
        class="com.example.Person"
        p:name="John Doe"
        p:spouse-ref="jane"/>

    <bean name="jane" class="com.example.Person">
        <property name="name" value="Jane Doe"/>
    </bean>
</beans>

As you can see, this example includes not only a property value using the p-namespace, but also uses a special format to declare property references. Whereas the first bean definition uses <property name="spouse" ref="jane"/> to create a reference from bean john to bean jane, the second bean definition uses p:spouse-ref="jane" as an attribute to do the exact same thing. In this case spouse is the property name, whereas the -ref part indicates that this is not a straight value but rather a reference to another bean.

	Note
	The p-namespace is not as flexible as the standard XML format. For example, the format for declaring property references clashes with properties that end in Ref, whereas the standard XML format does not. We recommend that you choose your approach carefully and communicate this to your team members, to avoid producing XML documents that use all three approaches at the same time.

Similar to the the section called “XML shortcut with the p-namespace”, the c-namespace, newly introduced in Spring 3.1, allows usage of inlined attributes for configuring the constructor arguments rather then nested constructor-arg elements.

Let’s review the examples from the section called “Constructor-based dependency injection” with the c: namespace:

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:c="http://www.springframework.org/schema/c"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd">

    <bean id="bar" class="x.y.Bar"/>
    <bean id="baz" class="x.y.Baz"/>

    <!-- traditional declaration -->
    <bean id="foo" class="x.y.Foo">
        <constructor-arg ref="bar"/>
        <constructor-arg ref="baz"/>
        <constructor-arg value="[email protected]"/>
    </bean>

    <!-- c-namespace declaration -->
    <bean id="foo" class="x.y.Foo" c:bar-ref="bar" c:baz-ref="baz" c:email="[email protected]"/>

</beans>

The c: namespace uses the same conventions as the p: one (trailing -ref for bean references) for setting the constructor arguments by their names. And just as well, it needs to be declared even though it is not defined in an XSD schema (but it exists inside the Spring core).

For the rare cases where the constructor argument names are not available (usually if the bytecode was compiled without debugging information), one can use fallback to the argument indexes:

<!-- c-namespace index declaration -->
<bean id="foo" class="x.y.Foo" c:_0-ref="bar" c:_1-ref="baz"/>

	Note
	Due to the XML grammar, the index notation requires the presence of the leading _ as XML attribute names cannot start with a number (even though some IDE allow it).

In practice, the constructor resolution mechanism is quite efficient in matching arguments so unless one really needs to, we recommend using the name notation through-out your configuration.

You can use compound or nested property names when you set bean properties, as long as all components of the path except the final property name are not null. Consider the following bean definition.

<bean id="foo" class="foo.Bar">
    <property name="fred.bob.sammy" value="123" />
</bean>

The foo bean has a fred property, which has a bob property, which has a sammy property, and that final sammy property is being set to the value 123. In order for this to work, the fred property of foo, and the bob property of fred must not be null after the bean is constructed, or a NullPointerException is thrown.

Autowiring works best when it is used consistently across a project. If autowiring is not used in general, it might be confusing to developers to use it to wire only one or two bean definitions.

Consider the limitations and disadvantages of autowiring:

In the latter scenario, you have several options:

On a per-bean basis, you can exclude a bean from autowiring. In Spring’s XML format, set the autowire-candidate attribute of the <bean/> element to false; the container makes that specific bean definition unavailable to the autowiring infrastructure (including annotation style configurations such as @Autowired).

You can also limit autowire candidates based on pattern-matching against bean names. The top-level <beans/> element accepts one or more patterns within its default-autowire-candidates attribute. For example, to limit autowire candidate status to any bean whose name ends with Repository, provide a value of *Repository. To provide multiple patterns, define them in a comma-separated list. An explicit value of true or false for a bean definitions autowire-candidate attribute always takes precedence, and for such beans, the pattern matching rules do not apply.

These techniques are useful for beans that you never want to be injected into other beans by autowiring. It does not mean that an excluded bean cannot itself be configured using autowiring. Rather, the bean itself is not a candidate for autowiring other beans.

Lookup method injection is the ability of the container to override methods on container managed beans, to return the lookup result for another named bean in the container. The lookup typically involves a prototype bean as in the scenario described in the preceding section. The Spring Framework implements this method injection by using bytecode generation from the CGLIB library to generate dynamically a subclass that overrides the method.

Note

For this dynamic subclassing to work, the class that the Spring container will subclass cannot be final, and the method to be overridden cannot be final either. Also, testing a class that has an abstract method requires you to subclass the class yourself and to supply a stub implementation of the abstract method. Finally, objects that have been the target of method injection cannot be serialized. As of Spring 3.2 it is no longer necessary to add CGLIB to your classpath, because CGLIB classes are repackaged under org.springframework and distributed within the spring-core JAR. This is done both for convenience as well as to avoid potential conflicts with other projects that use differing versions of CGLIB.

Looking at the CommandManager class in the previous code snippet, you see that the Spring container will dynamically override the implementation of the createCommand() method. Your CommandManager class will not have any Spring dependencies, as can be seen in the reworked example:

package fiona.apple;

// no more Spring imports!

public abstract class CommandManager {

    public Object process(Object commandState) {
        // grab a new instance of the appropriate Command interface
        Command command = createCommand();
        // set the state on the (hopefully brand new) Command instance
        command.setState(commandState);
        return command.execute();
    }

    // okay... but where is the implementation of this method?
    protected abstract Command createCommand();
}

In the client class containing the method to be injected (the CommandManager in this case), the method to be injected requires a signature of the following form:

<public|protected> [abstract] <return-type> theMethodName(no-arguments);

If the method is abstract, the dynamically-generated subclass implements the method. Otherwise, the dynamically-generated subclass overrides the concrete method defined in the original class. For example:

<!-- a stateful bean deployed as a prototype (non-singleton) -->
<bean id="command" class="fiona.apple.AsyncCommand" scope="prototype">
    <!-- inject dependencies here as required -->
</bean>

<!-- commandProcessor uses statefulCommandHelper -->
<bean id="commandManager" class="fiona.apple.CommandManager">
    <lookup-method name="createCommand" bean="command"/>
</bean>

The bean identified as commandManager calls its own method createCommand() whenever it needs a new instance of the command bean. You must be careful to deploy the command bean as a prototype, if that is actually what is needed. If it is deployed as a singleton, the same instance of the command bean is returned each time.

Tip

The interested reader may also find the ServiceLocatorFactoryBean (in the org.springframework.beans.factory.config package) to be of use. The approach used in ServiceLocatorFactoryBean is similar to that of another utility class, ObjectFactoryCreatingFactoryBean, but it allows you to specify your own lookup interface as opposed to a Spring-specific lookup interface. Consult the javadocs of these classes for additional information.

A less useful form of method injection than lookup method Injection is the ability to replace arbitrary methods in a managed bean with another method implementation. Users may safely skip the rest of this section until the functionality is actually needed.

With XML-based configuration metadata, you can use the replaced-method element to replace an existing method implementation with another, for a deployed bean. Consider the following class, with a method computeValue, which we want to override:

public class MyValueCalculator {

    public String computeValue(String input) {
        // some real code...
    }

    // some other methods...

