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Dependencies

A typical enterprise application does not consist of a single object (or bean in the Spring parlance). Even the simplest application has a few objects that work together to present what the end-user sees as a coherent application. This next section explains how you go from defining a number of bean definitions that stand alone to a fully realized application where objects collaborate to achieve a goal.

Dependency Injection

Dependency injection (DI) is a process whereby objects define their dependencies (that is, the other objects with which they work) only through constructor arguments, arguments to a factory method, or properties that are set on the object instance after it is constructed or returned from a factory method. The container then injects those dependencies when it creates the bean. This process is fundamentally the inverse (hence the name, Inversion of Control) of the bean itself controlling the instantiation or location of its dependencies on its own by using direct construction of classes or the Service Locator pattern.

Code is cleaner with the DI principle, and decoupling is more effective when objects are provided with their dependencies. The object does not look up its dependencies and does not know the location or class of the dependencies. As a result, your classes become easier to test, particularly when the dependencies are on interfaces or abstract base classes, which allow for stub or mock implementations to be used in unit tests.

DI exists in two major variants: Constructor-based dependency injection and Setter-based dependency injection.

Constructor-based Dependency Injection

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:

Java

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...
}

Kotlin

// a constructor so that the Spring container can inject a MovieFinder
class SimpleMovieLister(private val movieFinder: MovieFinder) {
	// business logic that actually uses the injected MovieFinder is omitted...
}

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.

Constructor Argument Resolution

Constructor argument resolution matching occurs by using the argument’s type. If no potential ambiguity exists in the constructor arguments of a bean definition, the order in which the constructor arguments are defined in a bean definition is the order in which those arguments are supplied to the appropriate constructor when the bean is being instantiated. Consider the following class:

Java

package x.y;

public class ThingOne {

	public ThingOne(ThingTwo thingTwo, ThingThree thingThree) {
		// ...
	}
}

Kotlin

package x.y

class ThingOne(thingTwo: ThingTwo, thingThree: ThingThree)

Assuming that ThingTwo and ThingThree classes are not related by inheritance, no potential ambiguity exists. Thus, the following configuration works fine, and you do not need to specify the constructor argument indexes or types explicitly in the <constructor-arg/> element.

<beans>
	<bean id="beanOne" class="x.y.ThingOne">
		<constructor-arg ref="beanTwo"/>
		<constructor-arg ref="beanThree"/>
	</bean>

	<bean id="beanTwo" class="x.y.ThingTwo"/>

	<bean id="beanThree" class="x.y.ThingThree"/>
</beans>

When another bean is referenced, the type is known, and matching can occur (as was the case with the preceding example). When a simple type is used, such as <value>true</value>, Spring cannot determine the type of the value, and so cannot match by type without help. Consider the following class:

Java

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;
	}
}

Kotlin

package examples

class ExampleBean(
	private val years: Int, // Number of years to calculate the Ultimate Answer
	private val ultimateAnswer: String// The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything
)

Constructor argument type matching

In the preceding scenario, the container can use type matching with simple types if you explicitly specify the type of the constructor argument by using the type attribute. as the following example shows:

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

Constructor argument index

You can use the index attribute to specify explicitly the index of constructor arguments, as the following example shows:

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

In addition to resolving the ambiguity of multiple simple values, specifying an index resolves ambiguity where a constructor has two arguments of the same type.

The index is 0-based.

Constructor argument name

You can also use the constructor parameter name for value disambiguation, as the following example shows:

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

Keep in mind that, to make this work out of the box, your code must be compiled with the debug flag enabled so that Spring can look up the parameter name from the constructor. If you cannot or do not want to compile your code with the debug flag, you can use the @ConstructorProperties JDK annotation to explicitly name your constructor arguments. The sample class would then have to look as follows:

Java

package examples;

public class ExampleBean {

	// Fields omitted

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

Kotlin

package examples

class ExampleBean
@ConstructorProperties("years", "ultimateAnswer")
constructor(val years: Int, val ultimateAnswer: String)

Setter-based Dependency Injection

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

The following example shows a class that can only be dependency-injected by 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.

