Spring Framework

Reference Documentation
3.0

Copyright © 2004-2010 Rod Johnson, Juergen Hoeller, Keith Donald, Colin

Sampaleanu, Rob Harrop, Alef Arendsen, Thomas Risberg, Darren Davison,
Dmitriy Kopylenko, Mark Pollack, Thierry Templier, Erwin Vervaet, Portia Tung,
Ben Hale, Adrian Colyer, John Lewis, Costin Leau, Mark Fisher, Sam Brannen,
Ramnivas Laddad, Arjen Poutsma, Chris Beams, Tareq Abedrabbo, Andy
Clement, Dave Syer, Oliver Gierke
Copies of this document may be made for your own use and for distribution to others, provided that you do
not charge any fee for such copies and further provided that each copy contains this Copyright Notice,
whether distributed in print or electronically.

Table of Contents

I. Overview of Spring Framework

1. Introduction to Spring Framework
1.1. Dependency Injection and Inversion of Control
1.2. Modules
1.2.1. Core Container
1.2.2. Data Access/Integration
1.2.3. Web
1.2.4. AOP and Instrumentation
1.2.5. Test
1.3. Usage scenarios
1.3.1. Dependency Management and Naming Conventions
1.3.1.1. Spring Dependencies and Depending on Spring
1.3.1.2. Maven Dependency Management
1.3.1.3. Ivy Dependency Management
1.3.2. Logging
1.3.2.1. Not Using Commons Logging
1.3.2.2. Using SLF4J
1.3.2.3. Using Log4J
II. What's New in Spring 3.0
2. New Features and Enhancements in Spring 3.0

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 2.1. Java 5
2.2. Improved documentation
2.3. New articles and tutorials
2.4. New module organization and build system
2.5. Overview of new features
2.5.1. Core APIs updated for Java 5
2.5.2. Spring Expression Language
2.5.3. The Inversion of Control (IoC) container
2.5.3.1. Java based bean metadata
2.5.3.2. Defining bean metadata within components
2.5.4. General purpose type conversion system and field formatting system
2.5.5. The Data Tier
2.5.6. The Web Tier
2.5.6.1. Comprehensive REST support
2.5.6.2. @MVC additions
2.5.7. Declarative model validation
2.5.8. Early support for Java EE 6
2.5.9. Support for embedded databases
III. Core Technologies
3. The IoC container
3.1. Introduction to the Spring IoC container and beans
3.2. Container overview
3.2.1. Configuration metadata
3.2.2. Instantiating a container
3.2.2.1. Composing XML-based configuration metadata
3.2.3. Using the container
3.3. Bean overview
3.3.1. Naming beans
3.3.1.1. Aliasing a bean outside the bean definition
3.3.2. Instantiating beans
3.3.2.1. Instantiation with a constructor
3.3.2.2. Instantiation with a static factory method
3.3.2.3. Instantiation using an instance factory method
3.4. Dependencies
3.4.1. Dependency injection
3.4.1.1. Constructor-based dependency injection
3.4.1.2. Setter-based dependency injection
3.4.1.3. Dependency resolution process
3.4.1.4. Examples of dependency injection
3.4.2. Dependencies and configuration in detail
3.4.2.1. Straight values (primitives, Strings, and so on)

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3.4.2.2. References to other beans (collaborators)
3.4.2.3. Inner beans
3.4.2.4. Collections
3.4.2.5. Null and empty string values
3.4.2.6. XML shortcut with the p-namespace
3.4.2.7. Compound property names
3.4.3. Using depends-on
3.4.4. Lazy-initialized beans
3.4.5. Autowiring collaborators
3.4.5.1. Limitations and disadvantages of autowiring
3.4.5.2. Excluding a bean from autowiring
3.4.6. Method injection
3.4.6.1. Lookup method injection
3.4.6.2. Arbitrary method replacement
3.5. Bean scopes
3.5.1. The singleton scope
3.5.2. The prototype scope
3.5.3. Singleton beans with prototype-bean dependencies
3.5.4. Request, session, and global session scopes
3.5.4.1. Initial web configuration
3.5.4.2. Request scope
3.5.4.3. Session scope
3.5.4.4. Global session scope
3.5.4.5. Scoped beans as dependencies
3.5.5. Custom scopes
3.5.5.1. Creating a custom scope
3.5.5.2. Using a custom scope
3.6. Customizing the nature of a bean
3.6.1. Lifecycle callbacks
3.6.1.1. Initialization callbacks
3.6.1.2. Destruction callbacks
3.6.1.3. Default initialization and destroy methods
3.6.1.4. Combining lifecycle mechanisms
3.6.1.5. Startup and shutdown callbacks
3.6.1.6. Shutting down the Spring IoC container gracefully in non-web
applications
3.6.2. ApplicationContextAware and BeanNameAware
3.6.3. Other Aware interfaces
3.7. Bean definition inheritance
3.8. Container extension points
3.8.1. Customizing beans using the BeanPostProcessor Interface

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3.8.1.1. Example: Hello World, BeanPostProcessor-style
3.8.1.2. Example: The RequiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor
3.8.2. Customizing configuration metadata with BeanFactoryPostProcessor
interface
3.8.2.1. Example: the PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer
3.8.2.2. Example: the PropertyOverrideConfigurer
3.8.3. Customizing instantiation logic with the FactoryBean Interface
3.9. Annotation-based container configuration
3.9.1. @Required
3.9.2. @Autowired and @Inject
3.9.3. Fine-tuning annotation-based autowiring with qualifiers
3.9.4. CustomAutowireConfigurer
3.9.5. @Resource
3.9.6. @PostConstruct and @PreDestroy
3.10. Classpath scanning and managed components
3.10.1. @Component and further stereotype annotations
3.10.2. Automatically detecting classes and registering bean definitions
3.10.3. Using filters to customize scanning
3.10.4. Defining bean metadata within components
3.10.5. Naming autodetected components
3.10.6. Providing a scope for autodetected components
3.10.7. Providing qualifier metadata with annotations
3.11. Java-based container configuration
3.11.1. Basic concepts: @Configuration and @Bean
3.11.2. Instantiating the Spring container using
AnnotationConfigApplicationContext
3.11.2.1. Simple construction
3.11.2.2. Building the container programmatically using register(Class<?>...)
3.11.2.3. Enabling component scanning with scan(String...)
3.11.2.4. Support for web applications with
AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext
3.11.3. Composing Java-based configurations
3.11.3.1. Using the @Import annotation
3.11.3.2. Combining Java and XML configuration
3.11.4. Using the @Bean annotation
3.11.4.1. Declaring a bean
3.11.4.2. Injecting dependencies
3.11.4.3. Receiving lifecycle callbacks
3.11.4.4. Specifying bean scope
3.11.4.5. Customizing bean naming
3.11.4.6. Bean aliasing

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3.11.5. Further information about how Java-based configuration works
internally
3.12. Registering a LoadTimeWeaver
3.13. Additional Capabilities of the ApplicationContext
3.13.1. Internationalization using MessageSource
3.13.2. Standard and Custom Events
3.13.3. Convenient access to low-level resources
3.13.4. Convenient ApplicationContext instantiation for web applications
3.13.5. Deploying a Spring ApplicationContext as a J2EE RAR file
3.14. The BeanFactory
3.14.1. BeanFactory or ApplicationContext?
3.14.2. Glue code and the evil singleton
4. Resources
4.1. Introduction
4.2. The Resource interface
4.3. Built-in Resource implementations
4.3.1. UrlResource
4.3.2. ClassPathResource
4.3.3. FileSystemResource
4.3.4. ServletContextResource
4.3.5. InputStreamResource
4.3.6. ByteArrayResource
4.4. The ResourceLoader
4.5. The ResourceLoaderAware interface
4.6. Resources as dependencies
4.7. Application contexts and Resource paths
4.7.1. Constructing application contexts
4.7.1.1. Constructing ClassPathXmlApplicationContext instances - shortcuts
4.7.2. Wildcards in application context constructor resource paths
4.7.2.1. Ant-style Patterns
4.7.2.2. The classpath*: prefix
4.7.2.3. Other notes relating to wildcards
4.7.3. FileSystemResource caveats
5. Validation, Data Binding, and Type Conversion
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Validation using Spring's Validator interface
5.3. Resolving codes to error messages
5.4. Bean manipulation and the BeanWrapper
5.4.1. Setting and getting basic and nested properties
5.4.2. Built-in PropertyEditor implementations
5.4.2.1. Registering additional custom PropertyEditors

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5.5. Spring 3 Type Conversion
5.5.1. Converter SPI
5.5.2. ConverterFactory
5.5.3. GenericConverter
5.5.3.1. ConditionalGenericConverter
5.5.4. ConversionService API
5.5.5. Configuring a ConversionService
5.5.6. Using a ConversionService programatically
5.6. Spring 3 Field Formatting
5.6.1. Formatter SPI
5.6.2. Annotation-driven Formatting
5.6.2.1. Format Annotation API
5.6.3. FormatterRegistry SPI
5.6.4. Configuring Formatting in Spring MVC
5.7. Spring 3 Validation
5.7.1. Overview of the JSR-303 Bean Validation API
5.7.2. Configuring a Bean Validation Implementation
5.7.2.1. Injecting a Validator
5.7.2.2. Configuring Custom Constraints
5.7.2.3. Additional Configuration Options
5.7.3. Configuring a DataBinder
5.7.4. Spring MVC 3 Validation
5.7.4.1. Triggering @Controller Input Validation
5.7.4.2. Configuring a Validator for use by Spring MVC
5.7.4.3. Configuring a JSR-303 Validator for use by Spring MVC
6. Spring Expression Language (SpEL)
6.1. Introduction
6.2. Feature Overview
6.3. Expression Evaluation using Spring's Expression Interface
6.3.1. The EvaluationContext interface
6.3.1.1. Type Conversion
6.4. Expression support for defining bean definitions
6.4.1. XML based configuration
6.4.2. Annotation-based configuration
6.5. Language Reference
6.5.1. Literal expressions
6.5.2. Properties, Arrays, Lists, Maps, Indexers
6.5.3. Inline lists
6.5.4. Array construction
6.5.5. Methods
6.5.6. Operators

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6.5.6.1. Relational operators
6.5.6.2. Logical operators
6.5.6.3. Mathematical operators
6.5.7. Assignment
6.5.8. Types
6.5.9. Constructors
6.5.10. Variables
6.5.10.1. The #this and #root variables
6.5.11. Functions
6.5.12. Bean references
6.5.13. Ternary Operator (If-Then-Else)
6.5.14. The Elvis Operator
6.5.15. Safe Navigation operator
6.5.16. Collection Selection
6.5.17. Collection Projection
6.5.18. Expression templating
6.6. Classes used in the examples
7. Aspect Oriented Programming with Spring
7.1. Introduction
7.1.1. AOP concepts
7.1.2. Spring AOP capabilities and goals
7.1.3. AOP Proxies
7.2. @AspectJ support
7.2.1. Enabling @AspectJ Support
7.2.2. Declaring an aspect
7.2.3. Declaring a pointcut
7.2.3.1. Supported Pointcut Designators
7.2.3.2. Combining pointcut expressions
7.2.3.3. Sharing common pointcut definitions
7.2.3.4. Examples
7.2.3.5. Writing good pointcuts
7.2.4. Declaring advice
7.2.4.1. Before advice
7.2.4.2. After returning advice
7.2.4.3. After throwing advice
7.2.4.4. After (finally) advice
7.2.4.5. Around advice
7.2.4.6. Advice parameters
7.2.4.7. Advice ordering
7.2.5. Introductions
7.2.6. Aspect instantiation models

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7.2.7. Example
7.3. Schema-based AOP support
7.3.1. Declaring an aspect
7.3.2. Declaring a pointcut
7.3.3. Declaring advice
7.3.3.1. Before advice
7.3.3.2. After returning advice
7.3.3.3. After throwing advice
7.3.3.4. After (finally) advice
7.3.3.5. Around advice
7.3.3.6. Advice parameters
7.3.3.7. Advice ordering
7.3.4. Introductions
7.3.5. Aspect instantiation models
7.3.6. Advisors
7.3.7. Example
7.4. Choosing which AOP declaration style to use
7.4.1. Spring AOP or full AspectJ?
7.4.2. @AspectJ or XML for Spring AOP?
7.5. Mixing aspect types
7.6. Proxying mechanisms
7.6.1. Understanding AOP proxies
7.7. Programmatic creation of @AspectJ Proxies
7.8. Using AspectJ with Spring applications
7.8.1. Using AspectJ to dependency inject domain objects with Spring
7.8.1.1. Unit testing @Configurable objects
7.8.1.2. Working with multiple application contexts
7.8.2. Other Spring aspects for AspectJ
7.8.3. Configuring AspectJ aspects using Spring IoC
7.8.4. Load-time weaving with AspectJ in the Spring Framework
7.8.4.1. A first example
7.8.4.2. Aspects
7.8.4.3. 'META-INF/aop.xml'
7.8.4.4. Required libraries (JARS)
7.8.4.5. Spring configuration
7.8.4.6. Environment-specific configuration
7.9. Further Resources
8. Spring AOP APIs
8.1. Introduction
8.2. Pointcut API in Spring
8.2.1. Concepts

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8.2.2. Operations on pointcuts
8.2.3. AspectJ expression pointcuts
8.2.4. Convenience pointcut implementations
8.2.4.1. Static pointcuts
8.2.4.2. Dynamic pointcuts
8.2.5. Pointcut superclasses
8.2.6. Custom pointcuts
8.3. Advice API in Spring
8.3.1. Advice lifecycles
8.3.2. Advice types in Spring
8.3.2.1. Interception around advice
8.3.2.2. Before advice
8.3.2.3. Throws advice
8.3.2.4. After Returning advice
8.3.2.5. Introduction advice
8.4. Advisor API in Spring
8.5. Using the ProxyFactoryBean to create AOP proxies
8.5.1. Basics
8.5.2. JavaBean properties
8.5.3. JDK- and CGLIB-based proxies
8.5.4. Proxying interfaces
8.5.5. Proxying classes
8.5.6. Using 'global' advisors
8.6. Concise proxy definitions
8.7. Creating AOP proxies programmatically with the ProxyFactory
8.8. Manipulating advised objects
8.9. Using the "autoproxy" facility
8.9.1. Autoproxy bean definitions
8.9.1.1. BeanNameAutoProxyCreator
8.9.1.2. DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator
8.9.1.3. AbstractAdvisorAutoProxyCreator
8.9.2. Using metadata-driven auto-proxying
8.10. Using TargetSources
8.10.1. Hot swappable target sources
8.10.2. Pooling target sources
8.10.3. Prototype target sources
8.10.4. ThreadLocal target sources
8.11. Defining new Advice types
8.12. Further resources
9. Testing
9.1. Introduction to testing

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 9.2. Unit testing
9.2.1. Mock objects
9.2.1.1. JNDI
9.2.1.2. Servlet API
9.2.1.3. Portlet API
9.2.2. Unit testing support classes
9.2.2.1. General utilities
9.2.2.2. Spring MVC
9.3. Integration testing
9.3.1. Overview
9.3.2. Goals of integration testing
9.3.2.1. Context management and caching
9.3.2.2. Dependency Injection of test fixtures
9.3.2.3. Transaction management
9.3.2.4. Support classes for integration testing
9.3.3. JDBC testing support
9.3.4. Annotations
9.3.5. Spring TestContext Framework
9.3.5.1. Key abstractions
9.3.5.2. Context management and caching
9.3.5.3. Dependency Injection of test fixtures
9.3.5.4. Transaction management
9.3.5.5. TestContext support classes
9.3.6. PetClinic example
9.4. Further Resources
IV. Data Access
10. Transaction Management
10.1. Introduction to Spring Framework transaction management
10.2. Advantages of the Spring Framework's transaction support model
10.2.1. Global transactions
10.2.2. Local transactions
10.2.3. Spring Framework's consistent programming model
10.3. Understanding the Spring Framework transaction abstraction
10.4. Synchronizing resources with transactions
10.4.1. High-level synchronization approach
10.4.2. Low-level synchronization approach
10.4.3. TransactionAwareDataSourceProxy
10.5. Declarative transaction management
10.5.1. Understanding the Spring Framework's declarative transaction
implementation
10.5.2. Example of declarative transaction implementation

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10.5.3. Rolling back a declarative transaction
10.5.4. Configuring different transactional semantics for different beans
10.5.5. <tx:advice/> settings
10.5.6. Using @Transactional
10.5.6.1. @Transactional settings
10.5.6.2. Multiple Transaction Managers with @Transactional
10.5.6.3. Custom shortcut annotations
10.5.7. Transaction propagation
10.5.7.1. Required
10.5.7.2. RequiresNew
10.5.7.3. Nested
10.5.8. Advising transactional operations
10.5.9. Using @Transactional with AspectJ
10.6. Programmatic transaction management
10.6.1. Using the TransactionTemplate
10.6.1.1. Specifying transaction settings
10.6.2. Using the PlatformTransactionManager
10.7. Choosing between programmatic and declarative transaction
management
10.8. Application server-specific integration
10.8.1. IBM WebSphere
10.8.2. BEA WebLogic Server
10.8.3. Oracle OC4J
10.9. Solutions to common problems
10.9.1. Use of the wrong transaction manager for a specific DataSource
10.10. Further Resources
11. DAO support
11.1. Introduction
11.2. Consistent exception hierarchy
11.3. Annotations used for configuring DAO or Repository classes
12. Data access with JDBC
12.1. Introduction to Spring Framework JDBC
12.1.1. Choosing an approach for JDBC database access
12.1.2. Package hierarchy
12.2. Using the JDBC core classes to control basic JDBC processing and
error handling
12.2.1. JdbcTemplate
12.2.1.1. Examples of JdbcTemplate class usage
12.2.1.2. JdbcTemplate best practices
12.2.2. NamedParameterJdbcTemplate
12.2.3. SimpleJdbcTemplate

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12.2.4. SQLExceptionTranslator
12.2.5. Executing statements
12.2.6. Running queries
12.2.7. Updating the database
12.2.8. Retrieving auto-generated keys
12.3. Controlling database connections
12.3.1. DataSource
12.3.2. DataSourceUtils
12.3.3. SmartDataSource
12.3.4. AbstractDataSource
12.3.5. SingleConnectionDataSource
12.3.6. DriverManagerDataSource
12.3.7. TransactionAwareDataSourceProxy
12.3.8. DataSourceTransactionManager
12.3.9. NativeJdbcExtractor
12.4. JDBC batch operations
12.4.1. Batch operations with the JdbcTemplate
12.4.2. Batch operations with the SimpleJdbcTemplate
12.5. Simplifying JDBC operations with the SimpleJdbc classes
12.5.1. Inserting data using SimpleJdbcInsert
12.5.2. Retrieving auto-generated keys using SimpleJdbcInsert
12.5.3. Specifying columns for a SimpleJdbcInsert
12.5.4. Using SqlParameterSource to provide parameter values
12.5.5. Calling a stored procedure with SimpleJdbcCall
12.5.6. Explicitly declaring parameters to use for a SimpleJdbcCall
12.5.7. How to define SqlParameters
12.5.8. Calling a stored function using SimpleJdbcCall
12.5.9. Returning ResultSet/REF Cursor from a SimpleJdbcCall
12.6. Modeling JDBC operations as Java objects
12.6.1. SqlQuery
12.6.2. MappingSqlQuery
12.6.3. SqlUpdate
12.6.4. StoredProcedure
12.7. Common problems with parameter and data value handling
12.7.1. Providing SQL type information for parameters
12.7.2. Handling BLOB and CLOB objects
12.7.3. Passing in lists of values for IN clause
12.7.4. Handling complex types for stored procedure calls
12.8. Embedded database support
12.8.1. Why use an embedded database?
12.8.2. Creating an embedded database instance using Spring XML

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12.8.3. Creating an embedded database instance programmatically
12.8.4. Extending the embedded database support
12.8.5. Using HSQL
12.8.6. Using H2
12.8.7. Using Derby
12.8.8. Testing data access logic with an embedded database
12.9. Initializing a DataSource
12.9.1. Initializing a database instance using Spring XML
12.9.1.1. Initialization of Other Components that Depend on the Database
13. Object Relational Mapping (ORM) Data Access
13.1. Introduction to ORM with Spring
13.2. General ORM integration considerations
13.2.1. Resource and transaction management
13.2.2. Exception translation
13.3. Hibernate
13.3.1. SessionFactory setup in a Spring container
13.3.2. Implementing DAOs based on plain Hibernate 3 API
13.3.3. Declarative transaction demarcation
13.3.4. Programmatic transaction demarcation
13.3.5. Transaction management strategies
13.3.6. Comparing container-managed and locally defined resources
13.3.7. Spurious application server warnings with Hibernate
13.4. JDO
13.4.1. PersistenceManagerFactory setup
13.4.2. Implementing DAOs based on the plain JDO API
13.4.3. Transaction management
13.4.4. JdoDialect
13.5. JPA
13.5.1. Three options for JPA setup in a Spring environment
13.5.1.1. LocalEntityManagerFactoryBean
13.5.1.2. Obtaining an EntityManagerFactory from JNDI
13.5.1.3. LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean
13.5.1.4. Dealing with multiple persistence units
13.5.2. Implementing DAOs based on plain JPA
13.5.3. Transaction Management
13.5.4. JpaDialect
13.6. iBATIS SQL Maps
13.6.1. Setting up the SqlMapClient
13.6.2. Using SqlMapClientTemplate and SqlMapClientDaoSupport
13.6.3. Implementing DAOs based on plain iBATIS API
14. Marshalling XML using O/X Mappers

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 14.1. Introduction
14.2. Marshaller and Unmarshaller
14.2.1. Marshaller
14.2.2. Unmarshaller
14.2.3. XmlMappingException
14.3. Using Marshaller and Unmarshaller
14.4. XML Schema-based Configuration
14.5. JAXB
14.5.1. Jaxb2Marshaller
14.5.1.1. XML Schema-based Configuration
14.6. Castor
14.6.1. CastorMarshaller
14.6.2. Mapping
14.7. XMLBeans
14.7.1. XmlBeansMarshaller
14.7.1.1. XML Schema-based Configuration
14.8. JiBX
14.8.1. JibxMarshaller
14.8.1.1. XML Schema-based Configuration
14.9. XStream
14.9.1. XStreamMarshaller
V. The Web
15. Web MVC framework
15.1. Introduction to Spring Web MVC framework
15.1.1. Features of Spring Web MVC
15.1.2. Pluggability of other MVC implementations
15.2. The DispatcherServlet
15.3. Implementing Controllers
15.3.1. Defining a controller with @Controller
15.3.2. Mapping requests with @RequestMapping
15.3.2.1. URI Templates
15.3.2.2. Advanced @RequestMapping options
15.3.2.3. Supported handler method arguments and return types
15.3.2.4. Binding request parameters to method parameters with
@RequestParam
15.3.2.5. Mapping the request body with the @RequestBody annotation
15.3.2.6. Mapping the response body with the @ResponseBody annotation
15.3.2.7. Using HttpEntity<?>
15.3.2.8. Providing a link to data from the model with @ModelAttribute
15.3.2.9. Specifying attributes to store in a session with @SessionAttributes
15.3.2.10. Mapping cookie values with the @CookieValue annotation

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15.3.2.11. Mapping request header attributes with the @RequestHeader
annotation
15.3.2.12. Customizing WebDataBinder initialization
15.4. Handler mappings
15.4.1. Intercepting requests - the HandlerInterceptor interface
15.5. Resolving views
15.5.1. Resolving views with the ViewResolver interface
15.5.2. Chaining ViewResolvers
15.5.3. Redirecting to views
15.5.3.1. RedirectView
15.5.3.2. The redirect: prefix
15.5.3.3. The forward: prefix
15.5.4. ContentNegotiatingViewResolver
15.6. Using locales
15.6.1. AcceptHeaderLocaleResolver
15.6.2. CookieLocaleResolver
15.6.3. SessionLocaleResolver
15.6.4. LocaleChangeInterceptor
15.7. Using themes
15.7.1. Overview of themes
15.7.2. Defining themes
15.7.3. Theme resolvers
15.8. Spring's multipart (fileupload) support
15.8.1. Introduction
15.8.2. Using the MultipartResolver
15.8.3. Handling a file upload in a form
15.9. Handling exceptions
15.9.1. HandlerExceptionResolver
15.9.2. @ExceptionHandler
15.10. Convention over configuration support
15.10.1. The Controller ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping
15.10.2. The Model ModelMap (ModelAndView)
15.10.3. The View - RequestToViewNameTranslator
15.11. ETag support
15.12. Configuring Spring MVC
15.12.1. mvc:annotation-driven
15.12.2. mvc:interceptors
15.12.3. mvc:view-controller
15.12.4. mvc:resources
15.12.5. mvc:default-servlet-handler
15.13. More Spring Web MVC Resources

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16. View technologies
16.1. Introduction
16.2. JSP & JSTL
16.2.1. View resolvers
16.2.2. 'Plain-old' JSPs versus JSTL
16.2.3. Additional tags facilitating development
16.2.4. Using Spring's form tag library
16.2.4.1. Configuration
16.2.4.2. The form tag
16.2.4.3. The input tag
16.2.4.4. The checkbox tag
16.2.4.5. The checkboxes tag
16.2.4.6. The radiobutton tag
16.2.4.7. The radiobuttons tag
16.2.4.8. The password tag
16.2.4.9. The select tag
16.2.4.10. The option tag
16.2.4.11. The options tag
16.2.4.12. The textarea tag
16.2.4.13. The hidden tag
16.2.4.14. The errors tag
16.2.4.15. HTTP Method Conversion
16.3. Tiles
16.3.1. Dependencies
16.3.2. How to integrate Tiles
16.3.2.1. UrlBasedViewResolver
16.3.2.2. ResourceBundleViewResolver
16.3.2.3. SimpleSpringPreparerFactory and SpringBeanPreparerFactory
16.4. Velocity & FreeMarker
16.4.1. Dependencies
16.4.2. Context configuration
16.4.3. Creating templates
16.4.4. Advanced configuration
16.4.4.1. velocity.properties
16.4.4.2. FreeMarker
16.4.5. Bind support and form handling
16.4.5.1. The bind macros
16.4.5.2. Simple binding
16.4.5.3. Form input generation macros
16.4.5.4. HTML escaping and XHTML compliance
16.5. XSLT

16
16.5.1. My First Words
16.5.1.1. Bean definitions
16.5.1.2. Standard MVC controller code
16.5.1.3. Convert the model data to XML
16.5.1.4. Defining the view properties
16.5.1.5. Document transformation
16.5.2. Summary
16.6. Document views (PDF/Excel)
16.6.1. Introduction
16.6.2. Configuration and setup
16.6.2.1. Document view definitions
16.6.2.2. Controller code
16.6.2.3. Subclassing for Excel views
16.6.2.4. Subclassing for PDF views
16.7. JasperReports
16.7.1. Dependencies
16.7.2. Configuration
16.7.2.1. Configuring the ViewResolver
16.7.2.2. Configuring the Views
16.7.2.3. About Report Files
16.7.2.4. Using JasperReportsMultiFormatView
16.7.3. Populating the ModelAndView
16.7.4. Working with Sub-Reports
16.7.4.1. Configuring Sub-Report Files
16.7.4.2. Configuring Sub-Report Data Sources
16.7.5. Configuring Exporter Parameters
16.8. Feed Views
16.9. XML Marshalling View
16.10. JSON Mapping View
17. Integrating with other web frameworks
17.1. Introduction
17.2. Common configuration
17.3. JavaServer Faces 1.1 and 1.2
17.3.1. DelegatingVariableResolver (JSF 1.1/1.2)
17.3.2. SpringBeanVariableResolver (JSF 1.1/1.2)
17.3.3. SpringBeanFacesELResolver (JSF 1.2+)
17.3.4. FacesContextUtils
17.4. Apache Struts 1.x and 2.x
17.4.1. ContextLoaderPlugin
17.4.1.1. DelegatingRequestProcessor
17.4.1.2. DelegatingActionProxy

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17.4.2. ActionSupport Classes
17.5. WebWork 2.x
17.6. Tapestry 3.x and 4.x
17.6.1. Injecting Spring-managed beans
17.6.1.1. Dependency Injecting Spring Beans into Tapestry pages
17.6.1.2. Component definition files
17.6.1.3. Adding abstract accessors
17.6.1.4. Dependency Injecting Spring Beans into Tapestry pages - Tapestry
4.x style
17.7. Further Resources
18. Portlet MVC Framework
18.1. Introduction
18.1.1. Controllers - The C in MVC
18.1.2. Views - The V in MVC
18.1.3. Web-scoped beans
18.2. The DispatcherPortlet
18.3. The ViewRendererServlet
18.4. Controllers
18.4.1. AbstractController and PortletContentGenerator
18.4.2. Other simple controllers
18.4.3. Command Controllers
18.4.4. PortletWrappingController
18.5. Handler mappings
18.5.1. PortletModeHandlerMapping
18.5.2. ParameterHandlerMapping
18.5.3. PortletModeParameterHandlerMapping
18.5.4. Adding HandlerInterceptors
18.5.5. HandlerInterceptorAdapter
18.5.6. ParameterMappingInterceptor
18.6. Views and resolving them
18.7. Multipart (file upload) support
18.7.1. Using the PortletMultipartResolver
18.7.2. Handling a file upload in a form
18.8. Handling exceptions
18.9. Annotation-based controller configuration
18.9.1. Setting up the dispatcher for annotation support
18.9.2. Defining a controller with @Controller
18.9.3. Mapping requests with @RequestMapping
18.9.4. Supported handler method arguments
18.9.5. Binding request parameters to method parameters with
@RequestParam

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 18.9.6. Providing a link to data from the model with @ModelAttribute
18.9.7. Specifying attributes to store in a Session with @SessionAttributes
18.9.8. Customizing WebDataBinder initialization
18.9.8.1. Customizing data binding with @InitBinder
18.9.8.2. Configuring a custom WebBindingInitializer
18.10. Portlet application deployment
VI. Integration
19. Remoting and web services using Spring
19.1. Introduction
19.2. Exposing services using RMI
19.2.1. Exporting the service using the RmiServiceExporter
19.2.2. Linking in the service at the client
19.3. Using Hessian or Burlap to remotely call services via HTTP
19.3.1. Wiring up the DispatcherServlet for Hessian and co.
19.3.2. Exposing your beans by using the HessianServiceExporter
19.3.3. Linking in the service on the client
19.3.4. Using Burlap
19.3.5. Applying HTTP basic authentication to a service exposed through
Hessian or Burlap
19.4. Exposing services using HTTP invokers
19.4.1. Exposing the service object
19.4.2. Linking in the service at the client
19.5. Web services
19.5.1. Exposing servlet-based web services using JAX-RPC
19.5.2. Accessing web services using JAX-RPC
19.5.3. Registering JAX-RPC Bean Mappings
19.5.4. Registering your own JAX-RPC Handler
19.5.5. Exposing servlet-based web services using JAX-WS
19.5.6. Exporting standalone web services using JAX-WS
19.5.7. Exporting web services using the JAX-WS RI's Spring support
19.5.8. Accessing web services using JAX-WS
19.6. JMS
19.6.1. Server-side configuration
19.6.2. Client-side configuration
19.7. Auto-detection is not implemented for remote interfaces
19.8. Considerations when choosing a technology
19.9. Accessing RESTful services on the Client
19.9.1. RestTemplate
19.9.1.1. Dealing with request and response headers
19.9.2. HTTP Message Conversion
19.9.2.1. StringHttpMessageConverter

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19.9.2.2. FormHttpMessageConverter
19.9.2.3. ByteArrayMessageConverter
19.9.2.4. MarshallingHttpMessageConverter
19.9.2.5. MappingJacksonHttpMessageConverter
19.9.2.6. SourceHttpMessageConverter
19.9.2.7. BufferedImageHttpMessageConverter
20. Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) integration
20.1. Introduction
20.2. Accessing EJBs
20.2.1. Concepts
20.2.2. Accessing local SLSBs
20.2.3. Accessing remote SLSBs
20.2.4. Accessing EJB 2.x SLSBs versus EJB 3 SLSBs
20.3. Using Spring's EJB implementation support classes
20.3.1. EJB 2.x base classes
20.3.2. EJB 3 injection interceptor
21. JMS (Java Message Service)
21.1. Introduction
21.2. Using Spring JMS
21.2.1. JmsTemplate
21.2.2. Connections
21.2.2.1. Caching Messaging Resources
21.2.2.2. SingleConnectionFactory
21.2.2.3. CachingConnectionFactory
21.2.3. Destination Management
21.2.4. Message Listener Containers
21.2.4.1. SimpleMessageListenerContainer
21.2.4.2. DefaultMessageListenerContainer
21.2.5. Transaction management
21.3. Sending a Message
21.3.1. Using Message Converters
21.3.2. SessionCallback and ProducerCallback
21.4. Receiving a message
21.4.1. Synchronous Reception
21.4.2. Asynchronous Reception - Message-Driven POJOs
21.4.3. The SessionAwareMessageListener interface
21.4.4. The MessageListenerAdapter
21.4.5. Processing messages within transactions
21.5. Support for JCA Message Endpoints
21.6. JMS Namespace Support
22. JMX

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22.1. Introduction
22.2. Exporting your beans to JMX
22.2.1. Creating an MBeanServer
22.2.2. Reusing an existing MBeanServer
22.2.3. Lazy-initialized MBeans
22.2.4. Automatic registration of MBeans
22.2.5. Controlling the registration behavior
22.3. Controlling the management interface of your beans
22.3.1. The MBeanInfoAssembler Interface
22.3.2. Using Source-Level Metadata (JDK 5.0 annotations)
22.3.3. Source-Level Metadata Types
22.3.4. The AutodetectCapableMBeanInfoAssembler interface
22.3.5. Defining management interfaces using Java interfaces
22.3.6. Using MethodNameBasedMBeanInfoAssembler
22.4. Controlling the ObjectNames for your beans
22.4.1. Reading ObjectNames from Properties
22.4.2. Using the MetadataNamingStrategy
22.4.3. The <context:mbean-export/> element
22.5. JSR-160 Connectors
22.5.1. Server-side Connectors
22.5.2. Client-side Connectors
22.5.3. JMX over Burlap/Hessian/SOAP
22.6. Accessing MBeans via Proxies
22.7. Notifications
22.7.1. Registering Listeners for Notifications
22.7.2. Publishing Notifications
22.8. Further Resources
23. JCA CCI
23.1. Introduction
23.2. Configuring CCI
23.2.1. Connector configuration
23.2.2. ConnectionFactory configuration in Spring
23.2.3. Configuring CCI connections
23.2.4. Using a single CCI connection
23.3. Using Spring's CCI access support
23.3.1. Record conversion
23.3.2. The CciTemplate
23.3.3. DAO support
23.3.4. Automatic output record generation
23.3.5. Summary
23.3.6. Using a CCI Connection and Interaction directly

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23.3.7. Example for CciTemplate usage
23.4. Modeling CCI access as operation objects
23.4.1. MappingRecordOperation
23.4.2. MappingCommAreaOperation
23.4.3. Automatic output record generation
23.4.4. Summary
23.4.5. Example for MappingRecordOperation usage
23.4.6. Example for MappingCommAreaOperation usage
23.5. Transactions
24. Email
24.1. Introduction
24.2. Usage
24.2.1. Basic MailSender and SimpleMailMessage usage
24.2.2. Using the JavaMailSender and the MimeMessagePreparator
24.3. Using the JavaMail MimeMessageHelper
24.3.1. Sending attachments and inline resources
24.3.1.1. Attachments
24.3.1.2. Inline resources
24.3.2. Creating email content using a templating library
24.3.2.1. A Velocity-based example
25. Task Execution and Scheduling
25.1. Introduction
25.2. The Spring TaskExecutor abstraction
25.2.1. TaskExecutor types
25.2.2. Using a TaskExecutor
25.3. The Spring TaskScheduler abstraction
25.3.1. The Trigger interface
25.3.2. Trigger implementations
25.3.3. TaskScheduler implementations
25.4. The Task Namespace
25.4.1. The 'scheduler' element
25.4.2. The 'executor' element
25.4.3. The 'scheduled-tasks' element
25.5. Annotation Support for Scheduling and Asynchronous Execution
25.5.1. The @Scheduled Annotation
25.5.2. The @Async Annotation
25.5.3. The <annotation-driven> Element
25.6. Using the OpenSymphony Quartz Scheduler
25.6.1. Using the JobDetailBean
25.6.2. Using the MethodInvokingJobDetailFactoryBean
25.6.3. Wiring up jobs using triggers and the SchedulerFactoryBean

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 25.7. Using JDK Timer support
25.7.1. Creating custom timers
25.7.2. Using the MethodInvokingTimerTaskFactoryBean
25.7.3. Wrapping up: setting up the tasks using the TimerFactoryBean
26. Dynamic language support
26.1. Introduction
26.2. A first example
26.3. Defining beans that are backed by dynamic languages
26.3.1. Common concepts
26.3.1.1. The <lang:language/> element
26.3.1.2. Refreshable beans
26.3.1.3. Inline dynamic language source files
26.3.1.4. Understanding Constructor Injection in the context of dynamic-
language-backed beans
26.3.2. JRuby beans
26.3.3. Groovy beans
26.3.3.1. Customising Groovy objects via a callback
26.3.4. BeanShell beans
26.4. Scenarios
26.4.1. Scripted Spring MVC Controllers
26.4.2. Scripted Validators
26.5. Bits and bobs
26.5.1. AOP - advising scripted beans
26.5.2. Scoping
26.6. Further Resources
VII. Appendices
A. Classic Spring Usage
A.1. Classic ORM usage
A.1.1. Hibernate
A.1.1.1. The HibernateTemplate
A.1.1.2. Implementing Spring-based DAOs without callbacks
A.1.2. JDO
A.1.2.1. JdoTemplate and JdoDaoSupport
A.1.3. JPA
A.1.3.1. JpaTemplate and JpaDaoSupport
A.2. Classic Spring MVC
A.3. JMS Usage
A.3.1. JmsTemplate
A.3.2. Asynchronous Message Reception
A.3.3. Connections
A.3.4. Transaction Management

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B. Classic Spring AOP Usage
B.1. Pointcut API in Spring
B.1.1. Concepts
B.1.2. Operations on pointcuts
B.1.3. AspectJ expression pointcuts
B.1.4. Convenience pointcut implementations
B.1.4.1. Static pointcuts
B.1.4.2. Dynamic pointcuts
B.1.5. Pointcut superclasses
B.1.6. Custom pointcuts
B.2. Advice API in Spring
B.2.1. Advice lifecycles
B.2.2. Advice types in Spring
B.2.2.1. Interception around advice
B.2.2.2. Before advice
B.2.2.3. Throws advice
B.2.2.4. After Returning advice
B.2.2.5. Introduction advice
B.3. Advisor API in Spring
B.4. Using the ProxyFactoryBean to create AOP proxies
B.4.1. Basics
B.4.2. JavaBean properties
B.4.3. JDK- and CGLIB-based proxies
B.4.4. Proxying interfaces
B.4.5. Proxying classes
B.4.6. Using 'global' advisors
B.5. Concise proxy definitions
B.6. Creating AOP proxies programmatically with the ProxyFactory
B.7. Manipulating advised objects
B.8. Using the "autoproxy" facility
B.8.1. Autoproxy bean definitions
B.8.1.1. BeanNameAutoProxyCreator
B.8.1.2. DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator
B.8.1.3. AbstractAdvisorAutoProxyCreator
B.8.2. Using metadata-driven auto-proxying
B.9. Using TargetSources
B.9.1. Hot swappable target sources
B.9.2. Pooling target sources
B.9.3. Prototype target sources
B.9.4. ThreadLocal target sources
B.10. Defining new Advice types

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B.11. Further resources
C. XML Schema-based configuration
C.1. Introduction
C.2. XML Schema-based configuration
C.2.1. Referencing the schemas
C.2.2. The util schema
C.2.2.1. <util:constant/>
C.2.2.2. <util:property-path/>
C.2.2.3. <util:properties/>
C.2.2.4. <util:list/>
C.2.2.5. <util:map/>
C.2.2.6. <util:set/>
C.2.3. The jee schema
C.2.3.1. <jee:jndi-lookup/> (simple)
C.2.3.2. <jee:jndi-lookup/> (with single JNDI environment setting)
C.2.3.3. <jee:jndi-lookup/> (with multiple JNDI environment settings)
C.2.3.4. <jee:jndi-lookup/> (complex)
C.2.3.5. <jee:local-slsb/> (simple)
C.2.3.6. <jee:local-slsb/> (complex)
C.2.3.7. <jee:remote-slsb/>
C.2.4. The lang schema
C.2.5. The jms schema
C.2.6. The tx (transaction) schema
C.2.7. The aop schema
C.2.8. The context schema
C.2.8.1. <property-placeholder/>
C.2.8.2. <annotation-config/>
C.2.8.3. <component-scan/>
C.2.8.4. <load-time-weaver/>
C.2.8.5. <spring-configured/>
C.2.8.6. <mbean-export/>
C.2.9. The tool schema
C.2.10. The beans schema
D. Extensible XML authoring
D.1. Introduction
D.2. Authoring the schema
D.3. Coding a NamespaceHandler
D.4. Coding a BeanDefinitionParser
D.5. Registering the handler and the schema
D.5.1. 'META-INF/spring.handlers'
D.5.2. 'META-INF/spring.schemas'

25
D.6. Using a custom extension in your Spring XML configuration
D.7. Meatier examples
D.7.1. Nesting custom tags within custom tags
D.7.2. Custom attributes on 'normal' elements
D.8. Further Resources
E. spring-beans-2.0.dtd
F. spring.tld
F.1. Introduction
F.2. The bind tag
F.3. The escapeBody tag
F.4. The hasBindErrors tag
F.5. The htmlEscape tag
F.6. The message tag
F.7. The nestedPath tag
F.8. The theme tag
F.9. The transform tag
F.10. The url tag
F.11. The eval tag
G. spring-form.tld
G.1. Introduction
G.2. The checkbox tag
G.3. The checkboxes tag
G.4. The errors tag
G.5. The form tag
G.6. The hidden tag
G.7. The input tag
G.8. The label tag
G.9. The option tag
G.10. The options tag
G.11. The password tag
G.12. The radiobutton tag
G.13. The radiobuttons tag
G.14. The select tag
G.15. The textarea tag

26
Part I. Overview of Spring Framework
The Spring Framework is a lightweight solution and a potential one-stop-shop for
building your enterprise-ready applications. However, Spring is modular, allowing
you to use only those parts that you need, without having to bring in the rest. You
can use the IoC container, with Struts on top, but you can also use only
the Hibernate integration code or the JDBC abstraction layer. The Spring
Framework supports declarative transaction management, remote access to your
logic through RMI or web services, and various options for persisting your data. It
offers a full-featured MVC framework, and enables you to
integrate AOP transparently into your software.

Spring is designed to be non-intrusive, meaning that your domain logic code

generally has no dependencies on the framework itself. In your integration layer
(such as the data access layer), some dependencies on the data access
technology and the Spring libraries will exist. However, it should be easy to isolate
these dependencies from the rest of your code base.

This document is a reference guide to Spring Framework features. If you have any
requests, comments, or questions on this document, please post them on the user
mailing list or on the support forums at http://forum.springsource.org/.

1. Introduction to Spring Framework

Spring Framework is a Java platform that provides comprehensive infrastructure

support for developing Java applications. Spring handles the infrastructure so you
can focus on your application.

Spring enables you to build applications from “plain old Java objects” (POJOs) and
to apply enterprise services non-invasively to POJOs. This capability applies to the
Java SE programming model and to full and partial Java EE.

Examples of how you, as an application developer, can use the Spring platform
advantage:

 Make a Java method execute in a database transaction without having to

deal with transaction APIs.
 Make a local Java method a remote procedure without having to deal with
remote APIs.

27
  Make a local Java method a management operation without having to deal
with JMX APIs.

 Make a local Java method a message handler without having to deal with
JMS APIs.

1.1 Dependency Injection and Inversion of Control

Background

“The question is, what aspect of control are [they] inverting?” Martin Fowler posed this question about
Inversion of Control (IoC) on his site in 2004. Fowler suggested renaming the principle to make it more
self-explanatory and came up with Dependency Injection.

For insight into IoC and DI, refer to Fowler's article athttp://martinfowler.com/articles/injection.html.

Java applications -- a loose term that runs the gamut from constrained applets to
n-tier server-side enterprise applications -- typically consist of objects that
collaborate to form the application proper. Thus the objects in an application
have dependencies on each other.

Although the Java platform provides a wealth of application development

functionality, it lacks the means to organize the basic building blocks into a
coherent whole, leaving that task to architects and developers. True, you can use
design patterns such as Factory,Abstract Factory, Builder, Decorator, and Service
Locator to compose the various classes and object instances that make up an
application. However, these patterns are simply that: best practices given a name,
with a description of what the pattern does, where to apply it, the problems it
addresses, and so forth. Patterns are formalized best practices that you must
implement yourself in your application.

The Spring Framework Inversion of Control (IoC) component addresses this

concern by providing a formalized means of composing disparate components into
a fully working application ready for use. The Spring Framework codifies
formalized design patterns as first-class objects that you can integrate into your
own application(s). Numerous organizations and institutions use the Spring
Framework in this manner to engineer robust,maintainable applications.

1.2 Modules

The Spring Framework consists of features organized into about 20 modules.

These modules are grouped into Core Container, Data Access/Integration, Web,

28
AOP (Aspect Oriented Programming), Instrumentation, and Test, as shown in the
following diagram.

Overview of the Spring Framework

1.2.1 Core Container

The Core Container consists of the Core, Beans, Context, and Expression

Language modules.

The Core and Beans modules provide the fundamental parts of the framework,

including the IoC and Dependency Injection features. TheBeanFactory is a
sophisticated implementation of the factory pattern. It removes the need for
programmatic singletons and allows you to decouple the configuration and
specification of dependencies from your actual program logic.

The Context module builds on the solid base provided by the Core and

Beans modules: it is a means to access objects in a framework-style manner that
is similar to a JNDI registry. The Context module inherits its features from the

29
Beans module and adds support for internationalization (using, for example,
resource bundles), event-propagation, resource-loading, and the transparent
creation of contexts by, for example, a servlet container. The Context module also
supports Java EE features such as EJB, JMX ,and basic remoting.
The ApplicationContext interface is the focal point of the Context module.

The Expression Language module provides a powerful expression language for

querying and manipulating an object graph at runtime. It is an extension of the
unified expression language (unified EL) as specified in the JSP 2.1 specification.
The language supports setting and getting property values, property assignment,
method invocation, accessing the context of arrays, collections and indexers,
logical and arithmetic operators, named variables, and retrieval of objects by name
from Spring's IoC container. It also supports list projection and selection as well as
common list aggregations.

1.2.2 Data Access/Integration

The Data Access/Integration layer consists of the JDBC, ORM, OXM, JMS and

Transaction modules.

The JDBC module provides a JDBC-abstraction layer that removes the need to do

tedious JDBC coding and parsing of database-vendor specific error codes.

The ORM module provides integration layers for popular object-relational mapping

APIs, including JPA, JDO, Hibernate, and iBatis. Using the ORM package you can
use all of these O/R-mapping frameworks in combination with all of the other
features Spring offers, such as the simple declarative transaction management
feature mentioned previously.

The OXM module provides an abstraction layer that supports Object/XML mapping

implementations for JAXB, Castor, XMLBeans, JiBX and XStream.

The Java Messaging Service (JMS) module contains features for producing and
consuming messages.

The Transaction module supports programmatic and declarative transaction

management for classes that implement special interfaces and for all your POJOs
(plain old Java objects).

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1.2.3 Web

The Web layer consists of the Web, Web-Servlet, Web-Struts, and Web-Portlet

modules.

Spring's Web module provides basic web-oriented integration features such as

multipart file-upload functionality and the initialization of the IoC container using
servlet listeners and a web-oriented application context. It also contains the web-
related parts of Spring's remoting support.

The Web-Servlet module contains Spring's model-view-controller (MVC)

implementation for web applications. Spring's MVC framework provides a clean
separation between domain model code and web forms, and integrates with all the
other features of the Spring Framework.

The Web-Struts module contains the support classes for integrating a classic

Struts web tier within a Spring application. Note that this support is now
deprecated as of Spring 3.0. Consider migrating your application to Struts 2.0 and
its Spring integration or to a Spring MVC solution.

The Web-Portlet module provides the MVC implementation to be used in a portlet

environment and mirrors the functionality of Web-Servlet module.

1.2.4 AOP and Instrumentation

Spring's AOP module provides an AOP Alliance-compliant aspect-oriented

programming implementation allowing you to define, for example, method-
interceptors and pointcuts to cleanly decouple code that implements functionality
that should be separated. Using source-level metadata functionality, you can also
incorporate behavioral information into your code, in a manner similar to that of
.NET attributes.

The separate Aspects module provides integration with AspectJ.

The Instrumentation module provides class instrumentation support and

classloader implementations to be used in certain application servers.

1.2.5 Test

The Test module supports the testing of Spring components with JUnit or TestNG.

It provides consistent loading of Spring ApplicationContexts and caching of those

31
contexts. It also provides mock objects that you can use to test your code in
isolation.

1.3 Usage scenarios

The building blocks described previously make Spring a logical choice in many
scenarios, from applets to full-fledged enterprise applications that use Spring's
transaction management functionality and web framework integration.

Typical full-fledged Spring web application

Spring's declarative transaction management features make the web application

fully transactional, just as it would be if you used EJB container-managed
transactions. All your custom business logic can be implemented with simple
POJOs and managed by Spring's IoC container. Additional services include
support for sending email and validation that is independent of the web layer,

32
which lets you choose where to execute validation rules. Spring's ORM support is
integrated with JPA, Hibernate, JDO and iBatis; for example, when using
Hibernate, you can continue to use your existing mapping files and standard
Hibernate SessionFactory configuration. Form controllers seamlessly integrate the
web-layer with the domain model, removing the need for ActionForms or other
classes that transform HTTP parameters to values for your domain model.

Spring middle-tier using a third-party web framework

Sometimes circumstances do not allow you to completely switch to a different

framework. The Spring Framework does not force you to use everything within it; it
is not an all-or-nothing solution. Existing front-ends built with WebWork, Struts,
Tapestry, or other UI frameworks can be integrated with a Spring-based middle-
tier, which allows you to use Spring transaction features. You simply need to wire
up your business logic using an ApplicationContext and use
a WebApplicationContext to integrate your web layer.

33
Remoting usage scenario

When you need to access existing code through web services, you can use
Spring's Hessian-, Burlap-, Rmi- or JaxRpcProxyFactory classes. Enabling remote
access to existing applications is not difficult.