}

A class implementing the org.springframework.beans.factory.support.MethodReplacer interface provides the new method definition.

/**
 * meant to be used to override the existing computeValue(String)
 * implementation in MyValueCalculator
 */
public class ReplacementComputeValue implements MethodReplacer {

    public Object reimplement(Object o, Method m, Object[] args) throws Throwable {
        // get the input value, work with it, and return a computed result
        String input = (String) args[0];
        ...
        return ...;
    }
}

The bean definition to deploy the original class and specify the method override would look like this:

<bean id="myValueCalculator" class="x.y.z.MyValueCalculator">
    <!-- arbitrary method replacement -->
    <replaced-method name="computeValue" replacer="replacementComputeValue">
        <arg-type>String</arg-type>
    </replaced-method>
</bean>

<bean id="replacementComputeValue" class="a.b.c.ReplacementComputeValue"/>

You can use one or more contained <arg-type/> elements within the <replaced-method/> element to indicate the method signature of the method being overridden. The signature for the arguments is necessary only if the method is overloaded and multiple variants exist within the class. For convenience, the type string for an argument may be a substring of the fully qualified type name. For example, the following all match java.lang.String:

java.lang.String
String
Str

Because the number of arguments is often enough to distinguish between each possible choice, this shortcut can save a lot of typing, by allowing you to type only the shortest string that will match an argument type.

To support the scoping of beans at the request, session, and global session levels (web-scoped beans), some minor initial configuration is required before you define your beans. (This initial setup is not required for the standard scopes, singleton and prototype.)

How you accomplish this initial setup depends on your particular Servlet environment..

If you access scoped beans within Spring Web MVC, in effect, within a request that is processed by the Spring DispatcherServlet, or DispatcherPortlet, then no special setup is necessary: DispatcherServlet and DispatcherPortlet already expose all relevant state.

If you use a Servlet 2.5 web container, with requests processed outside of Spring’s DispatcherServlet (for example, when using JSF or Struts), you need to register the org.springframework.web.context.request.RequestContextListener ServletRequestListener. For Servlet 3.0+, this can done programmatically via the WebApplicationInitializer interface. Alternatively, or for older containers, add the following declaration to your web application’s web.xml file:

<web-app>
    ...
    <listener>
        <listener-class>
            org.springframework.web.context.request.RequestContextListener
        </listener-class>
    </listener>
    ...
</web-app>

Alternatively, if there are issues with your listener setup, consider the provided RequestContextFilter. The filter mapping depends on the surrounding web application configuration, so you have to change it as appropriate.

<web-app>
    ...
    <filter>
        <filter-name>requestContextFilter</filter-name>
        <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.RequestContextFilter</filter-class>
    </filter>
    <filter-mapping>
        <filter-name>requestContextFilter</filter-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    </filter-mapping>
    ...
</web-app>

DispatcherServlet, RequestContextListener and RequestContextFilter all do exactly the same thing, namely bind the HTTP request object to the Thread that is servicing that request. This makes beans that are request- and session-scoped available further down the call chain.

Consider the following bean definition:

<bean id="loginAction" class="com.foo.LoginAction" scope="request"/>

The Spring container creates a new instance of the LoginAction bean by using the loginAction bean definition for each and every HTTP request. That is, the loginAction bean is scoped at the HTTP request level. You can change the internal state of the instance that is created as much as you want, because other instances created from the same loginAction bean definition will not see these changes in state; they are particular to an individual request. When the request completes processing, the bean that is scoped to the request is discarded.

Consider the following bean definition:

<bean id="userPreferences" class="com.foo.UserPreferences" scope="session"/>

The Spring container creates a new instance of the UserPreferences bean by using the userPreferences bean definition for the lifetime of a single HTTP Session. In other words, the userPreferences bean is effectively scoped at the HTTP Session level. As with request-scoped beans, you can change the internal state of the instance that is created as much as you want, knowing that other HTTP Session instances that are also using instances created from the same userPreferences bean definition do not see these changes in state, because they are particular to an individual HTTP Session. When the HTTP Session is eventually discarded, the bean that is scoped to that particular HTTP Session is also discarded.

Consider the following bean definition:

<bean id="userPreferences" class="com.foo.UserPreferences" scope="globalSession"/>

The global session scope is similar to the standard HTTP Session scope (described above), and applies only in the context of portlet-based web applications. The portlet specification defines the notion of a global Session that is shared among all portlets that make up a single portlet web application. Beans defined at the global session scope are scoped (or bound) to the lifetime of the global portlet Session.

If you write a standard Servlet-based web application and you define one or more beans as having global session scope, the standard HTTP Session scope is used, and no error is raised.

Consider the following bean definition:

<bean id="appPreferences" class="com.foo.AppPreferences" scope="application"/>

The Spring container creates a new instance of the AppPreferences bean by using the appPreferences bean definition once for the entire web application. That is, the appPreferences bean is scoped at the ServletContext level, stored as a regular ServletContext attribute. This is somewhat similar to a Spring singleton bean but differs in two important ways: It is a singleton per ServletContext, not per Spring ApplicationContext (or which there may be several in any given web application), and it is actually exposed and therefore visible as a ServletContext attribute.

The Spring IoC container manages not only the instantiation of your objects (beans), but also the wiring up of collaborators (or dependencies). If you want to inject (for example) an HTTP request scoped bean into another bean, you must inject an AOP proxy in place of the scoped bean. That is, you need to inject a proxy object that exposes the same public interface as the scoped object but that can also retrieve the real, target object from the relevant scope (for example, an HTTP request) and delegate method calls onto the real object.

	Note
	You do not need to use the <aop:scoped-proxy/> in conjunction with beans that are scoped as singletons or prototypes.

The configuration in the following example is only one line, but it is important to understand the "why" as well as the "how" behind it.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop.xsd">

    <!-- an HTTP Session-scoped bean exposed as a proxy -->
    <bean id="userPreferences" class="com.foo.UserPreferences" scope="session">
        <!-- instructs the container to proxy the surrounding bean -->
        <aop:scoped-proxy/>
    </bean>

    <!-- a singleton-scoped bean injected with a proxy to the above bean -->
    <bean id="userService" class="com.foo.SimpleUserService">
        <!-- a reference to the proxied userPreferences bean -->
        <property name="userPreferences" ref="userPreferences"/>
    </bean>
</beans>

To create such a proxy, you insert a child <aop:scoped-proxy/> element into a scoped bean definition. See the section called “Choosing the type of proxy to create” and Chapter 34, XML Schema-based configuration.) Why do definitions of beans scoped at the request, session, globalSession and custom-scope levels require the <aop:scoped-proxy/> element ? Let’s examine the following singleton bean definition and contrast it with what you need to define for the aforementioned scopes. (The following userPreferences bean definition as it stands is incomplete.)

<bean id="userPreferences" class="com.foo.UserPreferences" scope="session"/>

<bean id="userManager" class="com.foo.UserManager">
    <property name="userPreferences" ref="userPreferences"/>
</bean>

In the preceding example, the singleton bean userManager is injected with a reference to the HTTP Session-scoped bean userPreferences. The salient point here is that the userManager bean is a singleton: it will be instantiated exactly once per container, and its dependencies (in this case only one, the userPreferences bean) are also injected only once. This means that the userManager bean will only operate on the exact same userPreferences object, that is, the one that it was originally injected with.