Java

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...
}

Kotlin

class SimpleMovieLister {

	// a late-initialized property so that the Spring container can inject a MovieFinder
	lateinit var 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 (that is, programmatically) but rather with XML bean definitions, annotated components (that is, classes annotated with @Component, @Controller, and so forth), 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.

Constructor-based or setter-based DI?

Since you can mix constructor-based and setter-based DI, it is a good rule of thumb to use constructors for mandatory dependencies and setter methods or configuration methods for optional dependencies. Note that use of the @Required annotation on a setter method can be used to make the property be a required dependency; however, constructor injection with programmatic validation of arguments is preferable.

The Spring team generally advocates constructor injection, as it lets you implement application components as immutable objects and ensures that required dependencies are not null. Furthermore, constructor-injected components are always returned to the client (calling) code in a fully initialized state. As a side note, a large number of constructor arguments is a bad code smell, implying that the class likely has too many responsibilities and should be refactored to better address proper separation of concerns.

Setter injection should primarily only be used for optional dependencies that can be assigned reasonable default values within the class. Otherwise, not-null checks must be performed everywhere the code uses the dependency. One benefit of setter injection is that setter methods make objects of that class amenable to reconfiguration or re-injection later. Management through JMX MBeans is therefore a compelling use case for setter injection.

Use the DI style that makes the most sense for a particular class. Sometimes, when dealing with third-party classes for which you do not have the source, the choice is made for you. For example, if a third-party class does not expose any setter methods, then constructor injection may be the only available form of DI.

Dependency Resolution Process

The container performs bean dependency resolution as follows:

The ApplicationContext is created and initialized with configuration metadata that describes all the beans. Configuration metadata can be specified by XML, Java code, or annotations.
For each bean, its dependencies are expressed in the form of properties, constructor arguments, or arguments to the static-factory method (if you use that instead of a normal constructor). These dependencies are provided to the bean, when the bean is actually created.
Each property or constructor argument is an actual definition of the value to set, or a reference to another bean in the container.
Each property or constructor argument that is a value is converted from its specified format to the actual type of that property or constructor argument. By default, Spring can convert a value supplied in string format to all built-in types, such as int, long, String, boolean, and so forth.

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 beans-factory-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 — that is, on first creation of the affected bean.

Circular dependencies

If you use predominantly constructor injection, it is possible to create an unresolvable circular dependency scenario.

For example: Class A requires an instance of class B through constructor injection, and class B requires an instance of class A through constructor injection. If you configure beans for classes A and B to be injected into each other, the Spring IoC container detects this circular reference at runtime, and throws a BeanCurrentlyInCreationException.

One possible solution is to edit the source code of some classes to be configured by setters rather than constructors. Alternatively, avoid constructor injection and use setter injection only. In other words, although it is not recommended, you can configure circular dependencies with setter injection.

Unlike the typical case (with no circular dependencies), a circular dependency between bean A and bean B forces one of the beans to be injected into the other prior to being fully initialized itself (a classic chicken-and-egg scenario).

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 that 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 initialize lazily, rather than being 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 it is 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.

Examples of Dependency Injection

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 as follows:

<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"/>

The following example shows the corresponding ExampleBean class:

Java

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;
	}
}

Kotlin

class ExampleBean {
	lateinit var beanOne: AnotherBean
	lateinit var beanTwo: YetAnotherBean
	var i: Int = 0
}

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"/>

The following example shows the corresponding ExampleBean class:

Java

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;
	}
}

Kotlin

class ExampleBean(
		private val beanOne: AnotherBean,
		private val beanTwo: YetAnotherBean,
		private val i: Int)

The constructor arguments specified in the bean definition are 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"/>

The following example shows the corresponding ExampleBean class:

Java

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;
	}
}

Kotlin

class ExampleBean private constructor() {
	companion object {
		// 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.
		fun createInstance(anotherBean: AnotherBean, yetAnotherBean: YetAnotherBean, i: Int): ExampleBean {
			val eb = ExampleBean (...)
			// some other operations...
			return eb
		}
	}
}

Arguments to the static factory method are supplied by <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 can be used in an essentially identical fashion (aside from the use of the factory-bean attribute instead of the class attribute), so we do not discuss those details here.

