Reading Notes for Spring 3 Core Components Tutorial Part III (Chapter 14 to Chapter 16)

This is a reading note from Spring Framework 3.1 Tutorial pdf, created by tutorialspoint. This pdf contains information for Spring 3 Core Basics, which is very useful for understanding defination and practive in Spring programming.

Note: All tips that is written by book will has a sign near it.
All code example in this post comes from book.

This note includes Chapter 14 to Chapter 16 in tutorial.

Chapter 14: Spring Beans Auto-Wiring

This is an example of my own problem: I tried to use jdbctemplate.update() function to insert data, which is passed from controller by a DAO object.

No matter how hard I try, even using hard-code for sql statement, I kept getting nested exception: java.lang NullPointerException error. Problem did not get solved until I realize instead of just declare a DAO object and call update method, I should declare a DAO as a class variable, and add @autowired to it, such as:

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//In xml, we have <bean id="userDAO" class="..."></bean>
import com.sample.userDAO;
@Autowired
userDAO dao;
public void updateInController(){
	//Object some_object = new Object();
	// some_object.setName()...etc
	//updateOperation() is the method in another class using jdbc.update()
	//If I just create a userDAO instance then do following, I will get NullPointerException
	dao.updateOperation(some_object); 
}

Spring can auto-wire relationships between beans without using <constructor-arg> or <property>

Auto-wiring Modes
You should be autowire attribute of the <bean/> element to specify autowire mode for a bean definition. There are four Auto-wiring modes, which are defined in this following table:

byType or constructor autowiring mode can be used to wire arrays and other typed-collections.

Limitations with Autowiring

Autowiring is great to use across a project. However, it do have limitations and you can override it:

Autowiring By Name

  • Spring container looks at the beans on which has a autowirte attribute in xml configuration file.
  • Then it will go to the java bean class for this bean, and find all attributes that have setter for this bean.
  • Then it will come back to xml file, check other bean name, until it find one bean that has same class type (i.e. class=”…”) as this bean’s attribute variable name.
  • Spring will initialize this bean, based on configuration file. Then Spring will finish previous bean’s initialization process.
  • If Spring finds more than one bean in xml file, it will report a error.

Example:

beans.xml 
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<bean id="textEditor" class="com.example.TextEditor" autowire="byName">
<property name="name" value="Generic Text Editor"/>
</bean>
<!--this bean will be detected since it has same name as the attribute which has a setter-->
<bean id="spellChecker" class="com.example.SpellChecker">
</bean>

textEditor.java 
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//java bean class for textEditor
public class TextEditor{
	private spellChecker spellChecker; //Spring will find this since it has the same name as spellChecker
 	private String name;
 	public void setSpellChecker(SpellChecker spellChecker){
 		this.spellChecker = spellChecker;
 	}
 	public SpellChecker getSpellChecker(){
 		return spellChecker;
 	}
 	public void setName(String name){
 		this.name = name;
 	}
 	public String getName(){
 	 	return name;
 	}
 	public void spellCheck(){
 		spellChecker.checkSpelling();
 	}
}

spellChecker.java 
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//java bean class for spellChecker
public class SpellChecker{
	public spellChecker(){
		System.out.println("Inside spellChecker constructor");
	}
	public void checkSpelling(){
		System.out.println("checkSpelling in spellChecker class");
	}
}

Test.java 
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//Test class
public class Test{
	public static void main(String[] args){
		ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("beans.xml");
		//In this step, java will do autowire, which include instantiate spellChecker 
		TextEditor te = (TextEditor) context.getBean("textEditor");
		te.spellCheck();
		//Output: 
		//Inside sellChecker constructor
		//checkSpelling in spellChecker class
	}
}

Autowiring By Type

  • Spring first check xml configuration file, find a bean with autowire attribute that marked as byType.
  • Spring will go to this bean’s java class, then find all its atrribute variables that have setter.
  • Spring comes back to xml then go through all the beans. As long as it finds one bean that has same name as java class attribute’s type. Spring will instantiate this specific bean.
  • If Spring finds more than one bean in xml file, it will report a error.