This is not the behavior you want when injecting a shorter-lived scoped bean into a longer-lived scoped bean, for example injecting an HTTP Session-scoped collaborating bean as a dependency into singleton bean. Rather, you need a single userManager object, and for the lifetime of an HTTP Session, you need a userPreferences object that is specific to said HTTP Session. Thus the container creates an object that exposes the exact same public interface as the UserPreferences class (ideally an object that is a UserPreferences instance) which can fetch the real UserPreferences object from the scoping mechanism (HTTP request, Session, etc.). The container injects this proxy object into the userManager bean, which is unaware that this UserPreferences reference is a proxy. In this example, when a UserManager instance invokes a method on the dependency-injected UserPreferences object, it actually is invoking a method on the proxy. The proxy then fetches the real UserPreferences object from (in this case) the HTTP Session, and delegates the method invocation onto the retrieved real UserPreferences object.

Thus you need the following, correct and complete, configuration when injecting request-, session-, and globalSession-scoped beans into collaborating objects:

<bean id="userPreferences" class="com.foo.UserPreferences" scope="session">
    <aop:scoped-proxy/>
</bean>
<bean id="userManager" class="com.foo.UserManager">
    <property name="userPreferences" ref="userPreferences"/>
</bean>

Choosing the type of proxy to create

By default, when the Spring container creates a proxy for a bean that is marked up with the <aop:scoped-proxy/> element, a CGLIB-based class proxy is created.

	Note
	CGLIB proxies only intercept public method calls! Do not call non-public methods on such a proxy; they will not be delegated to the actual scoped target object.

Alternatively, you can configure the Spring container to create standard JDK interface-based proxies for such scoped beans, by specifying false for the value of the proxy-target-class attribute of the <aop:scoped-proxy/> element. Using JDK interface-based proxies means that you do not need additional libraries in your application classpath to effect such proxying. However, it also means that the class of the scoped bean must implement at least one interface, and that all collaborators into which the scoped bean is injected must reference the bean through one of its interfaces.

<!-- DefaultUserPreferences implements the UserPreferences interface -->
<bean id="userPreferences" class="com.foo.DefaultUserPreferences" scope="session">
    <aop:scoped-proxy proxy-target-class="false"/>
</bean>
<bean id="userManager" class="com.foo.UserManager">
    <property name="userPreferences" ref="userPreferences"/>
</bean>

For more detailed information about choosing class-based or interface-based proxying, see Section 9.6, “Proxying mechanisms”.

To integrate your custom scope(s) into the Spring container, you need to implement the org.springframework.beans.factory.config.Scope interface, which is described in this section. For an idea of how to implement your own scopes, see the Scope implementations that are supplied with the Spring Framework itself and the Scope javadocs, which explains the methods you need to implement in more detail.

The Scope interface has four methods to get objects from the scope, remove them from the scope, and allow them to be destroyed.

The following method returns the object from the underlying scope. The session scope implementation, for example, returns the session-scoped bean (and if it does not exist, the method returns a new instance of the bean, after having bound it to the session for future reference).

Object get(String name, ObjectFactory objectFactory)

The following method removes the object from the underlying scope. The session scope implementation for example, removes the session-scoped bean from the underlying session. The object should be returned, but you can return null if the object with the specified name is not found.

Object remove(String name)

The following method registers the callbacks the scope should execute when it is destroyed or when the specified object in the scope is destroyed. Refer to the javadocs or a Spring scope implementation for more information on destruction callbacks.

void registerDestructionCallback(String name, Runnable destructionCallback)

The following method obtains the conversation identifier for the underlying scope. This identifier is different for each scope. For a session scoped implementation, this identifier can be the session identifier.

String getConversationId()

After you write and test one or more custom Scope implementations, you need to make the Spring container aware of your new scope(s). The following method is the central method to register a new Scope with the Spring container:

void registerScope(String scopeName, Scope scope);

This method is declared on the ConfigurableBeanFactory interface, which is available on most of the concrete ApplicationContext implementations that ship with Spring via the BeanFactory property.

The first argument to the registerScope(..) method is the unique name associated with a scope; examples of such names in the Spring container itself are singleton and prototype. The second argument to the registerScope(..) method is an actual instance of the custom Scope implementation that you wish to register and use.

Suppose that you write your custom Scope implementation, and then register it as below.

	Note
	The example below uses SimpleThreadScope which is included with Spring, but not registered by default. The instructions would be the same for your own custom Scope implementations.

Scope threadScope = new SimpleThreadScope();
beanFactory.registerScope("thread", threadScope);

You then create bean definitions that adhere to the scoping rules of your custom Scope:

<bean id="..." class="..." scope="thread">

With a custom Scope implementation, you are not limited to programmatic registration of the scope. You can also do the Scope registration declaratively, using the CustomScopeConfigurer class:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop.xsd">

    <bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.CustomScopeConfigurer">
        <property name="scopes">
            <map>
                <entry key="thread">
                    <bean class="org.springframework.context.support.SimpleThreadScope"/>
                </entry>
            </map>
        </property>
    </bean>

    <bean id="bar" class="x.y.Bar" scope="thread">
        <property name="name" value="Rick"/>
        <aop:scoped-proxy/>
    </bean>

    <bean id="foo" class="x.y.Foo">
        <property name="bar" ref="bar"/>
    </bean>

</beans>

	Note
	When you place <aop:scoped-proxy/> in a FactoryBean implementation, it is the factory bean itself that is scoped, not the object returned from getObject().

The org.springframework.beans.factory.InitializingBean interface allows a bean to perform initialization work after all necessary properties on the bean have been set by the container. The InitializingBean interface specifies a single method:

void afterPropertiesSet() throws Exception;

It is recommended that you do not use the InitializingBean interface because it unnecessarily couples the code to Spring. Alternatively, use the @PostConstruct annotation or specify a POJO initialization method. In the case of XML-based configuration metadata, you use the init-method attribute to specify the name of the method that has a void no-argument signature. With Java config you use the initMethod attribute of @Bean, see the section called “Receiving lifecycle callbacks”. For example, the following:

<bean id="exampleInitBean" class="examples.ExampleBean" init-method="init"/>

public class ExampleBean {

    public void init() {
        // do some initialization work
    }

}

…is exactly the same as…

<bean id="exampleInitBean" class="examples.AnotherExampleBean"/>

public class AnotherExampleBean implements InitializingBean {

    public void afterPropertiesSet() {
        // do some initialization work
    }

}

but does not couple the code to Spring.