Dependencies and Configuration in Detail

As mentioned in the previous section, you can define bean properties and constructor arguments as references to other managed beans (collaborators) or as values defined inline. Spring’s XML-based configuration metadata supports sub-element types within its <property/> and <constructor-arg/> elements for this purpose.

Straight Values (Primitives, Strings, and so on)

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. The following example shows various values being set:

<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
	https://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) that supports automatic property completion when you create bean definitions. Such IDE assistance is highly recommended.

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

<bean id="mappings"
	class="org.springframework.context.support.PropertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer">

	<!-- 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 (a string value - not a reference) of another bean in the container to a <constructor-arg/> or <property/> element. The following example shows how to use it:

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

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

The preceding 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 lets the container 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.

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 any more. 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.

References to Other Beans (Collaborators)

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 is to be set, and it is initialized on demand as needed before the property is set. (If the collaborator is a singleton bean, it may already be initialized by the container.) All references are ultimately a reference to another object. Scoping and validation depend on whether you specify the ID or 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 be the same as one of the values in the name attribute of the target bean. The following example shows how to use a ref element:

<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. The target bean must be in a parent container of the current one. You should 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 has the same name as the parent bean. The following pair of listings shows how to use the parent attribute:

<!-- in the parent context -->
<bean id="accountService" class="com.something.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>

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 any more. Change your existing ref local references to ref bean when upgrading to the 4.0 schema.

Inner Beans

A <bean/> element inside the <property/> or <constructor-arg/> elements defines an inner bean, as the following example shows:

<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. If specified, the container does not use such a value as an identifier. The container also ignores the scope flag on creation, because inner beans are always anonymous and are always created with the outer bean. It is not possible to access inner beans independently or to inject them into collaborating beans other than into the enclosing bean.

As a corner case, it is possible to receive destruction callbacks from a custom scope — for example, for a request-scoped inner bean contained within a singleton bean. The creation of the inner bean instance is tied to its containing bean, but destruction callbacks let it participate in the request scope’s lifecycle. This is not a common scenario. Inner beans typically simply share their containing bean’s scope.

Collections

The <list/>, <set/>, <map/>, and <props/> elements set the properties and arguments of the Java Collection types List, Set, Map, and Properties, respectively. The following example shows how to use them:

<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 be any of the following elements:

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

Collection Merging

The Spring container also supports merging collections. An application developer can define a parent <list/>, <map/>, <set/> or <props/> element and have child <list/>, <map/>, <set/> or <props/> elements inherit and override values from the parent collection. That is, the child collection’s values are the result of merging the elements of the parent and child collections, with the child’s collection elements overriding values specified in the parent collection.

This section on merging discusses the parent-child bean mechanism. Readers unfamiliar with parent and child bean definitions may wish to read the relevant section before continuing.

The following example demonstrates collection merging:

<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>

Notice the use of the merge=true attribute on the <props/> element of the adminEmails property of the child bean definition. When the child bean is resolved and instantiated by the container, the resulting instance has an adminEmails Properties collection that contains the result of merging the child’s adminEmails collection with the parent’s adminEmails collection. The following listing shows the result:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

The child Properties collection’s value set inherits all property elements from the parent <props/>, and the child’s value for the support value overrides the value in the parent collection.

This merging behavior applies similarly to the <list/>, <map/>, and <set/> collection types. In the specific case of the <list/> element, the semantics associated with the List collection type (that is, the notion of an ordered collection of values) is maintained. The parent’s values precede all of the child list’s values. In the case of the Map, Set, and Properties collection types, no ordering exists. Hence, no ordering semantics are in effect for the collection types that underlie the associated Map, Set, and Properties implementation types that the container uses internally.

Limitations of Collection Merging

You cannot merge different collection types (such as a Map and a List). If you do attempt to do so, an appropriate Exception is thrown. The merge attribute must be specified on the lower, inherited, child definition. Specifying the merge attribute on a parent collection definition is redundant and does not result in the desired merging.