34
EJBs - Wrapping existing POJOs

The Spring Framework also provides an access and abstraction layer for

Enterprise JavaBeans, enabling you to reuse your existing POJOs and wrap them
in stateless session beans for use in scalable, fail-safe web applications that might
need declarative security.

1.3.1 Dependency Management and Naming Conventions

Dependency management and dependency injection are different things. To get

those nice features of Spring into your application (like dependency injection) you
need to assemble all the libraries needed (jar files) and get them onto your
classpath at runtime, and possibly at compile time. These dependencies are not
virtual components that are injected, but physical resources in a file system
(typically). The process of dependency management involves locating those
resources, storing them and adding them to classpaths. Dependencies can be
direct (e.g. my application depends on Spring at runtime), or indirect (e.g. my
application depends on commons-dbcp which depends on commons-pool). The indirect
dependencies are also known as "transitive" and it is those dependencies that are
hardest to identify and manage.

35
If you are going to use Spring you need to get a copy of the jar libraries that
comprise the pieces of Spring that you need. To make this easier Spring is
packaged as a set of modules that separate the dependencies as much as
possible, so for example if you don't want to write a web application you don't need
the spring-web modules. To refer to Spring library modules in this guide we use a
shorthand naming convention spring-* or spring-*.jar, where "*" represents the
short name for the module (e.g. spring-core, spring-webmvc, spring-jms, etc.). The
actual jar file name that you use may be in this form (see below) or it may not, and
normally it also has a version number in the file name (e.g. spring-core-
3.0.0.RELEASE.jar).

In general, Spring publishes its artifacts to four different places:

 On the community download

site http://www.springsource.org/downloads/community. Here you find all the
Spring jars bundled together into a zip file for easy download. The names of
the jars here since version 3.0 are in the form org.springframework.*-
<version>.jar.
 Maven Central, which is the default repository that Maven queries, and does
not require any special configuration to use. Many of the common libraries
that Spring depends on also are available from Maven Central and a large
section of the Spring community uses Maven for dependency management,
so this is convenient for them. The names of the jars here are in the
form spring-*-<version>.jar and the Maven groupId is org.springframework.

 The Enterprise Bundle Repository (EBR), which is run by SpringSource and

also hosts all the libraries that integrate with Spring. Both Maven and Ivy
repositories are available here for all Spring jars and their dependencies,
plus a large number of other common libraries that people use in
applications with Spring. Both full releases and also milestones and
development snapshots are deployed here. The names of the jar files are in
the same form as the community download (org.springframework.*-
<version>.jar), and the dependencies are also in this "long" form, with
external libraries (not from SpringSource) having the prefix com.springsource.
See the FAQ for more information.

 In a public Maven repository hosted on Amazon S3 for development

snapshots and milestone releases (a copy of the final releases is also held
here). The jar file names are in the same form as Maven Central, so this is a
useful place to get development versions of Spring to use with other libraries
depoyed in Maven Central.

36
 So the first thing you need to decide is how to manage your dependencies: most
people use an automated system like Maven or Ivy, but you can also do it
manually by downloading all the jars yourself. When obtaining Spring with Maven
or Ivy you have then to decide which place you'll get it from. In general, if you care
about OSGi, use the EBR, since it houses OSGi compatible artifacts for all of
Spring's dependencies, such as Hibernate and Freemarker. If OSGi does not
matter to you, either place works, though there are some pros and cons between
them. In general, pick one place or the other for your project; do not mix them. This
is particularly important since EBR artifacts necessarily use a different naming
convention than Maven Central artifacts.

Table 1.1. Comparison of Maven Central and SpringSource EBR Repositories

Maven Central EBR

e Not explicit Yes
Tens of thousands; all kinds Hundreds; those that Spring integrates with

No Yes

Varies. Newer artifacts often use domain name,

e.g. org.slf4j. Older ones often just use the Domain name of origin or main package root, e.g. org.springframework
artifact name, e.g. log4j.
Bundle Symbolic Name, derived from the main package root, e.g.
Varies. Generally the project or module name,
org.springframework.beans. If the jar had to be patched to ensure OSGi
using a hyphen "-" separator, e.g. spring-core,
compliance then com.springsource is appended, e.g.
logj4.
com.springsource.org.apache.log4j
Varies. Many new artifacts use m.m.m or
m.m.m.X (with m=digit, X=text). Older ones OSGi version number m.m.m.X, e.g. 3.0.0.RC3. The text qualifier imposes
use m.m. Some neither. Ordering is defined but alphabetic ordering on versions with the same numeric values.
not often relied on, so not strictly reliable.
Usually automatic via rsync or source control
updates. Project authors can upload individual Manual (JIRA processed by SpringSource)
jars to JIRA.
Extensive for OSGi manifest, Maven POM and Ivy metadata. QA performed
By policy. Accuracy is responsibility of authors.
Spring team.
Contegix. Funded by Sonatype with several
S3 funded by SpringSource.
mirrors.
Various http://www.springsource.com/repository
Integration through STS with Maven
Extensive integration through STS with Maven, Roo, CloudFoundry
dependency management

37
1.3.1.1 Spring Dependencies and Depending on Spring

Although Spring provides integration and support for a huge range of enterprise
and other external tools, it intentionally keeps its mandatory dependencies to an
absolute minimum: you shouldn't have to locate and download (even
automatically) a large number of jar libraries in order to use Spring for simple use
cases. For basic dependency injection there is only one mandatory external
dependency, and that is for logging (see below for a more detailed description of
logging options).

Next we outline the basic steps needed to configure an application that depends
on Spring, first with Maven and then with Ivy. In all cases, if anything is unclear,
refer to the documentation of your dependency management system, or look at
some sample code - Spring itself uses Ivy to manage dependencies when it is
building, and our samples mostly use Maven.

1.3.1.2 Maven Dependency Management

If you are using Maven for dependency management you don't even need to
supply the logging dependency explicitly. For example, to create an application
context and use dependency injection to configure an application, your Maven
dependencies will look like this:

<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0.RELEASE</version>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>

That's it. Note the scope can be declared as runtime if you don't need to compile
against Spring APIs, which is typically the case for basic dependency injection use
cases.

We used the Maven Central naming conventions in the example above, so that
works with Maven Central or the SpringSource S3 Maven repository. To use the
S3 Maven repository (e.g. for milestones or developer snaphots), you need to
specify the repository location in your Maven configuration. For full releases:

38
<repositories>
<repository>
<id>com.springsource.repository.maven.release</id>
<url>http://maven.springframework.org/release/</url>
<snapshots><enabled>false</enabled></snapshots>
</repository>
</repositories>

For milestones:

<repositories>
<repository>
<id>com.springsource.repository.maven.milestone</id>
<url>http://maven.springframework.org/milestone/</url>
<snapshots><enabled>false</enabled></snapshots>
</repository>
</repositories>

And for snapshots:

<repositories>
<repository>
<id>com.springsource.repository.maven.snapshot</id>
<url>http://maven.springframework.org/snapshot/</url>
<snapshots><enabled>true</enabled></snapshots>
</repository>
</repositories>

To use the SpringSource EBR you would need to use a different naming
convention for the dependencies. The names are usually easy to guess, e.g. in
this case it is:

<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>org.springframework.context</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0.RELEASE</version>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>

You also need to declare the location of the repository explicitly (only the URL is
important):

<repositories>

39
 <repository>
<id>com.springsource.repository.bundles.release</id>
<url>http://repository.springsource.com/maven/bundles/release/</url>
</repository>
</repositories>

If you are managing your dependencies by hand, the URL in the repository
declaration above is not browseable, but there is a user interface
athttp://www.springsource.com/repository that can be used to search for and
download dependencies. It also has handy snippets of Maven and Ivy
configuration that you can copy and paste if you are using those tools.

1.3.1.3 Ivy Dependency Management

If you prefer to use Ivy to manage dependencies then there are similar names and
configuration options.

To configure Ivy to point to the SpringSource EBR add the following resolvers to
your ivysettings.xml:

<resolvers>

<url name="com.springsource.repository.bundles.release">

<ivy pattern="http://repository.springsource.com/ivy/bundles/release/
[organisation]/[module]/[revision]/[artifact]-[revision].[ext]" />
<artifact pattern="http://repository.springsource.com/ivy/bundles/release/
[organisation]/[module]/[revision]/[artifact]-[revision].[ext]" />

</url>

<url name="com.springsource.repository.bundles.external">

<ivy pattern="http://repository.springsource.com/ivy/bundles/external/
[organisation]/[module]/[revision]/[artifact]-[revision].[ext]" />
<artifact pattern="http://repository.springsource.com/ivy/bundles/external/
[organisation]/[module]/[revision]/[artifact]-[revision].[ext]" />

</url>

</resolvers>

The XML above is not valid because the lines are too long - if you copy-paste then
remove the extra line endings in the middle of the url patterns.

Once Ivy is configured to look in the EBR adding a dependency is easy. Simply
pull up the details page for the bundle in question in the repository browser and

40
you'll find an Ivy snippet ready for you to include in your dependencies section. For
example (in ivy.xml):

<dependency org="org.springframework"
name="org.springframework.core" rev="3.0.0.RELEASE" conf="compile-
>runtime"/>

1.3.2 Logging

Logging is a very important dependency for Spring because a) it is the only

mandatory external dependency, b) everyone likes to see some output from the
tools they are using, and c) Spring integrates with lots of other tools all of which
have also made a choice of logging dependency. One of the goals of an
application developer is often to have unified logging configured in a central place
for the whole application, including all external components. This is more difficult
than it might have been since there are so many choices of logging framework.

The mandatory logging dependency in Spring is the Jakarta Commons Logging

API (JCL). We compile against JCL and we also make JCL Logobjects visible for
classes that extend the Spring Framework. It's important to users that all versions
of Spring use the same logging library: migration is easy because backwards
compatibility is preserved even with applications that extend Spring. The way we
do this is to make one of the modules in Spring depend explicitly on commons-
logging (the canonical implementation of JCL), and then make all the other
modules depend on that at compile time. If you are using Maven for example, and
wondering where you picked up the dependency on commons-logging, then it is from
Spring and specifically from the central module called spring-core.

The nice thing about commons-logging is that you don't need anything else to make
your application work. It has a runtime discovery algorithm that looks for other
logging frameworks in well known places on the classpath and uses one that it
thinks is appropriate (or you can tell it which one if you need to). If nothing else is
available you get pretty nice looking logs just from the JDK (java.util.logging or JUL
for short). You should find that your Spring application works and logs happily to
the console out of the box in most situations, and that's important.

1.3.2.1 Not Using Commons Logging

Unfortunately, the runtime discovery algorithm in commons-logging, while convenient

for the end-user, is problematic. If we could turn back the clock and start Spring
now as a new project it would use a different logging dependency. The first choice

41
would probably be the Simple Logging Facade for Java (SLF4J), which is also
used by a lot of other tools that people use with Spring inside their applications.

Switching off commons-logging is easy: just make sure it isn't on the classpath at

runtime. In Maven terms you exclude the dependency, and because of the way
that the Spring dependencies are declared, you only have to do that once.

<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0.RELEASE</version>
<scope>runtime</scope>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
<artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
</dependency>
</dependencies>

Now this application is probably broken because there is no implementation of the

JCL API on the classpath, so to fix it a new one has to be provided. In the next
section we show you how to provide an alternative implementation of JCL using
SLF4J as an example.

1.3.2.2 Using SLF4J

SLF4J is a cleaner dependency and more efficient at runtime than commons-

logging because it uses compile-time bindings instead of runtime discovery of the
other logging frameworks it integrates. This also means that you have to be more
explicit about what you want to happen at runtime, and declare it or configure it
accordingly. SLF4J provides bindings to many common logging frameworks, so
you can usually choose one that you already use, and bind to that for configuration
and management.

SLF4J provides bindings to many common logging frameworks, including JCL, and
it also does the reverse: bridges between other logging frameworks and itself. So
to use SLF4J with Spring you need to replace the commons-logging dependency with
the SLF4J-JCL bridge. Once you have done that then logging calls from within
Spring will be translated into logging calls to the SLF4J API, so if other libraries in
your application use that API, then you have a single place to configure and
manage logging.

42
A common choice might be to bridge Spring to SLF4J, and then provide explicit
binding from SLF4J to Log4J. You need to supply 4 dependencies (and exclude
the existing commons-logging): the bridge, the SLF4J API, the binding to Log4J, and
the Log4J implementation itself. In Maven you would do that like this

<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0.RELEASE</version>
<scope>runtime</scope>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
<artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>jcl-over-slf4j</artifactId>
<version>1.5.8</version>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
<version>1.5.8</version>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
<version>1.5.8</version>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>log4j</groupId>
<artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
<version>1.2.14</version>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>

That might seem like a lot of dependencies just to get some logging. Well it is, but
it is optional, and it should behave better than the vanilla commons-logging with
respect to classloader issues, notably if you are in a strict container like an OSGi
platform. Allegedly there is also a performance benefit because the bindings are at
compile-time not runtime.

43
A more common choice amongst SLF4J users, which uses fewer steps and
generates fewer dependencies, is to bind directly to Logback. This removes the
extra binding step because Logback implements SLF4J directly, so you only need
to depend on two libaries not four (jcl-over-slf4jand logback). If you do that you
might also need to exlude the slf4j-api dependency from other external
dependencies (not Spring), because you only want one version of that API on the
classpath.

1.3.2.3 Using Log4J

Many people use Log4j as a logging framework for configuration and management

purposes. It's efficient and well-established, and in fact it's what we use at runtime
when we build and test Spring. Spring also provides some utilities for configuring
and initializing Log4j, so it has an optional compile-time dependency on Log4j in
some modules.

To make Log4j work with the default JCL dependency ( commons-logging) all you
need to do is put Log4j on the classpath, and provide it with a configuration file
(log4j.properties or log4j.xml in the root of the classpath). So for Maven users this
is your dependency declaration:

<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0.RELEASE</version>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>log4j</groupId>
<artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
<version>1.2.14</version>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>

And here's a sample log4j.properties for logging to the console:

log4j.rootCategory=INFO, stdout

log4j.appender.stdout=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
log4j.appender.stdout.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.stdout.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{ABSOLUTE} %5p %t %c{2}:%L - %m%n

log4j.category.org.springframework.beans.factory=DEBUG

44
Runtime Containers with Native JCL

Many people run their Spring applications in a container that itself provides an
implementation of JCL. IBM Websphere Application Server (WAS) is the
archetype. This often causes problems, and unfortunately there is no silver bullet
solution; simply excluding commons-logging from your application is not enough in
most situations.

To be clear about this: the problems reported are usually not with JCL per se, or
even with commons-logging: rather they are to do with binding commons-logging to
another framework (often Log4J). This can fail because commons-logging changed
the way they do the runtime discovery in between the older versions (1.0) found in
some containers and the modern versions that most people use now (1.1). Spring
does not use any unusual parts of the JCL API, so nothing breaks there, but as
soon as Spring or your application tries to do any logging you can find that the
bindings to Log4J are not working.

In such cases with WAS the easiest thing to do is to invert the class loader
hierarchy (IBM calls it "parent last") so that the application controls the JCL
dependency, not the container. That option isn't always open, but there are plenty
of other suggestions in the public domain for alternative approaches, and your
mileage may vary depending on the exact version and feature set of the container.

Part II. What's New in Spring 3.0

2. New Features and Enhancements in Spring 3.0

If you have been using the Spring Framework for some time, you will be aware
that Spring has undergone two major revisions: Spring 2.0, released in October
2006, and Spring 2.5, released in November 2007. It is now time for a third
overhaul resulting in Spring 3.0.
Java SE and Java EE Support

The Spring Framework is now based on Java 5, and Java 6 is fully supported.

Furthermore, Spring is compatible with J2EE 1.4 and Java EE 5, while at the same time introducing some
early support for Java EE 6.

45
2.1 Java 5

The entire framework code has been revised to take advantage of Java 5 features
like generics, varargs and other language improvements. We have done our best
to still keep the code backwards compatible. We now have consistent use of
generic Collections and Maps, consistent use of generic FactoryBeans, and also
consistent resolution of bridge methods in the Spring AOP API. Generic
ApplicationListeners automatically receive specific event types only. All callback
interfaces such as TransactionCallback and HibernateCallback declare a generic
result value now. Overall, the Spring core codebase is now freshly revised and
optimized for Java 5.

Spring's TaskExecutor abstraction has been updated for close integration with
Java 5's java.util.concurrent facilities. We provide first-class support for Callables
and Futures now, as well as ExecutorService adapters, ThreadFactory integration,
etc. This has been aligned with JSR-236 (Concurrency Utilities for Java EE 6) as
far as possible. Furthermore, we provide support for asynchronous method
invocations through the use of the new @Async annotation (or EJB 3.1's
@Asynchronous annotation).

2.2 Improved documentation

The Spring reference documentation has also substantially been updated to reflect
all of the changes and new features for Spring 3.0. While every effort has been
made to ensure that there are no errors in this documentation, some errors may
nevertheless have crept in. If you do spot any typos or even more serious errors,
and you can spare a few cycles during lunch, please do bring the error to the
attention of the Spring team by raising an issue.

2.3 New articles and tutorials

There are many excellent articles and tutorials that show how to get started with
Spring 3 features. Read them at the Spring Documentation page.

The samples have been improved and updated to take advantage of the new
features in Spring 3. Additionally, the samples have been moved out of the source
tree into a dedicated SVN repository available at:
https://anonsvn.springframework.org/svn/spring-samples/

As such, the samples are no longer distributed alongside Spring 3 and need to be downloaded
separately from the repository mentioned above. However, this documentation will continue to refer to
some samples (in particular Petclinic) to illustrate various features.

46
 Note
For more information on Subversion (or in short SVN), see the project homepage
at: http://subversion.apache.org/

2.4 New module organization and build system

The framework modules have been revised and are now managed separately with
one source-tree per module jar:

 org.springframework.aop
 org.springframework.beans

 org.springframework.context

 org.springframework.context.support

 org.springframework.expression

 org.springframework.instrument

 org.springframework.jdbc

 org.springframework.jms

 org.springframework.orm

 org.springframework.oxm

 org.springframework.test

 org.springframework.transaction

 org.springframework.web

 org.springframework.web.portlet

 org.springframework.web.servlet

 org.springframework.web.struts
Note:

The spring.jar artifact that contained almost the entire framework is no longer provided.

47
We are now using a new Spring build system as known from Spring Web Flow 2.0.
This gives us:

 Ivy-based "Spring Build" system

 consistent deployment procedure

 consistent dependency management

 consistent generation of OSGi manifests

2.5 Overview of new features

This is a list of new features for Spring 3.0. We will cover these features in more
detail later in this section.

 Spring Expression Language

 IoC enhancements/Java based bean metadata

 General-purpose type conversion system and field formatting system

 Object to XML mapping functionality (OXM) moved from Spring Web

Services project

 Comprehensive REST support

 @MVC additions

 Declarative model validation

 Early support for Java EE 6

 Embedded database support

2.5.1 Core APIs updated for Java 5

BeanFactory interface returns typed bean instances as far as possible:

 T getBean(Class<T> requiredType)
 T getBean(String name, Class<T> requiredType)

 Map<String, T> getBeansOfType(Class<T> type)

Spring's TaskExecutor interface now extends java.util.concurrent.Executor:

48
  extended AsyncTaskExecutor supports standard Callables with Futures

New Java 5 based converter API and SPI:

 stateless ConversionService and Converters

 superseding standard JDK PropertyEditors

Typed ApplicationListener<E>

2.5.2 Spring Expression Language

Spring introduces an expression language which is similar to Unified EL in its

syntax but offers significantly more features. The expression language can be
used when defining XML and Annotation based bean definitions and also serves
as the foundation for expression language support across the Spring portfolio.
Details of this new functionality can be found in the chapter Spring Expression
Language (SpEL).

The Spring Expression Language was created to provide the Spring community a
single, well supported expression language that can be used across all the
products in the Spring portfolio. Its language features are driven by the
requirements of the projects in the Spring portfolio, including tooling requirements
for code completion support within the Eclipse based SpringSource Tool Suite.

The following is an example of how the Expression Language can be used to

configure some properties of a database setup

<bean class="mycompany.RewardsTestDatabase">
<property name="databaseName"
value="#{systemProperties.databaseName}"/>
<property name="keyGenerator"
value="#{strategyBean.databaseKeyGenerator}"/>
</bean>

This functionality is also available if you prefer to configure your components using
annotations:

@Repository
public class RewardsTestDatabase {

@Value("#{systemProperties.databaseName}")
public void setDatabaseName(String dbName) { … }

@Value("#{strategyBean.databaseKeyGenerator}")

49
 public void setKeyGenerator(KeyGenerator kg) { … }
}

2.5.3 The Inversion of Control (IoC) container

2.5.3.1 Java based bean metadata

Some core features from the JavaConfig project have been added to the Spring
Framework now. This means that the following annotations are now directly
supported:

 @Configuration
 @Bean

 @DependsOn

 @Primary

 @Lazy

 @Import

 @ImportResource

 @Value

Here is an example of a Java class providing basic configuration using the new
JavaConfig features:

package org.example.config;

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {
private @Value("#{jdbcProperties.url}") String jdbcUrl;
private @Value("#{jdbcProperties.username}") String username;
private @Value("#{jdbcProperties.password}") String password;

@Bean
public FooService fooService() {
return new FooServiceImpl(fooRepository());
}

@Bean
public FooRepository fooRepository() {
return new HibernateFooRepository(sessionFactory());
}

50
 @Bean
public SessionFactory sessionFactory() {
// wire up a session factory
AnnotationSessionFactoryBean asFactoryBean =
new AnnotationSessionFactoryBean();
asFactoryBean.setDataSource(dataSource());
// additional config
return asFactoryBean.getObject();
}

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

To get this to work you need to add the following component scanning entry in
your minimal application context XML file.

<context:component-scan base-package="org.example.config"/>
<util:properties id="jdbcProperties"
location="classpath:org/example/config/jdbc.properties"/>

Or you can bootstrap a @Configuration class directly

using AnnotationConfigApplicationContext:

public static void main(String[] args) {

ApplicationContext ctx = new
AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(AppConfig.class);
FooService fooService = ctx.getBean(FooService.class);
fooService.doStuff();
}

See Section 3.11.2, “Instantiating the Spring container using

AnnotationConfigApplicationContext” for full information
onAnnotationConfigApplicationContext.

2.5.3.2 Defining bean metadata within components

@Bean annotated methods are also supported inside Spring components. They

contribute a factory bean definition to the container. See Defining bean metadata
within components for more information

51
2.5.4 General purpose type conversion system and field formatting system

A general purpose type conversion system has been introduced. The system is

currently used by SpEL for type conversion, and may also be used by a Spring
Container and DataBinder when binding bean property values.

In addition, a formatter SPI has been introduced for formatting field values. This
SPI provides a simpler and more robust alternative to JavaBean PropertyEditors
for use in client environments such as Spring MVC.

2.5.5 The Data Tier

Object to XML mapping functionality (OXM) from the Spring Web Services project
has been moved to the core Spring Framework now. The functionality is found in
the org.springframework.oxm package. More information on the use of
the OXM module can be found in the Marshalling XML using O/X Mappers chapter.

2.5.6 The Web Tier

The most exciting new feature for the Web Tier is the support for building RESTful
web services and web applications. There are also some new annotations that can
be used in any web application.

2.5.6.1 Comprehensive REST support

Server-side support for building RESTful applications has been provided as an

extension of the existing annotation driven MVC web framework. Client-side
support is provided by the RestTemplate class in the spirit of other template classes
such as JdbcTemplate and JmsTemplate. Both server and client side REST
functionality make use of HttpConverters to facilitate the conversion between
objects and their representation in HTTP requests and responses.

The MarshallingHttpMessageConverter uses the Object to XML mapping functionality

mentioned earlier.

Refer to the sections on MVC and the RestTemplate for more information.

2.5.6.2 @MVC additions

A mvc namespace has been introduced that greatly simplifies Spring MVC

configuration.

52
Additional annotations such as @CookieValue and @RequestHeaders have been added.
See Mapping cookie values with the @CookieValue annotation and Mapping
request header attributes with the @RequestHeader annotation for more
information.

2.5.7 Declarative model validation

Several validation enhancements, including JSR 303 support that uses Hibernate

Validator as the default provider.

2.5.8 Early support for Java EE 6

We provide support for asynchronous method invocations through the use of the
new @Async annotation (or EJB 3.1's @Asynchronous annotation).

JSR 303, JSF 2.0, JPA 2.0, etc

2.5.9 Support for embedded databases

Convenient support for embedded Java database engines, including HSQL, H2,

and Derby, is now provided.

Part III. Core Technologies
This part of the reference documentation covers all of those technologies that are
absolutely integral to the Spring Framework.

Foremost amongst these is the Spring Framework's Inversion of Control (IoC)

container. A thorough treatment of the Spring Framework's IoC container is closely
followed by comprehensive coverage of Spring's Aspect-Oriented Programming
(AOP) technologies. The Spring Framework has its own AOP framework, which is
conceptually easy to understand, and which successfully addresses the 80%
sweet spot of AOP requirements in Java enterprise programming.

Coverage of Spring's integration with AspectJ (currently the richest - in terms of

features - and certainly most mature AOP implementation in the Java enterprise
space) is also provided.

Finally, the adoption of the test-driven-development (TDD) approach to software

development is certainly advocated by the Spring team, and so coverage of
Spring's support for integration testing is covered (alongside best practices for unit
testing). The Spring team has found that the correct use of IoC certainly does

53
make both unit and integration testing easier (in that the presence of setter
methods and appropriate constructors on classes makes them easier to wire
together in a test without having to set up service locator registries and suchlike)...
the chapter dedicated solely to testing will hopefully convince you of this as well.

 Chapter 3, The IoC container

 Chapter 4, Resources

 Chapter 5, Validation, Data Binding, and Type Conversion

 Chapter 6, Spring Expression Language (SpEL)

 Chapter 7, Aspect Oriented Programming with Spring

 Chapter 8, Spring AOP APIs

 Chapter 9, Testing

3. The IoC container

3.1 Introduction to the Spring IoC container and beans

This chapter covers the Spring Framework implementation of the Inversion of

Control (IoC) [1]principle. IoC is also known as dependency injection(DI). It is a
process whereby objects define their dependencies, that is, the other objects they
work with, 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 (IoC), of the bean itself controlling the instantiation or
location of its dependencies by using direct construction of classes, or a
mechanism such as the Service Locator pattern.

The org.springframework.beans and org.springframework.context packages are the

basis for Spring Framework's IoC container. TheBeanFactory interface provides an
advanced configuration mechanism capable of managing any type of
object. ApplicationContext is a sub-interface of BeanFactory. It adds easier
integration with Spring's AOP features; message resource handling (for use in
internationalization), event publication; and application-layer specific contexts such
as the WebApplicationContext for use in web applications.

54
In short, the BeanFactory provides the configuration framework and basic
functionality, and the ApplicationContext adds more enterprise-specific
functionality. The ApplicationContext is a complete superset of the BeanFactory, and
is used exclusively in this chapter in descriptions of Spring's IoC container. For
more information on using the BeanFactory instead of the ApplicationContext, refer
to Section 3.14, “The BeanFactory”.

In Spring, the objects that form the backbone of your application and that are
managed by the Spring IoC container are called beans. A bean is an object that is
instantiated, assembled, and otherwise managed by a Spring IoC container.
Otherwise, a bean is simply one of many objects in your application. Beans, and
the dependencies among them, are reflected in the configuration metadata used
by a container.

3.2 Container overview

The interface org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext represents the Spring

IoC container and is responsible for instantiating, configuring, and assembling the
aforementioned beans. The container gets its instructions on what objects to
instantiate, configure, and assemble by reading configuration metadata. The
configuration metadata is represented in XML, Java annotations, or Java code. It
allows you to express the objects that compose your application and the rich
interdependencies between such objects.

Several implementations of the ApplicationContext interface are supplied out-of-

the-box with Spring. In standalone applications it is common to create an instance
of ClassPathXmlApplicationContext or FileSystemXmlApplicationContext. While XML
has been the traditional format for defining configuration metadata you can instruct
the container to use Java annotations or code as the metadata format by providng
a small amount of XML configuration to declaratively enable support for these
additional metadata formats.

In most application scenarios, explicit user code is not required to instantiate one
or more instances of a Spring IoC container. For example, in a web application
scenario, a simple eight (or so) lines of boilerplate J2EE web descriptor XML in
the web.xml file of the application will typically suffice (see Section 3.13.4,
“Convenient ApplicationContext instantiation for web applications”). If you are
using the SpringSource Tool SuiteEclipse-powered development environment
or Spring Roo this boilerplate configuration can be easily created with few mouse
clicks or keystrokes.

55
The following diagram is a high-level view of how Spring works. Your application
classes are combined with configuration metadata so that after
theApplicationContext is created and initialized, you have a fully configured and
executable system or application.

The Spring IoC container

3.2.1 Configuration metadata

As the preceding diagram shows, the Spring IoC container consumes a form
of configuration metadata; this configuration metadata represents how you as an
application developer tell the Spring container to instantiate, configure, and
assemble the objects in your application.

Configuration metadata is traditionally supplied in a simple and intuitive XML format, which is what
most of this chapter uses to convey key concepts and features of the Spring IoC container.

Note

XML-based metadata is not the only allowed form of configuration metadata. The Spring IoC
container itself is totallydecoupled from the format in which this configuration metadata is
actually written.

For information about using other forms of metadata with the Spring container,
see:

56
  Annotation-based configuration: Spring 2.5 introduced support for
annotation-based configuration metadata.
 Java-based configuration: Starting with Spring 3.0, many features provided
by the Spring JavaConfig project became part of the core Spring
Framework. Thus you can define beans external to your application classes
by using Java rather than XML files. To use these new features, see
the @Configuration, @Bean, @Import and @DependsOn annotations.

Spring configuration consists of at least one and typically more than one bean
definition that the container must manage. XML-based configuration metadata
shows these beans configured as <bean/> elements inside a top-
level <beans/> element.

These bean definitions correspond to the actual objects that make up your
application. Typically you define service layer objects, data access objects
(DAOs), presentation objects such as Struts Action instances, infrastructure
objects such as Hibernate SessionFactories, JMS Queues, and so forth. Typically one
does not configure fine-grained domain objects in the container, because it is
usually the responsibility of DAOs and business logic to create and load domain
objects. However, you can use Spring's integration with AspectJ to configure
objects that have been created outside the control of an IoC container. See Using
AspectJ to dependency-inject domain objects with Spring.

The following example shows the basic structure of XML-based configuration

metadata:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

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

<!-- collaborators and configuration for this bean go here -->
</bean>

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

<!-- collaborators and configuration for this bean go here -->
</bean>

<!-- more bean definitions go here -->

</beans>

57
The id attribute is a string that you use to identify the individual bean definition.
The class attribute defines the type of the bean and uses the fully qualified
classname. The value of the id attribute refers to collaborating objects. The XML
for referring to collaborating objects is not shown in this example;
see Dependencies for more information.

3.2.2 Instantiating a container

Instantiating a Spring IoC container is straightforward. The location path or paths

supplied to an ApplicationContext constructor are actually resource strings that
allow the container to load configuration metadata from a variety of external
resources such as the local file system, from the Java CLASSPATH, and so on.

ApplicationContext context =
new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(new String[] {"services.xml", "daos.xml"});

Note

After you learn about Spring's IoC container, you may want to know more about
Spring's Resource abstraction, as described inChapter 4, Resources, which provides a convenient
mechanism for reading an InputSream from locations defined in a URI syntax. In
particular, Resource paths are used to construct applications contexts as described in Section 4.7,
“Application contexts and Resource paths”.

The following example shows the service layer objects (services.xml) configuration

file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

<!-- services -->

<bean id="petStore"

class="org.springframework.samples.jpetstore.services.PetStoreServiceImpl">
<property name="accountDao" ref="accountDao"/>
<property name="itemDao" ref="itemDao"/>
<!-- additional collaborators and configuration for this bean go here -->
</bean>

<!-- more bean definitions for services go here -->

</beans>

58
The following example shows the data access objects daos.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

<bean id="accountDao"
class="org.springframework.samples.jpetstore.dao.ibatis.SqlMapAccountDao">
<!-- additional collaborators and configuration for this bean go here -->
</bean>

<bean id="itemDao"
class="org.springframework.samples.jpetstore.dao.ibatis.SqlMapItemDao">
<!-- additional collaborators and configuration for this bean go here -->
</bean>

<!-- more bean definitions for data access objects go here -->

</beans>

In the preceding example, the service layer consists of the

class PetStoreServiceImpl, and two data access objects of the
type SqlMapAccountDaoand SqlMapItemDao are based on
the iBatis Object/Relational mapping framework. The property name element refers
to the name of the JavaBean property, and the ref element refers to the name of
another bean definition. This linkage between id and ref elements expresses the
dependency between collaborating objects. For details of configuring an object's
dependencies, see Dependencies.

3.2.2.1 Composing XML-based configuration metadata

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 Resourcelocations, 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"/>

59
 <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 or DTD.

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.

3.2.3 Using the container

The ApplicationContext is the interface for an advanced factory capable of

maintaining a registry of different beans and their dependencies. Using the
method T getBean(Stringname, Class<T> requiredType) you can retrieve instances of
your beans.

The ApplicationContext enables you to read bean definitions and access them as

follows:

// create and configure beans

ApplicationContext context =

60
 new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(new String[] {"services.xml", "daos.xml"});

// retrieve configured instance

PetStoreServiceImpl service = context.getBean("petStore",
PetStoreServiceImpl.class);

// use configured instance

List userList service.getUsernameList();

You use getBean() to retrieve instances of your beans.

The ApplicationContext interface has a few other methods for retrieving beans, but
ideally your application code should never use them. Indeed, your application code
should have no calls to the getBean() method at all, and thus no dependency on
Spring APIs at all. For example, Spring's integration with web frameworks provides
for dependency injection for various web framework classes such as controllers
and JSF-managed beans.

3.3 Bean overview

A Spring IoC container manages one or more beans. These beans are created
with the configuration metadata that you supply to the container, for example, in
the form of XML <bean/> definitions.

Within the container itself, these bean definitions are represented

as BeanDefinition objects, which contain (among other information) the following
metadata:

 A package-qualified class name: typically the actual implementation class of

the bean being defined.
 Bean behavioral configuration elements, which state how the bean should
behave in the container (scope, lifecycle callbacks, and so forth).

 References to other beans that are needed for the bean to do its work; these
references are also called collaborators or dependencies.

 Other configuration settings to set in the newly created object, for example,
the number of connections to use in a bean that manages a connection pool,
or the size limit of the pool.

This metadata translates to a set of properties that make up each bean definition.

Table 3.1. The bean definition

61
 Property Explained in...

Section 3.3.2, “Instantiating beans”

Section 3.3.1, “Naming beans”

Section 3.5, “Bean scopes”

ments
Section 3.4.1, “Dependency injection”

Section 3.4.1, “Dependency injection”

e
Section 3.4.5, “Autowiring collaborators”
n mode
Section 3.4.4, “Lazy-initialized beans”
thod
Section 3.6.1.1, “Initialization callbacks”
od
Section 3.6.1.2, “Destruction callbacks”

In addition to bean definitions that contain information on how to create a specific

bean, the ApplicationContext implementations also permit the registration of
existing objects that are created outside the container, by users. This is done by
accessing the ApplicationContext's BeanFactory via the
method getBeanFactory() which returns the BeanFactory
implementation DefaultListableBeanFactory. DefaultListableBeanFactorysupports this
registration through the
methods registerSingleton(..) and registerBeanDefinition(..). However, typical
applications work solely with beans defined through metadata bean definitions.

3.3.1 Naming beans

Every bean has one or more identifiers. These identifiers must be unique within
the container that hosts the bean. A bean usually has only one identifier, but if it
requires more than one, the extra ones can be considered aliases.

In XML-based configuration metadata, you use the id and/or name attributes to

specify the bean identifier(s). The id attribute allows you to specify exactly one id,
and because it is a real XML element ID attribute, the XML parser can do some
extra validation when other elements reference the id. As such, it is the preferred
way to specify a bean identifier. However, the XML specification does limit the

62
characters that are legal in XML ids. This is usually not a constraint, but if you
need to use one of these special XML characters, or want to introduce other
aliases to the bean, you can also specify them in the name attribute, separated by a
comma (,), semicolon (;), or white space.

You are not required to supply a name or id for a bean. If no name or id is supplied
explicitly, the container generates a unique name for that bean. However, if you
want to refer to that bean by name, through the use of the ref element or Service
Location style lookup, you must provide a name. Motivations for not supplying a
name are related to using inner beans and autowiring collaborators.
Bean naming conventions

The convention is to use the standard Java convention for instance field names when naming beans. That
is, bean names start with a lowercase letter, and are camel-cased from then on. Examples of such names
would be (without quotes)'accountManager', 'accountService','userDao', 'loginController',
and so forth.

Naming beans consistently makes your configuration easier to read and understand, and if you are using
Spring AOP it helps a lot when applying advice to a set of beans related by name.

3.3.1.1 Aliasing a bean outside the bean definition

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.

63
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.

3.3.2 Instantiating beans

A bean definition essentially is a recipe for creating one or more objects. The
container looks at the recipe for a named bean when asked, and uses the
configuration metadata encapsulated by that bean definition to create (or acquire)
an actual object.

If you use XML-based configuration metadata, you specify the type (or class) of
object that is to be instantiated in the class attribute of the <bean/>element.
This class attribute, which internally is a Class property on
a BeanDefinition instance, is usually mandatory. (For exceptions,
seeSection 3.3.2.3, “Instantiation using an instance factory
method” and Section 3.7, “Bean definition inheritance”.) You use the Class property
in one of two ways:

 Typically, to specify the bean class to be constructed in the case where the
container itself directly creates the bean by calling its constructor reflectively,
somewhat equivalent to Java code using the new operator.

 To specify the actual class containing the static factory method that will be

invoked to create the object, in the less common case where the container
invokes a static, factory method on a class to create the bean. The object
type returned from the invocation of the static factory method may be the
same class or another class entirely.
Inner class names

64
If you want to configure a bean definition for a static nested class, you have to use the binaryname of the
inner class.

For example, if you have a class called Foo in thecom.example package, and this Foo class has
astatic inner class called Bar, the value of the'class' attribute on a bean definition would be...

com.example.Foo$Bar

Notice the use of the $ character in the name to separate the inner class name from the outer class name.

3.3.2.1 Instantiation with a constructor

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.

3.3.2.2 Instantiation with a static factory method

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)

65
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.

3.3.2.3 Instantiation using an instance factory method

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();

66
 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-specificFactoryBean .

3.4 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

67
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.

3.4.1 Dependency injection

Dependency injection (DI) is a process whereby objects define their dependencies,

that is, the other objects they work with, 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 (IoC), 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
such, your classes become easier to test, in particular 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.

3.4.1.1 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. 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;

68
 }

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

}

Constructor argument resolution

Constructor argument resolution matching occurs using the argument's type. If no

potential ambiguity exists in the constructor arguments of a bean definition, then
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:

package x.y;

public class Foo {

public Foo(Bar bar, Baz baz) {

// ...
}
}

No potential ambiguity exists, assuming that Bar and Baz classes are not related by

inheritance. Thus the following configuration works fine, and you do not need to
specify the constructor argument indexes and/or types explicitly in
the <constructor-arg/> element.

<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>

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:

package examples;

69
public class ExampleBean {

// No. of years to the 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;
}
}

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 using the type attribute.
For example:

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

<constructor-arg type="int" value="7500000"/>
<constructor-arg type="java.lang.String" value="42"/>
</bean>

Constructor argument index

Use the index attribute to specify explicitly the index of constructor arguments. For

example:

<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. Note
that the index is 0 based.
Constructor argument name

As of Spring 3.0 you can also use the constructor parameter name for value
disambiguation:

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

70
<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 can't compile your code with debug flag (or don't want to)
you can use @ConstructorProperties JDK annotation to explicitly name your
constructor arguments. The sample class would then have to look as follows:

package examples;

public class ExampleBean {

// Fields omitted

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

3.4.1.2 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 no-argumentstatic 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...

}

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The ApplicationContext supports constructor- and setter-based DI for the beans it
manages. It also supports setter-based DI after some dependencies are already
injected through the constructor approach. You configure the dependencies in the
form of a BeanDefinition, which you use with PropertyEditor instances to convert
properties from one format to another. However, most Spring users do not work
with these classes directly (programmatically), but rather with an XML definition file
that is then converted internally into instances of these classes, and used to load
an entire Spring IoC container instance.
Constructor-based or setter-based DI?

Since you can mix both, Constructor- and Setter-based DI, it is a good rule of thumb to use constructor
arguments for mandatory dependencies and setters for optional dependencies. Note that the use of
a @Required annotation on a setter can be used to make setters required dependencies.

The Spring team generally advocates setter injection, because large numbers of constructor arguments
can get unwieldy, especially when properties are optional. Setter methods also make objects of that class
amenable to reconfiguration or re-injection later. Management through JMX MBeansis a compelling use
case.

Some purists favor constructor-based injection. Supplying all object dependencies means that the object is
always returned to client (calling) code in a totally initialized state. The disadvantage is that the object
becomes less amenable to reconfiguration and re-injection.

Use the DI that makes the most sense for a particular class. Sometimes, when dealing with third-party
classes to which you do not have the source, the choice is made for you. A legacy class may not expose
any setter methods, and so constructor injection is the only available DI.

3.4.1.3 Dependency resolution process

The container performs bean dependency resolution as follows:

1. The ApplicationContext is created and initialized with configuration metadata

that describes all the beans. Configuration metadata can be specified via
XML, Java code or annotations.
2. For each bean, its dependencies are expressed in the form of properties,
constructor arguments, or arguments to the static-factory method if you are
using that instead of a normal constructor. These dependencies are
provided to the bean, when the bean is actually created.

3. Each property or constructor argument is an actual definition of the value to

set, or a reference to another bean in the container.

4. Each property or constructor argument which is a value is converted from its

specified format to the actual type of that property or constructor argument.

72
 By default Spring can convert a value supplied in string format to all built-in
types, such as int, long, String, boolean, etc.

The Spring container validates the configuration of each bean as the container is
created, including the validation of whether bean reference properties refer to valid
beans. 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 3.5, “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.
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/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
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.

73
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 IntializingBean
callback method) are invoked.

3.4.1.4 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:

<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:

74
<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

75
 // 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.

3.4.2 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.

3.4.2.1 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. As mentioned previously,
JavaBeans PropertyEditors are used to convert these string 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>

76
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-3.0.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 IDEAor
the SpringSource 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 PropertyEditormechanism.
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 thevalue attribute style.

The  idref element

77
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 clientbean. 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.

Additionally, if the referenced bean is in the same XML unit, and the bean name is
the bean id, you can use the local attribute, which allows the XML parser itself to
validate the bean id earlier, at XML document parse time.

<property name="targetName">
<!-- a bean with id 'theTargetBean' must exist; otherwise an exception will be
thrown -->
<idref local="theTargetBean"/>
</property>

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
aProxyFactoryBean bean definition. Using <idref/> elements when you specify the
interceptor names prevents you from misspelling an interceptor id.

78
3.4.2.2 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
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 idattribute 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 local attribute leverages the ability of the
XML parser to validate XML id references within the same file. The value of
the local attribute must be the same as the id attribute of the target bean. The
XML parser issues an error if no matching element is found in the same file. As
such, using the local variant is the best choice (in order to know about errors as
early as possible) if the target bean is in the same XML file.

<ref local="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">

79
 <!-- 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>

3.4.2.3 Inner beans

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
arealways anonymous and they are always scoped as prototypes. It is not possible
to inject inner beans into collaborating beans other than into the enclosing bean.

3.4.2.4 Collections

In the <list/>, <set/>, <map/>, and <props/> elements, you set the properties and

arguments of the Java Collection types List, Set, Map, andProperties, respectively.

<bean id="moreComplexObject" class="example.ComplexObject">

<!-- results in a setAdminEmails(java.util.Properties) call -->
<property name="adminEmails">
<props>
<prop key="administrator">administrator@example.org</prop>
<prop key="support">support@example.org</prop>
<prop key="development">development@example.org</prop>
</props>
</property>

80
<!-- 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

Collection merging

As of Spring 2.0, the container supports the merging of collections. An application

developer can define a parent-style <list/>, <map/>, <set/> or<props/> element, and
have child-style <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">

81
 <props>
<prop key="administrator">administrator@example.com</prop>
<prop key="support">support@example.com</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">sales@example.com</prop>
<prop key="support">support@example.co.uk</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 the merging of the
child's adminEmails collection with the parent's adminEmails collection.

administrator=administrator@example.com
sales=sales@example.com
support=support@example.co.uk

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), and if you
do attempt to do so an appropriate Exception is thrown. Themerge attribute must be
specified on the lower, inherited, child definition; specifying the merge attribute on a

82
parent collection definition is redundant and will not result in the desired merging.
The merging feature is available only in Spring 2.0 and later.

Strongly-typed collection (Java 5+ only)

In Java 5 and later, you can use strongly typed collections (using generic types).
That is, it is possible to declare a Collection type such that it can only
contain String elements (for example). If you are using 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.

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>

When the accounts property of the foo bean is prepared for injection, the generics

information about the element type of the strongly-typedMap<String, Float> is
available by reflection. Thus Spring's type conversion infrastructure recognizes the
various value elements as being of typeFloat, and the string values 9.99, 2.75,
and 3.99 are converted into an actual Float type.

3.4.2.5 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 ("")

83
<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).

3.4.2.6 XML shortcut with the p-namespace

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 2.0 and later supports extensible configuration formats with namespaces,

which are based on an XML Schema definition. The beansconfiguration 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-3.0.xsd">

<bean name="classic" class="com.example.ExampleBean">

<property name="email" value="foo@bar.com"/>
</bean>

<bean name="p-namespace" class="com.example.ExampleBean"

p:email="foo@bar.com"/>
</beans>

84
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-3.0.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.

85
3.4.2.7 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="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 aNullPointerException is thrown.

3.4.3 Using depends-on

If a bean is a dependency of another 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; for example, a static initializer in a class needs to be triggered,
such as 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, with commas, whitespace and semicolons, used
as 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" />

Note

86
 The depends-on attribute in the bean definition can specify both an initialization time
dependency and, in the case of singletonbeans only, a corresponding destroy 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.

3.4.4 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 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; for example:

<bean id="lazy" class="com.foo.ExpensiveToCreateBean" lazy-init="true"/>

<bean name="not.lazy" class="com.foo.AnotherBean"/>

When the preceding configuration is consumed by an ApplicationContext, the bean

named lazy is not eagerly pre-instantiated when theApplicationContext is starting
up, 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; for example:

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

87
 3.4.5 Autowiring collaborators

The Spring container can autowire relationships between collaborating beans. You

can allow Spring to 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
templatediscussed 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[2], you specify autowire mode for a
bean definition with the autowire attribute of the <bean/>element. The autowiring
functionality has five modes. You specify autowiring per bean and thus can choose
which ones to autowire.

Table 3.2. Autowiring modes

Explanation

fault) No autowiring. Bean references must be defined via a ref element. Changing the default setting is not recommended
er deployments, because specifying collaborators explicitly gives greater control and clarity. To some extent, it documents
cture of a system.

owiring by property name. Spring looks for a bean with the same name as the property that needs to be autowired. For example,
n definition is set to autowire by name, and it contains a master property (that is, it has a setMaster(..)method), Spring looks f
n definition named master, and uses it to set the property.

ws a property to be autowired if exactly one bean of the property type exists in the container. If more than one exists, a
eption is thrown, which indicates that you may not use byType autowiring for that bean. If there are no matching beans, not
pens; the property is not set.

logous to byType, but applies to constructor arguments. If there is not exactly one bean of the constructor argument type in
ainer, a fatal error is raised.

88
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 Maps if the expected key type is String. An autowired Maps values
will consist of all bean instances that match the expected type, and the Maps keys
will contain the corresponding bean names.

You can combine autowire behavior with dependency checking, which is

performed after autowiring completes.

3.4.5.1 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 so-called simpleproperties 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 above
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 Maps, 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.

89
  Designate a single bean definition as the primary candidate by setting
the primary attribute of its <bean/> element to true.

 If you are using Java 5 or later, implement the more fine-grained control
available with annotation-based configuration, as described inSection 3.9,
“Annotation-based container configuration”.

3.4.5.2 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).

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 withRepository, provide a value of
*Repository. To provide multiple patterns, define them in a comma-separated list.
An explicit value of true or falsefor 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.

3.4.6 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 only creates the singleton bean A 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 ApplicationContextAwareinterface, and by making

90
a getBean("B") call to the container ask for (a typically new) bean B instance every
time bean A needs it. The following is an example of this approach:

// 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;
}
}

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, allows this use case to be handled in a clean fashion.
You can read more about the motivation for Method Injection in this blog entry.

3.4.6.1 Lookup method injection

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

91
 For this dynamic subclassing to work, you must have the CGLIB jar(s) in your classpath. 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 abstractmethod 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.

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>

92
<!-- 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 thecommand bean is returned each time.

Tip

The interested reader may also find the ServiceLocatorFactoryBean (in

the org.springframework.beans.factory.configpackage) 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 for these classes
as well as this blog entry for additional information ServiceLocatorFactoryBean.

3.4.6.2 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. 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...

93
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 matchjava.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.

94
 3.5 Bean scopes

When you create a bean definition, you create a recipe for creating actual
instances of the class defined by that bean definition. The idea that a bean
definition is a recipe is important, because it means that, as with a class, you can
create many object instances from a single recipe.

You can control not only the various dependencies and configuration values that
are to be plugged into an object that is created from a particular bean definition,
but also the scope of the objects created from a particular bean definition. This
approach is powerful and flexible in that you canchoose the scope of the objects
you create through configuration instead of having to bake in the scope of an
object at the Java class level. Beans can be defined to be deployed in one of a
number of scopes: out of the box, the Spring Framework supports five scopes,
three of which are available only if you use a web-aware ApplicationContext.

The following scopes are supported out of the box. You can also create a custom
scope.

Table 3.3. Bean scopes

Description

fault) Scopes a single bean definition to a single object instance per Spring IoC container.

pes a single bean definition to any number of object instances.

pes a single bean definition to the lifecycle of a single HTTP request; that is, each HTTP request has its own instance of a b
ated off the back of a single bean definition. Only valid in the context of a web-aware Spring ApplicationContext.

pes a single bean definition to the lifecycle of an HTTP Session. Only valid in the context of a web-aw
ingApplicationContext.

pes a single bean definition to the lifecycle of a global HTTP Session. Typically only valid when used in a portlet context. O
d in the context of a web-aware Spring ApplicationContext.