Example:

beans.xml 
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<bean id="textEditor" class="com.sample.TextEditor" autowire="byType">
<property name="name" value="Generic Text Editor"/>
</bean>
<bean id="xxx" class="com.sample.SpellChecker">
	<!-- Here is different from auto-wiring by name. Although we use a different id, Spring still find its type is SpellChecker, which is the type that the original attribute has, so Spring can recoginize it as same type-->
</bean>

Test.java 
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//TextEditor.java and SpellChecker.java are the same as above
public class Test{
	public void static main(String[] args){
		ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("bean.xml");
		(TextEditor) te = (TextEditor) context.getBean("textEditor");
		te.spellCheck();
		//Output: 
		//Inside sellChecker constructor
		//checkSpelling in spellChecker class
	}
}

Autowiring By Constructor

  • Autowirng by constructor is very similar to autowiring by type. The only difference is it works on constructor.
  • So now Spring will check xml file with autowire="constructor" attribute, then go to this java bean class and find this bean’s constructor parameters.
  • Spring comes back to xml and go through all beans. As long as it find one bean that has same name as the type of constructor parameter, Spring will instantiated this bean based on its configuration, then instantiates original bean.
  • If Spring find more than one bean which hava same name as original bean’s constructor parameter type, it will report an error.

Example:

beans.xml 
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<bean id="textEditor" class="com.sample.TextEditor" autowire="constructor">
	<constructor-arg value="Generic Text Editor"/>
	<!--note this value has String type. So when Spring go to construcor, it will try to find a string parameter and put value on it-->
</bean>
<bean id="ttt" class="com.sample.SpellChecker">
	<!-- Here ttt bean has class as SpellChecker and the original bean's contructor use parameter which also has type as SpellChecker, so Spring can recoginize it as same type-->
</bean>

TextEditor.java 
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private SpellChecker spellChecker;
private String name;
//Spring will find a bean that has id as SpellChecker
public TextEditor(SpellChecker spellChecker, String name){
	this.spellChecker = spellChecker;
	this.name = name;
}
public SpellChecker getSpellChecker(){
	return spellChecker;
}
public String getName(){
	return name;
}
public void spellCheck(){
	spellChecker.checkSpelling();
}

Test.java 
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//Assuame SpellChecker.java is the same as example above
public Test{
	public static void main(String[] args){
		ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext();
		TextEditor te = (TextEditor) te.getBean("beans.xml");
		te.spellCheck();
		//Output: 
		//Inside sellChecker constructor
		//checkSpelling in spellChecker class
	}
}

Chapter 15: Spring Annotation Based Configuration

Instead of using xml to do auto-wiring, you can use move the auto-wiring part to bean’s java class.

Since annotation is performed before xml configuration, auto-writing in xml can override annotation.

To add anonotation, make sure you put <context:annotation-config/> in <beans></beans> in xml file, then add your bean configuration after this line.

There are four types of annotation:

  • @Required: apply to setter methods
  • @Autowired: apply to settter methods or non-setter methods or constructors or properties.
  • @Qualifier: apply with @Autowirted
  • @JSO-250 Annotations: includes @Resource, @PostConstruct adn @PreDestroy

@Required Annotation

@Required applys to setter. It means a configuration in xml for this attribute type must be declared. Otherwise it will report BeanInitializationException error.

Example:

beans.xml 
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<beans xmlns="...">
	<!-- Must sure you include this for annotation-->
	<context:annotation-config/>
	<bean id="student" class="com.test.Student">
		<property name="name" value="Tim"/>
		<!--Comment this out. @Required will raise error message because of this-->
		<!--<property name="age" value="11"/>
	</bean>
</beans>

Student.java 
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public class Student{
	private Integer age;
	private String name;
	@Required
	public void setAge(Integer aga){
		this.age = age;
	}
	public Integer getAge(){
		return age;
	}
	@Required
	public void setName(String name){
		this.name = name;
	}
	public String getName(){
		return name;
	}
}
//Now if we initialize bean "student", we will get a error message, said Property 'age' is required for bean "student"

@Autowired Annotation

1. @Autowired on Setter Methods

Instead of put <property> in xml file, you can use @Autowired on setter to do a byType autowiring.