Implementing the org.springframework.beans.factory.DisposableBean interface allows a bean to get a callback when the container containing it is destroyed. The DisposableBean interface specifies a single method:

void destroy() throws Exception;

It is recommended that you do not use the DisposableBean callback interface because it unnecessarily couples the code to Spring. Alternatively, use the @PreDestroy annotation or specify a generic method that is supported by bean definitions. With XML-based configuration metadata, you use the destroy-method attribute on the <bean/>. With Java config you use the destroyMethod attribute of @Bean, see the section called “Receiving lifecycle callbacks”. For example, the following definition:

<bean id="exampleInitBean" class="examples.ExampleBean" destroy-method="cleanup"/>

public class ExampleBean {

    public void cleanup() {
        // do some destruction work (like releasing pooled connections)
    }

}

is exactly the same as:

<bean id="exampleInitBean" class="examples.AnotherExampleBean"/>

public class AnotherExampleBean implements DisposableBean {

    public void destroy() {
        // do some destruction work (like releasing pooled connections)
    }

}

but does not couple the code to Spring.

Tip

The destroy-method attribute of a <bean> element can be assigned a special (inferred) value which instructs Spring to automatically detect a public close or shutdown method on the specific bean class. This special (inferred) value can also be set on the default-destroy-method attribute of a <beans> element to apply this behavior to an entire set of beans (see the section called “Default initialization and destroy methods”). Note that this is the default behavior with Java config.

When you write initialization and destroy method callbacks that do not use the Spring-specific InitializingBean and DisposableBean callback interfaces, you typically write methods with names such as init(), initialize(), dispose(), and so on. Ideally, the names of such lifecycle callback methods are standardized across a project so that all developers use the same method names and ensure consistency.

You can configure the Spring container to look for named initialization and destroy callback method names on every bean. This means that you, as an application developer, can write your application classes and use an initialization callback called init(), without having to configure an init-method="init" attribute with each bean definition. The Spring IoC container calls that method when the bean is created (and in accordance with the standard lifecycle callback contract described previously). This feature also enforces a consistent naming convention for initialization and destroy method callbacks.

Suppose that your initialization callback methods are named init() and destroy callback methods are named destroy(). Your class will resemble the class in the following example.

public class DefaultBlogService implements BlogService {

    private BlogDao blogDao;

    public void setBlogDao(BlogDao blogDao) {
        this.blogDao = blogDao;
    }

    // this is (unsurprisingly) the initialization callback method
    public void init() {
        if (this.blogDao == null) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("The [blogDao] property must be set.");
        }
    }

}

<beans default-init-method="init">

    <bean id="blogService" class="com.foo.DefaultBlogService">
        <property name="blogDao" ref="blogDao" />
    </bean>

</beans>

The presence of the default-init-method attribute on the top-level <beans/> element attribute causes the Spring IoC container to recognize a method called init on beans as the initialization method callback. When a bean is created and assembled, if the bean class has such a method, it is invoked at the appropriate time.

You configure destroy method callbacks similarly (in XML, that is) by using the default-destroy-method attribute on the top-level <beans/> element.

Where existing bean classes already have callback methods that are named at variance with the convention, you can override the default by specifying (in XML, that is) the method name using the init-method and destroy-method attributes of the <bean/> itself.

The Spring container guarantees that a configured initialization callback is called immediately after a bean is supplied with all dependencies. Thus the initialization callback is called on the raw bean reference, which means that AOP interceptors and so forth are not yet applied to the bean. A target bean is fully created first, then an AOP proxy (for example) with its interceptor chain is applied. If the target bean and the proxy are defined separately, your code can even interact with the raw target bean, bypassing the proxy. Hence, it would be inconsistent to apply the interceptors to the init method, because doing so would couple the lifecycle of the target bean with its proxy/interceptors and leave strange semantics when your code interacts directly to the raw target bean.

As of Spring 2.5, you have three options for controlling bean lifecycle behavior: the InitializingBean and DisposableBean callback interfaces; custom init() and destroy() methods; and the @PostConstruct and @PreDestroy annotations. You can combine these mechanisms to control a given bean.

Note

If multiple lifecycle mechanisms are configured for a bean, and each mechanism is configured with a different method name, then each configured method is executed in the order listed below. However, if the same method name is configured - for example, init() for an initialization method - for more than one of these lifecycle mechanisms, that method is executed once, as explained in the preceding section.

Multiple lifecycle mechanisms configured for the same bean, with different initialization methods, are called as follows:

Destroy methods are called in the same order:

The Lifecycle interface defines the essential methods for any object that has its own lifecycle requirements (e.g. starts and stops some background process):

public interface Lifecycle {

    void start();

    void stop();

    boolean isRunning();

}

Any Spring-managed object may implement that interface. Then, when the ApplicationContext itself starts and stops, it will cascade those calls to all Lifecycle implementations defined within that context. It does this by delegating to a LifecycleProcessor:

public interface LifecycleProcessor extends Lifecycle {

    void onRefresh();

    void onClose();

}

Notice that the LifecycleProcessor is itself an extension of the Lifecycle interface. It also adds two other methods for reacting to the context being refreshed and closed.

The order of startup and shutdown invocations can be important. If a "depends-on" relationship exists between any two objects, the dependent side will start after its dependency, and it will stop before its dependency. However, at times the direct dependencies are unknown. You may only know that objects of a certain type should start prior to objects of another type. In those cases, the SmartLifecycle interface defines another option, namely the getPhase() method as defined on its super-interface, Phased.

public interface Phased {

    int getPhase();

}

public interface SmartLifecycle extends Lifecycle, Phased {

    boolean isAutoStartup();

    void stop(Runnable callback);

}

When starting, the objects with the lowest phase start first, and when stopping, the reverse order is followed. Therefore, an object that implements SmartLifecycle and whose getPhase() method returns Integer.MIN_VALUE would be among the first to start and the last to stop. At the other end of the spectrum, a phase value of Integer.MAX_VALUE would indicate that the object should be started last and stopped first (likely because it depends on other processes to be running). When considering the phase value, it’s also important to know that the default phase for any "normal" Lifecycle object that does not implement SmartLifecycle would be 0. Therefore, any negative phase value would indicate that an object should start before those standard components (and stop after them), and vice versa for any positive phase value.

As you can see the stop method defined by SmartLifecycle accepts a callback. Any implementation must invoke that callback’s run() method after that implementation’s shutdown process is complete. That enables asynchronous shutdown where necessary since the default implementation of the LifecycleProcessor interface, DefaultLifecycleProcessor, will wait up to its timeout value for the group of objects within each phase to invoke that callback. The default per-phase timeout is 30 seconds. You can override the default lifecycle processor instance by defining a bean named "lifecycleProcessor" within the context. If you only want to modify the timeout, then defining the following would be sufficient:

<bean id="lifecycleProcessor" class="org.springframework.context.support.DefaultLifecycleProcessor">
    <!-- timeout value in milliseconds -->
    <property name="timeoutPerShutdownPhase" value="10000"/>
</bean>

As mentioned, the LifecycleProcessor interface defines callback methods for the refreshing and closing of the context as well. The latter will simply drive the shutdown process as if stop() had been called explicitly, but it will happen when the context is closing. The refresh callback on the other hand enables another feature of SmartLifecycle beans. When the context is refreshed (after all objects have been instantiated and initialized), that callback will be invoked, and at that point the default lifecycle processor will check the boolean value returned by each SmartLifecycle object’s isAutoStartup() method. If "true", then that object will be started at that point rather than waiting for an explicit invocation of the context’s or its own start() method (unlike the context refresh, the context start does not happen automatically for a standard context implementation). The "phase" value as well as any "depends-on" relationships will determine the startup order in the same way as described above.