Thread-scoped beans

As of Spring 3.0, a thread scope is available, but is not registered by default. For more
information, see the documentation forSimpleThreadScope. For instructions on how to register
this or any other custom scope, see Section 3.5.5.2, “Using a custom scope”.

95
3.5.1 The singleton scope

Only one shared instance of a singleton bean is managed, and all requests for

beans with an id or ids matching that bean definition result in that one specific
bean instance being returned by the Spring container.

To put it another way, when you define a bean definition and it is scoped as a
singleton, the Spring IoC container creates exactly one instance of the object
defined by that bean definition. This single instance is stored in a cache of such
singleton beans, and all subsequent requests and references for that named bean
return the cached object.

Spring's concept of a singleton bean differs from the Singleton pattern as defined
in the Gang of Four (GoF) patterns book. The GoF Singleton hard-codes the
scope of an object such that one and only one instance of a particular class is
created per  ClassLoader. The scope of the Spring singleton is best described
as per container and per bean. This means that if you define one bean for a
particular class in a single Spring container, then the Spring container creates
one and only one instance of the class defined by that bean definition. The
singleton scope is the default scope in Spring. To define a bean as a singleton in
XML, you would write, for example:

96
<bean id="accountService" class="com.foo.DefaultAccountService"/>

<!-- the following is equivalent, though redundant (singleton scope is the

default) -->
<bean id="accountService" class="com.foo.DefaultAccountService"
scope="singleton"/>

3.5.2 The prototype scope

The non-singleton, prototype scope of bean deployment results in the creation of a

new bean instance every time a request for that specific bean is made. That is, the
bean is injected into another bean or you request it through a getBean() method call
on the container. As a rule, use the prototype scope for all stateful beans and the
singleton scope for stateless beans.

The following diagram illustrates the Spring prototype scope. A data access object
(DAO) is not typically configured as a prototype, because a typical DAO does not
hold any conversational state; it was just easier for this author to reuse the core of
the singleton diagram.

The following example defines a bean as a prototype in XML:

97
<!-- using spring-beans-2.0.dtd -->
<bean id="accountService" class="com.foo.DefaultAccountService"
scope="prototype"/>

In contrast to the other scopes, Spring does not manage the complete lifecycle of
a prototype bean: the container instantiates, configures, and otherwise assembles
a prototype object, and hands it to the client, with no further record of that
prototype instance. Thus, although initializationlifecycle callback methods are
called on all objects regardless of scope, in the case of prototypes,
configured destruction lifecycle callbacks are notcalled. The client code must clean
up prototype-scoped objects and release expensive resources that the prototype
bean(s) are holding. To get the Spring container to release resources held by
prototype-scoped beans, try using a custom bean post-processor, which holds a
reference to beans that need to be cleaned up.

In some respects, the Spring container's role in regard to a prototype-scoped bean

is a replacement for the Java new operator. All lifecycle management past that point
must be handled by the client. (For details on the lifecycle of a bean in the Spring
container, see Section 3.6.1, “Lifecycle callbacks”.)

3.5.3 Singleton beans with prototype-bean dependencies

When you use singleton-scoped beans with dependencies on prototype beans, be

aware that dependencies are resolved at instantiation time. Thus if you
dependency-inject a prototype-scoped bean into a singleton-scoped bean, a new
prototype bean is instantiated and then dependency-injected into the singleton
bean. The prototype instance is the sole instance that is ever supplied to the
singleton-scoped bean.

However, suppose you want the singleton-scoped bean to acquire a new instance
of the prototype-scoped bean repeatedly at runtime. You cannot dependency-
inject a prototype-scoped bean into your singleton bean, because that injection
occurs only once, when the Spring container is instantiating the singleton bean
and resolving and injecting its dependencies. If you need a new instance of a
prototype bean at runtime more than once, see Section 3.4.6, “Method injection”

3.5.4 Request, session, and global session scopes

The request, session, and global session scopes are only available if you use a

web-aware Spring ApplicationContext implementation (such
as XmlWebApplicationContext). If you use these scopes with regular Spring IoC

98
containers such as the ClassPathXmlApplicationContext, you get
an IllegalStateException complaining about an unknown bean scope.

3.5.4.1 Initial web configuration

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, orDispatcherPortlet, then no
special setup is necessary: DispatcherServlet and DispatcherPortlet already expose
all relevant state.

If you use a Servlet 2.4+ web container, with requests processed outside of
Spring's DispatcherServlet (for example, when using JSF or Struts), you need to
add the following javax.servlet.ServletRequestListener to the declarations in your
web applications web.xml file:

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

If you use an older web container (Servlet 2.3), use the

provided javax.servlet.Filter implementation. The following snippet of XML
configuration must be included in the web.xml file of your web application if you
want to access web-scoped beans in requests outside of Spring's
DispatcherServlet on a Servlet 2.3 container. (The filter mapping depends on the
surrounding web application configuration, so you must change it as appropriate.)

<web-app>
..
<filter>

99
 <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 alldo 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.

3.5.4.2 Request scope

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.

3.5.4.3 Session scope

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

100
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.

3.5.4.4 Global session scope

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 HTTPSession scope is used,
and no error is raised.

3.5.4.5 Scoped beans as dependencies

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. If you try to create a scoped proxy for a singleton bean,
the BeanCreationException is raised.

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

101
 http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-3.0.xsd">

<!-- an HTTP Session-scoped bean exposed as a proxy -->

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

<!-- this next element effects the proxying of 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. (If you choose class-based proxying, you also need the
CGLIB library in your classpath. See the section called “Choosing the type of proxy
to create” and Appendix C, 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 sameuserPreferences 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

102
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 realUserPreferences object from the scoping mechanism (HTTP
request, Session, etc.). The container injects this proxy object into
the userManagerbean, 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. This
means that you need to have the CGLIB library in the classpath of your
application.

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 scoped target object.

Alternatively, you can configure the Spring container to create standard JDK
interface-based proxies for such scoped beans, by specifying falsefor 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.

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<!-- 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 7.6, “Proxying mechanisms”.

3.5.5 Custom scopes

As of Spring 2.0, the bean scoping mechanism is extensible. You can define your
own scopes, or even redefine existing scopes, although the latter is considered
bad practice and you cannot override the built-in singleton and prototype scopes.

3.5.5.1 Creating a custom scope

To integrate your custom scope(s) into the Spring container, you need to
implement the org.springframework.beans.factory.config.Scopeinterface, 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 Javadoc, 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.

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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
Javadoc 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()

3.5.5.2 Using a custom scope

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 ApplicationContextimplementations 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 Scopeimplementation 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.

105
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-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-3.0.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().

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3.6 Customizing the nature of a bean
3.6.1 Lifecycle callbacks

To interact with the container's management of the bean lifecycle, you can
implement the Spring InitializingBean and DisposableBean interfaces. The container
calls afterPropertiesSet() for the former and destroy() for the latter to allow the
bean to perform certain actions upon initialization and destruction of your beans.
You can also achieve the same integration with the container without coupling your
classes to Spring interfaces through the use of init-method and destroy method
object definition metadata.

Internally, the Spring Framework uses BeanPostProcessor implementations to

process any callback interfaces it can find and call the appropriate methods. If you
need custom features or other lifecycle behavior Spring does not offer out-of-the-
box, you can implement a BeanPostProcessoryourself. For more information,
see Section 3.8, “Container extension points”.

In addition to the initialization and destruction callbacks, Spring-managed objects

may also implement the Lifecycle interface so that those objects can participate in
the startup and shutdown process as driven by the container's own lifecycle.

The lifecycle callback interfaces are described in this section.

3.6.1.1 Initialization callbacks

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, 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. For example, the following definition:

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

public class ExampleBean {

107
 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.

3.6.1.2 Destruction callbacks

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, specify a
generic method that is supported by bean definitions. With XML-based
configuration metadata, you use the destroy-method attribute on the <bean/>. 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 {

108
 public void destroy() {
// do some destruction work (like releasing pooled connections)
}
}

... but does not couple the code to Spring.

3.6.1.3 Default initialization and destroy methods

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.");
}
}
}

109
<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.

3.6.1.4 Combining lifecycle mechanisms

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

110
 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:

 Methods annotated with @PostConstruct

 afterPropertiesSet() as defined by the InitializingBean callback interface

 A custom configured init() method

Destroy methods are called in the same order:

 Methods annotated with @PreDestroy

 destroy() as defined by the DisposableBean callback interface

 A custom configured destroy() method

3.6.1.5 Startup and shutdown callbacks

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:

111
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" Lifecycleobject that does not implement SmartLifecycle would be 0.
Therefore, any negative phase value would indicate that an object should start

112
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'sisAutoStartup() 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.

3.6.1.6 Shutting down the Spring IoC container gracefully in non-web applications

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.

113
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...
}
}

3.6.2 ApplicationContextAware and BeanNameAware

When an ApplicationContext creates a class that implements

the org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextAware interface, the class is
provided with a reference to that ApplicationContext.

public interface ApplicationContextAware {

void setApplicationContext(ApplicationContext applicationContext) throws

BeansException;
}

Thus beans can manipulate programmatically the ApplicationContext that created

them, through the ApplicationContext interface, or by casting the reference to a
known subclass of this interface, such as ConfigurableApplicationContext, which
exposes additional functionality. One use would be the programmatic retrieval of
other beans. Sometimes this capability is useful; however, in general you should
avoid it, because it couples the code to Spring and does not follow the Inversion of
Control style, where collaborators are provided to beans as properties. Other

114
methods of the ApplicationContext provide access to file resources, publishing
application events, and accessing a MessageSource. These additional features
are described in Section 3.13, “Additional Capabilities of the ApplicationContext”

As of Spring 2.5, autowiring is another alternative to obtain reference to

the ApplicationContext. The "traditional" constructor and byTypeautowiring modes
(as described in Section 3.4.5, “Autowiring collaborators”) can provide a
dependency of type ApplicationContext for a constructor argument or setter method
parameter, respectively. For more flexibility, including the ability to autowire fields
and multiple parameter methods, use the new annotation-based autowiring
features. If you do, the ApplicationFactory is autowired into a field, constructor
argument, or method parameter that is expecting the BeanFactory type if the field,
constructor, or method in question carries the @Autowired annotation. For more
information, see Section 3.9.2, “@Autowired and @Inject”.

When an ApplicationContext creates a class that implements

the org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanNameAware interface, the class is provided
with a reference to the name defined in its associated object definition.

public interface BeanNameAware {

void setBeanName(string name) throws BeansException;

}

The callback is invoked after population of normal bean properties but before an
initialization callback such as InitializingBeansafterPropertiesSet or a custom init-
method.

3.6.3 Other Aware interfaces

Besides ApplicationContextAware and BeanNameAware discussed above, Spring offers

a range of Aware interfaces that allow beans to indicate to the container that they
require a certain infrastructure dependency. The most important Aware interfaces
are summarized below - as a general rule, the name is a good indication of the
dependency type:

Table 3.4. Aware interfaces

Name Injected Dependency Explained in...

ApplicationContextAware Declaring ApplicationContext Section 3.6.2,

“ApplicationContextAware

115
Name Injected Dependency Explained in...

and BeanNameAware”

Section 3.13, “Additional
ApplicationEventPublisherAwar Event publisher of the
e Capabilities of the
enclosing ApplicationContext
ApplicationContext”

BeanClassLoaderAware
Class loader used to load the bean Section 3.3.2, “Instantiating
classes. beans”

Section 3.6.2,
BeanFactoryAware Declaring BeanFactory “ApplicationContextAware
and BeanNameAware”

Section 3.6.2,
BeanNameAware Name of the declaring bean “ApplicationContextAware
and BeanNameAware”

Resource
adapter BootstrapContext the
BootstrapContextAware container runs in. Typically Chapter 23, JCA CCI
available only in JCA
aware ApplicationContexts

Section 7.8.4, “Load-time
Defined weaver for processing
LoadTimeWeaverAware weaving with AspectJ in the
class definition at load time
Spring Framework”

Configured strategy for resolving

Section 3.13, “Additional
messages (with support for
MessageSourceAware Capabilities of the
parametrization and
ApplicationContext”
internationalization)

Spring JMX notification

NotificationPublisherAware Section 22.7, “Notifications”
publisher

Current PortletConfig the
PortletConfigAware
container runs in. Valid only in a Chapter 18, Portlet MVC
web-aware Framework
Spring ApplicationContext

PortletContextAware Current PortletContext the Chapter 18, Portlet MVC

container runs in. Valid only in a Framework

116
Name Injected Dependency Explained in...

web-aware
Spring ApplicationContext

Configured loader for low-level

ResourceLoaderAware Chapter 4, Resources
access to resources

Current ServletConfig the
ServletConfigAware
container runs in. Valid only in a Chapter 15, Web MVC
web-aware framework
Spring ApplicationContext

Current ServletContext the
ServletContextAware
container runs in. Valid only in a Chapter 15, Web MVC
web-aware framework
Spring ApplicationContext

Note again that usage of these interfaces ties your code to the Spring API and
does not follow the Inversion of Control style. As such, they are recommended for
infrastructure beans that require programmatic access to the container.

3.7 Bean definition inheritance

A bean definition can contain a lot of configuration information, including

constructor arguments, property values, and container-specific information such as
initialization method, static factory method name, and so on. A child bean definition
inherits configuration data from a parent definition. The child definition can override
some values, or add others, as needed. Using parent and child bean definitions
can save a lot of typing. Effectively, this is a form of templating.

If you work with an ApplicationContext interface programmatically, child bean

definitions are represented by the ChildBeanDefinition class. Most users do not
work with them on this level, instead configuring bean definitions declaratively in
something like the ClassPathXmlApplicationContext. When you use XML-based
configuration metadata, you indicate a child bean definition by using
the parent attribute, specifying the parent bean as the value of this attribute.

<bean id="inheritedTestBean" abstract="true"

class="org.springframework.beans.TestBean">
<property name="name" value="parent"/>
<property name="age" value="1"/>

117
</bean>

<bean id="inheritsWithDifferentClass"
class="org.springframework.beans.DerivedTestBean"
parent="inheritedTestBean" init-method="initialize">

<property name="name" value="override"/>

<!-- the age property value of 1 will be inherited from parent -->

</bean>

A child bean definition uses the bean class from the parent definition if none is
specified, but can also override it. In the latter case, the child bean class must be
compatible with the parent, that is, it must accept the parent's property values.

A child bean definition inherits constructor argument values, property values, and
method overrides from the parent, with the option to add new values. Any
initialization method, destroy method, and/or static factory method settings that
you specify will override the corresponding parent settings.

The remaining settings are always taken from the child definition: depends

on, autowire mode, dependency check, singleton, scope, lazy init.

The preceding example explicitly marks the parent bean definition as abstract by
using the abstract attribute. If the parent definition does not specify a class,
explicitly marking the parent bean definition as abstract is required, as follows:

<bean id="inheritedTestBeanWithoutClass" abstract="true">

<property name="name" value="parent"/>
<property name="age" value="1"/>
</bean>

<bean id="inheritsWithClass" class="org.springframework.beans.DerivedTestBean"

parent="inheritedTestBeanWithoutClass" init-method="initialize">
<property name="name" value="override"/>
<!-- age will inherit the value of 1 from the parent bean definition-->
</bean>

The parent bean cannot be instantiated on its own because it is incomplete, and it
is also explicitly marked as abstract. When a definition isabstract like this, it is
usable only as a pure template bean definition that serves as a parent definition for
child definitions. Trying to use such anabstract parent bean on its own, by referring
to it as a ref property of another bean or doing an explicit getBean() call with the
parent bean id, returns an error. Similarly, the container's
internal preInstantiateSingletons() method ignores bean definitions that are defined as abstract.

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 Note

ApplicationContext pre-instantiates all singletons by default. Therefore, it is important (at least

for singleton beans) that if you have a (parent) bean definition which you intend to use only as a
template, and this definition specifies a class, you must make sure to set the abstract attribute
to true, otherwise the application context will actually (attempt to) pre-instantiate
the abstractbean.

3.8 Container extension points

Typically, an application developer does not need to subclass

any ApplicationContext implementation classes. You can extend The Spring IoC
container infinitely by plugging in implementations of special integration interfaces.
The next few sections describe these integration interfaces.

3.8.1 Customizing beans using the BeanPostProcessor Interface

The BeanPostProcessor interface defines callback methods that you can implement

to provide your own (or override the container's default) instantiation logic,
dependency-resolution logic, and so forth. If you want to implement some custom
logic after the Spring container finishes instantiating, configuring, and otherwise
initializing a bean, you can plug in one or more BeanPostProcessor implementations.

You can configure multiple BeanPostProcessor interfaces. You can control the

order in which these BeanPostProcessor interfaces execute by setting
the order property. You can set this property only if
the BeanPostProcessor implements the Ordered interface; if you write your
ownBeanPostProcessor you should consider implementing the Ordered interface
too. For more details, consult the Javadoc for
the BeanPostProcessorand Ordered interfaces.

Note
BeanPostProcessors operate on bean (or object) instances; that is to say, the Spring IoC
container instantiates a bean instance and then BeanPostProcessor interfaces do their work.

BeanPostProcessor interfaces are scoped per-container. This is only relevant if you are using

container hierarchies. If you define a BeanPostProcessor in one container, it will only do its
work on the beans in that container. Beans that are defined in one container are not post-
processed by a BeanPostProcessor in another container, even if both containers are part of the
same hierarchy.

To change the actual bean definition (that is, the recipe that defines the bean), you instead need to
use aBeanFactoryPostProcessor, described below in Section 3.8.2, “Customizing

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 configuration metadata with BeanFactoryPostProcessor interface”.

The org.springframework.beans.factory.config.BeanPostProcessor interface consists
of exactly two callback methods. When such a class is registered as a post-
processor with the container, for each bean instance that is created by the
container, the post-processor gets a callback from the container
both before container initialization methods (such as afterPropertiesSet and any
declared init method) are called, and also afterwards. The post-processor can take
any action with the bean instance, including ignoring the callback completely. A
bean post-processor typically checks for callback interfaces, or may wrap a bean
with a proxy. Some Spring AOP infrastructure classes are implemented as bean
post-processors and they do this proxy-wrapping logic.

An ApplicationContext automatically detects any beans that are defined in the

configuration metadata it receives that implement
theBeanPostProcessor interface. The ApplicationContext registers these beans as post-
processors, to be then called appropriately by the container upon bean creation. You can then deploy
the post-processors as you would any bean.

BeanPostProcessors and AOP auto-proxying

Classes that implement the BeanPostProcessor interface are special, and so they are treated
differently by the container. AllBeanPostProcessors and their directly referenced beans are
instantiated on startup, as part of the special startup phase of theApplicationContext. Next, all
those BeanPostProcessors are registered in a sorted fashion - and applied to all further beans.
Because AOP auto-proxying is implemented as a BeanPostProcessor itself,
no BeanPostProcessors or directly referenced beans are eligible for auto-proxying, and thus do
not have aspects woven into them.

For any such bean, you should see an info log message: “Bean foo is not eligible for getting
processed by all BeanPostProcessor interfaces (for example: not eligible for auto-proxying)”.

The following examples show how to write, register, and use BeanPostProcessors in

the context of an ApplicationContext.

3.8.1.1 Example: Hello World, BeanPostProcessor-style

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:

120
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-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang
http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang/spring-lang-3.0.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 2.0 dynamic language support is detailed in
the chapter entitled Chapter 26, Dynamic language support.)

The following small driver script executes the preceding code and configuration:

121
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 execution resembles the following:

Bean 'messenger' created :

org.springframework.scripting.groovy.GroovyMessenger@272961
org.springframework.scripting.groovy.GroovyMessenger@272961

3.8.1.2 Example: The RequiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor

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.

3.8.2 Customizing configuration metadata with BeanFactoryPostProcessor interface

The next extension point that we will look at is

the org.springframework.beans.factory.config.BeanFactoryPostProcessor. The
semantics of this interface are similar to the BeanPostProcessor, with one major
difference: BeanFactoryPostProcessors operate on the bean configuration metadata;
that is, the Spring IoC container allows BeanFactoryPostProcessors to read the
configuration metadata and potentially change it beforethe container instantiates
any beans other than BeanFactoryPostProcessors.

You can configure multiple BeanFactoryPostProcessors. You can control the order

in which these BeanFactoryPostProcessors execute by setting the order property.
However, you can only set this property if
the BeanFactoryPostProcessor implements the Ordered interface. If you write your
own BeanFactoryPostProcessor, you should consider implementing

122
the Ordered interface too; consult the Javadoc for
theBeanFactoryPostProcessor and Ordered interfaces for more details.

Note
If you want to change the actual bean instances (the objects that are created from the
configuration metadata), then you instead need to use a BeanPostProcessor (described above
in Section 3.8.1, “Customizing beans using the BeanPostProcessor Interface ” . While it is
technically possible to work with bean instances within a BeanFactoryPostProcessor (e.g.
usingBeanFactory.getBean()), doing so causes premature bean instantiation, violating the
usual containter lifecycle. This may cause negative side effects such as bypassing bean post
processing.

Also, BeanFactoryPostProcessors are scoped per-container. This is only relevant if you are

using container hierarchies. If you define a BeanFactoryPostProcessor in one container, it
will only do its stuff on the bean definitions in that container. Bean definitions in another
container will not be post-processed by BeanFactoryPostProcessors in another container, even
if both containers are part of the same hierarchy.

A bean factory post-processor is executed automatically when it is declared inside

of an ApplicationContext, in order to apply changes to the configuration metadata
that defines a container. Spring includes a number of pre-existing bean factory
post-processors, such
asPropertyOverrideConfigurer and PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer. A
custom BeanFactoryPostProcessor can also be used, for example, to register custom
property editors.

An ApplicationContext detects any beans that are deployed into it and that

implement the BeanFactoryPostProcessor interface. It automatically uses these beans as
bean factory post-processors, at the appropriate time. You can then deploy these post-processor beans
as you would any other bean.

Note

As with BeanPostProcessors, you typically do not want BeanFactoryPostProcessors marked

as lazy-initialized. If they are marked as such, the Spring container never instantiates them, and
thus they cannot apply their custom logic. If you use the default-lazy-init attribute on the
declaration of your <beans/> element, be sure to mark your
variousBeanFactoryPostProcessor bean definitions with lazy-init="false".

3.8.2.1 Example: the PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer

You use the PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer to externalize property values from a

bean definition into another separate file in the standard Java Properties format.
Doing so enables the person deploying an application to customize environment-

123
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 similarly for other placeholder values that match to keys in the property file.
The PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer checks for placeholders in most locations of a
bean definition and 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. You can provide
multiple locations as a comma-separated list in the location attribute.

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

The PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer does not look for properties only in

the Properties file you specify, but also checks against the Java Systemproperties

124
if it cannot find a property you are trying to use. You can customize this behavior
by setting the systemPropertiesMode property of the configurer. It has three values
that specify configurer behavior: always override, never override, and override only
if the property is not found in the properties file specified. Consult the Javadoc for
the PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer for more information.

Class name substitution

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.

3.8.2.2 Example: the PropertyOverrideConfigurer

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
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

125
For example:

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

This example file is usable against 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

... the sammy property of the bob property of the fred property of the foo bean is

set to the scalar value 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"/>

3.8.3 Customizing instantiation logic with the FactoryBean Interface

You implement the org.springframework.beans.factory.FactoryBean interface for

objects that are themselves factories.

The FactoryBean interface is a point of pluggability into the Spring IoC container's

instantiation logic. If you have complex initialization code that is better expressed
in Java as opposed to a (potentially) verbose amount of XML, you can create your
own FactoryBean, write the complex initialization inside that class, and then plug
your custom FactoryBean into the container.

The FactoryBean interface provides three methods:

126
  Object getObject(): returns an instance of the object this factory creates. The
instance can possibly be shared, depending on whether this factory returns
singletons or prototypes.
 boolean isSingleton(): returns true if this FactoryBean returns
singletons, false otherwise.

 Class getObjectType():returns the object type returned by

the getObject() method or null if the type is not known in advance

The FactoryBean concept and interface is used in a number of places within the

Spring Framework; more than 50 implementations of theFactoryBean interface ship
with Spring itself.

When you need to ask a container for an actual FactoryBean instance itself, not the
bean it produces, you preface the bean id with the ampersand symbol & (without
quotes) when calling the getBean() method of the ApplicationContext. So for a
given FactoryBean with an id of myBean, invokinggetBean("myBean") on the container
returns the product of the FactoryBean, and invoking getBean("&myBean") returns
the FactoryBean instance itself.

3.9 Annotation-based container configuration

Are annotations better than XML for configuring Spring?

The introduction of annotation-based configurations raised the question of whether this approach is 'better'
than XML. The short answer is it depends. The long answer is that each approach has its pros and cons,
and usually it is up to the developer to decide which strategy suits her better. Due to the way they are
defined, annotations provide a lot of context in their declaration, leading to shorter and more concise
configuration. However, XML excels at wiring up components without touching their source code or
recompiling them. Some developers prefer having the wiring close to the source while others argue that
annotated classes are no longer POJOs and, furthermore, that the configuration becomes decentralized
and harder to control.

No matter the choice, Spring can accommodate both styles and even mix them together. It's worth
pointing out that through its JavaConfig option, Spring allows annotations to be used in a non-invasive
way, without touching the target components source code and that in terms of tooling, all configuration
styles are supported by the SpringSource Tool Suite.

An alternative to XML setups is provided by annotation-based configuration which

rely on the bytecode metadata for wiring up components instead of angle-bracket
declarations. Instead of using XML to describe a bean wiring, the developer moves
the configuration into the component class itself by using annotations on the
relevant class, method, or field declaration. As mentioned in Section 3.8.1.2,
“Example: The RequiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor”, using
a BeanPostProcessor in conjunction with annotations is a common means of

127
extending the Spring IoC container. For example, Spring 2.0 introduced the
possibility of enforcing required properties with the@Required annotation. As of
Spring 2.5, it is now possible to follow that same general approach to drive
Spring's dependency injection. Essentially, the @Autowired annotation provides
the same capabilities as described in Section 3.4.5, “Autowiring collaborators”but
with more fine-grained control and wider applicability. Spring 2.5 also adds support
for JSR-250 annotations such as @Resource, @PostConstruct,
and @PreDestroy. Spring 3.0 adds support for JSR-330 (Dependency Injection for
Java) annotations contained in the javax.inject package such
as @Inject, @Qualifier, @Named, and @Provider if the JSR330 jar is present on
the classpath. Use of these annotations also requires that
certain BeanPostProcessors be registered within the Spring container.

Note
Annotation injection is performed before XML injection, thus the latter configuration will
override the former for properties wired through both approaches.

As always, you can register them as individual bean definitions, but they can also
be implicitly registered by including the following tag in an XML-based Spring
configuration (notice the inclusion of the context namespace):

<?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:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

<context:annotation-config/>

</beans>

(The implicitly registered post-processors

include AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor, CommonAnnotationBeanPostPr
ocessor,PersistenceAnnotationBeanPostProcessor, as well as the
aforementioned RequiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.)

Note

<context:annotation-config/> only looks for annotations on beans in the same application

context in which it is defined. This means that, if you put <context:annotation-config/> in
a WebApplicationContext for a DispatcherServlet, it only checks for@Autowired beans in

128
 your controllers, and not your services. See Section 15.2, “The DispatcherServlet” for more
information.

3.9.1 @Required

The @Required annotation applies to bean property setter methods, as in the

following example:

public class SimpleMovieLister {

private MovieFinder movieFinder;

@Required
public void setMovieFinder(MovieFinder movieFinder) {
this.movieFinder = movieFinder;
}

// ...
}

This annotation simply indicates that the affected bean property must be populated
at configuration time, through an explicit property value in a bean definition or
through autowiring. The container throws an exception if the affected bean
property has not been populated; this allows for eager and explicit failure,
avoiding NullPointerExceptions or the like later on. It is still recommended that you
put assertions into the bean class itself, for example, into an init method. Doing so
enforces those required references and values even when you use the class
outside of a container.

3.9.2 @Autowired and @Inject

As expected, you can apply the @Autowired annotation to "traditional" setter methods:

Note

JSR 330's @Inject annotation can be used in place of Spring's @Autowired in the examples
below. @Inject does not have a required property unlike Spring's @Autowired annotation which
has a required property to indicate if the value being injected is optional. This behavior is
enabled automatically if you have the JSR 330 JAR on the classpath.
public class SimpleMovieLister {

private MovieFinder movieFinder;

@Autowired

129
 public void setMovieFinder(MovieFinder movieFinder) {
this.movieFinder = movieFinder;
}

// ...
}

You can also apply the annotation to methods with arbitrary names and/or multiple
arguments:

public class MovieRecommender {

private MovieCatalog movieCatalog;

private CustomerPreferenceDao customerPreferenceDao;

@Autowired
public void prepare(MovieCatalog movieCatalog,
CustomerPreferenceDao customerPreferenceDao) {
this.movieCatalog = movieCatalog;
this.customerPreferenceDao = customerPreferenceDao;
}

// ...
}

You can apply @Autowired to constructors and fields:

public class MovieRecommender {

@Autowired
private MovieCatalog movieCatalog;

private CustomerPreferenceDao customerPreferenceDao;

@Autowired
public MovieRecommender(CustomerPreferenceDao customerPreferenceDao) {
this.customerPreferenceDao = customerPreferenceDao;
}

// ...
}

It is also possible to provide all beans of a particular type from

the ApplicationContext by adding the annotation to a field or method that expects
an array of that type:

130
public class MovieRecommender {

@Autowired
private MovieCatalog[] movieCatalogs;

// ...
}

The same applies for typed collections:

public class MovieRecommender {

private Set<MovieCatalog> movieCatalogs;

@Autowired
public void setMovieCatalogs(Set<MovieCatalog> movieCatalogs) {
this.movieCatalogs = movieCatalogs;
}

// ...
}

Even typed Maps can be autowired as long as the expected key type is String.
The Map values will contain all beans of the expected type, and the keys will
contain the corresponding bean names:

public class MovieRecommender {

private Map<String, MovieCatalog> movieCatalogs;

@Autowired
public void setMovieCatalogs(Map<String, MovieCatalog> movieCatalogs) {
this.movieCatalogs = movieCatalogs;
}

// ...
}

By default, the autowiring fails whenever zero candidate beans are available; the

default behavior is to treat annotated methods, constructors, and fields as
indicating required dependencies. This behavior can be changed as demonstrated
below.

public class SimpleMovieLister {

private MovieFinder movieFinder;

131
 @Autowired(required=false)
public void setMovieFinder(MovieFinder movieFinder) {
this.movieFinder = movieFinder;
}

// ...
}

Note
Only one annotated constructor per-class can be marked as required, but multiple non-required
constructors can be annotated. In that case, each is considered among the candidates and Spring
uses the greediest constructor whose dependencies can be satisfied, that is the constructor that has
the largest number of arguments.

@Autowired's required attribute is recommended over the @Required annotation.

The required attribute indicates that the property is not required for autowiring purposes, the
property is ignored if it cannot be autowired. @Required, on the other hand, is stronger in that it
enforces the property that was set by any means supported by the container. If no value is
injected, a corresponding exception is raised.

You can also use @Autowired for interfaces that are well-known resolvable

dependencies: BeanFactory, ApplicationContext, ResourceLoader,ApplicationEventPubli
sher, and MessageSource. These interfaces and their extended interfaces, such
as ConfigurableApplicationContext orResourcePatternResolver, are automatically
resolved, with no special setup necessary.

public class MovieRecommender {

@Autowired
private ApplicationContext context;

public MovieRecommender() {
}

// ...
}

3.9.3 Fine-tuning annotation-based autowiring with qualifiers

Because autowiring by type may lead to multiple candidates, it is often necessary

to have more control over the selection process. One way to accomplish this is
with Spring's @Qualifier annotation. You can associate qualifier values with specific arguments,
narrowing the set of type matches so that a specific bean is chosen for each argument. In the simplest
case, this can be a plain descriptive value:

Note

132
 JSR 330's @Qualifier annotation can only be applied as a meta-annotation unlike Spring's
@Qualifier which takes a string property to discriminate among multiple injection candidates and
can be placed on annotations as well as types, fields, methods, constructors, and parameters.

public class MovieRecommender {

@Autowired
@Qualifier("main")
private MovieCatalog movieCatalog;

// ...
}

The @Qualifier annotation can also be specified on individual constructor

arguments or method parameters:

public class MovieRecommender {

private MovieCatalog movieCatalog;

private CustomerPreferenceDao customerPreferenceDao;

@Autowired
public void prepare(@Qualifier("main") MovieCatalog movieCatalog,
CustomerPreferenceDao customerPreferenceDao) {
this.movieCatalog = movieCatalog;
this.customerPreferenceDao = customerPreferenceDao;
}

// ...
}

The corresponding bean definitions appear as follows. The bean with qualifier
value "main" is wired with the constructor argument that is qualified with the same
value.

<?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:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

<context:annotation-config/>

133
 <bean class="example.SimpleMovieCatalog">
<qualifier value="main"/>
<!-- inject any dependencies required by this bean -->
</bean>

<bean class="example.SimpleMovieCatalog">
<qualifier value="action"/>
<!-- inject any dependencies required by this bean -->
</bean>

<bean id="movieRecommender" class="example.MovieRecommender"/>

</beans>

For a fallback match, the bean name is considered a default qualifier value. Thus
you can define the bean with an id "main" instead of the nested qualifier element,
leading to the same matching result. However, although you can use this
convention to refer to specific beans by name,@Autowired is fundamentally about
type-driven injection with optional semantic qualifiers. This means that qualifier
values, even with the bean name fallback, always have narrowing semantics within
the set of type matches; they do not semantically express a reference to a unique
bean id. Good qualifier values are "main" or "EMEA" or "persistent", expressing
characteristics of a specific component that are independent from the bean id,
which may be auto-generated in case of an anonymous bean definition like the
one in the preceding example.

Qualifiers also apply to typed collections, as discussed above, for example,

to Set<MovieCatalog>. In this case, all matching beans according to the declared
qualifiers are injected as a collection. This implies that qualifiers do not have to be
unique; they rather simply constitute filtering criteria. For example, you can define
multiple MovieCatalog beans with the same qualifier value "action"; all of which
would be injected into aSet<MovieCatalog> annotated with @Qualifier("action").

Tip
If you intend to express annotation-driven injection by name, do not primarily use @Autowired,
even if is technically capable of referring to a bean name through @Qualifier values. Instead, use
the JSR-250 @Resource annotation, which is semantically defined to identify a specific target
component by its unique name, with the declared type being irrelevant for the matching process.

As a specific consequence of this semantic difference, beans that are themselves defined as a
collection or map type cannot be injected through @Autowired, because type matching is not
properly applicable to them. Use @Resource for such beans, referring to the specific collection or
map bean by unique name.

134
 @Autowired applies to fields, constructors, and multi-argument methods, allowing for narrowing
through qualifier annotations at the parameter level. By contrast, @Resource is supported only for
fields and bean property setter methods with a single argument. As a consequence, stick with
qualifiers if your injection target is a constructor or a multi-argument method.

You can create your own custom qualifier annotations. Simply define an
annotation and provide the @Qualifier annotation within your definition:

Note

You can use JSR 330's @Qualifier annotation in the manner described below in place of
Spring's @Qualifier annotation. This behavior is enabled automatically if you have the JSR 330
jar on the classpath.
@Target({ElementType.FIELD, ElementType.PARAMETER})
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Qualifier
public @interface Genre {

String value();
}

Then you can provide the custom qualifier on autowired fields and parameters:

public class MovieRecommender {

@Autowired
@Genre("Action")
private MovieCatalog actionCatalog;

private MovieCatalog comedyCatalog;

@Autowired
public void setComedyCatalog(@Genre("Comedy") MovieCatalog comedyCatalog) {
this.comedyCatalog = comedyCatalog;
}

// ...
}

Next, provide the information for the candidate bean definitions. You can
add <qualifier/> tags as sub-elements of the <bean/> tag and then specify
the type and value to match your custom qualifier annotations. The type is matched
against the fully-qualified class name of the annotation. Or, as a convenience if no
risk of conflicting names exists, you can use the short class name. Both
approaches are demonstrated in the following example.

135
<?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:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

<context:annotation-config/>

<bean class="example.SimpleMovieCatalog">
<qualifier type="Genre" value="Action"/>
<!-- inject any dependencies required by this bean -->
</bean>

<bean class="example.SimpleMovieCatalog">
<qualifier type="example.Genre" value="Comedy"/>
<!-- inject any dependencies required by this bean -->
</bean>

<bean id="movieRecommender" class="example.MovieRecommender"/>

</beans>

In Section 3.10, “Classpath scanning and managed components”, you will see an

annotation-based alternative to providing the qualifier metadata in XML.
Specifically, see Section 3.10.7, “Providing qualifier metadata with annotations”.

In some cases, it may be sufficient to use an annotation without a value. This may
be useful when the annotation serves a more generic purpose and can be applied
across several different types of dependencies. For example, you may provide
an offline catalog that would be searched when no Internet connection is available.
First define the simple annotation:

@Target({ElementType.FIELD, ElementType.PARAMETER})
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Qualifier
public @interface Offline {

Then add the annotation to the field or property to be autowired:

public class MovieRecommender {

@Autowired
@Offline

136
 private MovieCatalog offlineCatalog;

// ...
}

Now the bean definition only needs a qualifier type:

<bean class="example.SimpleMovieCatalog">
<qualifier type="Offline"/>
<!-- inject any dependencies required by this bean -->
</bean>

You can also define custom qualifier annotations that accept named attributes in
addition to or instead of the simple value attribute. If multiple attribute values are
then specified on a field or parameter to be autowired, a bean definition must
match all such attribute values to be considered an autowire candidate. As an
example, consider the following annotation definition:

@Target({ElementType.FIELD, ElementType.PARAMETER})
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Qualifier
public @interface MovieQualifier {

String genre();

Format format();
}

In this case Format is an enum:

public enum Format {

VHS, DVD, BLURAY

}

The fields to be autowired are annotated with the custom qualifier and include
values for both attributes: genre and format.

public class MovieRecommender {

@Autowired
@MovieQualifier(format=Format.VHS, genre="Action")
private MovieCatalog actionVhsCatalog;

137
 @Autowired
@MovieQualifier(format=Format.VHS, genre="Comedy")
private MovieCatalog comedyVhsCatalog;

@Autowired
@MovieQualifier(format=Format.DVD, genre="Action")
private MovieCatalog actionDvdCatalog;

@Autowired
@MovieQualifier(format=Format.BLURAY, genre="Comedy")
private MovieCatalog comedyBluRayCatalog;

// ...
}

Finally, the bean definitions should contain matching qualifier values. This example
also demonstrates that bean meta attributes may be used instead of
the <qualifier/> sub-elements. If available, the <qualifier/> and its attributes take
precedence, but the autowiring mechanism falls back on the values provided
within the <meta/> tags if no such qualifier is present, as in the last two bean
definitions in the following example.

<?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:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

<context:annotation-config/>

<bean class="example.SimpleMovieCatalog">
<qualifier type="MovieQualifier">
<attribute key="format" value="VHS"/>
<attribute key="genre" value="Action"/>
</qualifier>
<!-- inject any dependencies required by this bean -->
</bean>

<bean class="example.SimpleMovieCatalog">
<qualifier type="MovieQualifier">
<attribute key="format" value="VHS"/>
<attribute key="genre" value="Comedy"/>
</qualifier>
<!-- inject any dependencies required by this bean -->
</bean>

<bean class="example.SimpleMovieCatalog">
<meta key="format" value="DVD"/>

138
 <meta key="genre" value="Action"/>
<!-- inject any dependencies required by this bean -->
</bean>

<bean class="example.SimpleMovieCatalog">
<meta key="format" value="BLURAY"/>
<meta key="genre" value="Comedy"/>
<!-- inject any dependencies required by this bean -->
</bean>

</beans>

3.9.4 CustomAutowireConfigurer

The CustomAutowireConfigurer is a BeanFactoryPostProcessor that enables you to

register your own custom qualifier annotation types even if they are not annotated
with Spring's @Qualifier annotation.

<bean id="customAutowireConfigurer"

class="org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.CustomAutowireConfigurer">
<property name="customQualifierTypes">
<set>
<value>example.CustomQualifier</value>
</set>
</property>
</bean>

The particular implementation of AutowireCandidateResolver that is activated for the

application context depends on the Java version. In versions earlier than Java 5,
the qualifier annotations are not supported, and therefore autowire candidates are
solely determined by the autowire-candidate value of each bean definition as well
as by any default-autowire-candidates pattern(s) available on the <beans/> element.
In Java 5 or later, the presence of @Qualifier annotations and any custom
annotations registered with the CustomAutowireConfigurer will also play a role.

Regardless of the Java version, when multiple beans qualify as autowire

candidates, the determination of a "primary" candidate is the same: if exactly one
bean definition among the candidates has a primary attribute set to true, it will be
selected.

3.9.5 @Resource

Spring also supports injection using the JSR-250 @Resource annotation on fields or

bean property setter methods. This is a common pattern in Java EE 5 and 6, for

139
example in JSF 1.2 managed beans or JAX-WS 2.0 endpoints. Spring supports
this pattern for Spring-managed objects as well.

@Resource takesa name attribute, and by default Spring interprets that value as the
bean name to be injected. In other words, it follows by-namesemantics, as
demonstrated in this example:

public class SimpleMovieLister {

private MovieFinder movieFinder;

@Resource(name="myMovieFinder")
public void setMovieFinder(MovieFinder movieFinder) {
this.movieFinder = movieFinder;
}
}

If no name is specified explicitly, the default name is derived from the field name or
setter method. In case of a field, it takes the field name; in case of a setter method,
it takes the bean property name. So the following example is going to have the
bean with name "movieFinder" injected into its setter method:

public class SimpleMovieLister {

private MovieFinder movieFinder;

@Resource
public void setMovieFinder(MovieFinder movieFinder) {
this.movieFinder = movieFinder;
}
}

Note

The name provided with the annotation is resolved as a bean name by

the ApplicationContext of which theCommonAnnotationBeanPostProcessor is aware. The
names can be resolved through JNDI if you configure
Spring'sSimpleJndiBeanFactory explicitly. However, it is recommended that you rely on the
default behavior and simply use Spring's JNDI lookup capabilities to preserve the level of
indirection.

In the exclusive case of @Resource usage with no explicit name specified, and

similar to @Autowired, @Resource finds a primary type match instead of a specific
named bean and resolves well-known resolvable dependencies: the BeanFactory,
ApplicationContext, ResourceLoader, ApplicationEventPublisher,
and MessageSource interfaces.

140
Thus in the following example, the customerPreferenceDao field first looks for a bean
named customerPreferenceDao, then falls back to a primary type match for the
type CustomerPreferenceDao. The "context" field is injected based on the known
resolvable dependency typeApplicationContext.

public class MovieRecommender {

@Resource
private CustomerPreferenceDao customerPreferenceDao;

@Resource
private ApplicationContext context;

public MovieRecommender() {
}

// ...
}

3.9.6 @PostConstruct and @PreDestroy

The CommonAnnotationBeanPostProcessor not only recognizes the @Resource annotation

but also the JSR-250 lifecycle annotations. Introduced in Spring 2.5, the support
for these annotations offers yet another alternative to those described
in initialization callbacks and destruction callbacks. Provided that
the CommonAnnotationBeanPostProcessor is registered within the
Spring ApplicationContext, a method carrying one of these annotations is invoked
at the same point in the lifecycle as the corresponding Spring lifecycle interface
method or explicitly declared callback method. In the example below, the cache
will be pre-populated upon initialization and cleared upon destruction.

public class CachingMovieLister {

@PostConstruct
public void populateMovieCache() {
// populates the movie cache upon initialization...
}

@PreDestroy
public void clearMovieCache() {
// clears the movie cache upon destruction...
}
}

Note

For details about the effects of combining various lifecycle mechanisms, see Section 3.6.1.4,
“Combining lifecycle mechanisms”.

141
3.10 Classpath scanning and managed components

Most examples foo bar in this chapter use XML to specify the configuration
metadata that produces each BeanDefinition within the Spring container. The
previous section (Section 3.9, “Annotation-based container configuration”)
demonstrates how to provide a lot of the configuration metadata through source-
level annotations. Even in those examples, however, the "base" bean definitions
are explicitly defined in the XML file, while the annotations only drive the
dependency injection. This section describes an option for implicitly detecting
the candidate components by scanning the classpath. Candidate components are classes that
match against a filter criteria and have a corresponding bean definition registered with the container.
This removes the need to use XML to perform bean registration, instead you can use annotations (for
example @Component), AspectJ type expressions, or your own custom filter criteria to select which
classes will have bean definitions registered with the container.

Note

Starting with Spring 3.0, many features provided by the Spring JavaConfig project are part of the
core Spring Framework. This allows you to define beans using Java rather than using the
traditional XML files. Take a look at the @Configuration, @Bean,@Import,
and @DependsOn annotations for examples of how to use these new features.

3.10.1 @Component and further stereotype annotations

In Spring 2.0 and later, the @Repository annotation is a marker for any class that
fulfills the role or stereotype (also known as Data Access Object or DAO) of a
repository. Among the uses of this marker is the automatic translation of
exceptions as described in Section 13.2.2, “Exception translation”.

Spring 2.5 introduces further stereotype annotations: @Component, @Service,

and @Controller. @Component is a generic stereotype for any Spring-managed
component. @Repository, @Service, and @Controller are specializations
of @Component for more specific use cases, for example, in the persistence, service,
and presentation layers, respectively. Therefore, you can annotate your
component classes with @Component, but by annotating them
with @Repository, @Service, or @Controller instead, your classes are more properly
suited for processing by tools or associating with aspects. For example, these
stereotype annotations make ideal targets for pointcuts. It is also possible
that @Repository, @Service, and@Controller may carry additional semantics in future
releases of the Spring Framework. Thus, if you are choosing between
using @Component or@Service for your service layer, @Service is clearly the better
choice. Similarly, as stated above, @Repository is already supported as a marker for
automatic exception translation in your persistence layer.

142
3.10.2 Automatically detecting classes and registering bean definitions

Spring can automatically detect stereotyped classes and register

corresponding BeanDefinitions with the ApplicationContext. For example, the
following two classes are eligible for such autodetection:

@Service
public class SimpleMovieLister {

private MovieFinder movieFinder;

@Autowired
public SimpleMovieLister(MovieFinder movieFinder) {
this.movieFinder = movieFinder;
}
}
@Repository
public class JpaMovieFinder implements MovieFinder {
// implementation elided for clarity
}

To autodetect these classes and register the corresponding beans, you need to
include the following element in XML, where the base-package element is a
common parent package for the two classes. (Alternatively, you can specify a
comma-separated list that includes the parent package of each 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:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

<context:component-scan base-package="org.example"/>

</beans>

Note

The scanning of classpath packages requires the presence of corresponding directory entries in
the classpath. When you build JARs with Ant, make sure that you do not activate the files-only
switch of the JAR task.

Furthermore,
the AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor and CommonAnnotationBeanPostPr
ocessor are both included implicitly when you use the component-scan element.

143
 That means that the two components are autodetected and wired together - all without
any bean configuration metadata provided in XML.

Note

You can disable the registration

of AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor and CommonAnnotationBeanPostProcessor by
including the annotation-config attribute with a value of false.

3.10.3 Using filters to customize scanning

By default, classes annotated with @Component, @Repository, @Service, @Controller, or

a custom annotation that itself is annotated with@Component are the only detected
candidate components. However, you can modify and extend this behavior simply
by applying custom filters. Add them as include-filter or exclude-filter sub-elements
of the component-scan element. Each filter element requires
the type and expressionattributes. The following table describes the filtering options.

Table 3.5. Filter Types

Example Expression Description

.example.SomeAnnotation An annotation to be present at the type level in target components.
.example.SomeClass A class (or interface) that the target components are assignable to (extend/implement).
.example..*Service+ An AspectJ type expression to be matched by the target components.
\.example\.Default.* A regex expression to be matched by the target components class names.
.example.MyTypeFilter A custom implementation of the org.springframework.core.type .TypeFilter interface.

The following example shows the XML configuration ignoring

all @Repository annotations and using "stub" repositories instead.

<beans>

<context:component-scan base-package="org.example">
<context:include-filter type="regex" expression=".*Stub.*Repository"/>
<context:exclude-filter type="annotation"

expression="org.springframework.stereotype.Repository"/>
</context:component-scan>

</beans>

Note

You can also disable the default filters by providing use-default-filters="false" as an attribute of

144
 the <component-scan/> element. This will in effect disable automatic detection of classes
annotated with @Component, @Repository, @Service, or@Controller.

3.10.4 Defining bean metadata within components

Spring components can also contribute bean definition metadata to the container.
You do this with the same @Bean annotation used to define bean metadata
within @Configuration annotated classes. Here is a simple example:

@Component
public class FactoryMethodComponent {

@Bean @Qualifier("public")
public TestBean publicInstance() {
return new TestBean("publicInstance");
}

public void doWork() {

// Component method implementation omitted
}
}

This class is a Spring component that has application-specific code contained in

its doWork() method. However, it also contributes a bean definition that has a
factory method referring to the method publicInstance(). The @Bean annotation
identifies the factory method and other bean definition properties, such as a
qualifier value through the @Qualifier annotation. Other method level annotations
that can be specified are @Scope,@Lazy, and custom qualifier annotations. Autowired
fields and methods are supported as previously discussed, with additional support
for autowiring of @Bean methods:

@Component
public class FactoryMethodComponent {

private static int i;

@Bean @Qualifier("public")
public TestBean publicInstance() {
return new TestBean("publicInstance");
}

// use of a custom qualifier and autowiring of method parameters

@Bean @BeanAge(1)
protected TestBean protectedInstance(@Qualifier("public") TestBean spouse,

145
 @Value("#{privateInstance.age}") String
country) {
TestBean tb = new TestBean("protectedInstance", 1);
tb.setSpouse(tb);
tb.setCountry(country);
return tb;
}

@Bean @Scope(BeanDefinition.SCOPE_SINGLETON)
private TestBean privateInstance() {
return new TestBean("privateInstance", i++);
}

@Bean @Scope(value = WebApplicationContext.SCOPE_SESSION,

proxyMode = ScopedProxyMode.TARGET_CLASS)
public TestBean requestScopedInstance() {
return new TestBean("requestScopedInstance", 3);
}
}

The example autowires the String method parameter country to the value of

the Age property on another bean named privateInstance. A Spring Expression
Language element defines the value of the property through the
notation #{ <expression> }. For @Value annotations, an expression resolver is
preconfigured to look for bean names when resolving expression text.