Example:

beans.xml 
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<beans xmlns="...">
	<context:annotation-config/>
	<bean id="textEditor" class="com.sample.TextEditor">
	</bean>
	<bean id="spellChecker" class="com.sample.SpellChecker">
	</bean>
</beans>

TextEditior.java 
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public TextEditor{
private SpellChecker spellChecker;
@Autowired
public void setSpellChecker(SpellChecker spellChecker){
	this.spellChecker = spellChecker;
}
public SpellChecker getSpellChecker(){
	return spellChecker;
}
public void spellCheck(){
	spellChecker.checkSpelling();
}
}

Test.java 
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//Assume SpellChecker.java is the same as exmaple above
//Assume main class is the same as example above
//Output: 
//Inside sellChecker constructor
//checkSpelling in spellChecker class

2. @Autowired on Properties

  • Instead of creating a setter, you can put @Autowired annotation on the property/attribute declaration.

  • In xml, after you configure using <property>, Spring will automatically create a setter for this attribute, using the configuration in xml file for setter’s bean. If you define a value in <property>, the value will be passed.

  • When Spring search for corresponding setter bean in xml file, it will refer id in each beans.

Example:

beans.xml 
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<beans xmlns="...">
	<context:annotation-config/>
	<bean id="textEditor" class="com.sample.TextEditor">
		<property name="spellChecker" />
		<!-- You should do <property name='test' value="ttt"/> if SpellChecker has a String attribute called test and you want its value to be "ttt"-->
	</bean>
	<bean id="spellChecker" class="com.sample.SpellChecker">
	</bean>
</beans>

TextEditor.java 
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public TextEditor{
	@Autowried
	private SpellChecker spellChecker;
	//Now Spring will set for a bean with id "spellChecker", and create setter based on that bean
	public TextEditor(){
		System.out.prinlnt("construtor for TextEditor");
	}
	public SpellChecker getSpellChecker(){
		return spellChecker;
	}
	public void spellCheck(){
		spellChecker.checkSpelling();
	}
}
//Now, if we run Text.java in example above, we will get:
//construtor for TextEditor.    Since we have constructor now, when we instanitated a TextEditor bean, constructor will be called first.
//Inside sellChecker constructor    This is in SpellChecker.java, since we call spellCheck() function
//checkSpelling in spellChecker class

3. @Autowired on Constructors

@Autowired on constructor means even if no <constructor-arg> exists, Spring should check if there is any bean that has same id as constructor’s parameter name.

Example:

TextEditor.java 
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//Assume bean.xml is the same as above
public TextEditor{
		private SpellChecker spellChecker;
		@Autowired
		public TextEditor(SpellChecker spellChecker){
			System.out.println("TextEditor Constructor");
			this.spellChecker = spellChecker;
		}
		}
//If we do same thing in test.java we will get:
//TextEditor Constructor     This is because we call this first in construtor
//Inside sellChecker constructor
//checkSpelling in spellChecker class

4. @Autowired with (required=false) Option

When you add @Autowired to setter, you can add use @Autowired(required=false) to make sure if this setter doesn’t has a bean in xml file, it is still fine.

5. @Qualifier Annotation

You can use @Qualifier with @Autowire to select only one bean if you have many beans with same type. This should be added on properties.

Example:

beans.xml 
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<context:annotation-config/>
<bean id="all" class="com.sample.All"></bean>
<bean id="item1" class="com.sample.Item">
<property name="name" value="Tim"/>
</bean>
<bean id="item2" class="com.sample.Item">
<property name="name" value="Jane"/>
</bean>

All.java 
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	public class All{
	@Autowired
	@Qualifier("item1")
	private Item item;
	public All(){
	}
	public void printName(Item item){
		System.out.prinlnt(item.getName());
		//If you test it, this should output "Tim" because we only autowire with "item1"
	}
}

Spring JSP-250 Annotations

1. @PostContruct and @PreDestroy Annotations

@PostConstruct is to be added on the method that init=XXX in xml file.

@PreDestroy is to be added on the method that destroy=XXX in xml file.

2. @Resource

  • Follows byName convention, it takes a self-defined name or default property or setter name in java file, then come to xml file to find the bean with same name.
  • It can be added on properties or setters.