Strongly-typed collection

With the introduction of generic types in Java 5, you can use strongly typed collections. That is, it is possible to declare a Collection type such that it can only contain (for example) String elements. If you use Spring to dependency-inject a strongly-typed Collection into a bean, you can take advantage of Spring’s type-conversion support such that the elements of your strongly-typed Collection instances are converted to the appropriate type prior to being added to the Collection. The following Java class and bean definition show how to do so:

Java

public class SomeClass {

	private Map<String, Float> accounts;

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

Kotlin

class SomeClass {
	lateinit var accounts: Map<String, Float>
}

<beans>
	<bean id="something" class="x.y.SomeClass">
		<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>

When the accounts property of the something bean is prepared for injection, the generics information about the element type of the strongly-typed Map<String, Float> is available by reflection. Thus, Spring’s type conversion infrastructure recognizes the various value elements as being of type Float, and the string values (9.99, 2.75, and 3.99) are converted into an actual Float type.

Null and Empty String Values

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:

Java

exampleBean.setEmail("");

Kotlin

exampleBean.email = ""

The <null/> element handles null values. The following listing shows an example:

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

The preceding configuration is equivalent to the following Java code:

Java

exampleBean.setEmail(null);

Kotlin

exampleBean.email = null

XML Shortcut with the p-namespace

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

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 (the first uses standard XML format and the second uses the p-namespace) that resolve to the same result:

<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
		https://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
		https://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>

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.

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.

XML Shortcut with the c-namespace

Similar to the beans-p-namespace, the c-namespace, introduced in Spring 3.1, allows inlined attributes for configuring the constructor arguments rather then nested constructor-arg elements.

The following example uses the c: namespace to do the same thing as the from beans-constructor-injection:

<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
		https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd">

	<bean id="beanTwo" class="x.y.ThingTwo"/>
	<bean id="beanThree" class="x.y.ThingThree"/>

	<!-- traditional declaration with optional argument names -->
	<bean id="beanOne" class="x.y.ThingOne">
		<constructor-arg name="thingTwo" ref="beanTwo"/>
		<constructor-arg name="thingThree" ref="beanThree"/>
		<constructor-arg name="email" value="[email protected]"/>
	</bean>

	<!-- c-namespace declaration with argument names -->
	<bean id="beanOne" class="x.y.ThingOne" c:thingTwo-ref="beanTwo"
		c:thingThree-ref="beanThree" c:email="[email protected]"/>

</beans>

The c: namespace uses the same conventions as the p: one (a trailing -ref for bean references) for setting the constructor arguments by their names. Similarly, it needs to be declared in the XML file even though it is not defined in an XSD schema (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), you can use fallback to the argument indexes, as follows:

<!-- c-namespace index declaration -->
<bean id="beanOne" class="x.y.ThingOne" c:_0-ref="beanTwo" c:_1-ref="beanThree"
	c:_2="[email protected]"/>

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 IDEs allow it). A corresponding index notation is also available for <constructor-arg> elements but not commonly used since the plain order of declaration is usually sufficient there.

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

Compound Property Names

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="something" class="things.ThingOne">
	<property name="fred.bob.sammy" value="123" />
</bean>

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

Using `depends-on`

If a bean is a dependency of another bean, that usually means that one bean is set as a property of another. Typically you accomplish this with the <ref/> element in XML-based configuration metadata. However, sometimes dependencies between beans are less direct. An example is when a static initializer in a class needs to be triggered, such as for database driver registration. The depends-on attribute can explicitly force one or more beans to be initialized before the bean using this element is initialized. The following example uses the depends-on attribute to express a dependency on a single bean:

<bean id="beanOne" class="ExampleBean" depends-on="manager"/>
<bean id="manager" class="ManagerBean" />

To express a dependency on multiple beans, supply a list of bean names as the value of the depends-on attribute (commas, whitespace, and semicolons are valid delimiters):

<bean id="beanOne" class="ExampleBean" depends-on="manager,accountDao">
	<property name="manager" ref="manager" />
</bean>

<bean id="manager" class="ManagerBean" />
<bean id="accountDao" class="x.y.jdbc.JdbcAccountDao" />

The depends-on attribute can specify both an initialization-time dependency and, in the case of singleton beans only, a corresponding destruction-time dependency. Dependent beans that define a depends-on relationship with a given bean are destroyed first, prior to the given bean itself being destroyed. Thus, depends-on can also control shutdown order.