The @Bean methods in a Spring component are processed differently than their

counterparts inside a Spring @Configuration class. The difference is
that @Component classes are not enhanced with CGLIB to intercept the invocation of
methods and fields. CGLIB proxying is the means by which invoking methods or
fields within @Configuration classes @Bean methods create bean metadata
references to collaborating objects. Methods arenot invoked with normal Java
semantics. In contrast, calling a method or field within
a @Component classes @Bean method has standard Java semantics.

3.10.5 Naming autodetected components

When a component is autodetected as part of the scanning process, its bean

name is generated by the BeanNameGenerator strategy known to that scanner.
By default, any Spring stereotype annotation
(@Component, @Repository, @Service, and @Controller) that contains
a name value will thereby provide that name to the corresponding bean definition.

Note

JSR 330's @Named annotation can be used as a means to both detect components and to provide

146
 them with a name. This behavior is enabled automatically if you have the JSR 330 JAR on the
classpath.

If such an annotation contains no name value or for any other detected component

(such as those discovered by custom filters), the default bean name generator
returns the uncapitalized non-qualified class name. For example, if the following
two components were detected, the names would be myMovieLister and
movieFinderImpl:

@Service("myMovieLister")
public class SimpleMovieLister {
// ...
}
@Repository
public class MovieFinderImpl implements MovieFinder {
// ...
}

Note

If you do not want to rely on the default bean-naming strategy, you can provide a custom bean-
naming strategy. First, implement the BeanNameGenerator interface, and be sure to include a
default no-arg constructor. Then, provide the fully-qualified class name when configuring the
scanner:
<beans>

<context:component-scan base-package="org.example"
name-generator="org.example.MyNameGenerator" />

</beans>

As a general rule, consider specifying the name with the annotation whenever
other components may be making explicit references to it. On the other hand, the
auto-generated names are adequate whenever the container is responsible for
wiring.

3.10.6 Providing a scope for autodetected components

As with Spring-managed components in general, the default and most common

scope for autodetected components is singleton. However, sometimes you need
other scopes, which Spring 2.5 provides with a new @Scope annotation. Simply
provide the name of the scope within the annotation:

147
@Scope("prototype")
@Repository
public class MovieFinderImpl implements MovieFinder {
// ...
}

Note

To provide a custom strategy for scope resolution rather than relying on the annotation-based
approach, implement theScopeMetadataResolver interface, and be sure to include a default no-
arg constructor. Then, provide the fully-qualified class name when configuring the scanner:
<beans>

<context:component-scan base-package="org.example"
scope-resolver="org.example.MyScopeResolver" />

</beans>

When using certain non-singleton scopes, it may be necessary to generate proxies

for the scoped objects. The reasoning is described inSection 3.5.4.5, “Scoped
beans as dependencies”. For this purpose, a scoped-proxy attribute is available on
the component-scan element. The three possible values are: no, interfaces, and
targetClass. For example, the following configuration will result in standard JDK
dynamic proxies:

<beans>

<context:component-scan base-package="org.example"
scoped-proxy="interfaces" />

</beans>

3.10.7 Providing qualifier metadata with annotations

The @Qualifier annotation is discussed in Section 3.9.3, “Fine-tuning annotation-

based autowiring with qualifiers”. The examples in that section demonstrate the
use of the @Qualifier annotation and custom qualifier annotations to provide fine-
grained control when you resolve autowire candidates. Because those examples
were based on XML bean definitions, the qualifier metadata was provided on the
candidate bean definitions using the qualifier or meta sub-elements of
the bean element in the XML. When relying upon classpath scanning for
autodetection of components, you provide the qualifier metadata with type-level
annotations on the candidate class. The following three examples demonstrate this
technique:

148
@Component
@Qualifier("Action")
public class ActionMovieCatalog implements MovieCatalog {
// ...
}
@Component
@Genre("Action")
public class ActionMovieCatalog implements MovieCatalog {
// ...
}
@Component
@Offline
public class CachingMovieCatalog implements MovieCatalog {
// ...
}

Note

As with most annotation-based alternatives, keep in mind that the annotation metadata is bound
to the class definition itself, while the use of XML allows for multiple beans of the same type to
provide variations in their qualifier metadata, because that metadata is provided per-instance
rather than per-class.

3.11 Java-based container configuration

3.11.1 Basic concepts: @Configuration and @Bean

The central artifact in Spring's new Java-configuration support is

the @Configuration-annotated class. These classes consist principally of @Bean-
annotated methods that define instantiation, configuration, and initialization logic
for objects to be managed by the Spring IoC container.

Annotating a class with the @Configuration indicates that the class can be used by

the Spring IoC container as a source of bean definitions. The simplest
possible @Configuration class would read as follows:

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {
@Bean
public MyService myService() {
return new MyServiceImpl();
}
}

For those more familiar with Spring <beans/> XML, the AppConfig class above would

be equivalent to:

149
<beans>
<bean id="myService" class="com.acme.services.MyServiceImpl"/>
</beans>

As you can see, the @Bean annotation plays the same role as the <bean/> element.

The @Bean annotation will be discussed in depth in the sections below. First,
however, we'll cover the various ways of creating a spring container using Java-
based configuration.

3.11.2 Instantiating the Spring container using AnnotationConfigApplicationContext

The sections below document Spring's AnnotationConfigApplicationContext, new in

Spring 3.0. This versatile ApplicationContextimplementation is capable of accepting
not only @Configuration classes as input, but also plain @Component classes and
classes annotated with JSR-330 metadata.

When @Configuration classes are provided as input, the @Configuration class itself

is registered as a bean definition, and all declared @Beanmethods within the class
are also registered as bean definitions.

When @Component and JSR-330 classes are provided, they are registered as bean

definitions, and it is assumed that DI metadata such as @Autowired or @Inject are
used within those classes where necessary.

3.11.2.1 Simple construction

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:

150
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.

3.11.2.2 Building the container programmatically using register(Class<?>...)

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();
}

3.11.2.3 Enabling component scanning with scan(String...)

Experienced Spring users will be familiar with the following commonly-used XML
declaration 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:

151
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.

3.11.2.4 Support for web applications

with AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext

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>

152
 <!-- 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 /main/* to the dispatcher servlet -->
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/main/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
</web-app>

3.11.3 Composing Java-based configurations

3.11.3.1 Using the @Import annotation

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

153
@Configuration
@Import(ConfigA.class)
public class ConfigB {
public @Bean 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.

Injecting dependencies on imported  @Bean definitions

The example above works, but is simplistic. In most practical scenarios, beans will
have dependencies on one another across configuration classes. When using
XML, this is not an issue, per se, because there is no compiler involved, and one
can simply declare ref="someBean" and trust that Spring will work it out during
container initialization. Of course, when using @Configuration classes, the Java
compiler places constraints on the configuration model, in that references to other
beans must be valid Java syntax.

Fortunately, solving this problem is simple. Remember that @Configuration classes

are ultimately just another bean in the container - this means that they can take
advantage of @Autowired injection metadata just like any other bean!

Let's consider a more real-world scenario with several @Configuration classes, each

depending on beans declared in the others:

@Configuration
public class ServiceConfig {
private @Autowired AccountRepository accountRepository;

public @Bean TransferService transferService() {

return new TransferServiceImpl(accountRepository);

154
 }
}

@Configuration
public class RepositoryConfig {
private @Autowired DataSource dataSource;

public @Bean AccountRepository accountRepository() {

return new JdbcAccountRepository(dataSource);
}
}

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

Fully-qualifying imported beans for ease of navigation

In the scenario above, using @Autowired works well and provides the desired

modularity, but determining exactly where the autowired bean definitions are
declared is still somewhat ambiguous. For example, as a developer looking
at ServiceConfig, how do you know exactly where the@Autowired
AccountRepository bean is declared? It's not explicit in the code, and this may be
just fine. Remember that the SpringSource Tool Suite provides tooling that can
render graphs showing how everything is wired up - that may be all you need.
Also, your Java IDE can easily find all declarations and uses of
the AccountRepository type, and will quickly show you the location of @Bean methods
that return that type.

In cases where this ambiguity is not acceptable and you wish to have direct
navigation from within your IDE from one @Configuration class to another, consider
autowiring the configuration classes themselves:

@Configuration
public class ServiceConfig {
private @Autowired RepositoryConfig repositoryConfig;

public @Bean TransferService transferService() {

155
 // navigate 'through' the config class to the @Bean method!
return new TransferServiceImpl(repositoryConfig.accountRepository());
}
}

In the situation above, it is completely explicit where AccountRepository is defined.

However, ServiceConfig is now tightly coupled toRepositoryConfig; that's the
tradeoff. This tight coupling can be somewhat mitigated by using interface-based
or abstract class-based@Configuration classes. Consider the following:

@Configuration
public class ServiceConfig {
private @Autowired RepositoryConfig repositoryConfig;

public @Bean TransferService transferService() {

return new TransferServiceImpl(repositoryConfig.accountRepository());
}
}

@Configuration
public interface RepositoryConfig {
@Bean AccountRepository accountRepository();
}

@Configuration
public class DefaultRepositoryConfig implements RepositoryConfig {
public @Bean AccountRepository accountRepository() {
return new JdbcAccountRepository(...);
}
}

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

Now ServiceConfig is loosely coupled with respect to the

concrete DefaultRepositoryConfig, and built-in IDE tooling is still useful: it will be
easy for the developer to get a type hierarchy of RepositoryConfig implementations.
In this way, navigating @Configuration classes and their dependencies becomes no
different than the usual process of navigating interface-based code.

156
3.11.3.2 Combining Java and XML configuration

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 usingAnnotationConfigApplicationContext 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.
Declaring @Configuration classes as plain Spring <bean/> elements

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 {
private @Autowired DataSource dataSource;

public @Bean AccountRepository accountRepository() {

return new JdbcAccountRepository(dataSource);
}

public @Bean 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"/>

157
 <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.

Using <context:component-scan/> to pick up @Configuration classes

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 class-centric use of XML with  @ImportResource

158
In applications where @Configuration classes are the primary mechanism for
configuring the container, it will still likely be necessary to use at least some XML.
In these scenarios, simply use @ImportResource and define only as much XML as is
needed. Doing so achieves a "Java-centric" approach to configuring the container
and keeps XML to a bare minimum.

@Configuration
@ImportResource("classpath:/com/acme/properties-config.xml")
public class AppConfig {
private @Value("${jdbc.url}") String url;
private @Value("${jdbc.username}") String username;
private @Value("${jdbc.password}") String password;

public @Bean 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);
// ...
}

3.11.4 Using the @Bean annotation

@Bean is a method-level annotation and a direct analog of the XML <bean/> element.

The annotation supports some of the attributes offered by<bean/>, such as: init-
method, destroy-method, autowiring and name.

You can use the @Bean annotation in a @Configuration-annotated or in a @Component-

annotated class.

3.11.4.1 Declaring a bean

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:

159
@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 typeTransferServiceImpl:

transferService -> com.acme.TransferServiceImpl

3.11.4.2 Injecting dependencies

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.

160
3.11.4.3 Receiving lifecycle callbacks

Beans declared in a @Configuration-annotated class support the regular lifecycle

callbacks. Any classes defined with the @Bean annotation 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 anddestroy-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();
}
}

Of course, in the case of Foo above, it would be equally as valid to call

the init() method directly during construction:

161
@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!

3.11.4.4 Specifying bean scope

Using the  @Scope annotation

You can specify that your beans defined with the @Bean annotation should have a
specific scope. You can use any of the standard scopes specified in the Bean
Scopes section.

The default scope is singleton, but you can override this with the @Scope annotation:

@Configuration
public class MyConfiguration {
@Bean
@Scope("prototype")
public Encryptor encryptor() {
// ...
}
}

@Scope and scoped-proxy

Spring offers a convenient way of working with scoped dependencies

through scoped proxies. The easiest way to create such a proxy when using the
XML configuration is the <aop:scoped-proxy/> element. Configuring your beans in
Java with a @Scope annotation offers equivalent support with the proxyMode
attribute. The default is no proxy (ScopedProxyMode.NO), but you can
specify ScopedProxyMode.TARGET_CLASS orScopedProxyMode.INTERFACES.

If you port the scoped proxy example from the XML reference documentation (see
preceding link) to our @Bean using Java, it would look like the following:

162
// an HTTP Session-scoped bean exposed as a proxy
@Bean
@Scope(value = "session", proxyMode = ScopedProxyMode.TARGET_CLASS)
public UserPreferences userPreferences() {
return new UserPreferences();
}

@Bean
public Service userService() {
UserService service = new SimpleUserService();
// a reference to the proxied userPreferences bean
service.setUserPreferences(userPreferences());
return service;
}

Lookup method injection

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;
}

163
@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();
}
}
}

3.11.4.5 Customizing bean naming

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();
}

3.11.4.6 Bean aliasing

As discussed in Section 3.3.1, “Naming beans”, it is sometimes desirable to give a

single bean multiple names, otherwise known as bean 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...
}

3.11.5 Further information about how Java-based configuration works internally

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

164
@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 ofClientDaoImpl 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

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

Beware that, in order for JavaConfig to work, you must include the CGLIB jar in your list of
dependencies.
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

165
3.12 Registering a  LoadTimeWeaver

The context namespace introduced in Spring 2.5 provides a load-time-

weaver element.

<beans>

<context:load-time-weaver/>

</beans>

Adding this element to an XML-based Spring configuration file activates a

Spring LoadTimeWeaver for the ApplicationContext. Any bean within
that ApplicationContext may implement LoadTimeWeaverAware, thereby receiving a
reference to the load-time weaver instance. This is particularly useful in
combination with Spring's JPA support where load-time weaving may be
necessary for JPA class transformation. Consult
theLocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean Javadoc for more detail. For more on
AspectJ load-time weaving, see Section 7.8.4, “Load-time weaving with AspectJ in
the Spring Framework”.

3.13 Additional Capabilities of the  ApplicationContext

As was discussed in the chapter introduction,

the org.springframework.beans.factory package provides basic functionality for
managing and manipulating beans, including in a programmatic way.
The org.springframework.context package adds the ApplicationContext interface,
which extends the BeanFactory interface, in addition to extending other interfaces to
provide additional functionality in a more application framework-oriented style.
Many people use the ApplicationContext in a completely declarative fashion, not
even creating it programmatically, but instead relying on support classes such
as ContextLoader to automatically instantiate an ApplicationContext as part of the
normal startup process of a J2EE web application.

To enhance BeanFactory functionality in a more framework-oriented style the

context package also provides the following functionality:

 Access to messages in i18n-style, through the MessageSource interface.

 Access to resources, such as URLs and files, through
the ResourceLoader interface.

166
  Event publication to beans implementing the ApplicationListener interface,
through the use of the ApplicationEventPublisher interface.

 Loading of multiple (hierarchical) contexts, allowing each to be focused on

one particular layer, such as the web layer of an application, through
the HierarchicalBeanFactory interface.

3.13.1 Internationalization using MessageSource

The ApplicationContext interface extends an interface called MessageSource, and

therefore provides internationalization (i18n) functionality. Spring also provides the
interface HierarchicalMessageSource, which can resolve messages hierarchically.
Together these interfaces provide the foundation upon which Spring effects
message resolution. The methods defined on these interfaces include:

 String getMessage(String code, Object[] args, String default, Locale loc):

The basic method used to retrieve a message from theMessageSource. When
no message is found for the specified locale, the default message is used.
Any arguments passed in become replacement values, using
the MessageFormat functionality provided by the standard library.
 String getMessage(String code, Object[] args, Locale loc): Essentially the
same as the previous method, but with one difference: no default message
can be specified; if the message cannot be found, a NoSuchMessageException is
thrown.

 String getMessage(MessageSourceResolvable resolvable, Locale locale):

All
properties used in the preceding methods are also wrapped in a class
named MessageSourceResolvable, which you can use with this method.

When an ApplicationContext is loaded, it automatically searches for

a MessageSource bean defined in the context. The bean must have the
namemessageSource. If such a bean is found, all calls to the preceding methods are
delegated to the message source. If no message source is found,
theApplicationContext attempts to find a parent containing a bean with the same
name. If it does, it uses that bean as the MessageSource. If
theApplicationContext cannot find any source for messages, an
empty DelegatingMessageSource is instantiated in order to be able to accept calls to
the methods defined above.

Spring provides
two MessageSource implementations, ResourceBundleMessageSource and StaticMessageSo
urce. Both implementHierarchicalMessageSource in order to do nested messaging.

167
The StaticMessageSource is rarely used but provides programmatic ways to add
messages to the source. The ResourceBundleMessageSource is shown in the following
example:

<beans>
<bean id="messageSource"
class="org.springframework.context.support.ResourceBundleMessageSource">
<property name="basenames">
<list>
<value>format</value>
<value>exceptions</value>
<value>windows</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>
</beans>

In the example it is assumed you have three resource bundles defined in your
classpath called format, exceptions and windows. Any request to resolve a message
will be handled in the JDK standard way of resolving messages through
ResourceBundles. For the purposes of the example, assume the contents of two
of the above resource bundle files are...

# in format.properties
message=Alligators rock!
# in exceptions.properties
argument.required=The '{0}' argument is required.

A program to execute the MessageSource functionality is shown in the next example.

Remember that all ApplicationContext implementations are
also MessageSource implementations and so can be cast to
the MessageSource interface.

public static void main(String[] args) {

MessageSource resources = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("beans.xml");
String message = resources.getMessage("message", null, "Default", null);
System.out.println(message);
}

The resulting output from the above program will be...

Alligators rock!

168
So to summarize, the MessageSource is defined in a file called beans.xml, which exists
at the root of your classpath. The messageSource bean definition refers to a number
of resource bundles through its basenames property. The three files that are passed
in the list to the basenames property exist as files at the root of your classpath and
are called format.properties, exceptions.properties,
and windows.properties respectively.

The next example shows arguments passed to the message lookup; these
arguments will be converted into Strings and inserted into placeholders in the
lookup message.

<beans>

<!-- this MessageSource is being used in a web application -->

<bean id="messageSource"
class="org.springframework.context.support.ResourceBundleMessageSource">
<property name="basename" value="test-messages"/>
</bean>

<!-- lets inject the above MessageSource into this POJO -->
<bean id="example" class="com.foo.Example">
<property name="messages" ref="messageSource"/>
</bean>

</beans>
public class Example {

private MessageSource messages;

public void setMessages(MessageSource messages) {

this.messages = messages;
}

public void execute() {

String message = this.messages.getMessage("argument.required",
new Object [] {"userDao"}, "Required", null);
System.out.println(message);
}

The resulting output from the invocation of the execute() method will be...

The userDao argument is required.

With regard to internationalization (i18n), Spring's

various MessageResource implementations follow the same locale resolution and
fallback rules as the standard JDK ResourceBundle. In short, and continuing with the

169
example messageSource defined previously, if you want to resolve messages against
the British (en-GB) locale, you would create files
called format_en_GB.properties, exceptions_en_GB.properties,
andwindows_en_GB.properties respectively.

Typically, locale resolution is managed by the surrounding environment of the

application. In this example, the locale against which (British) messages will be
resolved is specified manually.

# in exceptions_en_GB.properties
argument.required=Ebagum lad, the '{0}' argument is required, I say, required.
public static void main(final String[] args) {
MessageSource resources = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("beans.xml");
String message = resources.getMessage("argument.required",
new Object [] {"userDao"}, "Required", Locale.UK);
System.out.println(message);
}

The resulting output from the running of the above program will be...

Ebagum lad, the 'userDao' argument is required, I say, required.

You can also use the MessageSourceAware interface to acquire a reference to

any MessageSource that has been defined. Any bean that is defined in
an ApplicationContext that implements the MessageSourceAware interface is
injected with the application context's MessageSource when the bean is created and
configured.

Note

As an alternative to  ResourceBundleMessageSource, Spring provides

a  ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource class. This variant supports the same bundle file
format but is more flexible than the standard JDK
basedResourceBundleMessageSource implementation. In particular, it allows for reading files
from any Spring resource location (not just from the classpath) and supports hot reloading of
bundle property files (while efficiently caching them in between). Check out
the ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource javadoc for details.

3.13.2 Standard and Custom Events

Event handling in the ApplicationContext is provided through

the ApplicationEvent class and ApplicationListener interface. If a bean that
implements the ApplicationListener interface is deployed into the context, every

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 time an ApplicationEvent gets published to theApplicationContext, that bean is
notified. Essentially, this is the standard Observer design pattern. Spring provides
the following standard events:

Table 3.6. Built-in Events

Explanation
Published when the ApplicationContext is initialized or refreshed, for example, using the refresh() method on
the ConfigurableApplicationContext interface. "Initialized" here means that all beans are loaded, post-processor
hedEvent
beans are detected and activated, singletons are pre-instantiated, and the ApplicationContextobject is ready for use
long as the context has not been closed, a refresh can be triggered multiple times, provided that the
chosen ApplicationContext actually supports such "hot" refreshes. For
example,XmlWebApplicationContext supports hot refreshes, but GenericApplicationContext does not.
Published when the ApplicationContext is started, using the start() method on
dEvent
theConfigurableApplicationContext interface. "Started" here means that all Lifecycle beans receive an explicit
start signal. Typically this signal is used to restart beans after an explicit stop, but it may also be used to start compon
that have not been configured for autostart , for example, components that have not already started on initialization.
Published when the ApplicationContext is stopped, using the stop() method on
dEvent theConfigurableApplicationContext interface. "Stopped" here means that all Lifecycle beans receive an explici
stop signal. A stopped context may be restarted through a start() call.
Published when the ApplicationContext is closed, using the close() method on
Event theConfigurableApplicationContext interface. "Closed" here means that all singleton beans are destroyed. A clos
context reaches its end of life; it cannot be refreshed or restarted.
dEvent
A web-specific event telling all beans that an HTTP request has been serviced. This event is published after the reque
complete. This event is only applicable to web applications using Spring's DispatcherServlet.

You can also create and publish your own custom events. This example
demonstrates a simple class that extends Spring's ApplicationEvent base class:

public class BlackListEvent extends ApplicationEvent {

private final String address;
private final String test;

public BlackListEvent(Object source, String address, String test) {

super(source);
this.address = address;
this.test = test;
}

// accessor and other methods...

}

To publish a custom ApplicationEvent, call the publishEvent() method on

an ApplicationEventPublisher. Typically this is done by creating a class that

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implements ApplicationEventPublisherAware and registering it as a Spring bean. The
following example demonstrates such a class:

public class EmailService implements ApplicationEventPublisherAware {

private List<String> blackList;

private ApplicationEventPublisher publisher;

public void setBlackList(List<String> blackList) {

this.blackList = blackList;
}

public void setApplicationEventPublisher(ApplicationEventPublisher publisher) {

this.publisher = publisher;
}

public void sendEmail(String address, String text) {

if (blackList.contains(address)) {
BlackListEvent event = new BlackListEvent(this, address, text);
publisher.publishEvent(event);
return;
}
// send email...
}
}

At configuration time, the Spring container will detect

that EmailService implements ApplicationEventPublisherAware and will automatically call
setApplicationEventPublisher(). In reality, the parameter passed in will be the
Spring container itself; you're simply interacting with the application context via
its ApplicationEventPublisher interface.

To receive the custom ApplicationEvent, create a class that

implements ApplicationListener and register it as a Spring bean. The following
example demonstrates such a class:

public class BlackListNotifier implements ApplicationListener<BlackListEvent> {

private String notificationAddress;

public void setNotificationAddress(String notificationAddress) {

this.notificationAddress = notificationAddress;
}

public void onApplicationEvent(BlackListEvent event) {

// notify appropriate parties via notificationAddress...
}
}

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Notice that ApplicationListener is generically parameterized with the type of your
custom event, BlackListEvent. This means that theonApplicationEvent() method can
remain type-safe, avoiding any need for downcasting. You may register as many
event listeners as you wish, but note that by default event listeners receive events
synchronously. This means the publishEvent() method blocks until all listeners
have finished processing the event. One advantage of this synchronous and
single-threaded approach is that when a listener receives an event, it operates
inside the transaction context of the publisher if a transaction context is available.
If another strategy for event publication becomes necessary, refer to the JavaDoc
for Spring's ApplicationEventMulticaster interface.

The following example demonstrates the bean definitions used to register and
configure each of the classes above:

<bean id="emailService" class="example.EmailService">

<property name="blackList">
<list>
<value>black@list.org</value>
<value>white@list.org</value>
<value>john@doe.org</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="blackListNotifier" class="example.BlackListNotifier">

<property name="notificationAddress" value="spam@list.org"/>
</bean>

Putting it all together, when the sendEmail() method of the emailService bean is

called, if there are any emails that should be blacklisted, a custom event of
type BlackListEvent is published. The blackListNotifier bean is registered as
an ApplicationListener and thus receives theBlackListEvent, at which point it can notify
appropriate parties.

Note

Spring's eventing mechanism is designed for simple communication between Spring beans within
the same application context. However, for more sophisticated enterprise integration needs, the
separately-maintained Spring Integration project provides complete support for building
lightweight, pattern-oriented, event-driven architectures that build upon the well-known Spring
programming model.

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3.13.3 Convenient access to low-level resources

For optimal usage and understanding of application contexts, users should

generally familiarize themselves with Spring's Resource abstraction, as described in
the chapter Chapter 4, Resources.

An application context is a ResourceLoader, which can be used to load Resources.

A Resource is essentially a more feature rich version of the JDK class java.net.URL,
in fact, the implementations of the Resource wrap an instance of java.net.URL where
appropriate. A Resource can obtain low-level resources from almost any location in
a transparent fashion, including from the classpath, a filesystem location,
anywhere describable with a standard URL, and some other variations. If the
resource location string is a simple path without any special prefixes, where those
resources come from is specific and appropriate to the actual application context
type.

You can configure a bean deployed into the application context to implement the
special callback interface, ResourceLoaderAware, to be automatically called back at
initialization time with the application context itself passed in as the ResourceLoader.
You can also expose properties of type Resource, to be used to access static
resources; they will be injected into it like any other properties. You can specify
those Resourceproperties as simple String paths, and rely on a special
JavaBean PropertyEditor that is automatically registered by the context, to convert
those text strings to actual Resource objects when the bean is deployed.

The location path or paths supplied to an ApplicationContext constructor are

actually resource strings, and in simple form are treated appropriately to the
specific context implementation. ClassPathXmlApplicationContext treats a simple
location path as a classpath location. You can also use location paths (resource
strings) with special prefixes to force loading of definitions from the classpath or a
URL, regardless of the actual context type.

3.13.4 Convenient ApplicationContext instantiation for web applications

You can create ApplicationContext instances declaratively by using, for example,

a ContextLoader. Of course you can also createApplicationContext instances
programmatically by using one of the ApplicationContext implementations.

The ContextLoader mechanism comes in two flavors: the ContextLoaderListener and

the ContextLoaderServlet. They have the same functionality but differ in that the
listener version is not reliable in Servlet 2.3 containers. In the Servlet 2.4
specification, Servlet context listeners must execute immediately after the Servlet

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context for the web application is created and is available to service the first
request (and also when the Servlet context is about to be shut down). As such a
Servlet context listener is an ideal place to initialize the Spring ApplicationContext.
All things being equal, you should probably prefer ContextLoaderListener; for more
information on compatibility, have a look at the Javadoc for
theContextLoaderServlet.

You can register an ApplicationContext using the ContextLoaderListener as follows:

<context-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/daoContext.xml /WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml</param-value>
</context-param>

<listener>
<listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-
class>
</listener>

<!-- or use the ContextLoaderServlet instead of the above listener

<servlet>
<servlet-name>context</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderServlet</servlet-
class>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
-->

The listener inspects the contextConfigLocation parameter. If the parameter does

not exist, the listener uses /WEB-INF/applicationContext.xmlas a default. When the
parameter does exist, the listener separates the String by using predefined
delimiters (comma, semicolon and whitespace) and uses the values as locations
where application contexts will be searched. Ant-style path patterns are supported
as well. Examples are /WEB-INF/*Context.xml for all files with names ending with
"Context.xml", residing in the "WEB-INF" directory, and /WEB-INF/**/*Context.xml,
for all such files in any subdirectory of "WEB-INF".

You can use ContextLoaderServlet instead of ContextLoaderListener. The Servlet

uses the contextConfigLocation parameter just as the listener does.

3.13.5 Deploying a Spring ApplicationContext as a J2EE RAR file

In Spring 2.5 and later, it is possible to deploy a Spring ApplicationContext as a

RAR file, encapsulating the context and all of its required bean classes and library
JARs in a J2EE RAR deployment unit. This is the equivalent of bootstrapping a
standalone ApplicationContext, just hosted in J2EE environment, being able to

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access the J2EE servers facilities. RAR deployment is a more natural alternative
to scenario of deploying a headless WAR file, in effect, a WAR file without any
HTTP entry points that is used only for bootstrapping a Spring ApplicationContext
in a J2EE environment.

RAR deployment is ideal for application contexts that do not need HTTP entry
points but rather consist only of message endpoints and scheduled jobs. Beans in
such a context can use application server resources such as the JTA transaction
manager and JNDI-bound JDBC DataSources and JMS ConnectionFactory
instances, and may also register with the platform's JMX server - all through
Spring's standard transaction management and JNDI and JMX support facilities.
Application components can also interact with the application server's JCA
WorkManager through Spring'sTaskExecutor abstraction.

Check out the JavaDoc of the SpringContextResourceAdapter class for the

configuration details involved in RAR deployment.

For a simple deployment of a Spring ApplicationContext as a J2EE RAR

file: package all application classes into a RAR file, which is a standard JAR file
with a different file extension. Add all required library JARs into the root of the RAR
archive. Add a "META-INF/ra.xml" deployment descriptor (as shown
in SpringContextResourceAdapters JavaDoc) and the corresponding Spring XML bean
definition file(s) (typically "META-INF/applicationContext.xml"), and drop the resulting RAR file
into your application server's deployment directory.

Note

Such RAR deployment units are usually self-contained; they do not expose components to the
outside world, not even to other modules of the same application. Interaction with a RAR-based
ApplicationContext usually occurs through JMS destinations that it shares with other modules. A
RAR-based ApplicationContext may also, for example, schedule some jobs, reacting to new files
in the file system (or the like). If it needs to allow synchronous access from the outside, it could
for example export RMI endpoints, which of course may be used by other application modules on
the same machine.

3.14 The BeanFactory

The BeanFactory provides the underlying basis for Spring's IoC functionality but it is

only used directly in integration with other third-party frameworks and is now
largely historical in nature for most users of Spring. The BeanFactory and related
interfaces, such as BeanFactoryAware,InitializingBean, DisposableBean, are still
present in Spring for the purposes of backward compatibility with the large number
of third-party frameworks that integrate with Spring. Often third-party components

176
that can not use more modern equivalents such as @PostConstruct or@PreDestroy in
order to remain compatible with JDK 1.4 or to avoid a dependency on JSR-250.

This section provides additional background into the differences between

the BeanFactory and ApplicationContext and how one might access the IoC
container directly through a classic singleton lookup.

3.14.1 BeanFactory or ApplicationContext?

Use an ApplicationContext unless you have a good reason for not doing so.

Because the ApplicationContext includes all functionality of the BeanFactory, it is

generally recommended over the BeanFactory, except for a few situations such as
in an Applet where memory consumption might be critical and a few extra kilobytes
might make a difference. However, for most typical enterprise applications and
systems, the ApplicationContext is what you will want to use. Spring 2.0 and later
makes heavy use of theBeanPostProcessor extension point (to effect proxying and so
on). If you use only a plain BeanFactory, a fair amount of support such as
transactions and AOP will not take effect, at least not without some extra steps on
your part. This situation could be confusing because nothing is actually wrong with
the configuration.

The following table lists features provided by

the BeanFactory and ApplicationContext interfaces and implementations.

Table 3.7. Feature Matrix

Feature BeanFactory ApplicationContext

Bean instantiation/wiring Yes Yes

Automatic BeanPostProcessor registration No Yes

Automatic BeanFactoryPostProcessor registration No Yes

Convenient MessageSource access (for i18n) No Yes

ApplicationEvent publication No Yes

To explicitly register a bean post-processor with a BeanFactory implementation, you

must write code like this:

177
ConfigurableBeanFactory factory = new XmlBeanFactory(...);

// now register any needed BeanPostProcessor instances

MyBeanPostProcessor postProcessor = new MyBeanPostProcessor();
factory.addBeanPostProcessor(postProcessor);

// now start using the factory

To explicitly register a BeanFactoryPostProcessor when using

a BeanFactory implementation, you must write code like this:

XmlBeanFactory factory = new XmlBeanFactory(new FileSystemResource("beans.xml"));

// bring in some property values from a Properties file

PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer cfg = new PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer();
cfg.setLocation(new FileSystemResource("jdbc.properties"));

// now actually do the replacement

cfg.postProcessBeanFactory(factory);

In both cases, the explicit registration step is inconvenient, which is one reason
why the various ApplicationContext implementations are preferred above
plain BeanFactory implementations in the vast majority of Spring-backed
applications, especially when
using BeanFactoryPostProcessorsand BeanPostProcessors. These mechanisms
implement important functionality such as property placeholder replacement and
AOP.

3.14.2 Glue code and the evil singleton

It is best to write most application code in a dependency-injection (DI) style, where

that code is served out of a Spring IoC container, has its own dependencies
supplied by the container when it is created, and is completely unaware of the
container. However, for the small glue layers of code that are sometimes needed
to tie other code together, you sometimes need a singleton (or quasi-singleton)
style access to a Spring IoC container. For example, third-party code may try to
construct new objects directly (Class.forName() style), without the ability to get
these objects out of a Spring IoC container. If the object constructed by the third-
party code is a small stub or proxy, which then uses a singleton style access to a
Spring IoC container to get a real object to delegate to, then inversion of control
has still been achieved for the majority of the code (the object coming out of the
container). Thus most code is still unaware of the container or how it is accessed,
and remains decoupled from other code, with all ensuing benefits. EJBs may also
use this stub/proxy approach to delegate to a plain Java implementation object,

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retrieved from a Spring IoC container. While the Spring IoC container itself ideally
does not have to be a singleton, it may be unrealistic in terms of memory usage or
initialization times (when using beans in the Spring IoC container such as a
Hibernate SessionFactory) for each bean to use its own, non-singleton Spring IoC
container.

Looking up the application context in a service locator style is sometimes the only
option for accessing shared Spring-managed components, such as in an EJB 2.1
environment, or when you want to share a single ApplicationContext as a parent to
WebApplicationContexts across WAR files. In this case you should look into using
the utility class ContextSingletonBeanFactoryLocator locator that is described in
this SpringSource team blog entry.

[1] 
See Background
[2] 
See Section 3.4.1, “Dependency injection”

4. Resources

4.1 Introduction

Java's standard java.net.URL class and standard handlers for various URL prefixes

unfortunately are not quite adequate enough for all access to low-level resources.
For example, there is no standardized URL implementation that may be used to
access a resource that needs to be obtained from the classpath, or relative to
a ServletContext. While it is possible to register new handlers for
specialized URL prefixes (similar to existing handlers for prefixes such as http:), this
is generally quite complicated, and the URL interface still lacks some desirable
functionality, such as a method to check for the existence of the resource being
pointed to.

4.2 The  Resource interface

Spring's Resource interface is meant to be a more capable interface for abstracting

access to low-level resources.

public interface Resource extends InputStreamSource {

boolean exists();

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 boolean isOpen();

URL getURL() throws IOException;

File getFile() throws IOException;

Resource createRelative(String relativePath) throws IOException;

String getFilename();

String getDescription();
}
public interface InputStreamSource {

InputStream getInputStream() throws IOException;

}

Some of the most important methods from the Resource interface are:

 getInputStream(): locates and opens the resource, returning

an InputStream for reading from the resource. It is expected that each
invocation returns a fresh InputStream. It is the responsibility of the caller to
close the stream.
 exists(): returns a boolean indicating whether this resource actually exists in
physical form.

 isOpen(): returns a boolean indicating whether this resource represents a

handle with an open stream. If true, the InputStream cannot be read multiple
times, and must be read once only and then closed to avoid resource leaks.
Will be false for all usual resource implementations, with the exception
of InputStreamResource.

 getDescription():
returns a description for this resource, to be used for error
output when working with the resource. This is often the fully qualified file
name or the actual URL of the resource.

Other methods allow you to obtain an actual URL or File object representing the

resource (if the underlying implementation is compatible, and supports that
functionality).

The Resource abstraction is used extensively in Spring itself, as an argument type

in many method signatures when a resource is needed. Other methods in some
Spring APIs (such as the constructors to
various ApplicationContext implementations), take a String which in unadorned or

180
simple form is used to create a Resource appropriate to that context
implementation, or via special prefixes on the String path, allow the caller to
specify that a specific Resource implementation must be created and used.

While the Resource interface is used a lot with Spring and by Spring, it's actually
very useful to use as a general utility class by itself in your own code, for access to
resources, even when your code doesn't know or care about any other parts of
Spring. While this couples your code to Spring, it really only couples it to this small
set of utility classes, which are serving as a more capable replacement for URL, and
can be considered equivalent to any other library you would use for this purpose.

It is important to note that the Resource abstraction does not replace functionality: it

wraps it where possible. For example, a UrlResource wraps a URL, and uses the
wrapped URL to do its work.

4.3 Built-in  Resource implementations

There are a number of Resource implementations that come supplied straight out of

the box in Spring:

4.3.1 UrlResource

The UrlResource wraps a java.net.URL, and may be used to access any object that

is normally accessible via a URL, such as files, an HTTP target, an FTP target,
etc. All URLs have a standardized String representation, such that appropriate
standardized prefixes are used to indicate one URL type from another. This
includes file: for accessing filesystem paths, http: for accessing resources via the
HTTP protocol, ftp: for accessing resources via FTP, etc.

A UrlResource is created by Java code explicitly using the UrlResource constructor,

but will often be created implicitly when you call an API method which takes
a String argument which is meant to represent a path. For the latter case, a
JavaBeans PropertyEditor will ultimately decide which type of Resource to create. If
the path string contains a few well-known (to it, that is) prefixes such as classpath:,
it will create an appropriate specialized Resource for that prefix. However, if it
doesn't recognize the prefix, it will assume the this is just a standard URL string,
and will create aUrlResource.

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4.3.2 ClassPathResource

This class represents a resource which should be obtained from the classpath.
This uses either the thread context class loader, a given class loader, or a given
class for loading resources.

This Resource implementation supports resolution as java.io.File if the class path

resource resides in the file system, but not for classpath resources which reside in
a jar and have not been expanded (by the servlet engine, or whatever the
environment is) to the filesystem. To address this the
various Resource implementations always support resolution as a java.net.URL.

A ClassPathResource is created by Java code explicitly using

the ClassPathResource constructor, but will often be created implicitly when you call
an API method which takes a String argument which is meant to represent a path.
For the latter case, a JavaBeans PropertyEditor will recognize the special
prefix classpath:on the string path, and create a ClassPathResource in that case.

4.3.3 FileSystemResource

This is a Resource implementation for java.io.File handles. It obviously supports

resolution as a File, and as a URL.

4.3.4 ServletContextResource

This is a Resource implementation for ServletContext resources, interpreting relative

paths within the relevant web application's root directory.

This always supports stream access and URL access, but only
allows java.io.File access when the web application archive is expanded and the
resource is physically on the filesystem. Whether or not it's expanded and on the
filesystem like this, or accessed directly from the JAR or somewhere else like a DB
(it's conceivable) is actually dependent on the Servlet container.

4.3.5 InputStreamResource

A Resource implementation for a given InputStream. This should only be used if no

specific Resource implementation is applicable. In particular,
prefer ByteArrayResource or any of the file-based Resource implementations where
possible.

182
In contrast to other Resource implementations, this is a descriptor for
an already opened resource - therefore returning true from isOpen(). Do not use it
if you need to keep the resource descriptor somewhere, or if you need to read a
stream multiple times.

4.3.6 ByteArrayResource

This is a Resource implementation for a given byte array. It creates

a ByteArrayInputStream for the given byte array.

It's useful for loading content from any given byte array, without having to resort to
a single-use InputStreamResource.

4.4 The  ResourceLoader

The ResourceLoader interface is meant to be implemented by objects that can return

(i.e. load) Resource instances.

public interface ResourceLoader {

Resource getResource(String location);
}

All application contexts implement the ResourceLoader interface, and therefore all

application contexts may be used to obtain Resource instances.

When you call getResource() on a specific application context, and the location path
specified doesn't have a specific prefix, you will get back a Resource type that is
appropriate to that particular application context. For example, assume the
following snippet of code was executed against
aClassPathXmlApplicationContext instance:

Resource template = ctx.getResource("some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt");

What would be returned would be a ClassPathResource; if the same method was

executed against a FileSystemXmlApplicationContext instance, you'd get back
a FileSystemResource. For a WebApplicationContext, you'd get back
a ServletContextResource, and so on.

As such, you can load resources in a fashion appropriate to the particular

application context.

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On the other hand, you may also force ClassPathResource to be used, regardless of
the application context type, by specifying the specialclasspath: prefix:

Resource template =
ctx.getResource("classpath:some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt");

Similarly, one can force a UrlResource to be used by specifying any of the

standard java.net.URL prefixes:

Resource template = ctx.getResource("file:/some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt");

Resource template =
ctx.getResource("http://myhost.com/resource/path/myTemplate.txt");

The following table summarizes the strategy for converting Strings to Resources:

Table 4.1. Resource strings

Prefix Example Explanation

classpath classpath:com/myapp/config.xml
Loaded from the classpath.
:

file: file:/data/config.xml Loaded as a URL, from the filesystem. [1]

http: http://myserver/logo.png Loaded as a URL.

(none) /data/config.xml Depends on the underlying ApplicationContext.

[1] 
But see also Section 4.7.3, “FileSystemResource caveats”.

4.5 The  ResourceLoaderAware interface

The ResourceLoaderAware interface is a special marker interface, identifying objects

that expect to be provided with a ResourceLoader reference.

public interface ResourceLoaderAware {

void setResourceLoader(ResourceLoader resourceLoader);

}

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

Of course, since an ApplicationContext is a ResourceLoader, the bean could also

implement the ApplicationContextAware interface and use the supplied application
context directly to load resources, but in general, it's better to use the
specialized ResourceLoader interface if that's all that's needed. The code would just
be coupled to the resource loading interface, which can be considered a utility
interface, and not the whole SpringApplicationContext interface.

As of Spring 2.5, you can rely upon autowiring of the ResourceLoader as an

alternative to implementing the ResourceLoaderAware interface. The
"traditional" constructor and byType autowiring modes (as described
in Section 3.4.5, “Autowiring collaborators”) are now capable of providing a
dependency of type ResourceLoader for either a constructor argument or setter
method parameter respectively. For more flexibility (including the ability to autowire
fields and multiple parameter methods), consider using the new annotation-based
autowiring features. In that case, theResourceLoader will be autowired into a field,
constructor argument, or method parameter that is expecting
the ResourceLoader type as long as the field, constructor, or method in question
carries the @Autowired annotation. For more information, see Section 3.9.2,
“@Autowired and @Inject”.

4.6  Resources as dependencies

If the bean itself is going to determine and supply the resource path through some
sort of dynamic process, it probably makes sense for the bean to use
the ResourceLoader interface to load resources. Consider as an example the loading
of a template of some sort, where the specific resource that is needed depends on
the role of the user. If the resources are static, it makes sense to eliminate the use
of the ResourceLoader interface completely, and just have the bean expose
the Resource properties it needs, and expect that they will be injected into it.

What makes it trivial to then inject these properties, is that all application contexts
register and use a special JavaBeans PropertyEditor which can
convert String paths to Resource objects. So if myBean has a template property of
type Resource, it can be configured with a simple string for that resource, as follows:

185
<bean id="myBean" class="...">
<property name="template" value="some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt"/>
</bean>

Note that the resource path has no prefix, so because the application context itself
is going to be used as the ResourceLoader, the resource itself will be loaded via
a ClassPathResource, FileSystemResource, or ServletContextResource (as appropriate)
depending on the exact type of the context.

If there is a need to force a specific Resource type to be used, then a prefix may be

used. The following two examples show how to force a ClassPathResource and
a UrlResource (the latter being used to access a filesystem file).

<property name="template" value="classpath:some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt">

<property name="template" value="file:/some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt"/>

4.7 Application contexts and  Resource paths

4.7.1 Constructing application contexts

An application context constructor (for a specific application context type) generally

takes a string or array of strings as the location path(s) of the resource(s) such as
XML files that make up the definition of the context.

When such a location path doesn't have a prefix, the specific Resource type built
from that path and used to load the bean definitions, depends on and is
appropriate to the specific application context. For example, if you create
a ClassPathXmlApplicationContext as follows:

ApplicationContext ctx = new

ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("conf/appContext.xml");

The bean definitions will be loaded from the classpath, as a ClassPathResource will

be used. But if you create aFileSystemXmlApplicationContext as follows:

ApplicationContext ctx =
new FileSystemXmlApplicationContext("conf/appContext.xml");

The bean definition will be loaded from a filesystem location, in this case relative to
the current working directory.

186
Note that the use of the special classpath prefix or a standard URL prefix on the
location path will override the default type of Resource created to load the definition.
So this FileSystemXmlApplicationContext...

ApplicationContext ctx =
new FileSystemXmlApplicationContext("classpath:conf/appContext.xml");

... will actually load its bean definitions from the classpath. However, it is still
a FileSystemXmlApplicationContext. If it is subsequently used as a ResourceLoader,
any unprefixed paths will still be treated as filesystem paths.

4.7.1.1 Constructing ClassPathXmlApplicationContext instances - shortcuts

The ClassPathXmlApplicationContext exposes a number of constructors to enable

convenient instantiation. The basic idea is that one supplies merely a string array
containing just the filenames of the XML files themselves (without the leading path
information), and one also supplies a Class; the ClassPathXmlApplicationContext will
derive the path information from the supplied class.

An example will hopefully make this clear. Consider a directory layout that looks
like this:

com/
foo/
services.xml
daos.xml
MessengerService.class

A ClassPathXmlApplicationContext instance composed of the beans defined in

the 'services.xml' and 'daos.xml' could be instantiated like so...

ApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(

new String[] {"services.xml", "daos.xml"}, MessengerService.class);

Please do consult the Javadocs for the ClassPathXmlApplicationContext class for

details of the various constructors.

4.7.2 Wildcards in application context constructor resource paths

The resource paths in application context constructor values may be a simple path
(as shown above) which has a one-to-one mapping to a target Resource, or
alternately may contain the special "classpath*:" prefix and/or internal Ant-style

187
regular expressions (matched using Spring'sPathMatcher utility). Both of the latter
are effectively wildcards

One use for this mechanism is when doing component-style application assembly.
All components can 'publish' context definition fragments to a well-known location
path, and when the final application context is created using the same path
prefixed via classpath*:, all component fragments will be picked up automatically.

Note that this wildcarding is specific to use of resource paths in application context
constructors (or when using the PathMatcher utility class hierarchy directly), and is
resolved at construction time. It has nothing to do with the Resource type itself. It's
not possible to use the classpath*:prefix to construct an actual Resource, as a
resource points to just one resource at a time.

4.7.2.1 Ant-style Patterns

When the path location contains an Ant-style pattern, for example:

/WEB-INF/*-context.xml
com/mycompany/**/applicationContext.xml
file:C:/some/path/*-context.xml
classpath:com/mycompany/**/applicationContext.xml

... the resolver follows a more complex but defined procedure to try to resolve the
wildcard. It produces a Resource for the path up to the last non-wildcard segment
and obtains a URL from it. If this URL is not a "jar:" URL or container-specific
variant (e.g. "zip:" in WebLogic, "wsjar" in WebSphere, etc.), then a java.io.File is
obtained from it and used to resolve the wildcard by traversing the filesystem. In
the case of a jar URL, the resolver either gets a java.net.JarURLConnection from it or
manually parses the jar URL and then traverses the contents of the jar file to
resolve the wildcards.

Implications on portability

If the specified path is already a file URL (either explicitly, or implicitly because the
base ResourceLoader is a filesystem one, then wildcarding is guaranteed to work in
a completely portable fashion.

If the specified path is a classpath location, then the resolver must obtain the last
non-wildcard path segment URL via aClassloader.getResource() call. Since this is
just a node of the path (not the file at the end) it is actually undefined (in
the ClassLoader Javadocs) exactly what sort of a URL is returned in this case. In

188
practice, it is always a java.io.File representing the directory, where the classpath
resource resolves to a filesystem location, or a jar URL of some sort, where the
classpath resource resolves to a jar location. Still, there is a portability concern on
this operation.

If a jar URL is obtained for the last non-wildcard segment, the resolver must be
able to get a java.net.JarURLConnection from it, or manually parse the jar URL, to be
able to walk the contents of the jar, and resolve the wildcard. This will work in most
environments, but will fail in others, and it is strongly recommended that the
wildcard resolution of resources coming from jars be thoroughly tested in your
specific environment before you rely on it.

4.7.2.2 The classpath*: prefix

When constructing an XML-based application context, a location string may use

the special classpath*: prefix:

ApplicationContext ctx =
new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("classpath*:conf/appContext.xml");

This special prefix specifies that all classpath resources that match the given name
must be obtained (internally, this essentially happens via
aClassLoader.getResources(...) call), and then merged to form the final application context
definition.

Classpath*: portability

The wildcard classpath relies on the getResources() method of the underlying classloader. As

most application servers nowadays supply their own classloader implementation, the behavior
might differ especially when dealing with jar files. A simple test to check if classpath* works is
to use the classloader to load a file from within a jar on the
classpath:getClass().getClassLoader().getResources("<someFileInsideTheJar>"). Try
this test with files that have the same name but are placed inside two different locations. In case
an inappropriate result is returned, check the application server documentation for settings that
might affect the classloader behavior.

The "classpath*:" prefix can also be combined with a PathMatcher pattern in the rest
of the location path, for example "classpath*:META-INF/*-beans.xml". In this case, the
resolution strategy is fairly simple: a ClassLoader.getResources() call is used on
the last non-wildcard path segment to get all the matching resources in the class
loader hierarchy, and then off each resource the same PathMatcher resoltion
strategy described above is used for the wildcard subpath.

189
4.7.2.3 Other notes relating to wildcards

Please note that "classpath*:" when combined with Ant-style patterns will only
work reliably with at least one root directory before the pattern starts, unless the
actual target files reside in the file system. This means that a pattern like
"classpath*:*.xml" will not retrieve files from the root of jar files but rather only from
the root of expanded directories. This originates from a limitation in the
JDK's ClassLoader.getResources() method which only returns file system locations
for a passed-in empty string (indicating potential roots to search).