	Note
	This section applies only to non-web applications. Spring’s web-based ApplicationContext implementations already have code in place to shut down the Spring IoC container gracefully when the relevant web application is shut down.

If you are using Spring’s IoC container in a non-web application environment; for example, in a rich client desktop environment; you register a shutdown hook with the JVM. Doing so ensures a graceful shutdown and calls the relevant destroy methods on your singleton beans so that all resources are released. Of course, you must still configure and implement these destroy callbacks correctly.

To register a shutdown hook, you call the registerShutdownHook() method that is declared on the AbstractApplicationContext class:

import org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;

public final class Boot {

    public static void main(final String[] args) throws Exception {

        AbstractApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(
                new String []{"beans.xml"});

        // add a shutdown hook for the above context...
        ctx.registerShutdownHook();

        // app runs here...

        // main method exits, hook is called prior to the app shutting down...

    }
}

This first example illustrates basic usage. The example shows a custom BeanPostProcessor implementation that invokes the toString() method of each bean as it is created by the container and prints the resulting string to the system console.

Find below the custom BeanPostProcessor implementation class definition:

package scripting;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.config.BeanPostProcessor;
import org.springframework.beans.BeansException;

public class InstantiationTracingBeanPostProcessor implements BeanPostProcessor {

    // simply return the instantiated bean as-is
    public Object postProcessBeforeInitialization(Object bean,
            String beanName) throws BeansException {
        return bean; // we could potentially return any object reference here...
    }

    public Object postProcessAfterInitialization(Object bean,
            String beanName) throws BeansException {
        System.out.println("Bean '" + beanName + "' created : " + bean.toString());
        return bean;
    }

}

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:lang="http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang/spring-lang.xsd">

    <lang:groovy id="messenger"
            script-source="classpath:org/springframework/scripting/groovy/Messenger.groovy">
        <lang:property name="message" value="Fiona Apple Is Just So Dreamy."/>
    </lang:groovy>

    <!--
    when the above bean (messenger) is instantiated, this custom
    BeanPostProcessor implementation will output the fact to the system console
    -->
    <bean class="scripting.InstantiationTracingBeanPostProcessor"/>

</beans>

Notice how the InstantiationTracingBeanPostProcessor is simply defined. It does not even have a name, and because it is a bean it can be dependency-injected just like any other bean. (The preceding configuration also defines a bean that is backed by a Groovy script. The Spring dynamic language support is detailed in the chapter entitled Chapter 29, Dynamic language support.)

The following simple Java application executes the preceding code and configuration:

import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.scripting.Messenger;

public final class Boot {

    public static void main(final String[] args) throws Exception {
        ApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("scripting/beans.xml");
        Messenger messenger = (Messenger) ctx.getBean("messenger");
        System.out.println(messenger);
    }

}

The output of the preceding application resembles the following:

Bean messenger created : org.springframework.scripting.groovy.GroovyMessenger@272961
org.springframework.scripting.groovy.GroovyMessenger@272961

Using callback interfaces or annotations in conjunction with a custom BeanPostProcessor implementation is a common means of extending the Spring IoC container. An example is Spring’s RequiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor - a BeanPostProcessor implementation that ships with the Spring distribution which ensures that JavaBean properties on beans that are marked with an (arbitrary) annotation are actually (configured to be) dependency-injected with a value.

You use the PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer to externalize property values from a bean definition in a separate file using the standard Java Properties format. Doing so enables the person deploying an application to customize environment-specific properties such as database URLs and passwords, without the complexity or risk of modifying the main XML definition file or files for the container.

Consider the following XML-based configuration metadata fragment, where a DataSource with placeholder values is defined. The example shows properties configured from an external Properties file. At runtime, a PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer is applied to the metadata that will replace some properties of the DataSource. The values to replace are specified as placeholders of the form ${property-name} which follows the Ant / log4j / JSP EL style.

<bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
    <property name="locations" value="classpath:com/foo/jdbc.properties"/>
</bean>

<bean id="dataSource" destroy-method="close"
        class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource">
    <property name="driverClassName" value="${jdbc.driverClassName}"/>
    <property name="url" value="${jdbc.url}"/>
    <property name="username" value="${jdbc.username}"/>
    <property name="password" value="${jdbc.password}"/>
</bean>

The actual values come from another file in the standard Java Properties format:

jdbc.driverClassName=org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver
jdbc.url=jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://production:9002
jdbc.username=sa
jdbc.password=root

Therefore, the string ${jdbc.username} is replaced at runtime with the value sa, and the same applies for other placeholder values that match keys in the properties file. The PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer checks for placeholders in most properties and attributes of a bean definition. Furthermore, the placeholder prefix and suffix can be customized.

With the context namespace introduced in Spring 2.5, it is possible to configure property placeholders with a dedicated configuration element. One or more locations can be provided as a comma-separated list in the location attribute.

<context:property-placeholder location="classpath:com/foo/jdbc.properties"/>

The PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer not only looks for properties in the Properties file you specify. By default it also checks against the Java System properties if it cannot find a property in the specified properties files. You can customize this behavior by setting the systemPropertiesMode property of the configurer with one of the following three supported integer values:

Consult the PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer javadocs for more information.

Tip

You can use the PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer to substitute class names, which is sometimes useful when you have to pick a particular implementation class at runtime. For example: <bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer"> <property name="locations"> <value>classpath:com/foo/strategy.properties</value> </property> <property name="properties"> <value>custom.strategy.class=com.foo.DefaultStrategy</value> </property> </bean> <bean id="serviceStrategy" class="${custom.strategy.class}"/> If the class cannot be resolved at runtime to a valid class, resolution of the bean fails when it is about to be created, which is during the preInstantiateSingletons() phase of an ApplicationContext for a non-lazy-init bean.

The PropertyOverrideConfigurer, another bean factory post-processor, resembles the PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer, but unlike the latter, the original definitions can have default values or no values at all for bean properties. If an overriding Properties file does not have an entry for a certain bean property, the default context definition is used.

Note that the bean definition is not aware of being overridden, so it is not immediately obvious from the XML definition file that the override configurer is being used. In case of multiple PropertyOverrideConfigurer instances that define different values for the same bean property, the last one wins, due to the overriding mechanism.

Properties file configuration lines take this format:

beanName.property=value

For example:

dataSource.driverClassName=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
dataSource.url=jdbc:mysql:mydb

This example file can be used with a container definition that contains a bean called dataSource, which has driver and url properties.

Compound property names are also supported, as long as every component of the path except the final property being overridden is already non-null (presumably initialized by the constructors). In this example…

foo.fred.bob.sammy=123

	Note
	Specified override values are always literal values; they are not translated into bean references. This convention also applies when the original value in the XML bean definition specifies a bean reference.