Lazy-initialized Beans

By default, ApplicationContext implementations eagerly create and configure all singleton beans as part of the initialization process. Generally, this pre-instantiation is desirable, because errors in the configuration or surrounding environment are discovered immediately, as opposed to hours or even days later. When this behavior is not desirable, you can prevent pre-instantiation of a singleton bean by marking the bean definition as being lazy-initialized. A lazy-initialized bean tells the IoC container to create a bean instance when it is first requested, rather than at startup.

In XML, this behavior is controlled by the lazy-init attribute on the <bean/> element, as the following example shows:

<bean id="lazy" class="com.something.ExpensiveToCreateBean" lazy-init="true"/>
<bean name="not.lazy" class="com.something.AnotherBean"/>

When the preceding configuration is consumed by an ApplicationContext, the lazy bean is not eagerly pre-instantiated when the ApplicationContext starts, whereas the not.lazy bean is eagerly pre-instantiated.

However, when a lazy-initialized bean is a dependency of a singleton bean that is not lazy-initialized, the ApplicationContext creates the lazy-initialized bean at startup, because it must satisfy the singleton’s dependencies. The lazy-initialized bean is injected into a singleton bean elsewhere that is not lazy-initialized.

You can also control lazy-initialization at the container level by using the default-lazy-init attribute on the <beans/> element, a the following example shows:

<beans default-lazy-init="true">
	<!-- no beans will be pre-instantiated... -->
</beans>

Autowiring Collaborators

The Spring container can autowire relationships between collaborating beans. You can let Spring resolve collaborators (other beans) automatically for your bean by inspecting the contents of the ApplicationContext. Autowiring has the following advantages:

Autowiring can significantly reduce the need to specify properties or constructor arguments. (Other mechanisms such as a bean template discussed elsewhere in this chapter are also valuable in this regard.)
Autowiring can update a configuration as your objects evolve. For example, if you need to add a dependency to a class, that dependency can be satisfied automatically without you needing to modify the configuration. Thus autowiring can be especially useful during development, without negating the option of switching to explicit wiring when the code base becomes more stable.

When using XML-based configuration metadata (see beans-factory-collaborators), you can specify the autowire mode for a bean definition with the autowire attribute of the <bean/> element. The autowiring functionality has four modes. You specify autowiring per bean and can thus choose which ones to autowire. The following table describes the four autowiring modes:

Table 1. Autowiring modes
Mode	Explanation
`no`	(Default) No autowiring. Bean references must be defined by `ref` elements. Changing the default setting is not recommended for larger deployments, because specifying collaborators explicitly gives greater control and clarity. To some extent, it documents the structure of a system.
`byName`	Autowiring by property name. Spring looks for a bean with the same name as the property that needs to be autowired. For example, if a bean definition is set to autowire by name and it contains a `master` property (that is, it has a `setMaster(..)` method), Spring looks for a bean definition named `master` and uses it to set the property.
`byType`	Lets a property be autowired if exactly one bean of the property type exists in the container. If more than one exists, a fatal exception is thrown, which indicates that you may not use `byType` autowiring for that bean. If there are no matching beans, nothing happens (the property is not set).
`constructor`	Analogous to `byType` but applies to constructor arguments. If there is not exactly one bean of the constructor argument type in the container, a fatal error is raised.

With byType or constructor autowiring mode, you can wire arrays and typed collections. In such cases, all autowire candidates within the container that match the expected type are provided to satisfy the dependency. You can autowire strongly-typed Map instances if the expected key type is String. An autowired Map instance’s values consist of all bean instances that match the expected type, and the Map instance’s keys contain the corresponding bean names.