Ant-style patterns with "classpath:" resources are not guaranteed to find matching
resources if the root package to search is available in multiple class path locations.
This is because a resource such as

com/mycompany/package1/service-context.xml

may be in only one location, but when a path such as

classpath:com/mycompany/**/service-context.xml

is used to try to resolve it, the resolver will work off the (first) URL returned
by getResource("com/mycompany");. If this base package node exists in multiple
classloader locations, the actual end resource may not be underneath. Therefore,
preferably, use "classpath*:" with the same Ant-style pattern in such a case, which
will search all class path locations that contain the root package.

4.7.3 FileSystemResource caveats

A FileSystemResource that is not attached to a FileSystemApplicationContext (that is,

a FileSystemApplicationContext is not the actualResourceLoader) will treat absolute
vs. relative paths as you would expect. Relative paths are relative to the current
working directory, while absolute paths are relative to the root of the filesystem.

For backwards compatibility (historical) reasons however, this changes when

the FileSystemApplicationContext is the ResourceLoader.
TheFileSystemApplicationContext simply forces all
attached FileSystemResource instances to treat all location paths as relative,
whether they start with a leading slash or not. In practice, this means the following
are equivalent:

190
ApplicationContext ctx =
new FileSystemXmlApplicationContext("conf/context.xml");
ApplicationContext ctx =
new FileSystemXmlApplicationContext("/conf/context.xml");

As are the following: (Even though it would make sense for them to be different, as
one case is relative and the other absolute.)

FileSystemXmlApplicationContext ctx = ...;

ctx.getResource("some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt");
FileSystemXmlApplicationContext ctx = ...;
ctx.getResource("/some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt");

In practice, if true absolute filesystem paths are needed, it is better to forgo the use
of absolute paths with FileSystemResource /FileSystemXmlApplicationContext, and just
force the use of a UrlResource, by using the file: URL prefix.

// actual context type doesn't matter, the Resource will always be UrlResource
ctx.getResource("file:/some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt");
// force this FileSystemXmlApplicationContext to load its definition via a
UrlResource
ApplicationContext ctx =
new FileSystemXmlApplicationContext("file:/conf/context.xml");

5. Validation, Data Binding, and Type Conversion

5.1 Introduction

There are pros and cons for considering validation as business logic, and Spring
offers a design for validation (and data binding) that does not exclude either one of
them. Specifically validation should not be tied to the web tier, should be easy to
localize and it should be possible to plug in any validator available. Considering
the above, Spring has come up with a Validator interface that is both basic ands
eminently usable in every layer of an application.

Data binding is useful for allowing user input to be dynamically bound to the
domain model of an application (or whatever objects you use to process user
input). Spring provides the so-called DataBinder to do exactly that.
The Validator and the DataBinder make up the validationpackage, which is
primarily used in but not limited to the MVC framework.

The BeanWrapper is a fundamental concept in the Spring Framework and is used in

a lot of places. However, you probably will not have the need to use

191
the BeanWrapper directly. Because this is reference documentation however, we felt
that some explanation might be in order. We will explain theBeanWrapper in this
chapter since, if you were going to use it at all, you would most likely do so when
trying to bind data to objects.

Spring's DataBinder and the lower-level BeanWrapper both use PropertyEditors to

parse and format property values. The PropertyEditor concept is part of the
JavaBeans specification, and is also explained in this chapter. Spring 3 introduces
a "core.convert" package that provides a general type conversion facility, as well
as a higher-level "format" package for formatting UI field values. These new
packages may be used as simpler alternatives to PropertyEditors, and will also be
discussed in this chapter.

5.2 Validation using Spring's  Validator interface

Spring features a Validator interface that you can use to validate objects.

The Validator interface works using an Errors object so that while validating,
validators can report validation failures to the Errors object.

Let's consider a small data object:

public class Person {

private String name;

private int age;

// the usual getters and setters...

}

We're going to provide validation behavior for the Person class by implementing the

following two methods of theorg.springframework.validation.Validator interface:

 supports(Class) -Can this Validator validate instances of the supplied Class?

 validate(Object, org.springframework.validation.Errors) - validates the given
object and in case of validation errors, registers those with the
given Errors object

Implementing a Validator is fairly straightforward, especially when you know of

the ValidationUtils helper class that the Spring Framework also provides.

public class PersonValidator implements Validator {

/**

192
 * This Validator validates just Person instances
*/
public boolean supports(Class clazz) {
return Person.class.equals(clazz);
}

public void validate(Object obj, Errors e) {

ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmpty(e, "name", "name.empty");
Person p = (Person) obj;
if (p.getAge() < 0) {
e.rejectValue("age", "negativevalue");
} else if (p.getAge() > 110) {
e.rejectValue("age", "too.darn.old");
}
}
}

As you can see, the static rejectIfEmpty(..) method on the ValidationUtils class

is used to reject the 'name' property if it is null or the empty string. Have a look at
the Javadoc for the ValidationUtils class to see what functionality it provides
besides the example shown previously.

While it is certainly possible to implement a single Validator class to validate each

of the nested objects in a rich object, it may be better to encapsulate the validation
logic for each nested class of object in its own Validator implementation. A simple
example of a 'rich' object would be aCustomer that is composed of
two String properties (a first and second name) and a
complex Address object. Address objects may be used independently
of Customer objects, and so a distinct AddressValidator has been implemented. If
you want your CustomerValidator to reuse the logic contained within
the AddressValidator class without resorting to copy-and-paste, you can
dependency-inject or instantiate anAddressValidator within your CustomerValidator,
and use it like so:

public class CustomerValidator implements Validator {

private final Validator addressValidator;

public CustomerValidator(Validator addressValidator) {

if (addressValidator == null) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException(
"The supplied [Validator] is required and must not be null.");
}
if (!addressValidator.supports(Address.class)) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException(
"The supplied [Validator] must support the validation of [Address]
instances.");

193
 }
this.addressValidator = addressValidator;
}

/**
* This Validator validates Customer instances, and any subclasses of Customer
too
*/
public boolean supports(Class clazz) {
return Customer.class.isAssignableFrom(clazz);
}

public void validate(Object target, Errors errors) {

ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmptyOrWhitespace(errors, "firstName",
"field.required");
ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmptyOrWhitespace(errors, "surname",
"field.required");
Customer customer = (Customer) target;
try {
errors.pushNestedPath("address");
ValidationUtils.invokeValidator(this.addressValidator,
customer.getAddress(), errors);
} finally {
errors.popNestedPath();
}
}
}

Validation errors are reported to the Errors object passed to the validator. In case

of Spring Web MVC you can use <spring:bind/> tag to inspect the error messages,
but of course you can also inspect the errors object yourself. More information
about the methods it offers can be found from the Javadoc.

5.3 Resolving codes to error messages

We've talked about databinding and validation. Outputting messages

corresponding to validation errors is the last thing we need to discuss. In the
example we've shown above, we rejected the name and the age field. If we're going
to output the error messages by using a MessageSource, we will do so using the error
code we've given when rejecting the field ('name' and 'age' in this case). When you
call (either directly, or indirectly, using for example
the ValidationUtils class) rejectValue or one of the other reject methods from
the Errors interface, the underlying implementation will not only register the code
you've passed in, but also a number of additional error codes. What error codes it
registers is determined by theMessageCodesResolver that is used. By default,
the DefaultMessageCodesResolver is used, which for example not only registers a
message with the code you gave, but also messages that include the field name
you passed to the reject method. So in case you reject a field

194
usingrejectValue("age", "too.darn.old"), apart from the too.darn.old code, Spring
will also register too.darn.old.age and too.darn.old.age.int(so the first will include
the field name and the second will include the type of the field); this is done as a
convenience to aid developers in targeting error messages and suchlike.

More information on the MessageCodesResolver and the default strategy can be found

online with the Javadocs
for MessageCodesResolver andDefaultMessageCodesResolver respectively.

5.4 Bean manipulation and the  BeanWrapper

The org.springframework.beans package adheres to the JavaBeans standard

provided by Sun. A JavaBean is simply a class with a default no-argument
constructor, which follows a naming convention where (by way of an example) a
property named bingoMadness would have a setter method setBingoMadness(..) and
a getter method getBingoMadness(). For more information about JavaBeans and the
specification, please refer to Sun's website ( java.sun.com/products/javabeans).

One quite important class in the beans package is the BeanWrapper interface and its
corresponding implementation (BeanWrapperImpl). As quoted from the Javadoc,
the BeanWrapper offers functionality to set and get property values (individually or in
bulk), get property descriptors, and to query properties to determine if they are
readable or writable. Also, the BeanWrapper offers support for nested properties,
enabling the setting of properties on sub-properties to an unlimited depth. Then,
the BeanWrapper supports the ability to add standard
JavaBeansPropertyChangeListeners and VetoableChangeListeners, without the need
for supporting code in the target class. Last but not least, the BeanWrapper provides
support for the setting of indexed properties. The BeanWrapper usually isn't used by
application code directly, but by theDataBinder and the BeanFactory.

The way the BeanWrapper works is partly indicated by its name: it wraps a bean to

perform actions on that bean, like setting and retrieving properties.

5.4.1 Setting and getting basic and nested properties

Setting and getting properties is done using

the setPropertyValue(s) and getPropertyValue(s) methods that both come with a
couple of overloaded variants. They're all described in more detail in the Javadoc
Spring comes with. What's important to know is that there are a couple of
conventions for indicating properties of an object. A couple of examples:

Table 5.1. Examples of properties

195
on Explanation
Indicates the property name corresponding to the methods getName() or isName() and setName(..)
Indicates the nested property name of the property account corresponding e.g. to the
methodsgetAccount().setName() or getAccount().getName()
Indicates the third element of the indexed property account. Indexed properties can be of type array, list or
other naturally ordered collection
NYNAME] Indicates the value of the map entry indexed by the key COMPANYNAME of the Map property account

Below you'll find some examples of working with the BeanWrapper to get and set
properties.

(This next section is not vitally important to you if you're not planning to work with
the  BeanWrapper directly. If you're just using the  DataBinderand the  BeanFactory and
their out-of-the-box implementation, you should skip ahead to the section
about  PropertyEditors.)

Consider the following two classes:

public class Company {

private String name;
private Employee managingDirector;

public String getName() {

return this.name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public Employee getManagingDirector() {
return this.managingDirector;
}
public void setManagingDirector(Employee managingDirector) {
this.managingDirector = managingDirector;
}
}
public class Employee {
private String name;
private float salary;

public String getName() {

return this.name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public float getSalary() {
return salary;

196
 }
public void setSalary(float salary) {
this.salary = salary;
}
}

The following code snippets show some examples of how to retrieve and
manipulate some of the properties of instantiated Companies andEmployees:

BeanWrapper company = BeanWrapperImpl(new Company());

// setting the company name..
company.setPropertyValue("name", "Some Company Inc.");
// ... can also be done like this:
PropertyValue value = new PropertyValue("name", "Some Company Inc.");
company.setPropertyValue(value);

// ok, let's create the director and tie it to the company:

BeanWrapper jim = BeanWrapperImpl(new Employee());
jim.setPropertyValue("name", "Jim Stravinsky");
company.setPropertyValue("managingDirector", jim.getWrappedInstance());

// retrieving the salary of the managingDirector through the company

Float salary = (Float) company.getPropertyValue("managingDirector.salary");

5.4.2 Built-in PropertyEditor implementations

Spring uses the concept of PropertyEditors to effect the conversion between

an Object and a String. If you think about it, it sometimes might be handy to be
able to represent properties in a different way than the object itself. For example,
a Date can be represented in a human readable way (as the String '2007-14-09'),
while we're still able to convert the human readable form back to the original date
(or even better: convert any date entered in a human readable form, back
to Date objects). This behavior can be achieved by registering custom editors, of
typejava.beans.PropertyEditor. Registering custom editors on a BeanWrapper or
alternately in a specific IoC container as mentioned in the previous chapter, gives
it the knowledge of how to convert properties to the desired type. Read more
about PropertyEditors in the Javadoc of thejava.beans package provided by Sun.

A couple of examples where property editing is used in Spring:

 setting properties on beans is done using PropertyEditors. When

mentioning java.lang.String as the value of a property of some bean you're
declaring in XML file, Spring will (if the setter of the corresponding property
has a Class-parameter) use the ClassEditor to try to resolve the parameter to
a Class object.

197
  parsing HTTP request parameters in Spring's MVC framework is done using
all kinds of PropertyEditors that you can manually bind in all subclasses of
the CommandController.

Spring has a number of built-in PropertyEditors to make life easy. Each of those is

listed below and they are all located in
theorg.springframework.beans.propertyeditors package. Most, but not all (as
indicated below), are registered by default by BeanWrapperImpl. Where the property
editor is configurable in some fashion, you can of course still register your own
variant to override the default one:

Table 5.2. Built-in PropertyEditors

s Explanation
ertyEditor
Editor for byte arrays. Strings will simply be converted to their corresponding byte representations. Registered by
default by BeanWrapperImpl.
Parses Strings representing classes to actual classes and the other way around. When a class is not found,
an IllegalArgumentException is thrown. Registered by default by BeanWrapperImpl.
Editor
Customizable property editor for Boolean properties. Registered by default by BeanWrapperImpl, but, can be
overridden by registering custom instance of it as custom editor.
ionEditor Property editor for Collections, converting any source Collection to a given target Collection type.

tor
Customizable property editor for java.util.Date, supporting a custom DateFormat. NOT registered by default. Must
user registered as needed with appropriate format.
ditor
Customizable property editor for any Number subclass like Integer, Long, Float, Double. Registered by default
by BeanWrapperImpl, but can be overridden by registering custom instance of it as a custom editor.
Capable of resolving Strings to java.io.File objects. Registered by default by BeanWrapperImpl.
One-way property editor, capable of taking a text string and producing (via an
itor
intermediate ResourceEditorand Resource) an InputStream, so InputStream properties may be directly set as
Strings. Note that the default usage will not close the InputStream for you! Registered by default
by BeanWrapperImpl.
Capable of resolving Strings to Locale objects and vice versa (the String format is [language]_[country]_[variant],
which is the same thing the toString() method of Locale provides). Registered by default by BeanWrapperImpl.
Capable of resolving Strings to JDK 1.5 Pattern objects and vice versa.
tor
Capable of converting Strings (formatted using the format as defined in the Javadoc for the java.lang.Properties cla
to Properties objects. Registered by default by BeanWrapperImpl.
Editor
Property editor that trims Strings. Optionally allows transforming an empty string into a null value. NOT registere
by default; must be user registered as needed.
Capable of resolving a String representation of a URL to an actual URL object. Registered by default
byBeanWrapperImpl.

198
Spring uses the java.beans.PropertyEditorManager to set the search path for
property editors that might be needed. The search path also
includes sun.bean.editors, which includes PropertyEditor implementations for types
such as Font, Color, and most of the primitive types. Note also that the standard
JavaBeans infrastructure will automatically discover PropertyEditor classes
(without you having to register them explicitly) if they are in the same package as
the class they handle, and have the same name as that class,
with 'Editor' appended; for example, one could have the following class and
package structure, which would be sufficient for the FooEditor class to be
recognized and used as the PropertyEditorfor Foo-typed properties.

com
chank
pop
Foo
FooEditor // the PropertyEditor for the Foo class

Note that you can also use the standard BeanInfo JavaBeans mechanism here as
well (described in not-amazing-detail here). Find below an example of using
the BeanInfo mechanism for explicitly registering one or
more PropertyEditor instances with the properties of an associated class.

com
chank
pop
Foo
FooBeanInfo // the BeanInfo for the Foo class

Here is the Java source code for the referenced FooBeanInfo class. This would
associate a CustomNumberEditor with the age property of the Fooclass.

public class FooBeanInfo extends SimpleBeanInfo {

public PropertyDescriptor[] getPropertyDescriptors() {

try {
final PropertyEditor numberPE = new CustomNumberEditor(Integer.class,
true);
PropertyDescriptor ageDescriptor = new PropertyDescriptor("age",
Foo.class) {
public PropertyEditor createPropertyEditor(Object bean) {
return numberPE;
};
};
return new PropertyDescriptor[] { ageDescriptor };
}

199
 catch (IntrospectionException ex) {
throw new Error(ex.toString());
}
}
}

5.4.2.1 Registering additional custom PropertyEditors

When setting bean properties as a string value, a Spring IoC container ultimately
uses standard JavaBeans PropertyEditors to convert these Strings to the complex
type of the property. Spring pre-registers a number of custom PropertyEditors (for
example, to convert a classname expressed as a string into a real Class object).
Additionally, Java's standard JavaBeans PropertyEditor lookup mechanism allows
aPropertyEditor for a class simply to be named appropriately and placed in the
same package as the class it provides support for, to be found automatically.

If there is a need to register other custom PropertyEditors, there are several

mechanisms available. The most manual approach, which is not normally
convenient or recommended, is to simply use the registerCustomEditor() method of
the ConfigurableBeanFactory interface, assuming you have a BeanFactory reference.
Another, slightly more convenient, mechanism is to use a special bean factory
post-processor calledCustomEditorConfigurer. Although bean factory post-
processors can be used with BeanFactory implementations,
the CustomEditorConfigurerhas a nested property setup, so it is strongly
recommended that it is used with the ApplicationContext, where it may be deployed
in similar fashion to any other bean, and automatically detected and applied.

Note that all bean factories and application contexts automatically use a number of
built-in property editors, through their use of something called aBeanWrapper to
handle property conversions. The standard property editors that
the BeanWrapper registers are listed in the previous section.
Additionally, ApplicationContexts also override or add an additional number of
editors to handle resource lookups in a manner appropriate to the specific
application context type.

Standard JavaBeans PropertyEditor instances are used to convert property values

expressed as strings to the actual complex type of the
property. CustomEditorConfigurer, a bean factory post-processor, may be used to
conveniently add support for additional PropertyEditorinstances to
an ApplicationContext.

200
Consider a user class ExoticType, and another class DependsOnExoticType which
needs ExoticType set as a property:

package example;

public class ExoticType {

private String name;

public ExoticType(String name) {

this.name = name;
}
}

public class DependsOnExoticType {

private ExoticType type;

public void setType(ExoticType type) {

this.type = type;
}
}

When things are properly set up, we want to be able to assign the type property as
a string, which a PropertyEditor will behind the scenes convert into an
actual ExoticType instance:

<bean id="sample" class="example.DependsOnExoticType">

<property name="type" value="aNameForExoticType"/>
</bean>

The PropertyEditor implementation could look similar to this:

// converts string representation to ExoticType object

package example;

public class ExoticTypeEditor extends PropertyEditorSupport {

public void setAsText(String text) {

setValue(new ExoticType(text.toUpperCase()));
}
}

Finally, we use CustomEditorConfigurer to register the new PropertyEditor with

the ApplicationContext, which will then be able to use it as needed:

201
<bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.CustomEditorConfigurer">
<property name="customEditors">
<map>
<entry key="example.ExoticType" value="example.ExoticTypeEditor"/>
</map>
</property>
</bean>

Using  PropertyEditorRegistrars

Another mechanism for registering property editors with the Spring container is to
create and use a PropertyEditorRegistrar. This interface is particularly useful when
you need to use the same set of property editors in several different situations:
write a corresponding registrar and reuse that in each
case. PropertyEditorRegistrars work in conjunction with an interface
called PropertyEditorRegistry, an interface that is implemented by the
Spring BeanWrapper (and DataBinder). PropertyEditorRegistrars are particularly
convenient when used in conjunction with
the CustomEditorConfigurer (introduced here), which exposes a property
called setPropertyEditorRegistrars(..): PropertyEditorRegistrarsadded to
a CustomEditorConfigurer in this fashion can easily be shared with DataBinder and
Spring MVC Controllers. Furthermore, it avoids the need for synchronization on
custom editors: a PropertyEditorRegistrar is expected to create
fresh PropertyEditor instances for each bean creation attempt.

Using a PropertyEditorRegistrar is perhaps best illustrated with an example. First

off, you need to create your own PropertyEditorRegistrarimplementation:

package com.foo.editors.spring;

public final class CustomPropertyEditorRegistrar implements

PropertyEditorRegistrar {

public void registerCustomEditors(PropertyEditorRegistry registry) {

// it is expected that new PropertyEditor instances are created

registry.registerCustomEditor(ExoticType.class, new ExoticTypeEditor());

// you could register as many custom property editors as are required

here...
}
}

See also the org.springframework.beans.support.ResourceEditorRegistrar for an

example PropertyEditorRegistrar implementation. Notice how in its implementation

202
of the registerCustomEditors(..) method it creates new instances of each property
editor.

Next we configure a CustomEditorConfigurer and inject an instance of

our CustomPropertyEditorRegistrar into it:

<bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.CustomEditorConfigurer">
<property name="propertyEditorRegistrars">
<list>
<ref bean="customPropertyEditorRegistrar"/>
</list>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="customPropertyEditorRegistrar"
class="com.foo.editors.spring.CustomPropertyEditorRegistrar"/>

Finally, and in a bit of a departure from the focus of this chapter, for those of you
using Spring's MVC web framework, usingPropertyEditorRegistrars in conjunction
with data-binding Controllers (such as SimpleFormController) can be very
convenient. Find below an example of using a PropertyEditorRegistrar in the
implementation of an initBinder(..) method:

public final class RegisterUserController extends SimpleFormController {

private final PropertyEditorRegistrar customPropertyEditorRegistrar;

public RegisterUserController(PropertyEditorRegistrar propertyEditorRegistrar)

{
this.customPropertyEditorRegistrar = propertyEditorRegistrar;
}

protected void initBinder(HttpServletRequest request, ServletRequestDataBinder

binder)
throws Exception {
this.customPropertyEditorRegistrar.registerCustomEditors(binder);
}

// other methods to do with registering a User

}

This style of PropertyEditor registration can lead to concise code (the

implementation of initBinder(..) is just one line long!), and allows
common PropertyEditor registration code to be encapsulated in a class and then
shared amongst as many Controllers as needed.

203
5.5 Spring 3 Type Conversion

Spring 3 introduces a core.convert package that provides a general type

conversion system. The system defines an SPI to implement type conversion
logic, as well as an API to execute type conversions at runtime. Within a Spring
container, this system can be used as an alternative to PropertyEditors to convert
externalized bean property value strings to required property types. The public API
may also be used anywhere in your application where type conversion is needed.

5.5.1 Converter SPI

The SPI to implement type conversion logic is simple and strongly typed:

package org.springframework.core.convert.converter;

public interface Converter<S, T> {

T convert(S source);

To create your own Converter, simply implement the interface above.

Parameterize S as the type you are converting from, and T as the type you are
converting to. For each call to convert(S), the source argument is guaranteed to be
NOT null. Your Converter may throw any Exception if conversion fails. An
IllegalArgumentException should be thrown to report an invalid source value. Take
care to ensure your Converter implementation is thread-safe.

Several converter implementations are provided in

the core.convert.support package as a convenience. These include converters
from Strings to Numbers and other common types. Consider StringToInteger as an
example Converter implementation:

package org.springframework.core.convert.support;

final class StringToInteger implements Converter<String, Integer> {

public Integer convert(String source) {

return Integer.valueOf(source);
}

204
5.5.2 ConverterFactory

When you need to centralize the conversion logic for an entire class hierarchy, for
example, when converting from String to java.lang.Enum objects,
implement ConverterFactory:

package org.springframework.core.convert.converter;

public interface ConverterFactory<S, R> {

<T extends R> Converter<S, T> getConverter(Class<T> targetType);

Parameterize S to be the type you are converting from and R to be the base type
defining the range of classes you can convert to. Then implement
getConverter(Class<T>), where T is a subclass of R.

Consider the StringToEnum ConverterFactory as an example:

package org.springframework.core.convert.support;

final class StringToEnumConverterFactory implements ConverterFactory<String, Enum>

{

public <T extends Enum> Converter<String, T> getConverter(Class<T> targetType)

{
return new StringToEnumConverter(targetType);
}

private final class StringToEnumConverter<T extends Enum> implements

Converter<String, T> {

private Class<T> enumType;

public StringToEnumConverter(Class<T> enumType) {

this.enumType = enumType;
}

public T convert(String source) {

return (T) Enum.valueOf(this.enumType, source.trim());
}
}
}

205
5.5.3 GenericConverter

When you require a sophisticated Converter implementation, consider the

GenericConverter interface. With a more flexible but less strongly typed signature,
a GenericConverter supports converting between multiple source and target types.
In addition, a GenericConverter makes available source and target field context
you can use when implementing your conversion logic. Such context allows a type
conversion to be driven by a field annotation, or generic information declared on a
field signature.

package org.springframework.core.convert.converter;

public interface GenericConverter {

public Set<ConvertiblePair> getConvertibleTypes();

Object convert(Object source, TypeDescriptor sourceType, TypeDescriptor

targetType);

To implement a GenericConverter, have getConvertibleTypes() return the

supported source->target type pairs. Then implement convert(Object,
TypeDescriptor, TypeDescriptor) to implement your conversion logic. The source
TypeDescriptor provides access to the source field holding the value being
converted. The target TypeDescriptor provides access to the target field where the
converted value will be set.

A good example of a GenericConverter is a converter that converts between a Java Array and a
Collection. Such an ArrayToCollectionConverter introspects the field that declares the target
Collection type to resolve the Collection's element type. This allows each element in the source array
to be converted to the Collection element type before the Collection is set on the target field.

Note

Because GenericConverter is a more complex SPI interface, only use it when you need it. Favor
Converter or ConverterFactory for basic type conversion needs.

5.5.3.1 ConditionalGenericConverter

Sometimes you only want a Converter to execute if a specific condition holds true.
For example, you might only want to execute a Converter if a specific annotation is
present on the target field. Or you might only want to execute a Converter if a
specific method, such as static valueOf method, is defined on the target class.

206
ConditionalGenericConverter is an subinterface of GenericConverter that allows
you to define such custom matching criteria:

public interface ConditionalGenericConverter extends GenericConverter {

boolean matches(TypeDescriptor sourceType, TypeDescriptor targetType);

A good example of a ConditionalGenericConverter is an EntityConverter that

converts between an persistent entity identifier and an entity reference. Such a
EntityConverter might only match if the target entity type declares a static finder
method e.g. findAccount(Long). You would perform such a finder method check in
the implementation of matches(TypeDescriptor, TypeDescriptor).

5.5.4 ConversionService API

The ConversionService defines a unified API for executing type conversion logic at
runtime. Converters are often executed behind this facade interface:

package org.springframework.core.convert;

public interface ConversionService {

boolean canConvert(Class<?> sourceType, Class<?> targetType);

<T> T convert(Object source, Class<T> targetType);

boolean canConvert(TypeDescriptor sourceType, TypeDescriptor targetType);

Object convert(Object source, TypeDescriptor sourceType, TypeDescriptor

targetType);

Most ConversionService implementations also implement ConverterRegistry,

which provides an SPI for registering converters. Internally, a ConversionService
implementation delegates to its registered converters to carry out type conversion
logic.

A robust ConversionService implementation is provided in

the core.convert.support package. GenericConversionService is the general-purpose
implementation suitable for use in most
environments. ConversionServiceFactory provides a convenient factory for creating
common ConversionService configurations.

207
5.5.5 Configuring a ConversionService

A ConversionService is a stateless object designed to be instantiated at application startup, then shared

between multiple threads. In a Spring application, you typically configure a ConversionService
instance per Spring container (or ApplicationContext). That ConversionService will be picked up by
Spring and then used whenever a type conversion needs to be performed by the framework. You may
also inject this ConversionService into any of your beans and invoke it directly.

Note

If no ConversionService is registered with Spring, the original PropertyEditor-based system is

used.

To register a default ConversionService with Spring, add the following bean

definition with id conversionService:

<bean id="conversionService"
class="org.springframework.context.support.ConversionServiceFactoryBean"/>

A default ConversionService can convert between strings, numbers, enums,

collections, maps, and other common types. To suppliment or override the default
converters with your own custom converter(s), set the converters property.
Property values may implement either of the Converter, ConverterFactory, or
GenericConverter interfaces.

<bean id="conversionService"
class="org.springframework.context.support.ConversionServiceFactoryBean">
<property name="converters">
<list>
<bean class="example.MyCustomConverter"/>
</list>
</property>
</bean>

It is also common to use a ConversionService within a Spring MVC application.

See Section 5.6.4, “Configuring Formatting in Spring MVC” for details on use
with <mvc:annotation-driven/>.

In certain situations you may wish to apply formatting during conversion.

See Section 5.6.3, “FormatterRegistry SPI” for details on
usingFormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean.

208
5.5.6 Using a ConversionService programatically

To work with a ConversionService instance programatically, simply inject a

reference to it like you would for any other bean:

@Service
public class MyService {

@Autowired
public MyService(ConversionService conversionService) {
this.conversionService = conversionService;
}

public void doIt() {

this.conversionService.convert(...)
}
}

5.6 Spring 3 Field Formatting

As discussed in the previous section, core.convert is a general-purpose type

conversion system. It provides a unified ConversionService API as well as a
strongly-typed Converter SPI for implementing conversion logic from one type to
another. A Spring Container uses this system to bind bean property values. In
addition, both the Spring Expression Language (SpEL) and DataBinder use this
system to bind field values. For example, when SpEL needs to coerce a Short to
a Long to complete an expression.setValue(Object bean, Object value) attempt, the
core.convert system performs the coercion.

Now consider the type conversion requirements of a typical client environment

such as a web or desktop application. In such environments, you typically
convert from String to support the client postback process, as well as back to
String to support the view rendering process. In addition, you often need to localize
String values. The more general core.convert Converter SPI does not address
such formatting requirements directly. To directly address them, Spring 3
introduces a convenient Formatter SPI that provides a simple and robust
alternative to PropertyEditors for client environments.

In general, use the Converter SPI when you need to implement general-purpose
type conversion logic; for example, for converting between a java.util.Date and and
java.lang.Long. Use the Formatter SPI when you're working in a client
environment, such as a web application, and need to parse and print localized field
values. The ConversionService provides a unified type conversion API for both
SPIs.

209
5.6.1 Formatter SPI

The Formatter SPI to implement field formatting logic is simple and strongly typed:

package org.springframework.format;

public interface Formatter<T> extends Printer<T>, Parser<T> {

}

Where Formatter extends from the Printer and Parser building-block interfaces:

public interface Printer<T> {

String print(T fieldValue, Locale locale);
}
import java.text.ParseException;

public interface Parser<T> {

T parse(String clientValue, Locale locale) throws ParseException;
}

To create your own Formatter, simply implement the Formatter interface above.
Parameterize T to be the type of object you wish to format, for
example, java.util.Date. Implement the print() operation to print an instance of T
for display in the client locale. Implement the parse()operation to parse an instance
of T from the formatted representation returned from the client locale. Your
Formatter should throw a ParseException or IllegalArgumentException if a parse
attempt fails. Take care to ensure your Formatter implementation is thread-safe.

Several Formatter implementations are provided in format subpackages as a

convenience. The number package provides a NumberFormatter,
CurrencyFormatter, and PercentFormatter to format java.lang.Number objects
using a java.text.NumberFormat. The datetime package provides a DateFormatter
to format java.util.Date objects with a java.text.DateFormat.
The datetime.joda package provides comprehensive datetime formatting support
based on the Joda Time library.

Consider DateFormatter as an example Formatter implementation:

package org.springframework.format.datetime;

public final class DateFormatter implements Formatter<Date> {

private String pattern;

210
 public DateFormatter(String pattern) {
this.pattern = pattern;
}

public String print(Date date, Locale locale) {

if (date == null) {
return "";
}
return getDateFormat(locale).format(date);
}

public Date parse(String formatted, Locale locale) throws ParseException {

if (formatted.length() == 0) {
return null;
}
return getDateFormat(locale).parse(formatted);
}

protected DateFormat getDateFormat(Locale locale) {

DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(this.pattern, locale);
dateFormat.setLenient(false);
return dateFormat;
}

The Spring team welcomes community-driven Formatter contributions;

see http://jira.springframework.org to contribute.

5.6.2 Annotation-driven Formatting

As you will see, field formatting can be configured by field type or annotation. To
bind an Annotation to a formatter, implement AnnotationFormatterFactory:

package org.springframework.format;

public interface AnnotationFormatterFactory<A extends Annotation> {

Set<Class<?>> getFieldTypes();

Printer<?> getPrinter(A annotation, Class<?> fieldType);

Parser<?> getParser(A annotation, Class<?> fieldType);

Parameterize A to be the field annotationType you wish to associate formatting

logic with, for exampleorg.springframework.format.annotation.DateTimeFormat.
Have getFieldTypes() return the types of fields the annotation may be used on.

211
HavegetPrinter() return a Printer to print the value of an annotated field.
Have getParser() return a Parser to parse a clientValue for an annotated field.

The example AnnotationFormatterFactory implementation below binds the

@NumberFormat Annotation to a formatter. This annotation allows either a
number style or pattern to be specified:

public final class NumberFormatAnnotationFormatterFactory

implements AnnotationFormatterFactory<NumberFormat> {

public Set<Class<?>> getFieldTypes() {

return new HashSet<Class<?>>(asList(new Class<?>[] {
Short.class, Integer.class, Long.class, Float.class,
Double.class, BigDecimal.class, BigInteger.class }));
}

public Printer<Number> getPrinter(NumberFormat annotation, Class<?> fieldType)

{
return configureFormatterFrom(annotation, fieldType);
}

public Parser<Number> getParser(NumberFormat annotation, Class<?> fieldType) {

return configureFormatterFrom(annotation, fieldType);
}

private Formatter<Number> configureFormatterFrom(NumberFormat annotation,

Class<?> fieldType) {
if (!annotation.pattern().isEmpty()) {
return new NumberFormatter(annotation.pattern());
} else {
Style style = annotation.style();
if (style == Style.PERCENT) {
return new PercentFormatter();
} else if (style == Style.CURRENCY) {
return new CurrencyFormatter();
} else {
return new NumberFormatter();
}
}
}
}

To trigger formatting, simply annotate fields with @NumberFormat:

public class MyModel {

@NumberFormat(style=Style.CURRENCY)
private BigDecimal decimal;

212
5.6.2.1 Format Annotation API

A portable format annotation API exists in

the org.springframework.format.annotation package. Use @NumberFormat to
format java.lang.Number fields. Use @DateTimeFormat to format java.util.Date,
java.util.Calendar, java.util.Long, or Joda Time fields.

The example below uses @DateTimeFormat to format a java.util.Date as a ISO

Date (yyyy-MM-dd):

public class MyModel {

@DateTimeFormat(iso=ISO.DATE)
private Date date;

5.6.3 FormatterRegistry SPI

At runtime, Formatters are registered in a FormatterRegistry. The

FormatterRegistry SPI allows you to configure Formatting rules centrally, instead
of duplicating such configuration across your Controllers. For example, you might
want to enforce that all Date fields are formatted a certain way, or fields with a
specific annotation are formatted in a certain way. With a shared
FormatterRegistry, you define these rules once and they are applied whenever
formatting is needed.

Review the FormatterRegistry SPI below:

package org.springframework.format;

public interface FormatterRegistry {

void addFormatterForFieldType(Class<?> fieldType, Printer<?> printer, Parser<?

> parser);

void addFormatterForFieldType(Class<?> fieldType, Formatter<?> formatter);

void addFormatterForAnnotation(AnnotationFormatterFactory<?, ?> factory);

As shown above, Formatters can be registered by fieldType or

annotation. FormattingConversionService is the implementation
ofFormatterRegistry suitable for most environments. This implementation may be

213
configured programatically, or declaratively as a Spring bean
using FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean. Because this implemementation also
implements ConversionService, it can be directly configured for use with Spring's
DataBinder and the Spring Expression Language (SpEL).

5.6.4 Configuring Formatting in Spring MVC

In a Spring MVC application, you may configure a custom ConversionService

instance explicity as an attribute of the annotation-driven element of the MVC
namespace. This ConversionService will then be used anytime a type conversion
is required during Controller model binding. If not configured explicitly, Spring MVC
will automatically register default formatters and converters for common types
such as numbers and dates.

To rely on default formatting rules, no custom configuration is required in your

Spring MVC config XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd">

<mvc:annotation-driven/>

</beans>

With this one-line of configuation, default formatters for Numbers and Date types
will be installed, including support for the @NumberFormat and
@DateTimeFormat annotations. Full support for the Joda Time formatting library is
also installed if Joda Time is present on the classpath.

To inject a ConversionService instance with custom formatters and converters

registered, set the conversion-service attribute:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

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

214
 http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd">

<mvc:annotation-driven conversion-service="conversionService"/>

<bean id="conversionService"

class="org.springframework.format.support.FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean"/
>

</beans>

A custom ConversionService instance is often constructed by a FactoryBean that

internally registers custom Formatters and Converters programatically before the
ConversionService is returned. See FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean for
an example.

5.7 Spring 3 Validation

Spring 3 introduces several enhancements to its validation support. First, the JSR-
303 Bean Validation API is now fully supported. Second, when used
programatically, Spring's DataBinder can now validate objects as well as bind to
them. Third, Spring MVC now has support for declaratively validating @Controller
inputs.

5.7.1 Overview of the JSR-303 Bean Validation API

JSR-303 standardizes validation constraint declaration and metadata for the Java
platform. Using this API, you annotate domain model properties with declarative
validation constraints and the runtime enforces them. There are a number of built-
in constraints you can take advantage of. You may also define your own custom
constraints.

To illustrate, consider a simple PersonForm model with two properties:

public class PersonForm {

private String name;
private int age;
}

JSR-303 allows you to define declarative validation constraints against such

properties:

215
public class PersonForm {

@NotNull
@Size(max=64)
private String name;

@Min(0)
private int age;

When an instance of this class is validated by a JSR-303 Validator, these

constraints will be enforced.

For general information on JSR-303, see the Bean Validation Specification. For

information on the specific capabilities of the default reference implementation, see
the Hibernate Validator documentation. To learn how to setup a JSR-303
implementation as a Spring bean, keep reading.

5.7.2 Configuring a Bean Validation Implementation

Spring provides full support for the JSR-303 Bean Validation API. This includes
convenient support for bootstrapping a JSR-303 implementation as a Spring bean.
This allows for a javax.validation.ValidatorFactory or javax.validation.Validator to
be injected wherever validation is needed in your application.

Use the LocalValidatorFactoryBean to configure a default JSR-303 Validator as a

Spring bean:

<bean id="validator"

class="org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.LocalValidatorFactoryBean"/>

The basic configuration above will trigger JSR-303 to initialize using its default
bootstrap mechanism. A JSR-303 provider, such as Hibernate Validator, is
expected to be present in the classpath and will be detected automatically.

5.7.2.1 Injecting a Validator

LocalValidatorFactoryBean implements
both javax.validation.ValidatorFactory and javax.validation.Validator, as well as
Spring'sorg.springframework.validation.Validator. You may inject a reference to
either of these interfaces into beans that need to invoke validation logic.

216
Inject a reference to javax.validation.Validator if you prefer to work with the JSR-
303 API directly:

import javax.validation.Validator;

@Service
public class MyService {

@Autowired
private Validator validator;

Inject a reference to org.springframework.validation.Validator if your bean requires

the Spring Validation API:

import org.springframework.validation.Validator;

@Service
public class MyService {

@Autowired
private Validator validator;

5.7.2.2 Configuring Custom Constraints

Each JSR-303 validation constraint consists of two parts. First, a @Constraint

annotation that declares the constraint and its configurable properties. Second, an
implementation of the javax.validation.ConstraintValidator interface that
implements the constraint's behavior. To associate a declaration with an
implementation, each @Constraint annotation references a corresponding
ValidationConstraint implementation class. At runtime,
a ConstraintValidatorFactory instantiates the referenced implementation when the
constraint annotation is encountered in your domain model.

By default, the LocalValidatorFactoryBean configures
a SpringConstraintValidatorFactory that uses Spring to create ConstraintValidator
instances. This allows your custom ConstraintValidators to benefit from
dependency injection like any other Spring bean.

Shown below is an example of a custom @Constraint declaration, followed by an

associated ConstraintValidator implementation that uses Spring for dependency
injection:

217
@Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.FIELD})
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Constraint(validatedBy=MyConstraintValidator.class)
public @interface MyConstraint {
}
import javax.validation.ConstraintValidator;

public class MyConstraintValidator implements ConstraintValidator {

@Autowired;
private Foo aDependency;

...
}

As you can see, a ConstraintValidator implementation may have its dependencies

@Autowired like any other Spring bean.

5.7.2.3 Additional Configuration Options

The default LocalValidatorFactoryBean configuration should prove sufficient for most

cases. There are a number of other configuration options for various JSR-303
constructs, from message interpolation to traversal resolution. See the JavaDocs
of LocalValidatorFactoryBean for more information on these options.

5.7.3 Configuring a DataBinder

Since Spring 3, a DataBinder instance can be configured with a Validator. Once

configured, the Validator may be invoked by callingbinder.validate(). Any
validation Errors are automatically added to the binder's BindingResult.

When working with the DataBinder programatically, this can be used to invoke
validation logic after binding to a target object:

Foo target = new Foo();

DataBinder binder = new DataBinder(target);
binder.setValidator(new FooValidator());

// bind to the target object

binder.bind(propertyValues);

// validate the target object

binder.validate();

// get BindingResult that includes any validation errors

BindingResult results = binder.getBindingResult();

218
5.7.4 Spring MVC 3 Validation

Beginning with Spring 3, Spring MVC has the ability to automatically validate
@Controller inputs. In previous versions it was up to the developer to manually
invoke validation logic.

5.7.4.1 Triggering @Controller Input Validation

To trigger validation of a @Controller input, simply annotate the input argument as

@Valid:

@Controller
public class MyController {

@RequestMapping("/foo", method=RequestMethod.POST)
public void processFoo(@Valid Foo foo) { /* ... */ }

Spring MVC will validate a @Valid object after binding so-long as an appropriate Validator has been
configured.

Note

The @Valid annotation is part of the standard JSR-303 Bean Validation API, and is not a Spring-
specific construct.

5.7.4.2 Configuring a Validator for use by Spring MVC

The Validator instance invoked when a @Valid method argument is encountered

may be configured in two ways. First, you may call binder.setValidator(Validator)
within a @Controller's @InitBinder callback. This allows you to configure a
Validator instance per @Controller class:

@Controller
public class MyController {

@InitBinder
protected void initBinder(WebDataBinder binder) {
binder.setValidator(new FooValidator());
}

@RequestMapping("/foo", method=RequestMethod.POST)
public void processFoo(@Valid Foo foo) { ... }

219
Second, you may call setValidator(Validator) on the global WebBindingInitializer.
This allows you to configure a Validator instance across all @Controllers. This can
be achieved easily by using the Spring MVC namespace:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd">

<mvc:annotation-driven validator="globalValidator"/>

</beans>

5.7.4.3 Configuring a JSR-303 Validator for use by Spring MVC

With JSR-303, a single javax.validation.Validator instance typically

validates all model objects that declare validation constraints. To configure a JSR-
303-backed Validator with Spring MVC, simply add a JSR-303 Provider, such as
Hibernate Validator, to your classpath. Spring MVC will detect it and automatically
enable JSR-303 support across all Controllers.

The Spring MVC configuration required to enable JSR-303 support is shown

below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd">

<!-- JSR-303 support will be detected on classpath and enabled automatically

-->
<mvc:annotation-driven/>

</beans>

With this minimal configuration, anytime a @Valid @Controller input is

encountered, it will be validated by the JSR-303 provider. JSR-303, in turn, will

220
enforce any constraints declared against the input. Any ConstraintViolations will
automatically be exposed as errors in the BindingResult renderable by standard
Spring MVC form tags.

6. Spring Expression Language (SpEL)

6.1 Introduction

The Spring Expression Language (SpEL for short) is a powerful expression

language that supports querying and manipulating an object graph at runtime. The
language syntax is similar to Unified EL but offers additional features, most notably
method invocation and basic string templating functionality.

While there are several other Java expression languages available, OGNL, MVEL,
and JBoss EL, to name a few, the Spring Expression Language was created to
provide the Spring community with a single well supported expression language
that can be used across all the products in the Spring portfolio. Its language
features are driven by the requirements of the projects in the Spring portfolio,
including tooling requirements for code completion support within the eclipse
based SpringSource Tool Suite. That said, SpEL is based on a technology
agnostic API allowing other expression language implementations to be integrated
should the need arise.

While SpEL serves as the foundation for expression evaluation within the Spring
portfolio, it is not directly tied to Spring and can be used independently. In order to
be self contained, many of the examples in this chapter use SpEL as if it were an
independent expression language. This requires creating a few bootstrapping
infrastructure classes such as the parser. Most Spring users will not need to deal
with this infrastructure and will instead only author expression strings for
evaluation. An example of this typical use is the integration of SpEL into creating
XML or annotated based bean definitions as shown in the section Expression
support for defining bean definitions.

This chapter covers the features of the expression language, its API, and its
language syntax. In several places an Inventor and Inventor's Society class are
used as the target objects for expression evaluation. These class declarations and
the data used to populate them are listed at the end of the chapter.

6.2 Feature Overview

The expression language supports the following functionality

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  Literal expressions
 Boolean and relational operators

 Regular expressions

 Class expressions

 Accessing properties, arrays, lists, maps

 Method invocation

 Relational operators

 Assignment

 Calling constructors

 Bean references

 Array construction

 Inline lists

 Ternary operator

 Variables

 User defined functions

 Collection projection

 Collection selection

 Templated expressions

6.3 Expression Evaluation using Spring's Expression Interface

This section introduces the simple use of SpEL interfaces and its expression
language. The complete language reference can be found in the section Language
Reference.

The following code introduces the SpEL API to evaluate the literal string
expression 'Hello World'.

222
ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();
Expression exp = parser.parseExpression("'Hello World'");
String message = (String) exp.getValue();

The value of the message variable is simply 'Hello World'.

The SpEL classes and interfaces you are most likely to use are located in the
packages org.springframework.expression and its sub packages andspel.support.

The interface ExpressionParser is responsible for parsing an expression string. In

this example the expression string is a string literal denoted by the surrounding
single quotes. The interface Expression is responsible for evaluating the previously
defined expression string. There are two exceptions that can be
thrown, ParseException and EvaluationException when calling
'parser.parseExpression' and 'exp.getValue' respectively.

SpEL supports a wide range of features, such as calling methods, accessing

properties, and calling constructors.

As an example of method invocation, we call the 'concat' method on the string

literal.

ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();

Expression exp = parser.parseExpression("'Hello World'.concat('!')");
String message = (String) exp.getValue();

The value of message is now 'Hello World!'.

As an example of calling a JavaBean property, the String property 'Bytes' can be

called as shown below.

ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();

// invokes 'getBytes()'
Expression exp = parser.parseExpression("'Hello World'.bytes");

byte[] bytes = (byte[]) exp.getValue();

SpEL also supports nested properties using standard 'dot' notation, i.e.
prop1.prop2.prop3 and the setting of property values

Public fields may also be accessed.

223
ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();

// invokes 'getBytes().length'
Expression exp = parser.parseExpression("'Hello World'.bytes.length");

int length = (Integer) exp.getValue();

The String's constructor can be called instead of using a string literal.

ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();

Expression exp = parser.parseExpression("new String('hello
world').toUpperCase()");
String message = exp.getValue(String.class);

Note the use of the generic method public <T> T getValue(Class<T>

desiredResultType). Using this method removes the need to cast the value of the
expression to the desired result type. An EvaluationException will be thrown if the
value cannot be cast to the type T or converted using the registered type converter.

The more common usage of SpEL is to provide an expression string that is

evaluated against a specific object instance (called the root object). There are two
options here and which to choose depends on whether the object against which
the expression is being evaluated will be changing with each call to evaluate the
expression. In the following example we retrieve the name property from an instance
of the Inventor class.

// Create and set a calendar

GregorianCalendar c = new GregorianCalendar();
c.set(1856, 7, 9);

// The constructor arguments are name, birthday, and nationality.

Inventor tesla = new Inventor("Nikola Tesla", c.getTime(), "Serbian");

ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();

Expression exp = parser.parseExpression("name");
EvaluationContext context = new StandardEvaluationContext(tesla);

String name = (String) exp.getValue(context);

In the last line, the value of the string variable 'name' will be set to "Nikola Tesla".
The class StandardEvaluationContext is where you can specify which object the
"name" property will be evaluated against. This is the mechanism to use if the root
object is unlikely to change, it can simply be set once in the evaluation context. If
the root object is likely to change repeatedly, it can be supplied on each call
to getValue, as this next example shows:

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/ Create and set a calendar
GregorianCalendar c = new GregorianCalendar();
c.set(1856, 7, 9);

// The constructor arguments are name, birthday, and nationality.

Inventor tesla = new Inventor("Nikola Tesla", c.getTime(), "Serbian");

ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();

Expression exp = parser.parseExpression("name");

String name = (String) exp.getValue(tesla);

In this case the inventor tesla has been supplied directly to getValue and the

expression evaluation infrastructure creates and manages a default evaluation
context internally - it did not require one to be supplied.

The StandardEvaluationContext is relatively expensive to construct and during

repeated usage it builds up cached state that enables subsequent expression
evaluations to be performed more quickly. For this reason it is better to cache and
reuse them where possible, rather than construct a new one for each expression
evaluation.

In some cases it can be desirable to use a configured evaluation context and yet
still supply a different root object on each call to getValue.getValue allows both to be
specified on the same call. In these situations the root object passed on the call is considered to
override any (which maybe null) specified on the evaluation context.

Note

In standalone usage of SpEL there is a need to create the parser, parse expressions and perhaps
provide evaluation contexts and a root context object. However, more common usage is to
provide only the SpEL expression string as part of a configuration file, for example for Spring
bean or Spring Web Flow definitions. In this case, the parser, evaluation context, root object and
any predefined variables are all set up implicitly, requiring the user to specify nothing other than
the expressions.

As a final introductory example, the use of a boolean operator is shown using the
Inventor object in the previous example.

Expression exp = parser.parseExpression("name == 'Nikola Tesla'");

boolean result = exp.getValue(context, Boolean.class); // evaluates to true

225
6.3.1 The EvaluationContext interface

The interface EvaluationContext is used when evaluating an expression to resolve

properties, methods, fields, and to help perform type conversion. The out-of-the-
box implementation, StandardEvaluationContext, uses reflection to manipulate the
object, caching java.lang.reflect'sMethod, Field, and Constructor instances for
increased performance.

The StandardEvaluationContext is where you may specify the root object to evaluate

against via the method setRootObject() or passing the root object into the
constructor. You can also specify variables and functions that will be used in the
expression using the methods setVariable() andregisterFunction(). The use of
variables and functions are described in the language reference
sections Variables and Functions. TheStandardEvaluationContext is also where you
can register custom ConstructorResolvers, MethodResolvers, and PropertyAccessors to
extend how SpEL evaluates expressions. Please refer to the JavaDoc of these
classes for more details.