With the context namespace introduced in Spring 2.5, it is possible to configure property overriding with a dedicated configuration element:

<context:property-override location="classpath:override.properties"/>

In much the same way that Spring XML files are used as input when instantiating a ClassPathXmlApplicationContext, @Configuration classes may be used as input when instantiating an AnnotationConfigApplicationContext. This allows for completely XML-free usage of the Spring container:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    ApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(AppConfig.class);
    MyService myService = ctx.getBean(MyService.class);
    myService.doStuff();
}

As mentioned above, AnnotationConfigApplicationContext is not limited to working only with @Configuration classes. Any @Component or JSR-330 annotated class may be supplied as input to the constructor. For example:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    ApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(MyServiceImpl.class, Dependency1.class, Dependency2.class);
    MyService myService = ctx.getBean(MyService.class);
    myService.doStuff();
}

The above assumes that MyServiceImpl, Dependency1 and Dependency2 use Spring dependency injection annotations such as @Autowired.

An AnnotationConfigApplicationContext may be instantiated using a no-arg constructor and then configured using the register() method. This approach is particularly useful when programmatically building an AnnotationConfigApplicationContext.

public static void main(String[] args) {
    AnnotationConfigApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext();
    ctx.register(AppConfig.class, OtherConfig.class);
    ctx.register(AdditionalConfig.class);
    ctx.refresh();
    MyService myService = ctx.getBean(MyService.class);
    myService.doStuff();
}

To enable component scanning, just annotate your @Configuration class as follows:

@Configuration
@ComponentScan(basePackages = "com.acme")
public class AppConfig  {
    ...
}

	Tip
	Experienced Spring users will be familiar with the XML declaration equivalent from Spring’s context: namespace <beans> <context:component-scan base-package="com.acme"/> </beans>

In the example above, the com.acme package will be scanned, looking for any @Component-annotated classes, and those classes will be registered as Spring bean definitions within the container. AnnotationConfigApplicationContext exposes the scan(String...) method to allow for the same component-scanning functionality:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    AnnotationConfigApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext();
    ctx.scan("com.acme");
    ctx.refresh();
    MyService myService = ctx.getBean(MyService.class);
}

	Note
	Remember that @Configuration classes are meta-annotated with @Component, so they are candidates for component-scanning! In the example above, assuming that AppConfig is declared within the com.acme package (or any package underneath), it will be picked up during the call to scan(), and upon refresh() all its @Bean methods will be processed and registered as bean definitions within the container.

A WebApplicationContext variant of AnnotationConfigApplicationContext is available with AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext. This implementation may be used when configuring the Spring ContextLoaderListener servlet listener, Spring MVC DispatcherServlet, etc. What follows is a web.xml snippet that configures a typical Spring MVC web application. Note the use of the contextClass context-param and init-param:

<web-app>
    <!-- Configure ContextLoaderListener to use AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext
        instead of the default XmlWebApplicationContext -->
    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextClass</param-name>
        <param-value>
            org.springframework.web.context.support.AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext
        </param-value>
    </context-param>

    <!-- Configuration locations must consist of one or more comma- or space-delimited
        fully-qualified @Configuration classes. Fully-qualified packages may also be
        specified for component-scanning -->
    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>com.acme.AppConfig</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <!-- Bootstrap the root application context as usual using ContextLoaderListener -->
    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
    </listener>

    <!-- Declare a Spring MVC DispatcherServlet as usual -->
    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
        <!-- Configure DispatcherServlet to use AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext
            instead of the default XmlWebApplicationContext -->
        <init-param>
            <param-name>contextClass</param-name>
            <param-value>
                org.springframework.web.context.support.AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext
            </param-value>
        </init-param>
        <!-- Again, config locations must consist of one or more comma- or space-delimited
            and fully-qualified @Configuration classes -->
        <init-param>
            <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
            <param-value>com.acme.web.MvcConfig</param-value>
        </init-param>
    </servlet>

    <!-- map all requests for /app/* to the dispatcher servlet -->
    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/app/*</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>
</web-app>

To declare a bean, simply annotate a method with the @Bean annotation. You use this method to register a bean definition within an ApplicationContext of the type specified as the method’s return value. By default, the bean name will be the same as the method name. The following is a simple example of a @Bean method declaration:

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {

    @Bean
    public TransferService transferService() {
        return new TransferServiceImpl();
    }

}

The preceding configuration is exactly equivalent to the following Spring XML:

<beans>
    <bean id="transferService" class="com.acme.TransferServiceImpl"/>
</beans>

Both declarations make a bean named transferService available in the ApplicationContext, bound to an object instance of type TransferServiceImpl:

transferService -> com.acme.TransferServiceImpl

Any classes defined with the @Bean annotation support the regular lifecycle callbacks and can use the @PostConstruct and @PreDestroy annotations from JSR-250, see JSR-250 annotations for further details.

The regular Spring lifecycle callbacks are fully supported as well. If a bean implements InitializingBean, DisposableBean, or Lifecycle, their respective methods are called by the container.

The standard set of *Aware interfaces such as BeanFactoryAware, BeanNameAware, MessageSourceAware, ApplicationContextAware, and so on are also fully supported.

The @Bean annotation supports specifying arbitrary initialization and destruction callback methods, much like Spring XML’s init-method and destroy-method attributes on the bean element:

public class Foo {
    public void init() {
        // initialization logic
    }
}

public class Bar {
    public void cleanup() {
        // destruction logic
    }
}

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {

    @Bean(initMethod = "init")
    public Foo foo() {
        return new Foo();
    }

    @Bean(destroyMethod = "cleanup")
    public Bar bar() {
        return new Bar();
    }

}

	Note
	By default, beans defined using Java config that have a public close or shutdown method are automatically enlisted with a destruction callback. If you have a public close or shutdown method and you do not wish for it to be called when the container shuts down, simply add @Bean(destroyMethod="") to your bean definition to disable the default (inferred) mode.

Of course, in the case of Foo above, it would be equally as valid to call the init() method directly during construction:

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {
    @Bean
    public Foo foo() {
        Foo foo = new Foo();
        foo.init();
        return foo;
    }

    // ...

}

	Tip
	When you work directly in Java, you can do anything you like with your objects and do not always need to rely on the container lifecycle!

By default, configuration classes use a @Bean method’s name as the name of the resulting bean. This functionality can be overridden, however, with the name attribute.

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {

    @Bean(name = "myFoo")
    public Foo foo() {
        return new Foo();
    }

}

As discussed in Section 5.3.1, “Naming beans”, it is sometimes desirable to give a single bean multiple names, otherwise known asbean aliasing. The name attribute of the @Bean annotation accepts a String array for this purpose.

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {

    @Bean(name = { "dataSource", "subsystemA-dataSource", "subsystemB-dataSource" })
    public DataSource dataSource() {
        // instantiate, configure and return DataSource bean...
    }

}

Sometimes it is helpful to provide a more detailed textual description of a bean. This can be particularly useful when beans are exposed (perhaps via JMX) for monitoring purposes.

To add a description to a @Bean the @Description annotation can be used:

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {

    @Bean
    @Description("Provides a basic example of a bean")
    public Foo foo() {
        return new Foo();
    }

}

When @Beans have dependencies on one another, expressing that dependency is as simple as having one bean method call another:

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {

    @Bean
    public Foo foo() {
        return new Foo(bar());
    }

    @Bean
    public Bar bar() {
        return new Bar();
    }

}

In the example above, the foo bean receives a reference to bar via constructor injection.

