Creating Repository Instances
In this section, you create instances and bean definitions for the defined repository interfaces. One way to do so is by using the Spring namespace that is shipped with each Spring Data module that supports the repository mechanism, although we generally recommend using Java configuration.
XML configuration
Each Spring Data module includes a repositories
element that lets you define a base package that Spring scans for you, as shown in the following example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans:beans xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/data/jpa"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/data/jpa
http://www.springframework.org/schema/data/jpa/spring-jpa.xsd">
<repositories base-package="com.acme.repositories" />
</beans:beans>
In the preceding example, Spring is instructed to scan com.acme.repositories
and all its sub-packages for interfaces extending Repository
or one of its sub-interfaces. For each interface found, the infrastructure registers the persistence technology-specific FactoryBean
to create the appropriate proxies that handle invocations of the query methods. Each bean is registered under a bean name that is derived from the interface name, so an interface of UserRepository
would be registered under userRepository
. The base-package
attribute allows wildcards so that you can define a pattern of scanned packages.
Using filters
By default, the infrastructure picks up every interface extending the persistence technology-specific Repository
sub-interface located under the configured base package and creates a bean instance for it. However, you might want more fine-grained control over which interfaces have bean instances created for them. To do so, use <include-filter />
and <exclude-filter />
elements inside the <repositories />
element. The semantics are exactly equivalent to the elements in Spring’s context namespace. For details, see the Spring reference documentation for these elements.
For example, to exclude certain interfaces from instantiation as repository beans, you could use the following configuration:
<repositories base-package="com.acme.repositories">
<context:exclude-filter type="regex" expression=".*SomeRepository" />
</repositories>
The preceding example excludes all interfaces ending in SomeRepository
from being instantiated.
JavaConfig
The repository infrastructure can also be triggered by using a store-specific @Enable${store}Repositories
annotation on a JavaConfig class. For an introduction into Java-based configuration of the Spring container, see JavaConfig in the Spring reference documentation.
A sample configuration to enable Spring Data repositories resembles the following:
@Configuration
@EnableJpaRepositories("com.acme.repositories")
class ApplicationConfiguration {
@Bean
EntityManagerFactory entityManagerFactory() {
// …
}
}
The preceding example uses the JPA-specific annotation, which you would change according to the store module you actually use. The same applies to the definition of the EntityManagerFactory bean. See the sections covering the store-specific configuration.
|
Standalone usage
You can also use the repository infrastructure outside of a Spring container — for example, in CDI environments. You still need some Spring libraries in your classpath, but, generally, you can set up repositories programmatically as well. The Spring Data modules that provide repository support ship a persistence technology-specific RepositoryFactory
that you can use as follows:
RepositoryFactorySupport factory = … // Instantiate factory here
UserRepository repository = factory.getRepository(UserRepository.class);