6.3.1.1 Type Conversion

By default SpEL uses the conversion service available in Spring core

(org.springframework.core.convert.ConversionService). This conversion service
comes with many converters built in for common conversions but is also fully
extensible so custom conversions between types can be added. Additionally it has
the key capability that it is generics aware. This means that when working with
generic types in expressions, SpEL will attempt conversions to maintain type
correctness for any objects it encounters.

What does this mean in practice? Suppose assignment, using setValue(), is being

used to set a List property. The type of the property is actually List<Boolean>. SpEL
will recognize that the elements of the list need to be converted to Boolean before
being placed in it. A simple example:

class Simple {
public List<Boolean> booleanList = new ArrayList<Boolean>();
}

Simple simple = new Simple();

simple.booleanList.add(true);

StandardEvaluationContext simpleContext = new StandardEvaluationContext(simple);

// false is passed in here as a string. SpEL and the conversion service will

226
// correctly recognize that it needs to be a Boolean and convert it
parser.parseExpression("booleanList[0]").setValue(simpleContext, "false");

// b will be false
Boolean b = simple.booleanList.get(0);

6.4 Expression support for defining bean definitions

SpEL expressions can be used with XML or annotation based configuration

metadata for defining BeanDefinitions. In both cases the syntax to define the
expression is of the form #{ <expression string> }.

6.4.1 XML based configuration

A property or constructor-arg value can be set using expressions as shown below

<bean id="numberGuess" class="org.spring.samples.NumberGuess">

<property name="randomNumber" value="#{ T(java.lang.Math).random() *
100.0 }"/>

<!-- other properties -->

</bean>

The variable 'systemProperties' is predefined, so you can use it in your

expressions as shown below. Note that you do not have to prefix the predefined
variable with the '#' symbol in this context.

<bean id="taxCalculator" class="org.spring.samples.TaxCalculator">

<property name="defaultLocale" value="#{ systemProperties['user.region'] }"/>

<!-- other properties -->

</bean>

You can also refer to other bean properties by name, for example.

<bean id="numberGuess" class="org.spring.samples.NumberGuess">

<property name="randomNumber" value="#{ T(java.lang.Math).random() *
100.0 }"/>

<!-- other properties -->

</bean>

<bean id="shapeGuess" class="org.spring.samples.ShapeGuess">

227
 <property name="initialShapeSeed" value="#{ numberGuess.randomNumber }"/>

<!-- other properties -->

</bean>

6.4.2 Annotation-based configuration

The @Value annotation can be placed on fields, methods and method/constructor

parameters to specify a default value.

Here is an example to set the default value of a field variable.

public static class FieldValueTestBean

@Value("#{ systemProperties['user.region'] }")

private String defaultLocale;

public void setDefaultLocale(String defaultLocale)

{
this.defaultLocale = defaultLocale;
}

public String getDefaultLocale()

{
return this.defaultLocale;
}

The equivalent but on a property setter method is shown below.

public static class PropertyValueTestBean

private String defaultLocale;

@Value("#{ systemProperties['user.region'] }")

public void setDefaultLocale(String defaultLocale)
{
this.defaultLocale = defaultLocale;
}

public String getDefaultLocale()

{
return this.defaultLocale;
}

228
Autowired methods and constructors can also use the @Value annotation.

public class SimpleMovieLister {

private MovieFinder movieFinder;

private String defaultLocale;

@Autowired
public void configure(MovieFinder movieFinder,
@Value("#{ systemProperties['user.region'] }"} String
defaultLocale) {
this.movieFinder = movieFinder;
this.defaultLocale = defaultLocale;
}

// ...
}
public class MovieRecommender {

private String defaultLocale;

private CustomerPreferenceDao customerPreferenceDao;

@Autowired
public MovieRecommender(CustomerPreferenceDao customerPreferenceDao,
@Value("#{systemProperties['user.country']}"} String
defaultLocale) {
this.customerPreferenceDao = customerPreferenceDao;
this.defaultLocale = defaultLocale;
}

// ...
}

6.5 Language Reference
6.5.1 Literal expressions

The types of literal expressions supported are strings, dates, numeric values (int,
real, and hex), boolean and null. Strings are delimited by single quotes. To put a
single quote itself in a string use two single quote characters. The following listing
shows simple usage of literals. Typically they would not be used in isolation like
this, but as part of a more complex expression, for example using a literal on one
side of a logical comparison operator.

ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();

// evals to "Hello World"

String helloWorld = (String) parser.parseExpression("'Hello World'").getValue();

229
double avogadrosNumber = (Double)
parser.parseExpression("6.0221415E+23").getValue();

// evals to 2147483647
int maxValue = (Integer) parser.parseExpression("0x7FFFFFFF").getValue();

boolean trueValue = (Boolean) parser.parseExpression("true").getValue();

Object nullValue = parser.parseExpression("null").getValue();

Numbers support the use of the negative sign, exponential notation, and decimal
points. By default real numbers are parsed using Double.parseDouble().

6.5.2 Properties, Arrays, Lists, Maps, Indexers

Navigating with property references is easy, just use a period to indicate a nested
property value. The instances of Inventor class, pupin and tesla, were populated
with data listed in the section Classes used in the examples. To navigate "down"
and get Tesla's year of birth and Pupin's city of birth the following expressions are
used.

// evals to 1856
int year = (Integer) parser.parseExpression("Birthdate.Year +
1900").getValue(context);

String city = (String)

parser.parseExpression("placeOfBirth.City").getValue(context);

Case insensitivity is allowed for the first letter of property names. The contents of
arrays and lists are obtained using square bracket notation.

ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();

// Inventions Array
StandardEvaluationContext teslaContext = new StandardEvaluationContext(tesla);

// evaluates to "Induction motor"

String invention = parser.parseExpression("inventions[3]").getValue(teslaContext,
String.class);

// Members List
StandardEvaluationContext societyContext = new StandardEvaluationContext(ieee);

// evaluates to "Nikola Tesla"

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String name = parser.parseExpression("Members[0].Name").getValue(societyContext,
String.class);

// List and Array navigation

// evaluates to "Wireless communication"
String invention =
parser.parseExpression("Members[0].Inventions[6]").getValue(societyContext,

String.class);

The contents of maps are obtained by specifying the literal key value within the
brackets. In this case, because keys for the Officers map are strings, we can
specify string literals.

// Officer's Dictionary

Inventor pupin =
parser.parseExpression("Officers['president']").getValue(societyContext,

Inventor.class);

// evaluates to "Idvor"
String city =

parser.parseExpression("Officers['president'].PlaceOfBirth.City").getValue(society
Context,

String.class);

// setting values
parser.parseExpression("Officers['advisors']
[0].PlaceOfBirth.Country").setValue(societyContext,

"Croatia");

6.5.3 Inline lists

Lists can be expressed directly in an expression using {} notation.

// evaluates to a Java list containing the four numbers

List numbers = (List) parser.parseExpression("{1,2,3,4}").getValue(context);

List listOfLists = (List) parser.parseExpression("{{'a','b'},

{'x','y'}}").getValue(context);

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{} by itself means an empty list. For performance reasons, if the list is itself entirely
composed of fixed literals then a constant list is created to represent the
expression, rather than building a new list on each evaluation.

6.5.4 Array construction

Arrays can be built using the familiar Java syntax, optionally supplying an initializer
to have the array populated at construction time.

int[] numbers1 = (int[]) parser.parseExpression("new int[4]").getValue(context);

// Array with initializer

int[] numbers2 = (int[]) parser.parseExpression("new int[]
{1,2,3}").getValue(context);

// Multi dimensional array

int[][] numbers3 = (int[][]) parser.parseExpression("new int[4]
[5]").getValue(context);

It is not currently allowed to supply an initializer when constructing a multi-

dimensional array.

6.5.5 Methods

Methods are invoked using typical Java programming syntax. You may also invoke
methods on literals. Varargs are also supported.

// string literal, evaluates to "bc"

String c = parser.parseExpression("'abc'.substring(2, 3)").getValue(String.class);

// evaluates to true
boolean isMember = parser.parseExpression("isMember('Mihajlo
Pupin')").getValue(societyContext,

Boolean.class);

6.5.6 Operators

6.5.6.1 Relational operators

The relational operators; equal, not equal, less than, less than or equal, greater
than, and greater than or equal are supported using standard operator notation.

// evaluates to true
boolean trueValue = parser.parseExpression("2 == 2").getValue(Boolean.class);

232
// evaluates to false
boolean falseValue = parser.parseExpression("2 < -5.0").getValue(Boolean.class);

// evaluates to true
boolean trueValue = parser.parseExpression("'black' <
'block'").getValue(Boolean.class);

In addition to standard relational operators SpEL supports the 'instanceof' and

regular expression based 'matches' operator.

// evaluates to false
boolean falseValue = parser.parseExpression("'xyz' instanceof
T(int)").getValue(Boolean.class);

// evaluates to true
boolean trueValue =
parser.parseExpression("'5.00' matches '^-?\\d+(\\.\\d{2})?
$'").getValue(Boolean.class);

//evaluates to false
boolean falseValue =
parser.parseExpression("'5.0067' matches '^-?\\d+(\\.\\d{2})?
$'").getValue(Boolean.class);

Each symbolic operator can also be specified as a purely alphabetic equivalent.

This avoids problems where the symbols used have special meaning for the
document type in which the expression is embedded (eg. an XML document). The
textual equivalents are shown here: lt ('<'), gt ('>'), le ('<='), ge ('>='), eq ('=='), ne ('!
='), div ('/'), mod ('%'), not ('!'). These are case insensitive.

6.5.6.2 Logical operators

The logical operators that are supported are and, or, and not. Their use is
demonstrated below.

// -- AND --

// evaluates to false
boolean falseValue = parser.parseExpression("true and
false").getValue(Boolean.class);

// evaluates to true
String expression = "isMember('Nikola Tesla') and isMember('Mihajlo Pupin')";
boolean trueValue = parser.parseExpression(expression).getValue(societyContext,
Boolean.class);

233
// -- OR --

// evaluates to true
boolean trueValue = parser.parseExpression("true or
false").getValue(Boolean.class);

// evaluates to true
String expression = "isMember('Nikola Tesla') or isMember('Albert Einstien')";
boolean trueValue = parser.parseExpression(expression).getValue(societyContext,
Boolean.class);

// -- NOT --

// evaluates to false
boolean falseValue = parser.parseExpression("!true").getValue(Boolean.class);

// -- AND and NOT --

String expression = "isMember('Nikola Tesla') and !isMember('Mihajlo Pupin')";
boolean falseValue = parser.parseExpression(expression).getValue(societyContext,
Boolean.class);

6.5.6.3 Mathematical operators

The addition operator can be used on numbers, strings and dates. Subtraction can
be used on numbers and dates. Multiplication and division can be used only on
numbers. Other mathematical operators supported are modulus (%) and
exponential power (^). Standard operator precedence is enforced. These operators
are demonstrated below.

// Addition
int two = parser.parseExpression("1 + 1").getValue(Integer.class); // 2

String testString =
parser.parseExpression("'test' + ' ' + 'string'").getValue(String.class); //
'test string'

// Subtraction
int four = parser.parseExpression("1 - -3").getValue(Integer.class); // 4

double d = parser.parseExpression("1000.00 - 1e4").getValue(Double.class); //

-9000

// Multiplication
int six = parser.parseExpression("-2 * -3").getValue(Integer.class); // 6

double twentyFour = parser.parseExpression("2.0 * 3e0 *

4").getValue(Double.class); // 24.0

// Division

234
int minusTwo = parser.parseExpression("6 / -3").getValue(Integer.class); // -2

double one = parser.parseExpression("8.0 / 4e0 / 2").getValue(Double.class); //

1.0

// Modulus
int three = parser.parseExpression("7 % 4").getValue(Integer.class); // 3

int one = parser.parseExpression("8 / 5 % 2").getValue(Integer.class); // 1

// Operator precedence
int minusTwentyOne = parser.parseExpression("1+2-3*8").getValue(Integer.class); //
-21

6.5.7 Assignment

Setting of a property is done by using the assignment operator. This would

typically be done within a call to setValue but can also be done inside a call
to getValue.

Inventor inventor = new Inventor();

StandardEvaluationContext inventorContext = new
StandardEvaluationContext(inventor);

parser.parseExpression("Name").setValue(inventorContext, "Alexander Seovic2");

// alternatively

String aleks = parser.parseExpression("Name = 'Alexandar

Seovic'").getValue(inventorContext,

String.class);

6.5.8 Types

The special 'T' operator can be used to specify an instance of java.lang.Class (the
'type'). Static methods are invoked using this operator as well.
The StandardEvaluationContext uses a TypeLocator to find types and
the StandardTypeLocator (which can be replaced) is built with an understanding of
the java.lang package. This means T() references to types within java.lang do not
need to be fully qualified, but all other type references must be.

Class dateClass =
parser.parseExpression("T(java.util.Date)").getValue(Class.class);

Class stringClass = parser.parseExpression("T(String)").getValue(Class.class);

235
boolean trueValue =
parser.parseExpression("T(java.math.RoundingMode).CEILING <
T(java.math.RoundingMode).FLOOR")
.getValue(Boolean.class);

6.5.9 Constructors

Constructors can be invoked using the new operator. The fully qualified class
name should be used for all but the primitive type and String (where int, float, etc,
can be used).

Inventor einstein =
p.parseExpression("new org.spring.samples.spel.inventor.Inventor('Albert
Einstein',
'German')")

.getValue(Inventor.class);

//create new inventor instance within add method of List

p.parseExpression("Members.add(new
org.spring.samples.spel.inventor.Inventor('Albert Einstein',
'German'))")

.getValue(societyContext);

6.5.10 Variables

Variables can be referenced in the expression using the syntax #variableName.

Variables are set using the method setVariable on the StandardEvaluationContext.

Inventor tesla = new Inventor("Nikola Tesla", "Serbian");

StandardEvaluationContext context = new StandardEvaluationContext(tesla);
context.setVariable("newName", "Mike Tesla");

parser.parseExpression("Name = #newName").getValue(context);

System.out.println(tesla.getName()) // "Mike Tesla"

6.5.10.1 The #this and #root variables

The variable #this is always defined and refers to the current evaluation object
(against which unqualified references are resolved). The variable #root is always
defined and refers to the root context object. Although #this may vary as
components of an expression are evaluated, #root always refers to the root.

236
// create an array of integers
List<Integer> primes = new ArrayList<Integer>();
primes.addAll(Arrays.asList(2,3,5,7,11,13,17));

// create parser and set variable 'primes' as the array of integers

ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();
StandardEvaluationContext context = new StandardEvaluationContext();
context.setVariable("primes",primes);

// all prime numbers > 10 from the list (using selection ?{...})
// evaluates to [11, 13, 17]
List<Integer> primesGreaterThanTen =
(List<Integer>) parser.parseExpression("#primes.?
[#this>10]").getValue(context);

6.5.11 Functions

You can extend SpEL by registering user defined functions that can be called
within the expression string. The function is registered with
theStandardEvaluationContext using the method.

public void registerFunction(String name, Method m)

A reference to a Java Method provides the implementation of the function. For

example, a utility method to reverse a string is shown below.

public abstract class StringUtils {

public static String reverseString(String input) {

StringBuilder backwards = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < input.length(); i++)
backwards.append(input.charAt(input.length() - 1 - i));
}
return backwards.toString();
}
}

This method is then registered with the evaluation context and can be used within
an expression string.

ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();

StandardEvaluationContext context = new StandardEvaluationContext();

context.registerFunction("reverseString",
StringUtils.class.getDeclaredMethod("reverseString",

237
 new Class[]
{ String.class }));

String helloWorldReversed =
parser.parseExpression("#reverseString('hello')").getValue(context,
String.class);

6.5.12 Bean references

If the evaluation context has been configured with a bean resolver it is possible to
lookup beans from an expression using the (@) symbol.

ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();

StandardEvaluationContext context = new StandardEvaluationContext();
context.setBeanResolver(new MyBeanResolver());

// This will end up calling resolve(context,"foo") on MyBeanResolver during

evaluation
Object bean = parser.parseExpression("@foo").getValue(context);

6.5.13 Ternary Operator (If-Then-Else)

You can use the ternary operator for performing if-then-else conditional logic inside
the expression. A minimal example is:

String falseString =
parser.parseExpression("false ? 'trueExp' :
'falseExp'").getValue(String.class);

In this case, the boolean false results in returning the string value 'falseExp'. A
more realistic example is shown below.

parser.parseExpression("Name").setValue(societyContext, "IEEE");
societyContext.setVariable("queryName", "Nikola Tesla");

expression = "isMember(#queryName)? #queryName + ' is a member of the ' " +

"+ Name + ' Society' : #queryName + ' is not a member of the ' + Name
+ ' Society'";

String queryResultString =
parser.parseExpression(expression).getValue(societyContext,
String.class);
// queryResultString = "Nikola Tesla is a member of the IEEE Society"

Also see the next section on the Elvis operator for an even shorter syntax for the
ternary operator.

238
6.5.14 The Elvis Operator

The Elvis operator is a shortening of the ternary operator syntax and is used in
the Groovy language. With the ternary operator syntax you usually have to repeat
a variable twice, for example:

String name = "Elvis Presley";

String displayName = name != null ? name : "Unknown";

Instead you can use the Elvis operator, named for the resemblance to Elvis' hair
style.

ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();

String name = parser.parseExpression("null?:'Unknown'").getValue(String.class);

System.out.println(name); // 'Unknown'

Here is a more complex example.

ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();

Inventor tesla = new Inventor("Nikola Tesla", "Serbian");

StandardEvaluationContext context = new StandardEvaluationContext(tesla);

String name = parser.parseExpression("Name?:'Elvis Presley'").getValue(context,

String.class);

System.out.println(name); // Mike Tesla

tesla.setName(null);

name = parser.parseExpression("Name?:'Elvis Presley'").getValue(context,

String.class);

System.out.println(name); // Elvis Presley

6.5.15 Safe Navigation operator

The Safe Navigation operator is used to avoid a NullPointerException and comes

from the Groovy language. Typically when you have a reference to an object you
might need to verify that it is not null before accessing methods or properties of the
object. To avoid this, the safe navigation operator will simply return null instead of
throwing an exception.

239
ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();

Inventor tesla = new Inventor("Nikola Tesla", "Serbian");

tesla.setPlaceOfBirth(new PlaceOfBirth("Smiljan"));

StandardEvaluationContext context = new StandardEvaluationContext(tesla);

String city = parser.parseExpression("PlaceOfBirth?.City").getValue(context,

String.class);
System.out.println(city); // Smiljan

tesla.setPlaceOfBirth(null);

city = parser.parseExpression("PlaceOfBirth?.City").getValue(context,
String.class);

System.out.println(city); // null - does not throw NullPointerException!!!

6.5.16 Collection Selection

Selection is a powerful expression language feature that allows you to transform

some source collection into another by selecting from its entries.

Selection uses the syntax ?[selectionExpression]. This will filter the collection and
return a new collection containing a subset of the original elements. For example,
selection would allow us to easily get a list of Serbian inventors:

List<Inventor> list = (List<Inventor>)

parser.parseExpression("Members.?[Nationality ==
'Serbian']").getValue(societyContext);

Selection is possible upon both lists and maps. In the former case the selection
criteria is evaluated against each individual list element whilst against a map the
selection criteria is evaluated against each map entry (objects of the Java
type Map.Entry). Map entries have their key and value accessible as properties for
use in the selection.

This expression will return a new map consisting of those elements of the original
map where the entry value is less than 27.

Map newMap = parser.parseExpression("map.?[value<27]").getValue();

In addition to returning all the selected elements, it is possible to retrieve just the
first or the last value. To obtain the first entry matching the selection the syntax
is ^[...] whilst to obtain the last matching selection the syntax is $[...].

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6.5.17 Collection Projection

Projection allows a collection to drive the evaluation of a sub-expression and the

result is a new collection. The syntax for projection is ![projectionExpression]. Most
easily understood by example, suppose we have a list of inventors but want the list
of cities where they were born. Effectively we want to evaluate 'placeOfBirth.city'
for every entry in the inventor list. Using projection:

// returns [ 'Smiljan', 'Idvor' ]

List placesOfBirth = (List)parser.parseExpression("Members.![placeOfBirth.city]");

A map can also be used to drive projection and in this case the projection
expression is evaluated against each entry in the map (represented as a
Java Map.Entry). The result of a projection across a map is a list consisting of the
evaluation of the projection expression against each map entry.

6.5.18 Expression templating

Expression templates allow a mixing of literal text with one or more evaluation
blocks. Each evaluation block is delimited with prefix and suffix characters that you
can define, a common choice is to use #{ } as the delimiters. For example,

String randomPhrase =
parser.parseExpression("random number is #{T(java.lang.Math).random()}",
new TemplateParserContext()).getValue(String.class);

// evaluates to "random number is 0.7038186818312008"

The string is evaluated by concatenating the literal text 'random number is ' with
the result of evaluating the expression inside the #{ } delimiter, in this case the
result of calling that random() method. The second argument to the
method parseExpression() is of the type ParserContext. TheParserContext interface is
used to influence how the expression is parsed in order to support the expression
templating functionality. The definition of TemplateParserContext is shown below.

public class TemplateParserContext implements ParserContext {

public String getExpressionPrefix() {

return "#{";
}

public String getExpressionSuffix() {

return "}";

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 }

public boolean isTemplate() {

return true;
}
}

6.6 Classes used in the examples

Inventor.java

package org.spring.samples.spel.inventor;

import java.util.Date;
import java.util.GregorianCalendar;

public class Inventor {

private String name;

private String nationality;
private String[] inventions;
private Date birthdate;
private PlaceOfBirth placeOfBirth;

public Inventor(String name, String nationality)

{
GregorianCalendar c= new GregorianCalendar();
this.name = name;
this.nationality = nationality;
this.birthdate = c.getTime();
}
public Inventor(String name, Date birthdate, String nationality) {
this.name = name;
this.nationality = nationality;
this.birthdate = birthdate;
}

public Inventor() {
}

public String getName() {

return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public String getNationality() {
return nationality;
}
public void setNationality(String nationality) {
this.nationality = nationality;

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 }
public Date getBirthdate() {
return birthdate;
}
public void setBirthdate(Date birthdate) {
this.birthdate = birthdate;
}
public PlaceOfBirth getPlaceOfBirth() {
return placeOfBirth;
}
public void setPlaceOfBirth(PlaceOfBirth placeOfBirth) {
this.placeOfBirth = placeOfBirth;
}
public void setInventions(String[] inventions) {
this.inventions = inventions;
}
public String[] getInventions() {
return inventions;
}
}

PlaceOfBirth.java

package org.spring.samples.spel.inventor;

public class PlaceOfBirth {

private String city;

private String country;

public PlaceOfBirth(String city) {

this.city=city;
}
public PlaceOfBirth(String city, String country)
{
this(city);
this.country = country;
}

public String getCity() {

return city;
}
public void setCity(String s) {
this.city = s;
}
public String getCountry() {
return country;
}
public void setCountry(String country) {
this.country = country;
}

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}

Society.java

package org.spring.samples.spel.inventor;

import java.util.*;

public class Society {

private String name;

public static String Advisors = "advisors";

public static String President = "president";

private List<Inventor> members = new ArrayList<Inventor>();

private Map officers = new HashMap();

public List getMembers() {

return members;
}

public Map getOfficers() {

return officers;
}

public String getName() {

return name;
}

public void setName(String name) {

this.name = name;
}

public boolean isMember(String name)

{
boolean found = false;
for (Inventor inventor : members) {
if (inventor.getName().equals(name))
{
found = true;
break;
}
}
return found;
}

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7. Aspect Oriented Programming with Spring

7.1 Introduction

Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) complements Object-Oriented Programming

(OOP) by providing another way of thinking about program structure. The key unit
of modularity in OOP is the class, whereas in AOP the unit of modularity is
the aspect. Aspects enable the modularization of concerns such as transaction
management that cut across multiple types and objects. (Such concerns are often
termed crosscutting concerns in AOP literature.)

One of the key components of Spring is the AOP framework. While the Spring IoC
container does not depend on AOP, meaning you do not need to use AOP if you
don't want to, AOP complements Spring IoC to provide a very capable middleware
solution.
Spring 2.0 AOP

Spring 2.0 introduces a simpler and more powerful way of writing custom aspects using either a schema-
based approach or the @AspectJ annotation style. Both of these styles offer fully typed advice and use of
the AspectJ pointcut language, while still using Spring AOP for weaving.

The Spring 2.0 schema- and @AspectJ-based AOP support is discussed in this chapter. Spring 2.0 AOP
remains fully backwards compatible with Spring 1.2 AOP, and the lower-level AOP support offered by the
Spring 1.2 APIs is discussed in the following chapter.

AOP is used in the Spring Framework to...

 ... provide declarative enterprise services, especially as a replacement for

EJB declarative services. The most important such service is declarative
transaction management.
 ... allow users to implement custom aspects, complementing their use of
OOP with AOP.

If you are interested only in generic declarative services or other pre-packaged

declarative middleware services such as pooling, you do not need to work directly
with Spring AOP, and can skip most of this chapter.

7.1.1 AOP concepts

Let us begin by defining some central AOP concepts and terminology. These
terms are not Spring-specific... unfortunately, AOP terminology is not particularly

245
intuitive; however, it would be even more confusing if Spring used its own
terminology.

 Aspect: a modularization of a concern that cuts across multiple classes.

Transaction management is a good example of a crosscutting concern in
enterprise Java applications. In Spring AOP, aspects are implemented using
regular classes (the schema-based approach) or regular classes annotated
with the @Aspect annotation (the @AspectJ style).
 Join point: a point during the execution of a program, such as the execution
of a method or the handling of an exception. In Spring AOP, a join
point always represents a method execution.

 Advice: action taken by an aspect at a particular join point. Different types of

advice include "around," "before" and "after" advice. (Advice types are
discussed below.) Many AOP frameworks, including Spring, model an
advice as an interceptor, maintaining a chain of interceptorsaround the join
point.

 Pointcut: a predicate that matches join points. Advice is associated with a

pointcut expression and runs at any join point matched by the pointcut (for
example, the execution of a method with a certain name). The concept of
join points as matched by pointcut expressions is central to AOP, and Spring
uses the AspectJ pointcut expression language by default.

 Introduction: declaring additional methods or fields on behalf of a type.

Spring AOP allows you to introduce new interfaces (and a corresponding
implementation) to any advised object. For example, you could use an
introduction to make a bean implement an IsModifiedinterface, to simplify
caching. (An introduction is known as an inter-type declaration in the
AspectJ community.)

 Target object: object being advised by one or more aspects. Also referred to
as the advised object. Since Spring AOP is implemented using runtime
proxies, this object will always be a proxied object.

 AOP proxy: an object created by the AOP framework in order to implement

the aspect contracts (advise method executions and so on). In the Spring
Framework, an AOP proxy will be a JDK dynamic proxy or a CGLIB proxy.

 Weaving: linking aspects with other application types or objects to create an

advised object. This can be done at compile time (using the AspectJ

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 compiler, for example), load time, or at runtime. Spring AOP, like other pure
Java AOP frameworks, performs weaving at runtime.

Types of advice:

 Before advice: Advice that executes before a join point, but which does not
have the ability to prevent execution flow proceeding to the join point (unless
it throws an exception).
 After returning advice: Advice to be executed after a join point completes
normally: for example, if a method returns without throwing an exception.

 After throwing advice: Advice to be executed if a method exits by throwing

an exception.

 After (finally) advice: Advice to be executed regardless of the means by

which a join point exits (normal or exceptional return).

 Around advice: Advice that surrounds a join point such as a method

invocation. This is the most powerful kind of advice. Around advice can
perform custom behavior before and after the method invocation. It is also
responsible for choosing whether to proceed to the join point or to shortcut
the advised method execution by returning its own return value or throwing
an exception.

Around advice is the most general kind of advice. Since Spring AOP, like AspectJ,
provides a full range of advice types, we recommend that you use the least
powerful advice type that can implement the required behavior. For example, if you
need only to update a cache with the return value of a method, you are better off
implementing an after returning advice than an around advice, although an around
advice can accomplish the same thing. Using the most specific advice type
provides a simpler programming model with less potential for errors. For example,
you do not need to invoke the proceed() method on the JoinPoint used for around
advice, and hence cannot fail to invoke it.

In Spring 2.0, all advice parameters are statically typed, so that you work with
advice parameters of the appropriate type (the type of the return value from a
method execution for example) rather than Object arrays.

The concept of join points, matched by pointcuts, is the key to AOP which
distinguishes it from older technologies offering only interception. Pointcuts enable
advice to be targeted independently of the Object-Oriented hierarchy. For
example, an around advice providing declarative transaction management can be

247
applied to a set of methods spanning multiple objects (such as all business
operations in the service layer).

7.1.2 Spring AOP capabilities and goals

Spring AOP is implemented in pure Java. There is no need for a special

compilation process. Spring AOP does not need to control the class loader
hierarchy, and is thus suitable for use in a Servlet container or application server.

Spring AOP currently supports only method execution join points (advising the
execution of methods on Spring beans). Field interception is not implemented,
although support for field interception could be added without breaking the core
Spring AOP APIs. If you need to advise field access and update join points,
consider a language such as AspectJ.

Spring AOP's approach to AOP differs from that of most other AOP frameworks.
The aim is not to provide the most complete AOP implementation (although Spring
AOP is quite capable); it is rather to provide a close integration between AOP
implementation and Spring IoC to help solve common problems in enterprise
applications.

Thus, for example, the Spring Framework's AOP functionality is normally used in
conjunction with the Spring IoC container. Aspects are configured using normal
bean definition syntax (although this allows powerful "autoproxying" capabilities):
this is a crucial difference from other AOP implementations. There are some things
you cannot do easily or efficiently with Spring AOP, such as advise very fine-
grained objects (such as domain objects typically): AspectJ is the best choice in
such cases. However, our experience is that Spring AOP provides an excellent
solution to most problems in enterprise Java applications that are amenable to
AOP.

Spring AOP will never strive to compete with AspectJ to provide a comprehensive
AOP solution. We believe that both proxy-based frameworks like Spring AOP and
full-blown frameworks such as AspectJ are valuable, and that they are
complementary, rather than in competition. Spring 2.0 seamlessly integrates
Spring AOP and IoC with AspectJ, to enable all uses of AOP to be catered for
within a consistent Spring-based application architecture. This integration does not
affect the Spring AOP API or the AOP Alliance API: Spring AOP remains
backward-compatible. See the following chapter for a discussion of the Spring AOP APIs.

Note
One of the central tenets of the Spring Framework is that of non-invasiveness; this is the idea that

248
 you should not be forced to introduce framework-specific classes and interfaces into your
business/domain model. However, in some places the Spring Framework does give you the
option to introduce Spring Framework-specific dependencies into your codebase: the rationale in
giving you such options is because in certain scenarios it might be just plain easier to read or
code some specific piece of functionality in such a way. The Spring Framework (almost) always
offers you the choice though: you have the freedom to make an informed decision as to which
option best suits your particular use case or scenario.

One such choice that is relevant to this chapter is that of which AOP framework (and which AOP
style) to choose. You have the choice of AspectJ and/or Spring AOP, and you also have the
choice of either the @AspectJ annotation-style approach or the Spring XML configuration-style
approach. The fact that this chapter chooses to introduce the @AspectJ-style approach first
should not be taken as an indication that the Spring team favors the @AspectJ annotation-style
approach over the Spring XML configuration-style.

See Section 7.4, “Choosing which AOP declaration style to use” for a more complete discussion
of the whys and wherefores of each style.

7.1.3 AOP Proxies

Spring AOP defaults to using standard J2SE dynamic proxies for AOP proxies.

This enables any interface (or set of interfaces) to be proxied.

Spring AOP can also use CGLIB proxies. This is necessary to proxy classes,
rather than interfaces. CGLIB is used by default if a business object does not
implement an interface. As it is good practice to program to interfaces rather than
classes, business classes normally will implement one or more business
interfaces. It is possible to force the use of CGLIB, in those (hopefully rare) cases
where you need to advise a method that is not declared on an interface, or where
you need to pass a proxied object to a method as a concrete type.

It is important to grasp the fact that Spring AOP is proxy-based. See Section 7.6.1,

“Understanding AOP proxies” for a thorough examination of exactly what this
implementation detail actually means.

7.2 @AspectJ support

@AspectJ refers to a style of declaring aspects as regular Java classes annotated

with Java 5 annotations. The @AspectJ style was introduced by the AspectJ
project as part of the AspectJ 5 release. Spring 2.0 interprets the same
annotations as AspectJ 5, using a library supplied by AspectJ for pointcut parsing
and matching. The AOP runtime is still pure Spring AOP though, and there is no
dependency on the AspectJ compiler or weaver.

249
Using the AspectJ compiler and weaver enables use of the full AspectJ language,
and is discussed in Section  7.8, “Using AspectJ with Spring applications”.

7.2.1 Enabling @AspectJ Support

To use @AspectJ aspects in a Spring configuration you need to enable Spring

support for configuring Spring AOP based on @AspectJ aspects,
and autoproxying beans based on whether or not they are advised by those
aspects. By autoproxying we mean that if Spring determines that a bean is advised
by one or more aspects, it will automatically generate a proxy for that bean to
intercept method invocations and ensure that advice is executed as needed.

The @AspectJ support is enabled by including the following element inside your
spring configuration:

<aop:aspectj-autoproxy/>

This assumes that you are using schema support as described

in Appendix C, XML Schema-based configuration. See Section C.2.7, “The aop
schema” for how to import the tags in the aop namespace.

If you are using the DTD, it is still possible to enable @AspectJ support by adding
the following definition to your application context:

<bean
class="org.springframework.aop.aspectj.annotation.AnnotationAwareAspectJAutoProxyC
reator" />

You will also need two AspectJ libraries on the classpath of your
application: aspectjweaver.jar and aspectjrt.jar. These libraries are available in
the 'lib' directory of an AspectJ installation (version 1.5.1 or later required), or in
the 'lib/aspectj' directory of the Spring-with-dependencies distribution.

7.2.2 Declaring an aspect

With the @AspectJ support enabled, any bean defined in your application context
with a class that is an @AspectJ aspect (has the @Aspectannotation) will be
automatically detected by Spring and used to configure Spring AOP. The following
example shows the minimal definition required for a not-very-useful aspect:

250
A regular bean definition in the application context, pointing to a bean class that
has the @Aspect annotation:

<bean id="myAspect" class="org.xyz.NotVeryUsefulAspect">

<!-- configure properties of aspect here as normal -->
</bean>

And the NotVeryUsefulAspect class definition, annotated

with org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect annotation;

package org.xyz;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect;

@Aspect
public class NotVeryUsefulAspect {

Aspects (classes annotated with @Aspect) may have methods and fields just like any other
class. They may also contain pointcut, advice, and introduction (inter-type) declarations.

Autodetecting aspects through component scanning

You may register aspect classes as regular beans in your Spring XML configuration, or
autodetect them throuch classpath scanning - just like any other Spring-managed bean. However,
note that the @Aspect annotation is not sufficient for autodetection in the classpath: For that
purpose, you need to add a separate @Component annotation (or alternatively a custom
stereotype annotation that qualifies, as per the rules of Spring's component scanner).
Advising aspects with other aspects?

In Spring AOP, it is not possible to have aspects themselves be the target of advice from other
aspects. The @Aspectannotation on a class marks it as an aspect, and hence excludes it from
auto-proxying.

7.2.3 Declaring a pointcut

Recall that pointcuts determine join points of interest, and thus enable us to control
when advice executes. Spring AOP only supports method execution join points for
Spring beans, so you can think of a pointcut as matching the execution of methods
on Spring beans. A pointcut declaration has two parts: a signature comprising a
name and any parameters, and a pointcut expression that
determines exactly which method executions we are interested in. In the
@AspectJ annotation-style of AOP, a pointcut signature is provided by a regular
method definition, and the pointcut expression is indicated using

251
the @Pointcut annotation (the method serving as the pointcut signature must have
a void return type).

An example will help make this distinction between a pointcut signature and a
pointcut expression clear. The following example defines a pointcut
named 'anyOldTransfer' that will match the execution of any method
named 'transfer':

@Pointcut("execution(* transfer(..))")// the pointcut expression

private void anyOldTransfer() {}// the pointcut signature

The pointcut expression that forms the value of the @Pointcut annotation is a

regular AspectJ 5 pointcut expression. For a full discussion of AspectJ's pointcut
language, see the AspectJ Programming Guide (and for Java 5 based extensions,
the AspectJ 5 Developers Notebook) or one of the books on AspectJ such as
“Eclipse AspectJ” by Colyer et. al. or “AspectJ in Action” by Ramnivas Laddad.

7.2.3.1 Supported Pointcut Designators

Spring AOP supports the following AspectJ pointcut designators (PCD) for use in
pointcut expressions:
Other pointcut types

The full AspectJ pointcut language supports additional pointcut designators that are not supported in
Spring. These are: call, get, set, preinitialization, staticinitialization,
initialization, handler, adviceexecution, withincode, cflow, cflowbelow, if, @this,
and @withincode. Use of these pointcut designators in pointcut expressions interpreted by Spring AOP
will result in anIllegalArgumentException being thrown.

The set of pointcut designators supported by Spring AOP may be extended in future releases to support
more of the AspectJ pointcut designators.

 execution - for matching method execution join points, this is the primary
pointcut designator you will use when working with Spring AOP
 within - limits matching to join points within certain types (simply the
execution of a method declared within a matching type when using Spring
AOP)

 this - limits matching to join points (the execution of methods when using
Spring AOP) where the bean reference (Spring AOP proxy) is an instance of
the given type

252
  target - limits matching to join points (the execution of methods when using
Spring AOP) where the target object (application object being proxied) is an
instance of the given type

 args - limits matching to join points (the execution of methods when using
Spring AOP) where the arguments are instances of the given types

 @target -limits matching to join points (the execution of methods when using

Spring AOP) where the class of the executing object has an annotation of
the given type

 @args -limits matching to join points (the execution of methods when using

Spring AOP) where the runtime type of the actual arguments passed have
annotations of the given type(s)

 @within -limits matching to join points within types that have the given
annotation (the execution of methods declared in types with the given
annotation when using Spring AOP)

 @annotation - limits matching to join points where the subject of the join
point (method being executed in Spring AOP) has the given annotation

Because Spring AOP limits matching to only method execution join points, the
discussion of the pointcut designators above gives a narrower definition than you
will find in the AspectJ programming guide. In addition, AspectJ itself has type-
based semantics and at an execution join point both 'this' and 'target' refer to the
same object - the object executing the method. Spring AOP is a proxy-based
system and differentiates between the proxy object itself (bound to 'this') and the
target object behind the proxy (bound to 'target').

Note
Due to the proxy-based nature of Spring's AOP framework, protected methods are by
definition not intercepted, neither for JDK proxies (where this isn't applicable) nor for CGLIB
proxies (where this is technically possible but not recommendable for AOP purposes). As a
consequence, any given pointcut will be matched against public methods only!

If your interception needs include protected/private methods or even constructors, consider the
use of Spring-driven native AspectJ weaving instead of Spring's proxy-based AOP framework.
This constitutes a different mode of AOP usage with different characteristics, so be sure to make
yourself familiar with weaving first before making a decision.

Spring AOP also supports an additional PCD named 'bean'. This PCD allows you to
limit the matching of join points to a particular named Spring bean, or to a set of

253
named Spring beans (when using wildcards). The 'bean' PCD has the following
form:

bean(idOrNameOfBean)

The 'idOrNameOfBean' token can be the name of any Spring bean: limited
wildcard support using the '*' character is provided, so if you establish some
naming conventions for your Spring beans you can quite easily write a 'bean' PCD
expression to pick them out. As is the case with other pointcut designators, the
'bean' PCD can be &&'ed, ||'ed, and ! (negated) too.

Note
Please note that the 'bean' PCD is only supported in Spring AOP - and not in native AspectJ
weaving. It is a Spring-specific extension to the standard PCDs that AspectJ defines.

The 'bean' PCD operates at the instance level (building on the Spring bean name concept) rather
than at the type level only (which is what weaving-based AOP is limited to). Instance-based
pointcut designators are a special capability of Spring's proxy-based AOP framework and its
close integration with the Spring bean factory, where it is natural and straightforward to identify
specific beans by name.

7.2.3.2 Combining pointcut expressions

Pointcut expressions can be combined using '&&', '||' and '!'. It is also possible to
refer to pointcut expressions by name. The following example shows three pointcut
expressions: anyPublicOperation (which matches if a method execution join point
represents the execution of any public method); inTrading (which matches if a
method execution is in the trading module), and tradingOperation (which matches if
a method execution represents any public method in the trading module).

@Pointcut("execution(public * *(..))")
private void anyPublicOperation() {}

@Pointcut("within(com.xyz.someapp.trading..*)")
private void inTrading() {}

@Pointcut("anyPublicOperation() && inTrading()")

private void tradingOperation() {}

It is a best practice to build more complex pointcut expressions out of smaller

named components as shown above. When referring to pointcuts by name, normal
Java visibility rules apply (you can see private pointcuts in the same type,

254
protected pointcuts in the hierarchy, public pointcuts anywhere and so on).
Visibility does not affect pointcut matching.

7.2.3.3 Sharing common pointcut definitions

When working with enterprise applications, you often want to refer to modules of
the application and particular sets of operations from within several aspects. We
recommend defining a "SystemArchitecture" aspect that captures common
pointcut expressions for this purpose. A typical such aspect would look as follows:

package com.xyz.someapp;

import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Pointcut;

@Aspect
public class SystemArchitecture {

/**
* A join point is in the web layer if the method is defined
* in a type in the com.xyz.someapp.web package or any sub-package
* under that.
*/
@Pointcut("within(com.xyz.someapp.web..*)")
public void inWebLayer() {}

/**
* A join point is in the service layer if the method is defined
* in a type in the com.xyz.someapp.service package or any sub-package
* under that.
*/
@Pointcut("within(com.xyz.someapp.service..*)")
public void inServiceLayer() {}

/**
* A join point is in the data access layer if the method is defined
* in a type in the com.xyz.someapp.dao package or any sub-package
* under that.
*/
@Pointcut("within(com.xyz.someapp.dao..*)")
public void inDataAccessLayer() {}

/**
* A business service is the execution of any method defined on a service
* interface. This definition assumes that interfaces are placed in the
* "service" package, and that implementation types are in sub-packages.
*
* If you group service interfaces by functional area (for example,
* in packages com.xyz.someapp.abc.service and com.xyz.def.service) then
* the pointcut expression "execution(* com.xyz.someapp..service.*.*(..))"
* could be used instead.
*

255
 * Alternatively, you can write the expression using the 'bean'
* PCD, like so "bean(*Service)". (This assumes that you have
* named your Spring service beans in a consistent fashion.)
*/
@Pointcut("execution(* com.xyz.someapp.service.*.*(..))")
public void businessService() {}

/**
* A data access operation is the execution of any method defined on a
* dao interface. This definition assumes that interfaces are placed in the
* "dao" package, and that implementation types are in sub-packages.
*/
@Pointcut("execution(* com.xyz.someapp.dao.*.*(..))")
public void dataAccessOperation() {}

The pointcuts defined in such an aspect can be referred to anywhere that you
need a pointcut expression. For example, to make the service layer transactional,
you could write:

<aop:config>
<aop:advisor
pointcut="com.xyz.someapp.SystemArchitecture.businessService()"
advice-ref="tx-advice"/>
</aop:config>

<tx:advice id="tx-advice">
<tx:attributes>
<tx:method name="*" propagation="REQUIRED"/>
</tx:attributes>
</tx:advice>

The <aop:config> and <aop:advisor> elements are discussed in Section 7.3,

“Schema-based AOP support”. The transaction elements are discussed
in Chapter 10, Transaction Management.

7.2.3.4 Examples

Spring AOP users are likely to use the execution pointcut designator the most
often. The format of an execution expression is:

execution(modifiers-pattern? ret-type-pattern declaring-type-pattern? name-

pattern(param-pattern)
throws-pattern?)

256
All parts except the returning type pattern (ret-type-pattern in the snippet above),
name pattern, and parameters pattern are optional. The returning type pattern
determines what the return type of the method must be in order for a join point to
be matched. Most frequently you will use * as the returning type pattern, which
matches any return type. A fully-qualified type name will match only when the
method returns the given type. The name pattern matches the method name. You
can use the * wildcard as all or part of a name pattern. The parameters pattern is
slightly more complex: ()matches a method that takes no parameters,
whereas (..) matches any number of parameters (zero or more). The
pattern (*) matches a method taking one parameter of any
type, (*,String) matches a method taking two parameters, the first can be of any
type, the second must be a String. Consult the Language Semantics section of the
AspectJ Programming Guide for more information.

Some examples of common pointcut expressions are given below.

 the execution of any public method:

execution(public * *(..))

 the execution of any method with a name beginning with "set":

execution(* set*(..))

 the execution of any method defined by the AccountService interface:

execution(* com.xyz.service.AccountService.*(..))

 the execution of any method defined in the service package:

execution(* com.xyz.service.*.*(..))

 the execution of any method defined in the service package or a sub-

package:

execution(* com.xyz.service..*.*(..))

 any join point (method execution only in Spring AOP) within the service
package:

257
 within(com.xyz.service.*)

 any join point (method execution only in Spring AOP) within the service
package or a sub-package:

within(com.xyz.service..*)

 any join point (method execution only in Spring AOP) where the proxy
implements the AccountService interface:

this(com.xyz.service.AccountService)

'this' is more commonly used in a binding form :- see the following section on
advice for how to make the proxy object available in the advice body.

 any join point (method execution only in Spring AOP) where the target object
implements the AccountService interface:

target(com.xyz.service.AccountService)

'target' is more commonly used in a binding form :- see the following section
on advice for how to make the target object available in the advice body.

 any join point (method execution only in Spring AOP) which takes a single
parameter, and where the argument passed at runtime isSerializable:

args(java.io.Serializable)

'args' is more commonly used in a binding form :- see the following section
on advice for how to make the method arguments available in the advice
body.

Note that the pointcut given in this example is different to execution(*

*(java.io.Serializable)): the args version matches if the argument passed at
runtime is Serializable, the execution version matches if the method
signature declares a single parameter of type Serializable.

 any join point (method execution only in Spring AOP) where the target object
has an @Transactional annotation:

258
 @target(org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Transactional)

'@target' can also be used in a binding form :- see the following section on
advice for how to make the annotation object available in the advice body.

 any join point (method execution only in Spring AOP) where the declared
type of the target object has an @Transactional annotation:

@within(org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Transactional)

'@within' can also be used in a binding form :- see the following section on
advice for how to make the annotation object available in the advice body.

 any join point (method execution only in Spring AOP) where the executing
method has an @Transactional annotation:

@annotation(org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Transactional)

'@annotation' can also be used in a binding form :- see the following section
on advice for how to make the annotation object available in the advice
body.

 any join point (method execution only in Spring AOP) which takes a single
parameter, and where the runtime type of the argument passed has
the @Classified annotation:

@args(com.xyz.security.Classified)

'@args' can also be used in a binding form :- see the following section on
advice for how to make the annotation object(s) available in the advice body.

 any join point (method execution only in Spring AOP) on a Spring bean
named 'tradeService':

bean(tradeService)

 any join point (method execution only in Spring AOP) on Spring beans
having names that match the wildcard expression '*Service':

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 bean(*Service)

7.2.3.5 Writing good pointcuts

During compilation, AspectJ processes pointcuts in order to try and optimize

matching performance. Examining code and determining if each join point matches
(statically or dynamically) a given pointcut is a costly process. (A dynamic match
means the match cannot be fully determined from static analysis and a test will be
placed in the code to determine if there is an actual match when the code is
running). On first encountering a pointcut declaration, AspectJ will rewrite it into an
optimal form for the matching process. What does this mean? Basically pointcuts
are rewritten in DNF (Disjunctive Normal Form) and the components of the
pointcut are sorted such that those components that are cheaper to evaluate are
checked first. This means you do not have to worry about understanding the
performance of various pointcut designators and may supply them in any order in
a pointcut declaration.

However, AspectJ can only work with what it is told, and for optimal performance
of matching you should think about what they are trying to achieve and narrow the
search space for matches as much as possible in the definition. The existing
designators naturally fall into one of three groups: kinded, scoping and context:

 Kinded designators are those which select a particular kind of join point. For
example: execution, get, set, call, handler
 Scoping designators are those which select a group of join points of interest
(of probably many kinds). For example: within, withincode

 Contextual designators are those that match (and optionally bind) based on
context. For example: this, target, @annotation

A well written pointcut should try and include at least the first two types (kinded
and scoping), whilst the contextual designators may be included if wishing to
match based on join point context, or bind that context for use in the advice.
Supplying either just a kinded designator or just a contextual designator will work
but could affect weaving performance (time and memory used) due to all the extra
processing and analysis. Scoping designators are very fast to match and their
usage means AspectJ can very quickly dismiss groups of join points that should
not be further processed - that is why a good pointcut should always include one if
possible.

260
7.2.4 Declaring advice

Advice is associated with a pointcut expression, and runs before, after, or around
method executions matched by the pointcut. The pointcut expression may be
either a simple reference to a named pointcut, or a pointcut expression declared in
place.

7.2.4.1 Before advice

Before advice is declared in an aspect using the @Before annotation:

import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Before;

@Aspect
public class BeforeExample {

@Before("com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.dataAccessOperation()")
public void doAccessCheck() {
// ...
}

If using an in-place pointcut expression we could rewrite the above example as:

import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Before;

@Aspect
public class BeforeExample {

@Before("execution(* com.xyz.myapp.dao.*.*(..))")
public void doAccessCheck() {
// ...
}

7.2.4.2 After returning advice

After returning advice runs when a matched method execution returns normally. It
is declared using the @AfterReturning annotation:

import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.AfterReturning;

261
@Aspect
public class AfterReturningExample {

@AfterReturning("com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.dataAccessOperation()")
public void doAccessCheck() {
// ...
}

Note: it is of course possible to have multiple advice declarations, and other

members as well, all inside the same aspect. We're just showing a single advice
declaration in these examples to focus on the issue under discussion at the time.

Sometimes you need access in the advice body to the actual value that was
returned. You can use the form of @AfterReturning that binds the return value for
this:

import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.AfterReturning;

@Aspect
public class AfterReturningExample {

@AfterReturning(
pointcut="com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.dataAccessOperation()",
returning="retVal")
public void doAccessCheck(Object retVal) {
// ...
}

The name used in the returning attribute must correspond to the name of a

parameter in the advice method. When a method execution returns, the return
value will be passed to the advice method as the corresponding argument value.
A returning clause also restricts matching to only those method executions that
return a value of the specified type (Object in this case, which will match any return
value).