Example:

TextEditor.java 
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//Now it will try to find bean with name "XXX". If name is not defined, it will find bean with name "spellChecker"
@Resource(name="XXX")
public void setSpellChecker(SpellChecker spellChecker){
	//...
}

Chapter 16: Spring Java Based Configuration

Java based configuration enables you to write most of your Spring configuration without xml.

@Configuration and @Bean

  • @Configuration applys to a class, which means this java class is used to configure Spring beans (i.e. It is a IoC Container).
  • @Bean applys to properties/methods inside configuration class. It automatically pick up bean ID and returns actual bean.
  • a @Configuration class can have more than one @Bean.
  • Use AnnotationConfigApplicationContext to get context.
  • You can do context.register(); to load more than one configuration class to one context:
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//If you only load one java configuration class here, you can use ApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext();
AnnotationConfigApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext();
ctx.register(AppConfig.class, OtherAppConfig.class);
ctx.refresh();
Item1 item = ctx.getBean(ItemOne.class); //ItemOne should be marked with @Bean

Example:

HelloWorldConfig.java 
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//This is not HelloWorld.java. This is the special Spring configuration class
@Configuration
public class HelloWorldConfig{
	@Bean
	public HelloWorld helloWorld(){
		return new HelloWorld();
		//Since this is a bean, Spring will find HelloWorld.java for instantiation
	}
}

HelloWorld.java 
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public class HelloWorld{
	private String message;
	//Assume we have getter and setter for message
}

Test.java 
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public class Test{
		public static void main(String[] args){
			ApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(HelloWorldConfig.class); //Find Config Class
			HelloWorld hw = (HelloWorld) ctx.getBean(HelloWorld.class);	//Find Bean
			//Now HelloWorld getter and setter will work if we call them
	}
}

Injecting Bean Dependencies

To mark one bean has dependency with another bean, just call this bean from anther bean.

Example:

TextEditorConfig.java 
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@Configuration
public class TextEditorConfig{
	@Bean
	public TextEditor textEditor(){
		return new TextEditor(spellChecker());
		//This means TextEditor has constrctor-arg or property that needs to call spellChecker
	}
	@Bean
	public SpellChecker spellChecker(){
		return new SpellChecker();
	}
}

TextEditor.java 
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publc class TextEditor{
	private SpellChecker spellChecker; //You still need to define another bean(spellChecker) in this bean class
	public TextEditor(SpellChecker spellChecker){
		System.our.println("TextEditor Constructor");
		this.spellChecker = spellChecker;
		//You needs to put spellChecker as constructor parameter here, because you define this way in config java class
	}
	public void spellCheck(){
		spellChecker.checkSpelling();
	}
}

Test.java 
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//Assume we SpellCheck.java is the same as examples before with a constrctor
//Assume Test.java is the same as example before
//Output should be:
//SpellChecker Constructor  This comes first because since spellChecker is constructor parameter, it goes to instantiate this bean first
//TextEditor Constructor
//CheckSpelling

@Import Annotation

  • You can use @Import for beans from another configuration class.
  • When you define class to ApplicationContext, only non-import bean needs to be defined.

Example:

AConfig.java 
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@Configuration
public class AConfig{
@Bean
public A a(){
	//Assume there exists a A class
}
}

BConfig.java 
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@Configuration
@Import(AConfig.class)
public class BConfig{
	@Bean
	public B a(){
	//Assume there exists a B class
}
}

Test.java 
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//main class
ApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(BConfig.class);
//Both AConfig and BConfig are available
A a = ctx.getBean(A.class);
B b = ctx.getBean(B.class);

Init and Destroy

You can use initMethod and destoryMethod with @Bean for initialization and destroy of the bean:

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public class Foo{
	public void init(){
	//...
	}
	public void cleanup(){
	//...	
	}
}
@Configuration
public class FooConfig{
@Bean(initMethod="init", destroyMethod="cleanup")
public Foo foo{
	return new Foo();
}
}

Bean Scope

Default scope is singleton. You can use @Scope to define other scopes:

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@Bean
@Scope("prototype")
public Foo foo(){
	return new Foo();
}