The ResourceLoaderAware interface is a special callback interface which identifies components that expect to be provided with a ResourceLoader reference. The following listing shows the definition of the ResourceLoaderAware interface:

When a class implements ResourceLoaderAware and is deployed into an application context (as a Spring-managed bean), it is recognized as ResourceLoaderAware by the application context. The application context then invokes setResourceLoader(ResourceLoader), supplying itself as the argument (remember, all application contexts in Spring implement the ResourceLoader interface).

Since an ApplicationContext is a ResourceLoader, the bean could also implement the ApplicationContextAware interface and use the supplied application context directly to load resources. However, in general, it is better to use the specialized ResourceLoader interface if that is all you need. The code would be coupled only to the resource loading interface (which can be considered a utility interface) and not to the whole Spring ApplicationContext interface.

In application components, you may also rely upon autowiring of the ResourceLoader as an alternative to implementing the ResourceLoaderAware interface. The “traditional” constructor and byType autowiring modes (as described in beans-factory-autowire) are capable of providing a ResourceLoader for either a constructor argument or a setter method parameter, respectively. For more flexibility (including the ability to autowire fields and multiple parameter methods), consider using the annotation-based autowiring features. In that case, the ResourceLoader is autowired into a field, constructor argument, or method parameter that expects the ResourceLoader type as long as the field, constructor, or method in question carries the @Autowired annotation. For more information, see beans-autowired-annotation.