Please note that it is not possible to return a totally different reference when using
after-returning advice.

262
7.2.4.3 After throwing advice

After throwing advice runs when a matched method execution exits by throwing an
exception. It is declared using the @AfterThrowing annotation:

import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.AfterThrowing;

@Aspect
public class AfterThrowingExample {

@AfterThrowing("com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.dataAccessOperation()")
public void doRecoveryActions() {
// ...
}

Often you want the advice to run only when exceptions of a given type are thrown,
and you also often need access to the thrown exception in the advice body. Use
the throwing attribute to both restrict matching (if desired, use Throwable as the
exception type otherwise) and bind the thrown exception to an advice parameter.

import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.AfterThrowing;

@Aspect
public class AfterThrowingExample {

@AfterThrowing(
pointcut="com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.dataAccessOperation()",
throwing="ex")
public void doRecoveryActions(DataAccessException ex) {
// ...
}

The name used in the throwing attribute must correspond to the name of a

parameter in the advice method. When a method execution exits by throwing an
exception, the exception will be passed to the advice method as the corresponding
argument value. A throwing clause also restricts matching to only those method
executions that throw an exception of the specified type (DataAccessException in this
case).

263
7.2.4.4 After (finally) advice

After (finally) advice runs however a matched method execution exits. It is

declared using the @After annotation. After advice must be prepared to handle both
normal and exception return conditions. It is typically used for releasing resources,
etc.

import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.After;

@Aspect
public class AfterFinallyExample {

@After("com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.dataAccessOperation()")
public void doReleaseLock() {
// ...
}

7.2.4.5 Around advice

The final kind of advice is around advice. Around advice runs "around" a matched
method execution. It has the opportunity to do work both before and after the
method executes, and to determine when, how, and even if, the method actually
gets to execute at all. Around advice is often used if you need to share state
before and after a method execution in a thread-safe manner (starting and
stopping a timer for example). Always use the least powerful form of advice that
meets your requirements (i.e. don't use around advice if simple before advice
would do).

Around advice is declared using the @Around annotation. The first parameter of the

advice method must be of type ProceedingJoinPoint. Within the body of the advice,
calling proceed() on the ProceedingJoinPoint causes the underlying method to
execute. The proceed method may also be called passing in an Object[] - the
values in the array will be used as the arguments to the method execution when it
proceeds.

The behavior of proceed when called with an  Object[] is a little different than the
behavior of proceed for around advice compiled by the AspectJ compiler. For
around advice written using the traditional AspectJ language, the number of
arguments passed to proceed must match the number of arguments passed to the
around advice (not the number of arguments taken by the underlying join point),
and the value passed to proceed in a given argument position supplants the

264
original value at the join point for the entity the value was bound to (Don't worry if
this doesn't make sense right now!). The approach taken by Spring is simpler and
a better match to its proxy-based, execution only semantics. You only need to be
aware of this difference if you are compiling @AspectJ aspects written for Spring
and using proceed with arguments with the AspectJ compiler and weaver. There is
a way to write such aspects that is 100% compatible across both Spring AOP and
AspectJ, and this is discussed in the following section on advice parameters.

import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Around;
import org.aspectj.lang.ProceedingJoinPoint;

@Aspect
public class AroundExample {

@Around("com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.businessService()")
public Object doBasicProfiling(ProceedingJoinPoint pjp) throws Throwable {
// start stopwatch
Object retVal = pjp.proceed();
// stop stopwatch
return retVal;
}

The value returned by the around advice will be the return value seen by the caller
of the method. A simple caching aspect for example could return a value from a
cache if it has one, and invoke proceed() if it does not. Note that proceed may be
invoked once, many times, or not at all within the body of the around advice, all of
these are quite legal.

7.2.4.6 Advice parameters

Spring 2.0 offers fully typed advice - meaning that you declare the parameters you
need in the advice signature (as we saw for the returning and throwing examples
above) rather than work with Object[] arrays all the time. We'll see how to make
argument and other contextual values available to the advice body in a moment.
First let's take a look at how to write generic advice that can find out about the
method the advice is currently advising.

Access to the current  JoinPoint

Any advice method may declare as its first parameter, a parameter of

type org.aspectj.lang.JoinPoint (please note that around advice isrequired to
declare a first parameter of type ProceedingJoinPoint, which is a subclass

265
of JoinPoint. The JoinPoint interface provides a number of useful methods such
as getArgs() (returns the method arguments), getThis() (returns the proxy
object), getTarget() (returns the target object),getSignature() (returns a description
of the method that is being advised) and toString() (prints a useful description of
the method being advised). Please do consult the Javadocs for full details.

Passing parameters to advice

We've already seen how to bind the returned value or exception value (using after
returning and after throwing advice). To make argument values available to the
advice body, you can use the binding form of args. If a parameter name is used in
place of a type name in an args expression, then the value of the corresponding
argument will be passed as the parameter value when the advice is invoked. An
example should make this clearer. Suppose you want to advise the execution of
dao operations that take an Account object as the first parameter, and you need
access to the account in the advice body. You could write the following:

@Before("com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.dataAccessOperation() &&" +
"args(account,..)")
public void validateAccount(Account account) {
// ...
}

The args(account,..) part of the pointcut expression serves two purposes: firstly, it

restricts matching to only those method executions where the method takes at
least one parameter, and the argument passed to that parameter is an instance
of Account; secondly, it makes the actual Accountobject available to the advice via
the account parameter.

Another way of writing this is to declare a pointcut that "provides"

the Account object value when it matches a join point, and then just refer to the
named pointcut from the advice. This would look as follows:

@Pointcut("com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.dataAccessOperation() &&" +
"args(account,..)")
private void accountDataAccessOperation(Account account) {}

@Before("accountDataAccessOperation(account)")
public void validateAccount(Account account) {
// ...
}

266
The interested reader is once more referred to the AspectJ programming guide for
more details.

The proxy object (this), target object (target), and annotations (@within, @target,
@annotation, @args) can all be bound in a similar fashion. The following example
shows how you could match the execution of methods annotated with
an @Auditable annotation, and extract the audit code.

First the definition of the @Auditable annotation:

@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target(ElementType.METHOD)
public @interface Auditable {
AuditCode value();
}

And then the advice that matches the execution of @Auditable methods:

@Before("com.xyz.lib.Pointcuts.anyPublicMethod() && " +

"@annotation(auditable)")
public void audit(Auditable auditable) {
AuditCode code = auditable.value();
// ...
}

Advice parameters and generics

Spring AOP can handle generics used in class declarations and method
parameters. Suppose you have a generic type like this:

public interface Sample<T> {

void sampleGenericMethod(T param);
void sampleGenericCollectionMethod(Collection>T> param);
}

You can restrict interception of method types to certain parameter types by simply
typing the advice parameter to the parameter type you want to intercept the
method for:

@Before("execution(* ..Sample+.sampleGenericMethod(*)) && args(param)")

public void beforeSampleMethod(MyType param) {
// Advice implementation
}

267
That this works is pretty obvious as we already discussed above. However, it's
worth pointing out that this won't work for generic collections. So you cannot define
a pointcut like this:

@Before("execution(* ..Sample+.sampleGenericCollectionMethod(*)) && args(param)")

public void beforeSampleMethod(Collection<MyType> param) {
// Advice implementation
}

To make this work we would have to inspect every element of the collection, which
is not reasonable as we also cannot decide how to treat nullvalues in general. To
achieve something similar to this you have to type the parameter to Collection<?
> and manually check the type of the elements.

Determining argument names

The parameter binding in advice invocations relies on matching names used in

pointcut expressions to declared parameter names in (advice and pointcut)
method signatures. Parameter names are not available through Java reflection, so
Spring AOP uses the following strategies to determine parameter names:

1. If the parameter names have been specified by the user explicitly, then the
specified parameter names are used: both the advice and the pointcut
annotations have an optional "argNames" attribute which can be used to
specify the argument names of the annotated method - these argument
names are available at runtime. For example:
2. @Before(
3. value="com.xyz.lib.Pointcuts.anyPublicMethod() && target(bean) &&
@annotation(auditable)",
4. argNames="bean,auditable")
5. public void audit(Object bean, Auditable auditable) {
6. AuditCode code = auditable.value();
7. // ... use code and bean

If the first parameter is of the JoinPoint, ProceedingJoinPoint,

or JoinPoint.StaticPart type, you may leave out the name of the parameter
from the value of the "argNames" attribute. For example, if you modify the
preceding advice to receive the join point object, the "argNames" attribute
need not include it:

268
 @Before(
value="com.xyz.lib.Pointcuts.anyPublicMethod() && target(bean) &&
@annotation(auditable)",
argNames="bean,auditable")
public void audit(JoinPoint jp, Object bean, Auditable auditable) {
AuditCode code = auditable.value();
// ... use code, bean, and jp
}

The special treatment given to the first parameter of

the JoinPoint, ProceedingJoinPoint, and JoinPoint.StaticPart types is
particularly convenient for advice that do not collect any other join point
context. In such situations, you may simply omit the "argNames" attribute.
For example, the following advice need not declare the "argNames"
attribute:

@Before(
"com.xyz.lib.Pointcuts.anyPublicMethod()")
public void audit(JoinPoint jp) {
// ... use jp
}

8. Using the 'argNames' attribute is a little clumsy, so if the 'argNames' attribute

has not been specified, then Spring AOP will look at the debug information
for the class and try to determine the parameter names from the local
variable table. This information will be present as long as the classes have
been compiled with debug information ('-g:vars' at a minimum). The
consequences of compiling with this flag on are: (1) your code will be slightly
easier to understand (reverse engineer), (2) the class file sizes will be very
slightly bigger (typically inconsequential), (3) the optimization to remove
unused local variables will not be applied by your compiler. In other words,
you should encounter no difficulties building with this flag on.

If an @AspectJ aspect has been compiled by the AspectJ compiler (ajc)

even without the debug information then there is no need to add
the  argNames attribute as the compiler will retain the needed information.

9. If the code has been compiled without the necessary debug information,
then Spring AOP will attempt to deduce the pairing of binding variables to
parameters (for example, if only one variable is bound in the pointcut
expression, and the advice method only takes one parameter, the pairing is
obvious!). If the binding of variables is ambiguous given the available
information, then anAmbiguousBindingException will be thrown.

269
 10. If all of the above strategies fail then an IllegalArgumentException will
be thrown.

Proceeding with arguments

We remarked earlier that we would describe how to write a proceed call with

arguments that works consistently across Spring AOP and AspectJ. The solution is
simply to ensure that the advice signature binds each of the method parameters in
order. For example:

@Around("execution(List<Account> find*(..)) &&" +

"com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.inDataAccessLayer() && " +
"args(accountHolderNamePattern)")
public Object preProcessQueryPattern(ProceedingJoinPoint pjp, String
accountHolderNamePattern)
throws Throwable {
String newPattern = preProcess(accountHolderNamePattern);
return pjp.proceed(new Object[] {newPattern});
}

In many cases you will be doing this binding anyway (as in the example above).

7.2.4.7 Advice ordering

What happens when multiple pieces of advice all want to run at the same join
point? Spring AOP follows the same precedence rules as AspectJ to determine the
order of advice execution. The highest precedence advice runs first "on the way in"
(so given two pieces of before advice, the one with highest precedence runs first).
"On the way out" from a join point, the highest precedence advice runs last (so
given two pieces of after advice, the one with the highest precedence will run
second).

When two pieces of advice defined in different aspects both need to run at the
same join point, unless you specify otherwise the order of execution is undefined.
You can control the order of execution by specifying precedence. This is done in
the normal Spring way by either implementing
theorg.springframework.core.Ordered interface in the aspect class or annotating it
with the Order annotation. Given two aspects, the aspect returning the lower value
from Ordered.getValue() (or the annotation value) has the higher precedence.

When two pieces of advice defined in the same aspect both need to run at the
same join point, the ordering is undefined (since there is no way to retrieve the
declaration order via reflection for javac-compiled classes). Consider collapsing

270
such advice methods into one advice method per join point in each aspect class,
or refactor the pieces of advice into separate aspect classes - which can be
ordered at the aspect level.

7.2.5 Introductions

Introductions (known as inter-type declarations in AspectJ) enable an aspect to

declare that advised objects implement a given interface, and to provide an
implementation of that interface on behalf of those objects.

An introduction is made using the @DeclareParents annotation. This annotation is

used to declare that matching types have a new parent (hence the name). For
example, given an interface UsageTracked, and an implementation of that
interface DefaultUsageTracked, the following aspect declares that all implementors of
service interfaces also implement the UsageTracked interface. (In order to expose
statistics via JMX for example.)

@Aspect
public class UsageTracking {

@DeclareParents(value="com.xzy.myapp.service.*+",
defaultImpl=DefaultUsageTracked.class)
public static UsageTracked mixin;

@Before("com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.businessService() &&" +
"this(usageTracked)")
public void recordUsage(UsageTracked usageTracked) {
usageTracked.incrementUseCount();
}

The interface to be implemented is determined by the type of the annotated field.

The value attribute of the @DeclareParents annotation is an AspectJ type pattern :-
any bean of a matching type will implement the UsageTracked interface. Note that
in the before advice of the above example, service beans can be directly used as
implementations of the UsageTracked interface. If accessing a bean
programmatically you would write the following:

UsageTracked usageTracked = (UsageTracked) context.getBean("myService");

271
7.2.6 Aspect instantiation models

(This is an advanced topic, so if you are just starting out with AOP you can safely
skip it until later.)

By default there will be a single instance of each aspect within the application
context. AspectJ calls this the singleton instantiation model. It is possible to define
aspects with alternate lifecycles :- Spring supports
AspectJ's perthis and pertarget instantiation models (percflow,
percflowbelow, and pertypewithin are not currently supported).

A "perthis" aspect is declared by specifying a perthis clause in

the @Aspect annotation. Let's look at an example, and then we'll explain how it
works.

@Aspect("perthis(com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.businessService())")
public class MyAspect {

private int someState;

@Before(com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.businessService())
public void recordServiceUsage() {
// ...
}

The effect of the 'perthis' clause is that one aspect instance will be created for
each unique service object executing a business service (each unique object
bound to 'this' at join points matched by the pointcut expression). The aspect
instance is created the first time that a method is invoked on the service object.
The aspect goes out of scope when the service object goes out of scope. Before
the aspect instance is created, none of the advice within it executes. As soon as
the aspect instance has been created, the advice declared within it will execute at
matched join points, but only when the service object is the one this aspect is
associated with. See the AspectJ programming guide for more information on per-
clauses.

The 'pertarget' instantiation model works in exactly the same way as perthis, but

creates one aspect instance for each unique target object at matched join points.

272
7.2.7 Example

Now that you have seen how all the constituent parts work, let's put them together
to do something useful!

The execution of business services can sometimes fail due to concurrency issues
(for example, deadlock loser). If the operation is retried, it is quite likely to succeed
next time round. For business services where it is appropriate to retry in such
conditions (idempotent operations that don't need to go back to the user for conflict
resolution), we'd like to transparently retry the operation to avoid the client seeing
aPessimisticLockingFailureException. This is a requirement that clearly cuts across
multiple services in the service layer, and hence is ideal for implementing via an
aspect.

Because we want to retry the operation, we will need to use around advice so that
we can call proceed multiple times. Here's how the basic aspect implementation
looks:

@Aspect
public class ConcurrentOperationExecutor implements Ordered {

private static final int DEFAULT_MAX_RETRIES = 2;

private int maxRetries = DEFAULT_MAX_RETRIES;

private int order = 1;

public void setMaxRetries(int maxRetries) {

this.maxRetries = maxRetries;
}

public int getOrder() {

return this.order;
}

public void setOrder(int order) {

this.order = order;
}

@Around("com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.businessService()")
public Object doConcurrentOperation(ProceedingJoinPoint pjp) throws Throwable {
int numAttempts = 0;
PessimisticLockingFailureException lockFailureException;
do {
numAttempts++;
try {
return pjp.proceed();
}
catch(PessimisticLockingFailureException ex) {
lockFailureException = ex;

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 }
}
while(numAttempts <= this.maxRetries);
throw lockFailureException;
}

Note that the aspect implements the Ordered interface so we can set the

precedence of the aspect higher than the transaction advice (we want a fresh
transaction each time we retry). The maxRetries and order properties will both be
configured by Spring. The main action happens in the doConcurrentOperation around
advice. Notice that for the moment we're applying the retry logic to
all businessService()s. We try to proceed, and if we fail with
an PessimisticLockingFailureException we simply try again unless we have
exhausted all of our retry attempts.

The corresponding Spring configuration is:

<aop:aspectj-autoproxy/>

<bean id="concurrentOperationExecutor"
class="com.xyz.myapp.service.impl.ConcurrentOperationExecutor">
<property name="maxRetries" value="3"/>
<property name="order" value="100"/>
</bean>

To refine the aspect so that it only retries idempotent operations, we might define
an Idempotent annotation:

@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public @interface Idempotent {
// marker annotation
}

and use the annotation to annotate the implementation of service operations. The
change to the aspect to only retry idempotent operations simply involves refining
the pointcut expression so that only @Idempotent operations match:

@Around("com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.businessService() && " +

"@annotation(com.xyz.myapp.service.Idempotent)")
public Object doConcurrentOperation(ProceedingJoinPoint pjp) throws Throwable {
...
}

274
7.3 Schema-based AOP support

If you are unable to use Java 5, or simply prefer an XML-based format, then
Spring 2.0 also offers support for defining aspects using the new "aop" namespace
tags. The exact same pointcut expressions and advice kinds are supported as
when using the @AspectJ style, hence in this section we will focus on the
new syntax and refer the reader to the discussion in the previous section
(Section 7.2, “@AspectJ support”) for an understanding of writing pointcut
expressions and the binding of advice parameters.

To use the aop namespace tags described in this section, you need to import the
spring-aop schema as described in Appendix C, XML Schema-based
configuration. See Section C.2.7, “The aop schema” for how to import the tags in
the aop namespace.

Within your Spring configurations, all aspect and advisor elements must be placed
within an <aop:config> element (you can have more than
one<aop:config> element in an application context configuration).
An <aop:config> element can contain pointcut, advisor, and aspect elements (note these must be
declared in that order).

Warning

The <aop:config> style of configuration makes heavy use of Spring's auto-proxying mechanism.

This can cause issues (such as advice not being woven) if you are already using explicit auto-
proxying via the use of BeanNameAutoProxyCreator or suchlike. The recommended usage pattern
is to use either just the <aop:config> style, or just the AutoProxyCreator style.

7.3.1 Declaring an aspect

Using the schema support, an aspect is simply a regular Java object defined as a
bean in your Spring application context. The state and behavior is captured in the
fields and methods of the object, and the pointcut and advice information is
captured in the XML.

An aspect is declared using the <aop:aspect> element, and the backing bean is
referenced using the ref attribute:

<aop:config>
<aop:aspect id="myAspect" ref="aBean">
...
</aop:aspect>
</aop:config>

275
<bean id="aBean" class="...">
...
</bean>

The bean backing the aspect ("aBean" in this case) can of course be configured and
dependency injected just like any other Spring bean.

7.3.2 Declaring a pointcut

A named pointcut can be declared inside an <aop:config> element, enabling the

pointcut definition to be shared across several aspects and advisors.

A pointcut representing the execution of any business service in the service layer
could be defined as follows:

<aop:config>

<aop:pointcut id="businessService"
expression="execution(* com.xyz.myapp.service.*.*(..))"/>

</aop:config>

Note that the pointcut expression itself is using the same AspectJ pointcut
expression language as described in Section 7.2, “@AspectJ support”. If you are
using the schema based declaration style with Java 5, you can refer to named
pointcuts defined in types (@Aspects) within the pointcut expression, but this
feature is not available on JDK 1.4 and below (it relies on the Java 5 specific
AspectJ reflection APIs). On JDK 1.5 therefore, another way of defining the above
pointcut would be:

<aop:config>

<aop:pointcut id="businessService"
expression="com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.businessService()"/>

</aop:config>

Assuming you have a SystemArchitecture aspect as described in Section 7.2.3.3,

“Sharing common pointcut definitions”.

Declaring a pointcut inside an aspect is very similar to declaring a top-level

pointcut:

276
<aop:config>

<aop:aspect id="myAspect" ref="aBean">

<aop:pointcut id="businessService"
expression="execution(* com.xyz.myapp.service.*.*(..))"/>

...

</aop:aspect>

</aop:config>

Much the same way in an @AspectJ aspect, pointcuts declared using the schema
based definition style may collect join point context. For example, the following
pointcut collects the 'this' object as the join point context and passes it to advice:

<aop:config>

<aop:aspect id="myAspect" ref="aBean">

<aop:pointcut id="businessService"
expression="execution(* com.xyz.myapp.service.*.*(..)) &amp;&amp;
this(service)"/>
<aop:before pointcut-ref="businessService" method="monitor"/>
...

</aop:aspect>

</aop:config>

The advice must be declared to receive the collected join point context by
including parameters of the matching names:

public void monitor(Object service) {

...
}

When combining pointcut sub-expressions, '&&' is awkward within an XML

document, and so the keywords 'and', 'or' and 'not' can be used in place of '&&', '||'
and '!' respectively. For example, the previous pointcut may be better written as:

<aop:config>

<aop:aspect id="myAspect" ref="aBean">

<aop:pointcut id="businessService"

277
 expression="execution(* com.xyz.myapp.service.*.*(..)) and
this(service)"/>
<aop:before pointcut-ref="businessService" method="monitor"/>
...

</aop:aspect>

</aop:config>

Note that pointcuts defined in this way are referred to by their XML id and cannot
be used as named pointcuts to form composite pointcuts. The named pointcut
support in the schema based definition style is thus more limited than that offered
by the @AspectJ style.

7.3.3 Declaring advice

The same five advice kinds are supported as for the @AspectJ style, and they
have exactly the same semantics.

7.3.3.1 Before advice

Before advice runs before a matched method execution. It is declared inside

an <aop:aspect> using the <aop:before> element.

<aop:aspect id="beforeExample" ref="aBean">

<aop:before
pointcut-ref="dataAccessOperation"
method="doAccessCheck"/>

...

</aop:aspect>

Here dataAccessOperation is the id of a pointcut defined at the top ( <aop:config>)

level. To define the pointcut inline instead, replace thepointcut-ref attribute with
a pointcut attribute:

<aop:aspect id="beforeExample" ref="aBean">

<aop:before
pointcut="execution(* com.xyz.myapp.dao.*.*(..))"
method="doAccessCheck"/>

...

278
</aop:aspect>

As we noted in the discussion of the @AspectJ style, using named pointcuts can
significantly improve the readability of your code.

The method attribute identifies a method (doAccessCheck) that provides the body of
the advice. This method must be defined for the bean referenced by the aspect
element containing the advice. Before a data access operation is executed (a
method execution join point matched by the pointcut expression), the
"doAccessCheck" method on the aspect bean will be invoked.

7.3.3.2 After returning advice

After returning advice runs when a matched method execution completes

normally. It is declared inside an <aop:aspect> in the same way as before advice.
For example:

<aop:aspect id="afterReturningExample" ref="aBean">

<aop:after-returning
pointcut-ref="dataAccessOperation"
method="doAccessCheck"/>

...

</aop:aspect>

Just as in the @AspectJ style, it is possible to get hold of the return value within
the advice body. Use the returning attribute to specify the name of the parameter
to which the return value should be passed:

<aop:aspect id="afterReturningExample" ref="aBean">

<aop:after-returning
pointcut-ref="dataAccessOperation"
returning="retVal"
method="doAccessCheck"/>

...

</aop:aspect>

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The doAccessCheck method must declare a parameter named retVal. The type of
this parameter constrains matching in the same way as described for
@AfterReturning. For example, the method signature may be declared as:

public void doAccessCheck(Object retVal) {...

7.3.3.3 After throwing advice

After throwing advice executes when a matched method execution exits by

throwing an exception. It is declared inside an <aop:aspect> using the after-throwing
element:

<aop:aspect id="afterThrowingExample" ref="aBean">

<aop:after-throwing
pointcut-ref="dataAccessOperation"
method="doRecoveryActions"/>

...

</aop:aspect>

Just as in the @AspectJ style, it is possible to get hold of the thrown exception
within the advice body. Use the throwing attribute to specify the name of the
parameter to which the exception should be passed:

<aop:aspect id="afterThrowingExample" ref="aBean">

<aop:after-throwing
pointcut-ref="dataAccessOperation"
throwing="dataAccessEx"
method="doRecoveryActions"/>

...

</aop:aspect>

The doRecoveryActions method must declare a parameter named dataAccessEx.

The type of this parameter constrains matching in the same way as described for
@AfterThrowing. For example, the method signature may be declared as:

public void doRecoveryActions(DataAccessException dataAccessEx) {...

280
7.3.3.4 After (finally) advice

After (finally) advice runs however a matched method execution exits. It is

declared using the after element:

<aop:aspect id="afterFinallyExample" ref="aBean">

<aop:after
pointcut-ref="dataAccessOperation"
method="doReleaseLock"/>

...

</aop:aspect>

7.3.3.5 Around advice

The final kind of advice is around advice. Around advice runs "around" a matched
method execution. It has the opportunity to do work both before and after the
method executes, and to determine when, how, and even if, the method actually
gets to execute at all. Around advice is often used if you need to share state
before and after a method execution in a thread-safe manner (starting and
stopping a timer for example). Always use the least powerful form of advice that
meets your requirements; don't use around advice if simple before advice would
do.

Around advice is declared using the aop:around element. The first parameter of the

advice method must be of type ProceedingJoinPoint. Within the body of the advice,
calling proceed() on the ProceedingJoinPoint causes the underlying method to
execute. The proceed method may also be calling passing in an Object[] - the
values in the array will be used as the arguments to the method execution when it
proceeds. SeeSection 7.2.4.5, “Around advice” for notes on calling proceed with
an Object[].

<aop:aspect id="aroundExample" ref="aBean">

<aop:around
pointcut-ref="businessService"
method="doBasicProfiling"/>

...

</aop:aspect>

281
The implementation of the doBasicProfiling advice would be exactly the same as in
the @AspectJ example (minus the annotation of course):

public Object doBasicProfiling(ProceedingJoinPoint pjp) throws Throwable {

// start stopwatch
Object retVal = pjp.proceed();
// stop stopwatch
return retVal;
}

7.3.3.6 Advice parameters

The schema based declaration style supports fully typed advice in the same way
as described for the @AspectJ support - by matching pointcut parameters by
name against advice method parameters. See Section 7.2.4.6, “Advice
parameters” for details. If you wish to explicitly specify argument names for the
advice methods (not relying on the detection strategies previously described) then
this is done using the arg-namesattribute of the advice element, which is treated in
the same manner to the "argNames" attribute in an advice annotation as described
in the section called “Determining argument names”. For example:

<aop:before
pointcut="com.xyz.lib.Pointcuts.anyPublicMethod() and @annotation(auditable)"
method="audit"
arg-names="auditable"/>

The arg-names attribute accepts a comma-delimited list of parameter names.

Find below a slightly more involved example of the XSD-based approach that
illustrates some around advice used in conjunction with a number of strongly typed
parameters.

package x.y.service;

public interface FooService {

Foo getFoo(String fooName, int age);

}

public class DefaultFooService implements FooService {

public Foo getFoo(String name, int age) {

return new Foo(name, age);
}
}

282
Next up is the aspect. Notice the fact that the profile(..) method accepts a
number of strongly-typed parameters, the first of which happens to be the join
point used to proceed with the method call: the presence of this parameter is an
indication that the profile(..) is to be used as aroundadvice:

package x.y;

import org.aspectj.lang.ProceedingJoinPoint;
import org.springframework.util.StopWatch;

public class SimpleProfiler {

public Object profile(ProceedingJoinPoint call, String name, int age) throws

Throwable {
StopWatch clock = new StopWatch(
"Profiling for '" + name + "' and '" + age + "'");
try {
clock.start(call.toShortString());
return call.proceed();
} finally {
clock.stop();
System.out.println(clock.prettyPrint());
}
}
}

Finally, here is the XML configuration that is required to effect the execution of the
above advice for a particular join point:

<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-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-3.0.xsd">

<!-- this is the object that will be proxied by Spring's AOP infrastructure -->
<bean id="fooService" class="x.y.service.DefaultFooService"/>

<!-- this is the actual advice itself -->

<bean id="profiler" class="x.y.SimpleProfiler"/>

<aop:config>
<aop:aspect ref="profiler">

<aop:pointcut id="theExecutionOfSomeFooServiceMethod"
expression="execution(*
x.y.service.FooService.getFoo(String,int))
and args(name, age)"/>

283
 <aop:around pointcut-ref="theExecutionOfSomeFooServiceMethod"
method="profile"/>

</aop:aspect>
</aop:config>

</beans>

If we had the following driver script, we would get output something like this on
standard output:

import org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanFactory;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;
import x.y.service.FooService;

public final class Boot {

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

BeanFactory ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("x/y/plain.xml");
FooService foo = (FooService) ctx.getBean("fooService");
foo.getFoo("Pengo", 12);
}
}
StopWatch 'Profiling for 'Pengo' and '12'': running time (millis) = 0
-----------------------------------------
ms % Task name
-----------------------------------------
00000 ? execution(getFoo)

7.3.3.7 Advice ordering

When multiple advice needs to execute at the same join point (executing method)
the ordering rules are as described in Section 7.2.4.7, “Advice ordering”. The
precedence between aspects is determined by either adding the Order annotation
to the bean backing the aspect or by having the bean implement
the Ordered interface.

7.3.4 Introductions

Introductions (known as inter-type declarations in AspectJ) enable an aspect to

declare that advised objects implement a given interface, and to provide an
implementation of that interface on behalf of those objects.

An introduction is made using the aop:declare-parents element inside

an aop:aspect This element is used to declare that matching types have a new
parent (hence the name). For example, given an interface UsageTracked, and an

284
implementation of that interface DefaultUsageTracked, the following aspect declares
that all implementors of service interfaces also implement
the UsageTracked interface. (In order to expose statistics via JMX for example.)

<aop:aspect id="usageTrackerAspect" ref="usageTracking">

<aop:declare-parents
types-matching="com.xzy.myapp.service.*+"
implement-interface="com.xyz.myapp.service.tracking.UsageTracked"
default-impl="com.xyz.myapp.service.tracking.DefaultUsageTracked"/>

<aop:before
pointcut="com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.businessService()
and this(usageTracked)"
method="recordUsage"/>

</aop:aspect>

The class backing the usageTracking bean would contain the method:

public void recordUsage(UsageTracked usageTracked) {

usageTracked.incrementUseCount();
}

The interface to be implemented is determined by implement-interface attribute.

The value of the types-matching attribute is an AspectJ type pattern :- any bean of a
matching type will implement the UsageTracked interface. Note that in the before
advice of the above example, service beans can be directly used as
implementations of the UsageTracked interface. If accessing a bean
programmatically you would write the following:

UsageTracked usageTracked = (UsageTracked) context.getBean("myService");

7.3.5 Aspect instantiation models

The only supported instantiation model for schema-defined aspects is the

singleton model. Other instantiation models may be supported in future releases.

7.3.6 Advisors

The concept of "advisors" is brought forward from the AOP support defined in
Spring 1.2 and does not have a direct equivalent in AspectJ. An advisor is like a
small self-contained aspect that has a single piece of advice. The advice itself is
represented by a bean, and must implement one of the advice interfaces

285
described in Section 8.3.2, “Advice types in Spring”. Advisors can take advantage
of AspectJ pointcut expressions though.

Spring 2.0 supports the advisor concept with the <aop:advisor> element. You will
most commonly see it used in conjunction with transactional advice, which also
has its own namespace support in Spring 2.0. Here's how it looks:

<aop:config>

<aop:pointcut id="businessService"
expression="execution(* com.xyz.myapp.service.*.*(..))"/>

<aop:advisor
pointcut-ref="businessService"
advice-ref="tx-advice"/>

</aop:config>

<tx:advice id="tx-advice">
<tx:attributes>
<tx:method name="*" propagation="REQUIRED"/>
</tx:attributes>
</tx:advice>

As well as the pointcut-ref attribute used in the above example, you can also use
the pointcut attribute to define a pointcut expression inline.

To define the precedence of an advisor so that the advice can participate in

ordering, use the order attribute to define the Ordered value of the advisor.

7.3.7 Example

Let's see how the concurrent locking failure retry example from Section 7.2.7,
“Example” looks when rewritten using the schema support.

The execution of business services can sometimes fail due to concurrency issues
(for example, deadlock loser). If the operation is retried, it is quite likely it will
succeed next time round. For business services where it is appropriate to retry in
such conditions (idempotent operations that don't need to go back to the user for
conflict resolution), we'd like to transparently retry the operation to avoid the client
seeing aPessimisticLockingFailureException. This is a requirement that clearly cuts
across multiple services in the service layer, and hence is ideal for implementing
via an aspect.

286
Because we want to retry the operation, we'll need to use around advice so that
we can call proceed multiple times. Here's how the basic aspect implementation
looks (it's just a regular Java class using the schema support):

public class ConcurrentOperationExecutor implements Ordered {

private static final int DEFAULT_MAX_RETRIES = 2;

private int maxRetries = DEFAULT_MAX_RETRIES;

private int order = 1;

public void setMaxRetries(int maxRetries) {

this.maxRetries = maxRetries;
}

public int getOrder() {

return this.order;
}

public void setOrder(int order) {

this.order = order;
}

public Object doConcurrentOperation(ProceedingJoinPoint pjp) throws Throwable {

int numAttempts = 0;
PessimisticLockingFailureException lockFailureException;
do {
numAttempts++;
try {
return pjp.proceed();
}
catch(PessimisticLockingFailureException ex) {
lockFailureException = ex;
}
}
while(numAttempts <= this.maxRetries);
throw lockFailureException;
}

Note that the aspect implements the Ordered interface so we can set the

precedence of the aspect higher than the transaction advice (we want a fresh
transaction each time we retry). The maxRetries and order properties will both be
configured by Spring. The main action happens in the doConcurrentOperation around
advice method. We try to proceed, and if we fail with
a PessimisticLockingFailureException we simply try again unless we have
exhausted all of our retry attempts.

287
This class is identical to the one used in the @AspectJ example, but with the
annotations removed.

The corresponding Spring configuration is:

<aop:config>

<aop:aspect id="concurrentOperationRetry" ref="concurrentOperationExecutor">

<aop:pointcut id="idempotentOperation"
expression="execution(* com.xyz.myapp.service.*.*(..))"/>

<aop:around
pointcut-ref="idempotentOperation"
method="doConcurrentOperation"/>

</aop:aspect>

</aop:config>

<bean id="concurrentOperationExecutor"
class="com.xyz.myapp.service.impl.ConcurrentOperationExecutor">
<property name="maxRetries" value="3"/>
<property name="order" value="100"/>
</bean>

Notice that for the time being we assume that all business services are
idempotent. If this is not the case we can refine the aspect so that it only retries
genuinely idempotent operations, by introducing an Idempotent annotation:

@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public @interface Idempotent {
// marker annotation
}

and using the annotation to annotate the implementation of service operations.

The change to the aspect to retry only idempotent operations simply involves
refining the pointcut expression so that only @Idempotent operations match:

<aop:pointcut id="idempotentOperation"
expression="execution(* com.xyz.myapp.service.*.*(..)) and
@annotation(com.xyz.myapp.service.Idempotent)"/>

288
7.4 Choosing which AOP declaration style to use

Once you have decided that an aspect is the best approach for implementing a
given requirement, how do you decide between using Spring AOP or AspectJ, and
between the Aspect language (code) style, @AspectJ annotation style, or the
Spring XML style? These decisions are influenced by a number of factors including
application requirements, development tools, and team familiarity with AOP.

7.4.1 Spring AOP or full AspectJ?

Use the simplest thing that can work. Spring AOP is simpler than using full
AspectJ as there is no requirement to introduce the AspectJ compiler / weaver into
your development and build processes. If you only need to advise the execution of
operations on Spring beans, then Spring AOP is the right choice. If you need to
advise objects not managed by the Spring container (such as domain objects
typically), then you will need to use AspectJ. You will also need to use AspectJ if
you wish to advise join points other than simple method executions (for example,
field get or set join points, and so on).

When using AspectJ, you have the choice of the AspectJ language syntax (also
known as the "code style") or the @AspectJ annotation style. Clearly, if you are
not using Java 5+ then the choice has been made for you... use the code style. If
aspects play a large role in your design, and you are able to use the AspectJ
Development Tools (AJDT) plugin for Eclipse, then the AspectJ language syntax is
the preferred option: it is cleaner and simpler because the language was
purposefully designed for writing aspects. If you are not using Eclipse, or have only
a few aspects that do not play a major role in your application, then you may want
to consider using the @AspectJ style and sticking with a regular Java compilation
in your IDE, and adding an aspect weaving phase to your build script.

7.4.2 @AspectJ or XML for Spring AOP?

If you have chosen to use Spring AOP, then you have a choice of @AspectJ or
XML style. Clearly if you are not running on Java 5+, then the XML style is the
appropriate choice; for Java 5 projects there are various tradeoffs to consider.

The XML style will be most familiar to existing Spring users. It can be used with
any JDK level (referring to named pointcuts from within pointcut expressions does
still require Java 5+ though) and is backed by genuine POJOs. When using AOP
as a tool to configure enterprise services then XML can be a good choice (a good
test is whether you consider the pointcut expression to be a part of your
configuration you might want to change independently). With the XML style

289
arguably it is clearer from your configuration what aspects are present in the
system.

The XML style has two disadvantages. Firstly it does not fully encapsulate the
implementation of the requirement it addresses in a single place. The DRY
principle says that there should be a single, unambiguous, authoritative
representation of any piece of knowledge within a system. When using the XML
style, the knowledge of how a requirement is implemented is split across the
declaration of the backing bean class, and the XML in the configuration file. When
using the @AspectJ style there is a single module - the aspect - in which this
information is encapsulated. Secondly, the XML style is slightly more limited in
what it can express than the @AspectJ style: only the "singleton" aspect
instantiation model is supported, and it is not possible to combine named pointcuts
declared in XML. For example, in the @AspectJ style you can write something like:

@Pointcut(execution(* get*()))
public void propertyAccess() {}

@Pointcut(execution(org.xyz.Account+ *(..))
public void operationReturningAnAccount() {}

@Pointcut(propertyAccess() && operationReturningAnAccount())

public void accountPropertyAccess() {}

In the XML style I can declare the first two pointcuts:

<aop:pointcut id="propertyAccess"
expression="execution(* get*())"/>

<aop:pointcut id="operationReturningAnAccount"
expression="execution(org.xyz.Account+ *(..))"/>

The downside of the XML approach is that you cannot define the
'accountPropertyAccess' pointcut by combining these definitions.

The @AspectJ style supports additional instantiation models, and richer pointcut
composition. It has the advantage of keeping the aspect as a modular unit. It also
has the advantage the @AspectJ aspects can be understood (and thus
consumed) both by Spring AOP and by AspectJ - so if you later decide you need
the capabilities of AspectJ to implement additional requirements then it is very
easy to migrate to an AspectJ-based approach. On balance the Spring team prefer
the @AspectJ style whenever you have aspects that do more than simple
"configuration" of enterprise services.

290
7.5 Mixing aspect types

It is perfectly possible to mix @AspectJ style aspects using the autoproxying

support, schema-defined <aop:aspect> aspects, <aop:advisor>declared advisors and
even proxies and interceptors defined using the Spring 1.2 style in the same
configuration. All of these are implemented using the same underlying support
mechanism and will co-exist without any difficulty.

7.6 Proxying mechanisms

Spring AOP uses either JDK dynamic proxies or CGLIB to create the proxy for a
given target object. (JDK dynamic proxies are preferred whenever you have a
choice).

If the target object to be proxied implements at least one interface then a JDK
dynamic proxy will be used. All of the interfaces implemented by the target type
will be proxied. If the target object does not implement any interfaces then a
CGLIB proxy will be created.

If you want to force the use of CGLIB proxying (for example, to proxy every
method defined for the target object, not just those implemented by its interfaces)
you can do so. However, there are some issues to consider:

 final methods cannot be advised, as they cannot be overriden.

 You will need the CGLIB 2 binaries on your classpath, whereas dynamic
proxies are available with the JDK. Spring will automatically warn you when
it needs CGLIB and the CGLIB library classes are not found on the
classpath.

 The constructor of your proxied object will be called twice. This is a natural
consequence of the CGLIB proxy model whereby a subclass is generated
for each proxied object. For each proxied instance, two objects are created:
the actual proxied object and an instance of the subclass that implements
the advice. This behavior is not exhibited when using JDK proxies. Usually,
calling the constructor of the proxied type twice, is not an issue, as there are
usually only assignments taking place and no real logic is implemented in
the constructor.

To force the use of CGLIB proxies set the value of the proxy-target-class attribute

of the <aop:config> element to true:

291
<aop:config proxy-target-class="true">
<!-- other beans defined here... -->
</aop:config>

To force CGLIB proxying when using the @AspectJ autoproxy support, set
the 'proxy-target-class' attribute of the <aop:aspectj-autoproxy>element to true:

<aop:aspectj-autoproxy proxy-target-class="true"/>

Note
Multiple <aop:config/> sections are collapsed into a single unified auto-proxy creator at
runtime, which applies the strongestproxy settings that any of the <aop:config/> sections
(typically from different XML bean definition files) specified. This also applies to
the <tx:annotation-driven/> and <aop:aspectj-autoproxy/> elements.

To be clear: using 'proxy-target-class="true"' on <tx:annotation-

driven/>, <aop:aspectj-autoproxy/> or <aop:config/>elements will force the use of
CGLIB proxies for all three of them.

7.6.1 Understanding AOP proxies

Spring AOP is proxy-based. It is vitally important that you grasp the semantics of
what that last statement actually means before you write your own aspects or use
any of the Spring AOP-based aspects supplied with the Spring Framework.

Consider first the scenario where you have a plain-vanilla, un-proxied, nothing-
special-about-it, straight object reference, as illustrated by the following code
snippet.

public class SimplePojo implements Pojo {

public void foo() {

// this next method invocation is a direct call on the 'this' reference
this.bar();
}

public void bar() {

// some logic...
}
}

If you invoke a method on an object reference, the method is invoked directly on

that object reference, as can be seen below.

292
public class Main {

public static void main(String[] args) {

Pojo pojo = new SimplePojo();

// this is a direct method call on the 'pojo' reference

pojo.foo();
}
}

Things change slightly when the reference that client code has is a proxy.
Consider the following diagram and code snippet.

public class Main {

public static void main(String[] args) {

ProxyFactory factory = new ProxyFactory(new SimplePojo());

factory.addInterface(Pojo.class);
factory.addAdvice(new RetryAdvice());

Pojo pojo = (Pojo) factory.getProxy();

// this is a method call on the proxy!

pojo.foo();
}

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}

The key thing to understand here is that the client code inside the main(..) of
the Main class has a reference to the proxy. This means that method calls on that
object reference will be calls on the proxy, and as such the proxy will be able to
delegate to all of the interceptors (advice) that are relevant to that particular
method call. However, once the call has finally reached the target object,
the SimplePojo reference in this case, any method calls that it may make on itself,
such as this.bar() or this.foo(), are going to be invoked against
the this reference, and not the proxy. This has important implications. It means
that self-invocation is not going to result in the advice associated with a method
invocation getting a chance to execute.

Okay, so what is to be done about this? The best approach (the term best is used
loosely here) is to refactor your code such that the self-invocation does not
happen. For sure, this does entail some work on your part, but it is the best, least-
invasive approach. The next approach is absolutely horrendous, and I am almost
reticent to point it out precisely because it is so horrendous. You can (choke!)
totally tie the logic within your class to Spring AOP by doing this:

public class SimplePojo implements Pojo {

public void foo() {

// this works, but... gah!
((Pojo) AopContext.currentProxy()).bar();
}

public void bar() {

// some logic...
}
}

This totally couples your code to Spring AOP, and it makes the class itself aware
of the fact that it is being used in an AOP context, which flies in the face of AOP. It
also requires some additional configuration when the proxy is being created:

public class Main {

public static void main(String[] args) {

ProxyFactory factory = new ProxyFactory(new SimplePojo());

factory.adddInterface(Pojo.class);
factory.addAdvice(new RetryAdvice());
factory.setExposeProxy(true);

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 Pojo pojo = (Pojo) factory.getProxy();

// this is a method call on the proxy!

pojo.foo();
}
}

Finally, it must be noted that AspectJ does not have this self-invocation issue
because it is not a proxy-based AOP framework.

7.7 Programmatic creation of @AspectJ Proxies

In addition to declaring aspects in your configuration using

either <aop:config> or <aop:aspectj-autoproxy>, it is also possible programmatically
to create proxies that advise target objects. For the full details of Spring's AOP
API, see the next chapter. Here we want to focus on the ability to automatically
create proxies using @AspectJ aspects.

The class org.springframework.aop.aspectj.annotation.AspectJProxyFactory can be
used to create a proxy for a target object that is advised by one or more @AspectJ
aspects. Basic usage for this class is very simple, as illustrated below. See the
Javadocs for full information.

// create a factory that can generate a proxy for the given target object
AspectJProxyFactory factory = new AspectJProxyFactory(targetObject);

// add an aspect, the class must be an @AspectJ aspect

// you can call this as many times as you need with different aspects
factory.addAspect(SecurityManager.class);

// you can also add existing aspect instances, the type of the object supplied
must be an @AspectJ aspect
factory.addAspect(usageTracker);

// now get the proxy object...

MyInterfaceType proxy = factory.getProxy();

7.8 Using AspectJ with Spring applications

Everything we've covered so far in this chapter is pure Spring AOP. In this section,
we're going to look at how you can use the AspectJ compiler/weaver instead of, or
in addition to, Spring AOP if your needs go beyond the facilities offered by Spring
AOP alone.

295
Spring ships with a small AspectJ aspect library, which is available standalone in
your distribution as spring-aspects.jar; you'll need to add this to your classpath in
order to use the aspects in it. Section 7.8.1, “Using AspectJ to dependency inject
domain objects with Spring” and Section 7.8.2, “Other Spring aspects for
AspectJ” discuss the content of this library and how you can use it. Section 7.8.3,
“Configuring AspectJ aspects using Spring IoC” discusses how to dependency
inject AspectJ aspects that are woven using the AspectJ compiler.
Finally, Section 7.8.4, “Load-time weaving with AspectJ in the Spring
Framework” provides an introduction to load-time weaving for Spring applications
using AspectJ.

7.8.1 Using AspectJ to dependency inject domain objects with Spring

The Spring container instantiates and configures beans defined in your application
context. It is also possible to ask a bean factory to configure apre-existing object
given the name of a bean definition containing the configuration to be applied.
The spring-aspects.jar contains an annotation-driven aspect that exploits this
capability to allow dependency injection of any object. The support is intended to
be used for objects createdoutside of the control of any container. Domain objects
often fall into this category because they are often created programmatically using
the newoperator, or by an ORM tool as a result of a database query.

The @Configurable annotation marks a class as eligible for Spring-driven

configuration. In the simplest case it can be used just as a marker annotation:

package com.xyz.myapp.domain;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Configurable;

@Configurable
public class Account {
// ...
}

When used as a marker interface in this way, Spring will configure new instances
of the annotated type (Account in this case) using a prototype-scoped bean
definition with the same name as the fully-qualified type name
(com.xyz.myapp.domain.Account). Since the default name for a bean is the fully-
qualified name of its type, a convenient way to declare the prototype definition is
simply to omit the id attribute:

<bean class="com.xyz.myapp.domain.Account" scope="prototype">

296
 <property name="fundsTransferService" ref="fundsTransferService"/>
</bean>

If you want to explicitly specify the name of the prototype bean definition to use,
you can do so directly in the annotation:

package com.xyz.myapp.domain;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Configurable;

@Configurable("account")
public class Account {
// ...
}

Spring will now look for a bean definition named "account" and use that as the
definition to configure new Account instances.

You can also use autowiring to avoid having to specify a prototype-scoped bean
definition at all. To have Spring apply autowiring use the ' autowire' property of
the @Configurable annotation: specify
either @Configurable(autowire=Autowire.BY_TYPE) or@Configurable(autowire=Autowire.B
Y_NAME for autowiring by type or by name respectively. As an alternative, as of
Spring 2.5 it is preferable to specify explicit, annotation-driven dependency
injection for your @Configurable beans by using @Autowired and @Resource at the field
or method level (see Section 3.9, “Annotation-based container configuration” for
further details).

Finally you can enable Spring dependency checking for the object references in
the newly created and configured object by using the dependencyCheck attribute (for
example: @Configurable(autowire=Autowire.BY_NAME,dependencyCheck=true)). If this
attribute is set to true, then Spring will validate after configuration that all properties
(which are not primitives or collections) have been set.

Using the annotation on its own does nothing of course. It is

the AnnotationBeanConfigurerAspect in spring-aspects.jar that acts on the
presence of the annotation. In essence the aspect says "after returning from the
initialization of a new object of a type annotated with@Configurable, configure the
newly created object using Spring in accordance with the properties of the
annotation". In this context, initializationrefers to newly instantiated objects (e.g.,
objects instantiated with the 'new' operator) as well as to Serializable objects that
are undergoing deserialization (e.g., via readResolve()).

297
 Note
One of the key phrases in the above paragraph is 'in essence'. For most cases, the exact semantics
of 'after returning from the initialization of a new object' will be fine... in this context, 'after
initialization' means that the dependencies will be injected afterthe object has been constructed -
this means that the dependencies will not be available for use in the constructor bodies of the
class. If you want the dependencies to be injected before the constructor bodies execute, and thus
be available for use in the body of the constructors, then you need to define this on
the @Configurable declaration like so:

@Configurable(preConstruction=true)

You can find out more information about the language semantics of the various pointcut types in
AspectJ in this appendix of theAspectJ Programming Guide.

For this to work the annotated types must be woven with the AspectJ weaver - you
can either use a build-time Ant or Maven task to do this (see for example
the AspectJ Development Environment Guide) or load-time weaving
(see Section 7.8.4, “Load-time weaving with AspectJ in the Spring Framework” ).
The AnnotationBeanConfigurerAspect itself needs configuring by Spring (in order to
obtain a reference to the bean factory that is to be used to configure new objects).
The Spring context namespace defines a convenient tag for doing this: just include
the following in your application context configuration:

<context:spring-configured/>

If you are using the DTD instead of schema, the equivalent definition is:

<bean

class="org.springframework.beans.factory.aspectj.AnnotationBeanConfigurerAspect"
factory-method="aspectOf"/>

Instances of @Configurable objects created before the aspect has been configured

will result in a warning being issued to the log and no configuration of the object
taking place. An example might be a bean in the Spring configuration that creates
domain objects when it is initialized by Spring. In this case you can use the
"depends-on" bean attribute to manually specify that the bean depends on the
configuration aspect.