Limitations and Disadvantages of Autowiring

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:

Explicit dependencies in property and constructor-arg settings always override autowiring. You cannot autowire simple properties such as primitives, Strings, and Classes (and arrays of such simple properties). This limitation is by-design.
Autowiring is less exact than explicit wiring. Although, as noted in the earlier table, Spring is careful to avoid guessing in case of ambiguity that might have unexpected results. The relationships between your Spring-managed objects are no longer documented explicitly.
Wiring information may not be available to tools that may generate documentation from a Spring container.
Multiple bean definitions within the container may match the type specified by the setter method or constructor argument to be autowired. For arrays, collections, or Map instances, this is not necessarily a problem. However, for dependencies that expect a single value, this ambiguity is not arbitrarily resolved. If no unique bean definition is available, an exception is thrown.

In the latter scenario, you have several options:

Abandon autowiring in favor of explicit wiring.
Avoid autowiring for a bean definition by setting its autowire-candidate attributes to false, as described in the next section.
Designate a single bean definition as the primary candidate by setting the primary attribute of its <bean/> element to true.
Implement the more fine-grained control available with annotation-based configuration, as described in beans-annotation-config.

Excluding a Bean from Autowiring

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).

The autowire-candidate attribute is designed to only affect type-based autowiring. It does not affect explicit references by name, which get resolved even if the specified bean is not marked as an autowire candidate. As a consequence, autowiring by name nevertheless injects a bean if the name matches.

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 definition’s autowire-candidate attribute always takes precedence. 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 by using autowiring. Rather, the bean itself is not a candidate for autowiring other beans.

Method Injection

In most application scenarios, most beans in the container are singletons. When a singleton bean needs to collaborate with another singleton bean or a non-singleton bean needs to collaborate with another non-singleton bean, you typically handle the dependency by defining one bean as a property of the other. A problem arises when the bean lifecycles are different. Suppose singleton bean A needs to use non-singleton (prototype) bean B, perhaps on each method invocation on A. The container creates the singleton bean A only once, and thus only gets one opportunity to set the properties. The container cannot provide bean A with a new instance of bean B every time one is needed.

A solution is to forego some inversion of control. You can make bean A aware of the container by implementing the ApplicationContextAware interface, and by making a getBean("B") call to the container ask for (a typically new) bean B instance every time bean A needs it. The following example shows this approach:

Java

// a class that uses a stateful Command-style class to perform some processing
package fiona.apple;

// Spring-API imports
import org.springframework.beans.BeansException;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextAware;

public class CommandManager implements ApplicationContextAware {

	private ApplicationContext applicationContext;

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

	protected Command createCommand() {
		// notice the Spring API dependency!
		return this.applicationContext.getBean("command", Command.class);
	}

	public void setApplicationContext(
			ApplicationContext applicationContext) throws BeansException {
		this.applicationContext = applicationContext;
	}
}

Kotlin

// a class that uses a stateful Command-style class to perform some processing
package fiona.apple

// Spring-API imports
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextAware

class CommandManager : ApplicationContextAware {

	private lateinit var applicationContext: ApplicationContext

	fun process(commandState: Map<*, *>): Any {
		// grab a new instance of the appropriate Command
		val command = createCommand()
		// set the state on the (hopefully brand new) Command instance
		command.state = commandState
		return command.execute()
	}

	// notice the Spring API dependency!
	protected fun createCommand() =
			applicationContext.getBean("command", Command::class.java)

	override fun setApplicationContext(applicationContext: ApplicationContext) {
		this.applicationContext = applicationContext
	}
}

The preceding is not desirable, because the business code is aware of and coupled to the Spring Framework. Method Injection, a somewhat advanced feature of the Spring IoC container, lets you handle this use case cleanly.

You can read more about the motivation for Method Injection in this blog entry.

Lookup Method Injection

Lookup method injection is the ability of the container to override methods on container-managed beans and 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 dynamically generate a subclass that overrides the method.

For this dynamic subclassing to work, the class that the Spring bean container subclasses cannot be final, and the method to be overridden cannot be final, either.
Unit-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.
Concrete methods are also necessary for component scanning, which requires concrete classes to pick up.
A further key limitation is that lookup methods do not work with factory methods and in particular not with @Bean methods in configuration classes, since, in that case, the container is not in charge of creating the instance and therefore cannot create a runtime-generated subclass on the fly.