	Note
	This method of declaring inter-bean dependencies only works when the @Bean method is declared within a @Configuration class. You cannot declare inter-bean dependencies using plain @Component classes.

As noted earlier, lookup method injection is an advanced feature that you should use rarely. It is useful in cases where a singleton-scoped bean has a dependency on a prototype-scoped bean. Using Java for this type of configuration provides a natural means for implementing this pattern.

public abstract class CommandManager {
    public Object process(Object commandState) {
        // grab a new instance of the appropriate Command interface
        Command command = createCommand();

        // set the state on the (hopefully brand new) Command instance
        command.setState(commandState);
    return command.execute();
    }

    // okay... but where is the implementation of this method?
    protected abstract Command createCommand();
}

Using Java-configuration support , you can create a subclass of CommandManager where the abstract createCommand() method is overridden in such a way that it looks up a new (prototype) command object:

@Bean
@Scope("prototype")
public AsyncCommand asyncCommand() {
    AsyncCommand command = new AsyncCommand();
    // inject dependencies here as required
    return command;
}

@Bean
public CommandManager commandManager() {
    // return new anonymous implementation of CommandManager with command() overridden
    // to return a new prototype Command object
    return new CommandManager() {
        protected Command createCommand() {
            return asyncCommand();
        }
    }
}

The following example shows a @Bean annotated method being called twice:

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {

    @Bean
    public ClientService clientService1() {
        ClientServiceImpl clientService = new ClientServiceImpl();
        clientService.setClientDao(clientDao());
        return clientService;
    }

    @Bean
    public ClientService clientService2() {
        ClientServiceImpl clientService = new ClientServiceImpl();
        clientService.setClientDao(clientDao());
        return clientService;
    }

    @Bean
    public ClientDao clientDao() {
        return new ClientDaoImpl();
    }

}

clientDao() has been called once in clientService1() and once in clientService2(). Since this method creates a new instance of ClientDaoImpl and returns it, you would normally expect having 2 instances (one for each service). That definitely would be problematic: in Spring, instantiated beans have a singleton scope by default. This is where the magic comes in: All @Configuration classes are subclassed at startup-time with CGLIB. In the subclass, the child method checks the container first for any cached (scoped) beans before it calls the parent method and creates a new instance. Note that as of Spring 3.2, it is no longer necessary to add CGLIB to your classpath because CGLIB classes have been repackaged under org.springframework and included directly within the spring-core JAR.

	Note
	The behavior could be different according to the scope of your bean. We are talking about singletons here.

	Note
	There are a few restrictions due to the fact that CGLIB dynamically adds features at startup-time: Configuration classes should not be final They should have a constructor with no arguments

Much as the <import/> element is used within Spring XML files to aid in modularizing configurations, the @Import annotation allows for loading @Bean definitions from another configuration class:

@Configuration
public class ConfigA {

     @Bean
    public A a() {
        return new A();
    }

}

@Configuration
@Import(ConfigA.class)
public class ConfigB {

    @Bean
    public B b() {
        return new B();
    }

}

Now, rather than needing to specify both ConfigA.class and ConfigB.class when instantiating the context, only ConfigB needs to be supplied explicitly:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    ApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(ConfigB.class);

    // now both beans A and B will be available...
    A a = ctx.getBean(A.class);
    B b = ctx.getBean(B.class);
}

This approach simplifies container instantiation, as only one class needs to be dealt with, rather than requiring the developer to remember a potentially large number of @Configuration classes during construction.

@Configuration
public class ServiceConfig {

    @Autowired
    private AccountRepository accountRepository;

    @Bean
    public TransferService transferService() {
        return new TransferServiceImpl(accountRepository);
    }

}

@Configuration
public class RepositoryConfig {

    @Autowired
    private DataSource dataSource;

    @Bean
    public AccountRepository accountRepository() {
        return new JdbcAccountRepository(dataSource);
    }

}

@Configuration
@Import({ServiceConfig.class, RepositoryConfig.class})
public class SystemTestConfig {

    @Bean
    public DataSource dataSource() {
        // return new DataSource
    }

}

public static void main(String[] args) {
    ApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(SystemTestConfig.class);
    // everything wires up across configuration classes...
    TransferService transferService = ctx.getBean(TransferService.class);
    transferService.transfer(100.00, "A123", "C456");
}

@Configuration
public class ServiceConfig {

    @Autowired
    private RepositoryConfig repositoryConfig;

    @Bean
    public TransferService transferService() {
        // navigate through the config class to the @Bean method!
        return new TransferServiceImpl(repositoryConfig.accountRepository());
    }

}

@Configuration
public class ServiceConfig {

    @Autowired
    private RepositoryConfig repositoryConfig;

    @Bean
    public TransferService transferService() {
        return new TransferServiceImpl(repositoryConfig.accountRepository());
    }
}

@Configuration
public interface RepositoryConfig {

    @Bean
    AccountRepository accountRepository();

}

@Configuration
public class DefaultRepositoryConfig implements RepositoryConfig {

    @Bean
    public AccountRepository accountRepository() {
        return new JdbcAccountRepository(...);
    }

}

@Configuration
@Import({ServiceConfig.class, DefaultRepositoryConfig.class}) // import the concrete config!
public class SystemTestConfig {

    @Bean
    public DataSource dataSource() {
        // return DataSource
    }

}

public static void main(String[] args) {
    ApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(SystemTestConfig.class);
    TransferService transferService = ctx.getBean(TransferService.class);
    transferService.transfer(100.00, "A123", "C456");
}

It is often useful to conditionally enable to disable a complete @Configuration class, or even individual @Bean methods, based on some arbitrary system state. One common example of this it to use the @Profile annotation to active beans only when a specific profile has been enabled in the Spring Environment (see Section 5.13.1, “Bean definition profiles” for details).

The @Profile annotation is actually implemented using a much more flexible annotation called @Conditional. The @Conditional annotation indicates specific org.springframework.context.annotation.Condition implementations that should be consulted before a @Bean is registered.

Implementations of the Condition interface simply provide a matches(...) method that returns true or false. For example, here is the actual Condition implementation used for @Profile:

@Override
public boolean matches(ConditionContext context, AnnotatedTypeMetadata metadata) {
    if (context.getEnvironment() != null) {
        // Read the @Profile annotation attributes
        MultiValueMap<String, Object> attrs = metadata.getAllAnnotationAttributes(Profile.class.getName());
        if (attrs != null) {
            for (Object value : attrs.get("value")) {
                if (context.getEnvironment().acceptsProfiles(((String[]) value))) {
                    return true;
                }
            }
            return false;
        }
    }
    return true;
}

See the @Conditional javadocs for more detail.

Spring’s @Configuration class support does not aim to be a 100% complete replacement for Spring XML. Some facilities such as Spring XML namespaces remain an ideal way to configure the container. In cases where XML is convenient or necessary, you have a choice: either instantiate the container in an "XML-centric" way using, for example, ClassPathXmlApplicationContext, or in a "Java-centric" fashion using AnnotationConfigApplicationContext and the @ImportResource annotation to import XML as needed.

XML-centric use of @Configuration classes

It may be preferable to bootstrap the Spring container from XML and include @Configuration classes in an ad-hoc fashion. For example, in a large existing codebase that uses Spring XML, it will be easier to create @Configuration classes on an as-needed basis and include them from the existing XML files. Below you’ll find the options for using @Configuration classes in this kind of "XML-centric" situation.

Remember that @Configuration classes are ultimately just bean definitions in the container. In this example, we create a @Configuration class named AppConfig and include it within system-test-config.xml as a <bean/> definition. Because <context:annotation-config/> is switched on, the container will recognize the @Configuration annotation, and process the @Bean methods declared in AppConfig properly.

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {

    @Autowired
    private DataSource dataSource;

    @Bean
    public AccountRepository accountRepository() {
        return new JdbcAccountRepository(dataSource);
    }

    @Bean
    public TransferService transferService() {
        return new TransferService(accountRepository());
    }

}

system-test-config.xml
<beans>
    <!-- enable processing of annotations such as @Autowired and @Configuration -->
    <context:annotation-config/>
    <context:property-placeholder location="classpath:/com/acme/jdbc.properties"/>

    <bean class="com.acme.AppConfig"/>

    <bean class="org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DriverManagerDataSource">
        <property name="url" value="${jdbc.url}"/>
        <property name="username" value="${jdbc.username}"/>
        <property name="password" value="${jdbc.password}"/>
    </bean>
</beans>

jdbc.properties
jdbc.url=jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://localhost/xdb
jdbc.username=sa
jdbc.password=

public static void main(String[] args) {
    ApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("classpath:/com/acme/system-test-config.xml");
    TransferService transferService = ctx.getBean(TransferService.class);
    // ...
}

	Note
	In system-test-config.xml above, the AppConfig<bean/> does not declare an id element. While it would be acceptable to do so, it is unnecessary given that no other bean will ever refer to it, and it is unlikely that it will be explicitly fetched from the container by name. Likewise with the DataSource bean - it is only ever autowired by type, so an explicit bean id is not strictly required.

Because @Configuration is meta-annotated with @Component, @Configuration-annotated classes are automatically candidates for component scanning. Using the same scenario as above, we can redefine system-test-config.xml to take advantage of component-scanning. Note that in this case, we don’t need to explicitly declare <context:annotation-config/>, because <context:component-scan/> enables all the same functionality.

system-test-config.xml
<beans>
    <!-- picks up and registers AppConfig as a bean definition -->
    <context:component-scan base-package="com.acme"/>
    <context:property-placeholder location="classpath:/com/acme/jdbc.properties"/>

    <bean class="org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DriverManagerDataSource">
        <property name="url" value="${jdbc.url}"/>
        <property name="username" value="${jdbc.username}"/>
        <property name="password" value="${jdbc.password}"/>
    </bean>
</beans>

@Configuration
@ImportResource("classpath:/com/acme/properties-config.xml")
public class AppConfig {

    @Value("${jdbc.url}")
    private String url;

    @Value("${jdbc.username}")
    private String username;

    @Value("${jdbc.password}")
    private String password;

    @Bean
    public DataSource dataSource() {
        return new DriverManagerDataSource(url, username, password);
    }

}

properties-config.xml
<beans>
    <context:property-placeholder location="classpath:/com/acme/jdbc.properties"/>
</beans>

jdbc.properties
jdbc.url=jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://localhost/xdb
jdbc.username=sa
jdbc.password=

public static void main(String[] args) {
    ApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(AppConfig.class);
    TransferService transferService = ctx.getBean(TransferService.class);
    // ...
}

The @Profile annotation allows to indicate that a component is eligible for registration when one or more specified profiles are active. Using our example above, we can rewrite the dataSource configuration as follows:

@Configuration
@Profile("dev")
public class StandaloneDataConfig {

    @Bean
    public DataSource dataSource() {
        return new EmbeddedDatabaseBuilder()
            .setType(EmbeddedDatabaseType.HSQL)
            .addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/schema.sql")
            .addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/test-data.sql")
            .build();
    }
}

@Configuration
@Profile("production")
public class JndiDataConfig {

    @Bean
    public DataSource dataSource() throws Exception {
        Context ctx = new InitialContext();
        return (DataSource) ctx.lookup("java:comp/env/jdbc/datasource");
    }
}

@Profile can be used as a meta-annotation, for the purpose of composing custom stereotype annotations. The following example defines a @Production custom annotation that can be used as a drop-in replacement of @Profile("production"):

@Target(ElementType.TYPE)
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Profile("production")
public @interface Production {
}

@Profile can also be specified at method-level to include only one particular bean of a configuration class:

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {

    @Bean
    @Profile("dev")
    public DataSource devDataSource() {
        return new EmbeddedDatabaseBuilder()
            .setType(EmbeddedDatabaseType.HSQL)
            .addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/schema.sql")
            .addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/test-data.sql")
            .build();
    }

    @Bean
    @Profile("production")
    public DataSource productionDataSource() throws Exception {
        Context ctx = new InitialContext();
        return (DataSource) ctx.lookup("java:comp/env/jdbc/datasource");
    }
}

Tip

If a @Configuration class is marked with @Profile, all of the @Bean methods and @Import annotations associated with that class will be bypassed unless one or more of the specified profiles are active. If a @Component or @Configuration class is marked with @Profile({"p1", "p2"}), that class will not be registered/ processed unless profiles p1 and/or p2 have been activated. If a given profile is prefixed with the NOT operator (!), the annotated element will be registered if the profile is not active. e.g., for @Profile({"p1", "!p2"}), registration will occur if profile p1 is active or if profile p2 is not active.

Now that we have updated our configuration, we still need to instruct which profile is active. If we started our sample application right now, we would see a NoSuchBeanDefinitionException thrown, because the container could not find the Spring bean named dataSource.

Activating a profile can be done in several ways, but the most straightforward is to do it programmatically against the ApplicationContext API:

AnnotationConfigApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext();
ctx.getEnvironment().setActiveProfiles("dev");
ctx.register(SomeConfig.class, StandaloneDataConfig.class, JndiDataConfig.class);
ctx.refresh();

In addition, profiles may also be activated declaratively through the spring.profiles.active property which may be specified through system environment variables, JVM system properties, servlet context parameters in web.xml or even as an entry in JNDI (see Section 5.13.3, “PropertySource Abstraction”).

Note that profiles are not an "either-or" proposition; it is possible to activate multiple profiles at once. Programmatically, simply provide multiple profile names to the setActiveProfiles() method, which accepts String... varargs:

ctx.getEnvironment().setActiveProfiles("profile1", "profile2");

Declaratively, spring.profiles.active may accept a comma-separated list of profile names:

-Dspring.profiles.active="profile1,profile2"

The default profile represents the profile that is enabled by default. Consider the following:

@Configuration
@Profile("default")
public class DefaultDataConfig {

    @Bean
    public DataSource dataSource() {
        return new EmbeddedDatabaseBuilder()
            .setType(EmbeddedDatabaseType.HSQL)
            .addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/schema.sql")
            .build();
    }
}

If no profile is active, the dataSource above will be created; this can be seen as a way to provide a default definition for one or more beans. If any profile is enabled, the default profile will not apply.

The name of that default profile can be changed using setDefaultProfiles on the Environment or declaratively using the spring.profiles.default property.