In the case of the CommandManager class in the previous code snippet, the Spring container dynamically overrides the implementation of the createCommand() method. The CommandManager class does not have any Spring dependencies, as the reworked example shows:

Java

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();
}

Kotlin

package fiona.apple

// no more Spring imports!

abstract class CommandManager {

	fun process(commandState: Any): Any {
		// grab a new instance of the appropriate Command interface
		val command = createCommand()
		// set the state on the (hopefully brand new) Command instance
		command.state = commandState
		return command.execute()
	}

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

In the client class that contains 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. Consider the following example:

<!-- a stateful bean deployed as a prototype (non-singleton) -->
<bean id="myCommand" 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="myCommand"/>
</bean>

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

Alternatively, within the annotation-based component model, you can declare a lookup method through the @Lookup annotation, as the following example shows:

Java

public abstract class CommandManager {

	public Object process(Object commandState) {
		Command command = createCommand();
		command.setState(commandState);
		return command.execute();
	}

	@Lookup("myCommand")
	protected abstract Command createCommand();
}

Kotlin

abstract class CommandManager {

	fun process(commandState: Any): Any {
		val command = createCommand()
		command.state = commandState
		return command.execute()
	}

	@Lookup("myCommand")
	protected abstract fun createCommand(): Command
}

Or, more idiomatically, you can rely on the target bean getting resolved against the declared return type of the lookup method:

Java

public abstract class CommandManager {

	public Object process(Object commandState) {
		MyCommand command = createCommand();
		command.setState(commandState);
		return command.execute();
	}

	@Lookup
	protected abstract MyCommand createCommand();
}

Kotlin

abstract class CommandManager {

	fun process(commandState: Any): Any {
		val command = createCommand()
		command.state = commandState
		return command.execute()
	}

	@Lookup
	protected abstract fun createCommand(): Command
}

Note that you should typically declare such annotated lookup methods with a concrete stub implementation, in order for them to be compatible with Spring’s component scanning rules where abstract classes get ignored by default. This limitation does not apply to explicitly registered or explicitly imported bean classes.

Another way of accessing differently scoped target beans is an ObjectFactory/ Provider injection point. See beans-factory-scopes-other-injection.

You may also find the ServiceLocatorFactoryBean (in the org.springframework.beans.factory.config package) to be useful.

Arbitrary Method Replacement

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. You can safely skip the rest of this section until you actually need this functionality.

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, which has a method called computeValue that we want to override:

Java

public class MyValueCalculator {

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

	// some other methods...
}

Kotlin

class MyValueCalculator {

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

	// some other methods...
}

A class that implements the org.springframework.beans.factory.support.MethodReplacer interface provides the new method definition, as the following example shows:

Java

/**
 * 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 ...;
	}
}

Kotlin

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

	override fun reimplement(obj: Any, method: Method, args: Array<out Any>): Any {
		// get the input value, work with it, and return a computed result
		val input = args[0] as String;
		...
		return ...;
	}
}

The bean definition to deploy the original class and specify the method override would resemble the following example:

<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 <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 letting you type only the shortest string that matches an argument type.

Dependencies

Dependency Injection

Constructor-based Dependency Injection

Constructor Argument Resolution

Setter-based Dependency Injection

Dependency Resolution Process

Examples of Dependency Injection

Dependencies and Configuration in Detail

Straight Values (Primitives, Strings, and so on)

The idref element

References to Other Beans (Collaborators)

Inner Beans

Collections

Collection Merging

Limitations of Collection Merging

Strongly-typed collection

Null and Empty String Values

XML Shortcut with the p-namespace

XML Shortcut with the c-namespace

Compound Property Names

Using depends-on

Lazy-initialized Beans

Autowiring Collaborators

Limitations and Disadvantages of Autowiring

Excluding a Bean from Autowiring

Method Injection

Lookup Method Injection

Arbitrary Method Replacement

The `idref` element

Using `depends-on`