<bean id="myService"
class="com.xzy.myapp.service.MyService"

298
 depends-
on="org.springframework.beans.factory.aspectj.AnnotationBeanConfigurerAspect">

<!-- ... -->

</bean>

Note

Do not activate @Configurable processing through the bean configurer aspect unless you really
mean to rely on its semantics at runtime. In particular, make sure that you do not
use @Configurable on bean classes which are registered as regular Spring beans with the
container: You would get double initialization otherwise, once through the container and once
through the aspect.

7.8.1.1 Unit testing @Configurable objects

One of the goals of the @Configurable support is to enable independent unit testing

of domain objects without the difficulties associated with hard-coded lookups.
If @Configurable types have not been woven by AspectJ then the annotation has no
affect during unit testing, and you can simply set mock or stub property references
in the object under test and proceed as normal. If @Configurable types have been
woven by AspectJ then you can still unit test outside of the container as normal,
but you will see a warning message each time that you construct
an @Configurable object indicating that it has not been configured by Spring.

7.8.1.2 Working with multiple application contexts

The AnnotationBeanConfigurerAspect used to implement the @Configurable support is

an AspectJ singleton aspect. The scope of a singleton aspect is the same as the
scope of static members, that is to say there is one aspect instance per
classloader that defines the type. This means that if you define multiple application
contexts within the same classloader hierarchy you need to consider where to
define the <context:spring-configured/> bean and where to place spring-
aspects.jar on the classpath.

Consider a typical Spring web-app configuration with a shared parent application

context defining common business services and everything needed to support
them, and one child application context per servlet containing definitions particular
to that servlet. All of these contexts will co-exist within the same classloader
hierarchy, and so the AnnotationBeanConfigurerAspect can only hold a reference to
one of them. In this case we recommend defining the <context:spring-
configured/> bean in the shared (parent) application context: this defines the
services that you are likely to want to inject into domain objects. A consequence is

299
that you cannot configure domain objects with references to beans defined in the
child (servlet-specific) contexts using the @Configurable mechanism (probably not
something you want to do anyway!).

When deploying multiple web-apps within the same container, ensure that each
web-application loads the types in spring-aspects.jar using its own classloader (for
example, by placing spring-aspects.jar in 'WEB-INF/lib'). If spring-aspects.jar is
only added to the container wide classpath (and hence loaded by the shared
parent classloader), all web applications will share the same aspect instance which
is probably not what you want.

7.8.2 Other Spring aspects for AspectJ

In addition to the @Configurable aspect, spring-aspects.jar contains an AspectJ

aspect that can be used to drive Spring's transaction management for types and
methods annotated with the @Transactional annotation. This is primarily intended
for users who want to use the Spring Framework's transaction support outside of
the Spring container.

The aspect that interprets @Transactional annotations is

the AnnotationTransactionAspect. When using this aspect, you must annotate
theimplementation class (and/or methods within that class), not the interface (if
any) that the class implements. AspectJ follows Java's rule that annotations on
interfaces are not inherited.

A @Transactional annotation on a class specifies the default transaction semantics

for the execution of any public operation in the class.

A @Transactional annotation on a method within the class overrides the default

transaction semantics given by the class annotation (if present). Methods
with public, protected, and default visibility may all be annotated.
Annotating protected and default visibility methods directly is the only way to get
transaction demarcation for the execution of such methods.

For AspectJ programmers that want to use the Spring configuration and
transaction management support but don't want to (or cannot) use
annotations, spring-aspects.jar also contains abstract aspects you can extend to
provide your own pointcut definitions. See the sources for
theAbstractBeanConfigurerAspect and AbstractTransactionAspect aspects for more
information. As an example, the following excerpt shows how you could write an
aspect to configure all instances of objects defined in the domain model using
prototype bean definitions that match the fully-qualified class names:

300
public aspect DomainObjectConfiguration extends AbstractBeanConfigurerAspect {

public DomainObjectConfiguration() {
setBeanWiringInfoResolver(new ClassNameBeanWiringInfoResolver());
}

// the creation of a new bean (any object in the domain model)

protected pointcut beanCreation(Object beanInstance) :
initialization(new(..)) &&
SystemArchitecture.inDomainModel() &&
this(beanInstance);

7.8.3 Configuring AspectJ aspects using Spring IoC

When using AspectJ aspects with Spring applications, it is natural to both want
and expect to be able to configure such aspects using Spring. The AspectJ
runtime itself is responsible for aspect creation, and the means of configuring the
AspectJ created aspects via Spring depends on the AspectJ instantiation model
(the 'per-xxx' clause) used by the aspect.

The majority of AspectJ aspects are singleton aspects. Configuration of these

aspects is very easy: simply create a bean definition referencing the aspect type
as normal, and include the bean attribute 'factory-method="aspectOf"'. This
ensures that Spring obtains the aspect instance by asking AspectJ for it rather
than trying to create an instance itself. For example:

<bean id="profiler" class="com.xyz.profiler.Profiler"

factory-method="aspectOf">
<property name="profilingStrategy" ref="jamonProfilingStrategy"/>
</bean>

Non-singleton aspects are harder to configure: however it is possible to do so by

creating prototype bean definitions and using the @Configurablesupport from spring-
aspects.jar to configure the aspect instances once they have bean created by the
AspectJ runtime.

If you have some @AspectJ aspects that you want to weave with AspectJ (for
example, using load-time weaving for domain model types) and other @AspectJ
aspects that you want to use with Spring AOP, and these aspects are all
configured using Spring, then you will need to tell the Spring AOP @AspectJ
autoproxying support which exact subset of the @AspectJ aspects defined in the
configuration should be used for autoproxying. You can do this by using one or

301
more <include/> elements inside the <aop:aspectj-autoproxy/> declaration.
Each <include/> element specifies a name pattern, and only beans with names
matched by at least one of the patterns will be used for Spring AOP autoproxy
configuration:

<aop:aspectj-autoproxy>
<aop:include name="thisBean"/>
<aop:include name="thatBean"/>
</aop:aspectj-autoproxy>

Note

Do not be misled by the name of the <aop:aspectj-autoproxy/> element: using it will result in

the creation of Spring AOP proxies. The @AspectJ style of aspect declaration is just being used
here, but the AspectJ runtime is not involved.

7.8.4 Load-time weaving with AspectJ in the Spring Framework

Load-time weaving (LTW) refers to the process of weaving AspectJ aspects into
an application's class files as they are being loaded into the Java virtual machine
(JVM). The focus of this section is on configuring and using LTW in the specific
context of the Spring Framework: this section is not an introduction to LTW though.
For full details on the specifics of LTW and configuring LTW with just AspectJ (with
Spring not being involved at all), see the LTW section of the AspectJ Development
Environment Guide.

The value-add that the Spring Framework brings to AspectJ LTW is in enabling
much finer-grained control over the weaving process. 'Vanilla' AspectJ LTW is
effected using a Java (5+) agent, which is switched on by specifying a VM
argument when starting up a JVM. It is thus a JVM-wide setting, which may be fine
in some situations, but often is a little too coarse. Spring-enabled LTW enables
you to switch on LTW on aper-ClassLoader basis, which obviously is more fine-
grained and which can make more sense in a 'single-JVM-multiple-application'
environment (such as is found in a typical application server environment).

Further, in certain environments, this support enables load-time weaving without

making any modifications to the application server's launch scriptthat will be
needed to add -javaagent:path/to/aspectjweaver.jar or (as we describe later in this
section) -javaagent:path/to/org.springframework.instrument-{version}.jar (previousl
y named spring-agent.jar). Developers simply modify one or more files that form
the application context to enable load-time weaving instead of relying on
administrators who typically are in charge of the deployment configuration such as
the launch script.

302
Now that the sales pitch is over, let us first walk through a quick example of
AspectJ LTW using Spring, followed by detailed specifics about elements
introduced in the following example. For a complete example, please see the
Petclinic sample application.

7.8.4.1 A first example

Let us assume that you are an application developer who has been tasked with
diagnosing the cause of some performance problems in a system. Rather than
break out a profiling tool, what we are going to do is switch on a simple profiling
aspect that will enable us to very quickly get some performance metrics, so that
we can then apply a finer-grained profiling tool to that specific area immediately
afterwards.

Here is the profiling aspect. Nothing too fancy, just a quick-and-dirty time-based
profiler, using the @AspectJ-style of aspect declaration.

package foo;

import org.aspectj.lang.ProceedingJoinPoint;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Around;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Pointcut;
import org.springframework.util.StopWatch;
import org.springframework.core.annotation.Order;

@Aspect
public class ProfilingAspect {

@Around("methodsToBeProfiled()")
public Object profile(ProceedingJoinPoint pjp) throws Throwable {
StopWatch sw = new StopWatch(getClass().getSimpleName());
try {
sw.start(pjp.getSignature().getName());
return pjp.proceed();
} finally {
sw.stop();
System.out.println(sw.prettyPrint());
}
}

@Pointcut("execution(public * foo..*.*(..))")
public void methodsToBeProfiled(){}
}

We will also need to create an 'META-INF/aop.xml' file, to inform the AspectJ weaver
that we want to weave our ProfilingAspect into our classes. This file convention,

303
namely the presence of a file (or files) on the Java classpath called ' META-
INF/aop.xml' is standard AspectJ.

<!DOCTYPE aspectj PUBLIC

"-//AspectJ//DTD//EN" "http://www.eclipse.org/aspectj/dtd/aspectj.dtd">
<aspectj>

<weaver>

<!-- only weave classes in our application-specific packages -->

<include within="foo.*"/>

</weaver>

<aspects>

<!-- weave in just this aspect -->

<aspect name="foo.ProfilingAspect"/>

</aspects>

</aspectj>

Now to the Spring-specific portion of the configuration. We need to configure

a LoadTimeWeaver (all explained later, just take it on trust for now). This load-time
weaver is the essential component responsible for weaving the aspect
configuration in one or more 'META-INF/aop.xml' files into the classes in your
application. The good thing is that it does not require a lot of configuration, as can
be seen below (there are some more options that you can specify, but these are
detailed later).

<?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:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

<!-- a service object; we will be profiling its methods -->

<bean id="entitlementCalculationService"
class="foo.StubEntitlementCalculationService"/>

<!-- this switches on the load-time weaving -->

<context:load-time-weaver/>

</beans>

304
Now that all the required artifacts are in place - the aspect, the ' META-INF/aop.xml'
file, and the Spring configuration -, let us create a simple driver class with
a main(..) method to demonstrate the LTW in action.

package foo;

import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;

public final class Main {

public static void main(String[] args) {

ApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("beans.xml",

Main.class);

EntitlementCalculationService entitlementCalculationService
= (EntitlementCalculationService)
ctx.getBean("entitlementCalculationService");

// the profiling aspect is 'woven' around this method execution

entitlementCalculationService.calculateEntitlement();
}
}

There is one last thing to do. The introduction to this section did say that one could
switch on LTW selectively on a per-ClassLoader basis with Spring, and this is true.
However, just for this example, we are going to use a Java agent (supplied with
Spring) to switch on the LTW. This is the command line we will use to run the
above Main class:

java -javaagent:C:/projects/foo/lib/global/spring-instrument.jar foo.Main

The '-javaagent' is a Java 5+ flag for specifying and enabling agents to instrument

programs running on the JVM. The Spring Framework ships with such an agent,
the InstrumentationSavingAgent, which is packaged in the spring-instrument.jar that
was supplied as the value of the -javaagent argument in the above example.

The output from the execution of the Main program will look something like that
below. (I have introduced a Thread.sleep(..) statement into
thecalculateEntitlement() implementation so that the profiler actually captures
something other than 0 milliseconds - the 01234 milliseconds is notan overhead
introduced by the AOP :) )

Calculating entitlement

305
StopWatch 'ProfilingAspect': running time (millis) = 1234
------ ----- ----------------------------
ms % Task name
------ ----- ----------------------------
01234 100% calculateEntitlement

Since this LTW is effected using full-blown AspectJ, we are not just limited to
advising Spring beans; the following slight variation on the Mainprogram will yield
the same result.

package foo;

import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;

public final class Main {

public static void main(String[] args) {

new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("beans.xml", Main.class);

EntitlementCalculationService entitlementCalculationService =
new StubEntitlementCalculationService();

// the profiling aspect will be 'woven' around this method execution

entitlementCalculationService.calculateEntitlement();
}
}

Notice how in the above program we are simply bootstrapping the Spring
container, and then creating a new instance of
theStubEntitlementCalculationService totally outside the context of Spring... the
profiling advice still gets woven in.

The example admittedly is simplistic... however the basics of the LTW support in Spring have all been
introduced in the above example, and the rest of this section will explain the 'why' behind each bit of
configuration and usage in detail.

Note

The ProfilingAspect used in this example may be basic, but it is quite useful. It is a nice

example of a development-time aspect that developers can use during development (of course),
and then quite easily exclude from builds of the application being deployed into UAT or
production.

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7.8.4.2 Aspects

The aspects that you use in LTW have to be AspectJ aspects. They can be written
in either the AspectJ language itself or you can write your aspects in the
@AspectJ-style. The latter option is of course only an option if you are using Java
5+, but it does mean that your aspects are then both valid AspectJ and Spring
AOP aspects. Furthermore, the compiled aspect classes need to be available on
the classpath.

7.8.4.3 'META-INF/aop.xml'

The AspectJ LTW infrastructure is configured using one or more ' META-INF/aop.xml'
files, that are on the Java classpath (either directly, or more typically in jar files).

The structure and contents of this file is detailed in the main AspectJ reference
documentation, and the interested reader is referred to that resource. (I appreciate
that this section is brief, but the 'aop.xml' file is 100% AspectJ - there is no Spring-
specific information or semantics that apply to it, and so there is no extra value that
I can contribute either as a result), so rather than rehash the quite satisfactory
section that the AspectJ developers wrote, I am just directing you there.)

7.8.4.4 Required libraries (JARS)

At a minimum you will need the following libraries to use the Spring Framework's
support for AspectJ LTW:

1. spring-aop.jar (version 2.5 or later, plus all mandatory dependencies)

2. aspectjrt.jar (version 1.5 or later)

3. aspectjweaver.jar (version 1.5 or later)

If you are using the Spring-provided agent to enable instrumentation, you will also
need:

1. spring-instrument.jar

7.8.4.5 Spring configuration

The key component in Spring's LTW support is the LoadTimeWeaver interface (in

the org.springframework.instrument.classloading package), and the numerous
implementations of it that ship with the Spring distribution. A LoadTimeWeaver is
responsible for adding one or morejava.lang.instrument.ClassFileTransformers to

307
a ClassLoader at runtime, which opens the door to all manner of interesting applications, one of
which happens to be the LTW of aspects.

Tip

If you are unfamiliar with the idea of runtime class file transformation, you are encouraged to read
the Javadoc API documentation for the java.lang.instrument package before continuing. This
is not a huge chore because there is - rather annoyingly - precious little documentation there... the
key interfaces and classes will at least be laid out in front of you for reference as you read through
this section.

Configuring a LoadTimeWeaver using XML for a particular ApplicationContext can be

as easy as adding one line. (Please note that you almost certainly will need to be
using an ApplicationContext as your Spring container - typically a BeanFactory will
not be enough because the LTW support makes use of BeanFactoryPostProcessors.)

To enable the Spring Framework's LTW support, you need to configure

a LoadTimeWeaver, which typically is done using the <context:load-time-
weaver/> element. Find below a valid <context:load-time-weaver/> definition that
uses default settings.

<?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:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

<context:load-time-weaver/>

</beans>

The above <context:load-time-weaver/> bean definition will define and register a

number of LTW-specific infrastructure beans for you automatically, such as
a LoadTimeWeaver and an AspectJWeavingEnabler. Notice how the <context:load-time-
weaver/> is defined in the 'context' namespace; note also that the referenced XML
Schema file is only available in versions of Spring 2.5 and later.

What the above configuration does is define and register a

default LoadTimeWeaver bean for you. The default LoadTimeWeaver is
theDefaultContextLoadTimeWeaver class, which attempts to decorate an automatically
detected LoadTimeWeaver: the exact type of LoadTimeWeaverthat will be 'automatically

308
detected' is dependent upon your runtime environment (summarised in the
following table).

Table 7.1. DefaultContextLoadTimeWeaver LoadTimeWeavers

Runtime Environment LoadTimeWeaver implementation

Running in BEA's Weblogic 10 WebLogicLoadTimeWeaver

Running in Oracle's OC4J OC4JLoadTimeWeaver

Running in GlassFish GlassFishLoadTimeWeaver

Running in JBoss AS JBossLoadTimeWeaver

JVM started with Spring InstrumentationSavingAgent
InstrumentationLoadTimeWeaver
(java -javaagent:path/to/spring-instrument.jar)

Fallback, expecting the underlying ClassLoader to follow

common conventions (e.g. applicable ReflectiveLoadTimeWeaver
toTomcatInstrumentableClassLoader and Resin)

Note that these are just the LoadTimeWeavers that are autodetected when using
the DefaultContextLoadTimeWeaver: it is of course possible to specify exactly
which LoadTimeWeaver implementation that you wish to use by specifying the fully-
qualified classname as the value of the 'weaver-class' attribute of the <context:load-
time-weaver/> element. Find below an example of doing just that:

<?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:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

<context:load-time-weaver
weaver-
class="org.springframework.instrument.classloading.ReflectiveLoadTimeWeaver"/>

</beans>

309
The LoadTimeWeaver that is defined and registered by the <context:load-time-
weaver/> element can be later retrieved from the Spring container using the well-
known name 'loadTimeWeaver'. Remember that the LoadTimeWeaver exists just as a
mechanism for Spring's LTW infrastructure to add one or
more ClassFileTransformers. The actual ClassFileTransformer that does the LTW is
the ClassPreProcessorAgentAdapter (from theorg.aspectj.weaver.loadtime package)
class. See the class-level Javadoc for the ClassPreProcessorAgentAdapter class for
further details, because the specifics of how the weaving is actually effected is
beyond the scope of this section.

There is one final attribute of the <context:load-time-weaver/> left to discuss: the

'aspectj-weaving' attribute. This is a simple attribute that controls whether LTW is
enabled or not, it is as simple as that. It accepts one of three possible values,
summarised below, with the default value if the attribute is not present being
' autodetect'

Table 7.2. 'aspectj-weaving' attribute values

Attribute
Explanation
Value

on AspectJ weaving is on, and aspects will be woven at load-time as appropriate.

off LTW is off... no aspect will be woven at load-time.

autodetect
If the Spring LTW infrastructure can find at least one ' META-INF/aop.xml' file, then
AspectJ weaving is on, else it is off. This is the default value.

7.8.4.6 Environment-specific configuration

This last section contains any additional settings and configuration that you will
need when using Spring's LTW support in environments such as application
servers and web containers.

Tomcat

Apache Tomcat's default class loader does not support class transformation which
is why Spring provides an enhanced implementation that addresses this need.
Named TomcatInstrumentableClassLoader, the loader works on Tomcat 5.0 and
above and can be registered individually foreach web application as follows:

310
 Tomcat 6.0.x or higher
1. Copy org.springframework.instrument.tomcat.jar into $CATALINA_HO
ME/lib, where $CATALINA_HOME represents the root of the Tomcat
installation)

2. Instruct Tomcat to use the custom class loader (instead of the default)
by editing the web application context file:

3. <Context path="/myWebApp" docBase="/my/webApp/location">

4. <Loader
5.
loaderClass="org.springframework.instrument.classloading.tomcat.Tomcat
InstrumentableClassLoader"/>

</Context>

Apache Tomcat 6.0.x (similar to 5.0.x/5.5.x) series supports several

context locations:

o server configuration file - $CATALINA_HOME/conf/server.xml

o default context configuration
- $CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml - that affects all deployed
web applications
o per-web application configuration which can be deployed either
on the server-side
at$CATALINA_HOME/conf/[enginename]/[hostname]/[webapp]-
context.xml or embedded inside the web-app archive at META-
INF/context.xml

For efficiency, the embedded per-web-app configuration style is

recommended because it will impact only applications that use the
custom class loader and does not require any changes to the server
configuration. See the Tomcat 6.0.x documentation for more details
about available context locations.

 Tomcat 5.0.x/5.5.x
1. Copy org.springframework.instrument.tomcat.jar into $CATALINA_HO
ME/server/lib, where $CATALINA_HOME represents the root of the
Tomcat installation.

2. Instruct Tomcat to use the custom class loader instead of the default
one by editing the web application context file:

311
3. <Context path="/myWebApp" docBase="/my/webApp/location">
4. <Loader
5.
loaderClass="org.springframework.instrument.classloading.tomcat.Tomcat
InstrumentableClassLoader"/>

</Context>

Tomcat 5.0.x and 5.5.x series supports several context locations:

o server configuration file - $CATALINA_HOME/conf/server.xml

o default context configuration
- $CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml - that affects all deployed
web applications
o per-web application configuration which can be deployed either
on the server-side
at$CATALINA_HOME/conf/[enginename]/[hostname]/[webapp]-
context.xml or embedded inside the web-app archive at META-
INF/context.xml

For efficiency, the embedded web-app configuration style is

recommended recommended because it will impact only applications
that use the class loader. See the Tomcat 5.x documentation for more
details about available context locations.

Tomcat versions prior to 5.5.20 contained a bug in the XML

configuration parsing that prevented usage of the Loader tag
insideserver.xml configuration, regardless of whether a class loader is
specified or whether it is the official or a custom one. See Tomcat's
bugzilla for more details.

In Tomcat 5.5.x, versions 5.5.20 or later, you should

set useSystemClassLoaderAsParent to false to fix this problem:

<Context path="/myWebApp" docBase="/my/webApp/location">

<Loader

loaderClass="org.springframework.instrument.classloading.tomcat.Tomcat
InstrumentableClassLoader"
useSystemClassLoaderAsParent="false"/>
</Context>

312
 This setting is not needed on Tomcat 6 or higher.

Alternatively, consider the use of the Spring-provided generic VM agent, to be

specified in Tomcat's launch script (see above). This will make instrumentation
available to all deployed web applications, no matter what ClassLoader they
happen to run on.

WebLogic, OC4J, Resin, GlassFish, JBoss

Recent versions of BEA WebLogic (version 10 and above), Oracle Containers for
Java EE (OC4J 10.1.3.1 and above), Resin (3.1 and above) and JBoss (5.x or
above) provide a ClassLoader that is capable of local instrumentation. Spring's
native LTW leverages such ClassLoaders to enable AspectJ weaving. You can
enable LTW by simply activating context:load-time-weaver as described earlier.
Specifically, you do not need to modify the launch script to add -
javaagent:path/to/spring-instrument.jar.

Note that GlassFish instrumentation-capable ClassLoader is available only in its

EAR environment. For GlassFish web applications, follow the Tomcat setup
instructions as outlined above.

Generic Java applications

When class instrumentation is required in environments that do not support or are

not supported by the existing LoadTimeWeaver implementations, a JDK agent can be
the only solution. For such cases, Spring provides InstrumentationLoadTimeWeaver,
which requires a Spring-specific (but very general) VM
agent, org.springframework.instrument-{version}.jar (previously named spring-
agent.jar).

To use it, you must start the virtual machine with the Spring agent, by supplying
the following JVM options:

-javaagent:/path/to/org.springframework.instrument-{version}.jar

Note that this requires modification of the VM launch script which may prevent you
from using this in application server environments (depending on your operation
policies). Additionally, the JDK agent will instrument the entire VM which can prove
expensive.

313
For performance reasons, it is recommended to use this configuration only if your
target environment (such as Jetty) does not have (or does not support) a
dedicated LTW.

7.9 Further Resources

More information on AspectJ can be found on the AspectJ website.

The book Eclipse AspectJ by Adrian Colyer et. al. (Addison-Wesley, 2005)

provides a comprehensive introduction and reference for the AspectJ language.

The book AspectJ in Action by Ramnivas Laddad (Manning, 2003) comes highly

recommended; the focus of the book is on AspectJ, but a lot of general AOP
themes are explored (in some depth).

8. Spring AOP APIs

8.1 Introduction

The previous chapter described the Spring 2.0 and later version's support for AOP
using @AspectJ and schema-based aspect definitions. In this chapter we discuss
the lower-level Spring AOP APIs and the AOP support used in Spring 1.2
applications. For new applications, we recommend the use of the Spring 2.0 and
later AOP support described in the previous chapter, but when working with
existing applications, or when reading books and articles, you may come across
Spring 1.2 style examples. Spring 3.0 is backwards compatible with Spring 1.2 and
everything described in this chapter is fully supported in Spring 3.0.

8.2 Pointcut API in Spring

Let's look at how Spring handles the crucial pointcut concept.

8.2.1 Concepts

Spring's pointcut model enables pointcut reuse independent of advice types. It's
possible to target different advice using the same pointcut.

The org.springframework.aop.Pointcut interface is the central interface, used to

target advices to particular classes and methods. The complete interface is shown
below:

public interface Pointcut {

314
 ClassFilter getClassFilter();

MethodMatcher getMethodMatcher();

Splitting the Pointcut interface into two parts allows reuse of class and method
matching parts, and fine-grained composition operations (such as performing a
"union" with another method matcher).

The ClassFilter interface is used to restrict the pointcut to a given set of target

classes. If the matches() method always returns true, all target classes will be
matched:

public interface ClassFilter {

boolean matches(Class clazz);

}

The MethodMatcher interface is normally more important. The complete interface is

shown below:

public interface MethodMatcher {

boolean matches(Method m, Class targetClass);

boolean isRuntime();

boolean matches(Method m, Class targetClass, Object[] args);

}

The matches(Method, Class) method is used to test whether this pointcut will ever

match a given method on a target class. This evaluation can be performed when
an AOP proxy is created, to avoid the need for a test on every method invocation.
If the 2-argument matches method returns true for a given method, and
the isRuntime() method for the MethodMatcher returns true, the 3-argument
matches method will be invoked on every method invocation. This enables a
pointcut to look at the arguments passed to the method invocation immediately
before the target advice is to execute.

Most MethodMatchers are static, meaning that their isRuntime() method returns false.

In this case, the 3-argument matches method will never be invoked.

315
 Tip

If possible, try to make pointcuts static, allowing the AOP framework to cache the results of
pointcut evaluation when an AOP proxy is created.

8.2.2 Operations on pointcuts

Spring supports operations on pointcuts: notably, union and intersection.

 Union means the methods that either pointcut matches.

 Intersection means the methods that both pointcuts match.

 Union is usually more useful.

 Pointcuts can be composed using the static methods in

the org.springframework.aop.support.Pointcuts class, or using
theComposablePointcut class in the same package. However, using AspectJ
pointcut expressions is usually a simpler approach.

8.2.3 AspectJ expression pointcuts

Since 2.0, the most important type of pointcut used by Spring

is org.springframework.aop.aspectj.AspectJExpressionPointcut. This is a pointcut that
uses an AspectJ supplied library to parse an AspectJ pointcut expression string.

See the previous chapter for a discussion of supported AspectJ pointcut primitives.

8.2.4 Convenience pointcut implementations

Spring provides several convenient pointcut implementations. Some can be used

out of the box; others are intended to be subclassed in application-specific
pointcuts.

8.2.4.1 Static pointcuts

Static pointcuts are based on method and target class, and cannot take into
account the method's arguments. Static pointcuts are sufficient - and best - for
most usages. It's possible for Spring to evaluate a static pointcut only once, when
a method is first invoked: after that, there is no need to evaluate the pointcut again
with each method invocation.

Let's consider some static pointcut implementations included with Spring.

316
Regular expression pointcuts

One obvious way to specify static pointcuts is regular expressions. Several AOP
frameworks besides Spring make this
possible.org.springframework.aop.support.JdkRegexpMethodPointcut is a generic
regular expression pointcut, using the regular expression support in JDK 1.4+.

Using the JdkRegexpMethodPointcut class, you can provide a list of pattern Strings. If

any of these is a match, the pointcut will evaluate to true. (So the result is
effectively the union of these pointcuts.)

The usage is shown below:

<bean id="settersAndAbsquatulatePointcut"
class="org.springframework.aop.support.JdkRegexpMethodPointcut">
<property name="patterns">
<list>
<value>.*set.*</value>
<value>.*absquatulate</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>

Spring provides a convenience class, RegexpMethodPointcutAdvisor, that allows us to

also reference an Advice (remember that an Advice can be an interceptor, before
advice, throws advice etc.). Behind the scenes, Spring will use
a JdkRegexpMethodPointcut. UsingRegexpMethodPointcutAdvisor simplifies wiring, as
the one bean encapsulates both pointcut and advice, as shown below:

<bean id="settersAndAbsquatulateAdvisor"
class="org.springframework.aop.support.RegexpMethodPointcutAdvisor">
<property name="advice">
<ref local="beanNameOfAopAllianceInterceptor"/>
</property>
<property name="patterns">
<list>
<value>.*set.*</value>
<value>.*absquatulate</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>

RegexpMethodPointcutAdvisor can be used with any Advice type.

Attribute-driven pointcuts

317
An important type of static pointcut is a metadata-driven pointcut. This uses the
values of metadata attributes: typically, source-level metadata.

8.2.4.2 Dynamic pointcuts

Dynamic pointcuts are costlier to evaluate than static pointcuts. They take into
account method arguments, as well as static information. This means that they
must be evaluated with every method invocation; the result cannot be cached, as
arguments will vary.

The main example is the control flow pointcut.

Control flow pointcuts

Spring control flow pointcuts are conceptually similar to AspectJ cflow pointcuts,

although less powerful. (There is currently no way to specify that a pointcut
executes below a join point matched by another pointcut.) A control flow pointcut
matches the current call stack. For example, it might fire if the join point was
invoked by a method in the com.mycompany.web package, or by
the SomeCaller class. Control flow pointcuts are specified using
the org.springframework.aop.support.ControlFlowPointcut class.

Note

Control flow pointcuts are significantly more expensive to evaluate at runtime than even other
dynamic pointcuts. In Java 1.4, the cost is about 5 times that of other dynamic pointcuts.

8.2.5 Pointcut superclasses

Spring provides useful pointcut superclasses to help you to implement your own
pointcuts.

Because static pointcuts are most useful, you'll probably subclass

StaticMethodMatcherPointcut, as shown below. This requires implementing just
one abstract method (although it's possible to override other methods to customize
behavior):

class TestStaticPointcut extends StaticMethodMatcherPointcut {

public boolean matches(Method m, Class targetClass) {

// return true if custom criteria match
}
}

318
There are also superclasses for dynamic pointcuts.

You can use custom pointcuts with any advice type in Spring 1.0 RC2 and above.

8.2.6 Custom pointcuts

Because pointcuts in Spring AOP are Java classes, rather than language features (as in AspectJ) it's
possible to declare custom pointcuts, whether static or dynamic. Custom pointcuts in Spring can be
arbitrarily complex. However, using the AspectJ pointcut expression language is recommended if
possible.

Note

Later versions of Spring may offer support for "semantic pointcuts" as offered by JAC: for
example, "all methods that change instance variables in the target object."

8.3 Advice API in Spring

Let's now look at how Spring AOP handles advice.

8.3.1 Advice lifecycles

Each advice is a Spring bean. An advice instance can be shared across all
advised objects, or unique to each advised object. This corresponds toper-
class or per-instance advice.

Per-class advice is used most often. It is appropriate for generic advice such as
transaction advisors. These do not depend on the state of the proxied object or
add new state; they merely act on the method and arguments.

Per-instance advice is appropriate for introductions, to support mixins. In this case,

the advice adds state to the proxied object.

It's possible to use a mix of shared and per-instance advice in the same AOP
proxy.

8.3.2 Advice types in Spring

Spring provides several advice types out of the box, and is extensible to support
arbitrary advice types. Let us look at the basic concepts and standard advice
types.

319
8.3.2.1 Interception around advice

The most fundamental advice type in Spring is interception around advice.

Spring is compliant with the AOP Alliance interface for around advice using
method interception. MethodInterceptors implementing around advice should
implement the following interface:

public interface MethodInterceptor extends Interceptor {

Object invoke(MethodInvocation invocation) throws Throwable;

}

The MethodInvocation argument to the invoke() method exposes the method being

invoked; the target join point; the AOP proxy; and the arguments to the method.
The invoke() method should return the invocation's result: the return value of the
join point.

A simple MethodInterceptor implementation looks as follows:

public class DebugInterceptor implements MethodInterceptor {

public Object invoke(MethodInvocation invocation) throws Throwable {

System.out.println("Before: invocation=[" + invocation + "]");
Object rval = invocation.proceed();
System.out.println("Invocation returned");
return rval;
}
}

Note the call to the MethodInvocation's proceed() method. This proceeds down the

interceptor chain towards the join point. Most interceptors will invoke this method, and return its
return value. However, a MethodInterceptor, like any around advice, can return a different value or
throw an exception rather than invoke the proceed method. However, you don't want to do this without
good reason!

Note

MethodInterceptors offer interoperability with other AOP Alliance-compliant AOP

implementations. The other advice types discussed in the remainder of this section implement
common AOP concepts, but in a Spring-specific way. While there is an advantage in using the
most specific advice type, stick with MethodInterceptor around advice if you are likely to want to
run the aspect in another AOP framework. Note that pointcuts are not currently interoperable
between frameworks, and the AOP Alliance does not currently define pointcut interfaces.

320
8.3.2.2 Before advice

A simpler advice type is a before advice. This does not need

a MethodInvocation object, since it will only be called before entering the method.

The main advantage of a before advice is that there is no need to invoke

the proceed() method, and therefore no possibility of inadvertently failing to
proceed down the interceptor chain.

The MethodBeforeAdvice interface is shown below. (Spring's API design would allow

for field before advice, although the usual objects apply to field interception and it's
unlikely that Spring will ever implement it).

public interface MethodBeforeAdvice extends BeforeAdvice {

void before(Method m, Object[] args, Object target) throws Throwable;

}

Note the return type is void. Before advice can insert custom behavior before the
join point executes, but cannot change the return value. If a before advice throws
an exception, this will abort further execution of the interceptor chain. The
exception will propagate back up the interceptor chain. If it is unchecked, or on the
signature of the invoked method, it will be passed directly to the client; otherwise it
will be wrapped in an unchecked exception by the AOP proxy.

An example of a before advice in Spring, which counts all method invocations:

public class CountingBeforeAdvice implements MethodBeforeAdvice {

private int count;

public void before(Method m, Object[] args, Object target) throws Throwable {

++count;
}

public int getCount() {

return count;
}
}

Tip

Before advice can be used with any pointcut.

321
8.3.2.3 Throws advice

Throws advice is invoked after the return of the join point if the join point threw an
exception. Spring offers typed throws advice. Note that this means that
the org.springframework.aop.ThrowsAdvice interface does not contain any methods: It
is a tag interface identifying that the given object implements one or more typed
throws advice methods. These should be in the form of:

afterThrowing([Method, args, target], subclassOfThrowable)

Only the last argument is required. The method signatures may have either one or
four arguments, depending on whether the advice method is interested in the
method and arguments. The following classes are examples of throws advice.

The advice below is invoked if a RemoteException is thrown (including subclasses):

public class RemoteThrowsAdvice implements ThrowsAdvice {

public void afterThrowing(RemoteException ex) throws Throwable {

// Do something with remote exception
}
}

The following advice is invoked if a ServletException is thrown. Unlike the above

advice, it declares 4 arguments, so that it has access to the invoked method,
method arguments and target object:

public class ServletThrowsAdviceWithArguments implements ThrowsAdvice {

public void afterThrowing(Method m, Object[] args, Object target,

ServletException ex) {
// Do something with all arguments
}
}

The final example illustrates how these two methods could be used in a single
class, which handles both RemoteException and ServletException. Any number of
throws advice methods can be combined in a single class.

public static class CombinedThrowsAdvice implements ThrowsAdvice {

public void afterThrowing(RemoteException ex) throws Throwable {

// Do something with remote exception

322
 }

public void afterThrowing(Method m, Object[] args, Object target,

ServletException ex) {
// Do something with all arguments
}
}

Note: If a throws-advice method throws an exception itself, it will override the

original exception (i.e. change the exception thrown to the user). The overriding
exception will typically be a RuntimeException; this is compatible with any method
signature. However, if a throws-advice method throws a checked exception, it will
have to match the declared exceptions of the target method and is hence to some
degree coupled to specific target method signatures. Do not throw an undeclared
checked exception that is incompatible with the target method's signature!

Tip

Throws advice can be used with any pointcut.

8.3.2.4 After Returning advice

An after returning advice in Spring must implement

the org.springframework.aop.AfterReturningAdvice interface, shown below:

public interface AfterReturningAdvice extends Advice {

void afterReturning(Object returnValue, Method m, Object[] args, Object

target)
throws Throwable;
}

An after returning advice has access to the return value (which it cannot modify),
invoked method, methods arguments and target.

The following after returning advice counts all successful method invocations that
have not thrown exceptions:

public class CountingAfterReturningAdvice implements AfterReturningAdvice {

private int count;

public void afterReturning(Object returnValue, Method m, Object[] args, Object

target)
throws Throwable {

323
 ++count;
}

public int getCount() {

return count;
}
}

This advice doesn't change the execution path. If it throws an exception, this will be thrown up the
interceptor chain instead of the return value.

Tip

After returning advice can be used with any pointcut.

8.3.2.5 Introduction advice

Spring treats introduction advice as a special kind of interception advice.

Introduction requires an IntroductionAdvisor, and an IntroductionInterceptor,

implementing the following interface:

public interface IntroductionInterceptor extends MethodInterceptor {

boolean implementsInterface(Class intf);

}

The invoke() method inherited from the AOP Alliance MethodInterceptor interface

must implement the introduction: that is, if the invoked method is on an introduced
interface, the introduction interceptor is responsible for handling the method call - it
cannot invoke proceed().

Introduction advice cannot be used with any pointcut, as it applies only at class,
rather than method, level. You can only use introduction advice with
the IntroductionAdvisor, which has the following methods:

public interface IntroductionAdvisor extends Advisor, IntroductionInfo {

ClassFilter getClassFilter();

void validateInterfaces() throws IllegalArgumentException;

}

public interface IntroductionInfo {

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 Class[] getInterfaces();
}

There is no MethodMatcher, and hence no Pointcut, associated with introduction

advice. Only class filtering is logical.

The getInterfaces() method returns the interfaces introduced by this advisor.

The validateInterfaces() method is used internally to see whether or not the

introduced interfaces can be implemented by the
configuredIntroductionInterceptor .

Let's look at a simple example from the Spring test suite. Let's suppose we want to
introduce the following interface to one or more objects:

public interface Lockable {

void lock();
void unlock();
boolean locked();
}

This illustrates a mixin. We want to be able to cast advised objects to Lockable,

whatever their type, and call lock and unlock methods. If we call the lock() method,
we want all setter methods to throw a LockedException. Thus we can add an aspect
that provides the ability to make objects immutable, without them having any
knowledge of it: a good example of AOP.

Firstly, we'll need an IntroductionInterceptor that does the heavy lifting. In this

case, we extend
theorg.springframework.aop.support.DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor convenience
class. We could implement IntroductionInterceptor directly, but
using DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor is best for most cases.

The DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor is designed to delegate an introduction to an

actual implementation of the introduced interface(s), concealing the use of
interception to do so. The delegate can be set to any object using a constructor
argument; the default delegate (when the no-arg constructor is used) is this. Thus
in the example below, the delegate is the LockMixin subclass
of DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor. Given a delegate (by default itself),
a DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor instance looks for all interfaces implemented
by the delegate (other than IntroductionInterceptor), and will support introductions
against any of them. It's possible for subclasses such as LockMixin to call

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thesuppressInterface(Class intf) method to suppress interfaces that should not be
exposed. However, no matter how many interfaces anIntroductionInterceptor is
prepared to support, the IntroductionAdvisor used will control which interfaces are
actually exposed. An introduced interface will conceal any implementation of the
same interface by the target.

Thus LockMixin subclasses DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor and implements

Lockable itself. The superclass automatically picks up that Lockable can be
supported for introduction, so we don't need to specify that. We could introduce
any number of interfaces in this way.

Note the use of the locked instance variable. This effectively adds additional state
to that held in the target object.

public class LockMixin extends DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor

implements Lockable {

private boolean locked;

public void lock() {

this.locked = true;
}

public void unlock() {

this.locked = false;
}

public boolean locked() {

return this.locked;
}

public Object invoke(MethodInvocation invocation) throws Throwable {

if (locked() && invocation.getMethod().getName().indexOf("set") == 0)
throw new LockedException();
return super.invoke(invocation);
}

Often it isn't necessary to override the invoke() method:

the DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor implementation - which calls the delegate
method if the method is introduced, otherwise proceeds towards the join point - is
usually sufficient. In the present case, we need to add a check: no setter method
can be invoked if in locked mode.

The introduction advisor required is simple. All it needs to do is hold a

distinct LockMixin instance, and specify the introduced interfaces - in this case,

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just Lockable. A more complex example might take a reference to the introduction
interceptor (which would be defined as a prototype): in this case, there's no
configuration relevant for a LockMixin, so we simply create it using new.

public class LockMixinAdvisor extends DefaultIntroductionAdvisor {

public LockMixinAdvisor() {
super(new LockMixin(), Lockable.class);
}
}

We can apply this advisor very simply: it requires no configuration. (However,

it is necessary: It's impossible to use an IntroductionInterceptorwithout
an IntroductionAdvisor.) As usual with introductions, the advisor must be per-
instance, as it is stateful. We need a different instance of LockMixinAdvisor, and
hence LockMixin, for each advised object. The advisor comprises part of the
advised object's state.

We can apply this advisor programmatically, using

the Advised.addAdvisor() method, or (the recommended way) in XML configuration,
like any other advisor. All proxy creation choices discussed below, including "auto
proxy creators," correctly handle introductions and stateful mixins.

8.4 Advisor API in Spring

In Spring, an Advisor is an aspect that contains just a single advice object

associated with a pointcut expression.

Apart from the special case of introductions, any advisor can be used with any
advice.org.springframework.aop.support.DefaultPointcutAdvisor is the most
commonly used advisor class. For example, it can be used with
aMethodInterceptor, BeforeAdvice or ThrowsAdvice.

It is possible to mix advisor and advice types in Spring in the same AOP proxy. For
example, you could use a interception around advice, throws advice and before
advice in one proxy configuration: Spring will automatically create the necessary
interceptor chain.

8.5 Using the ProxyFactoryBean to create AOP proxies

If you're using the Spring IoC container (an ApplicationContext or BeanFactory) for your business
objects - and you should be! - you will want to use one of Spring's AOP FactoryBeans. (Remember
that a factory bean introduces a layer of indirection, enabling it to create objects of a different type.)

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 Note

The Spring 2.0 AOP support also uses factory beans under the covers.

The basic way to create an AOP proxy in Spring is to use

the org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactoryBean. This gives complete
control over the pointcuts and advice that will apply, and their ordering. However,
there are simpler options that are preferable if you don't need such control.

8.5.1 Basics

The ProxyFactoryBean, like other Spring FactoryBean implementations, introduces a

level of indirection. If you define a ProxyFactoryBean with name foo, what objects
referencing foo see is not the ProxyFactoryBean instance itself, but an object created
by the ProxyFactoryBean's implementation of the getObject() method. This method
will create an AOP proxy wrapping a target object.

One of the most important benefits of using a ProxyFactoryBean or another IoC-

aware class to create AOP proxies, is that it means that advices and pointcuts can
also be managed by IoC. This is a powerful feature, enabling certain approaches
that are hard to achieve with other AOP frameworks. For example, an advice may
itself reference application objects (besides the target, which should be available in
any AOP framework), benefiting from all the pluggability provided by Dependency
Injection.

8.5.2 JavaBean properties

In common with most FactoryBean implementations provided with Spring,

the ProxyFactoryBean class is itself a JavaBean. Its properties are used to:

 Specify the target you want to proxy.

 Specify whether to use CGLIB (see below and also Section 8.5.3, “JDK- and
CGLIB-based proxies”).

Some key properties are inherited

from org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyConfig (the superclass for all AOP
proxy factories in Spring). These key properties include:

 proxyTargetClass: true ifthe target class is to be proxied, rather than the

target class' interfaces. If this property value is set to true, then CGLIB
proxies will be created (but see also Section 8.5.3, “JDK- and CGLIB-based
proxies”).

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  optimize: controls whether or not aggressive optimizations are applied to
proxies created via CGLIB. One should not blithely use this setting unless
one fully understands how the relevant AOP proxy handles optimization.
This is currently used only for CGLIB proxies; it has no effect with JDK
dynamic proxies.

 frozen: if a proxy configuration is frozen, then changes to the configuration

are no longer allowed. This is useful both as a slight optimization and for
those cases when you don't want callers to be able to manipulate the proxy
(via the Advised interface) after the proxy has been created. The default
value of this property is false, so changes such as adding additional advice
are allowed.

 exposeProxy: determines whether or not the current proxy should be exposed

in a ThreadLocal so that it can be accessed by the target. If a target needs to
obtain the proxy and the exposeProxy property is set to true, the target can
use the AopContext.currentProxy() method.

Other properties specific to ProxyFactoryBean include:

 proxyInterfaces: array of String interface names. If this isn't supplied, a

CGLIB proxy for the target class will be used (but see alsoSection 8.5.3,
“JDK- and CGLIB-based proxies”).
 interceptorNames: String array of Advisor, interceptor or other advice names to
apply. Ordering is significant, on a first come-first served basis. That is to
say that the first interceptor in the list will be the first to be able to intercept
the invocation.

The names are bean names in the current factory, including bean names
from ancestor factories. You can't mention bean references here since doing
so would result in the ProxyFactoryBean ignoring the singleton setting of the
advice.

You can append an interceptor name with an asterisk ( *). This will result in
the application of all advisor beans with names starting with the part before
the asterisk to be applied. An example of using this feature can be found
in Section 8.5.6, “Using 'global' advisors”.

 singleton: whether or not the factory should return a single object, no matter
how often the getObject() method is called.
Several FactoryBeanimplementations offer such a method. The default value

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 is true. If you want to use stateful advice - for example, for stateful mixins -
use prototype advices along with a singleton value of false.

8.5.3 JDK- and CGLIB-based proxies

This section serves as the definitive documentation on how

the ProxyFactoryBean chooses to create one of either a JDK- and CGLIB-based proxy for a
particular target object (that is to be proxied).

Note

The behavior of the ProxyFactoryBean with regard to creating JDK- or CGLIB-based proxies

changed between versions 1.2.x and 2.0 of Spring. The ProxyFactoryBean now exhibits similar
semantics with regard to auto-detecting interfaces as those of
the TransactionProxyFactoryBean class.

If the class of a target object that is to be proxied (hereafter simply referred to as

the target class) doesn't implement any interfaces, then a CGLIB-based proxy will
be created. This is the easiest scenario, because JDK proxies are interface based,
and no interfaces means JDK proxying isn't even possible. One simply plugs in the
target bean, and specifies the list of interceptors via the interceptorNames property.
Note that a CGLIB-based proxy will be created even if
the proxyTargetClass property of the ProxyFactoryBean has been set to false.
(Obviously this makes no sense, and is best removed from the bean definition
because it is at best redundant, and at worst confusing.)

If the target class implements one (or more) interfaces, then the type of proxy that
is created depends on the configuration of the ProxyFactoryBean.

If the proxyTargetClass property of the ProxyFactoryBean has been set to true, then a

CGLIB-based proxy will be created. This makes sense, and is in keeping with the
principle of least surprise. Even if the proxyInterfaces property of
the ProxyFactoryBean has been set to one or more fully qualified interface names,
the fact that the proxyTargetClass property is set to true will cause CGLIB-based
proxying to be in effect.

If the proxyInterfaces property of the ProxyFactoryBean has been set to one or more

fully qualified interface names, then a JDK-based proxy will be created. The
created proxy will implement all of the interfaces that were specified in
the proxyInterfaces property; if the target class happens to implement a whole lot
more interfaces than those specified in the proxyInterfaces property, that is all well

330
and good but those additional interfaces will not be implemented by the returned
proxy.

If the proxyInterfaces property of the ProxyFactoryBean has not been set, but the

target class does implement one (or more) interfaces, then theProxyFactoryBean will
auto-detect the fact that the target class does actually implement at least one
interface, and a JDK-based proxy will be created. The interfaces that are actually
proxied will be all of the interfaces that the target class implements; in effect, this is
the same as simply supplying a list of each and every interface that the target
class implements to the proxyInterfaces property. However, it is significantly less
work, and less prone to typos.

8.5.4 Proxying interfaces

Let's look at a simple example of ProxyFactoryBean in action. This example involves:

 A target bean that will be proxied. This is the "personTarget" bean definition

in the example below.
 An Advisor and an Interceptor used to provide advice.

 An AOP proxy bean definition specifying the target object (the personTarget
bean) and the interfaces to proxy, along with the advices to apply.

<bean id="personTarget" class="com.mycompany.PersonImpl">

<property name="name" value="Tony"/>
<property name="age" value="51"/>
</bean>

<bean id="myAdvisor" class="com.mycompany.MyAdvisor">

<property name="someProperty" value="Custom string property value"/>
</bean>

<bean id="debugInterceptor"
class="org.springframework.aop.interceptor.DebugInterceptor">
</bean>

<bean id="person"
class="org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="proxyInterfaces" value="com.mycompany.Person"/>

<property name="target" ref="personTarget"/>

<property name="interceptorNames">
<list>
<value>myAdvisor</value>
<value>debugInterceptor</value>
</list>
</property>

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</bean>

Note that the interceptorNames property takes a list of String: the bean names of the
interceptor or advisors in the current factory. Advisors, interceptors, before, after returning and throws
advice objects can be used. The ordering of advisors is significant.

Note

You might be wondering why the list doesn't hold bean references. The reason for this is that if
the ProxyFactoryBean's singleton property is set to false, it must be able to return independent
proxy instances. If any of the advisors is itself a prototype, an independent instance would need
to be returned, so it's necessary to be able to obtain an instance of the prototype from the factory;
holding a reference isn't sufficient.

The "person" bean definition above can be used in place of a Person

implementation, as follows:

Person person = (Person) factory.getBean("person");

Other beans in the same IoC context can express a strongly typed dependency on
it, as with an ordinary Java object:

<bean id="personUser" class="com.mycompany.PersonUser">

<property name="person"><ref local="person"/></property>
</bean>

The PersonUser class in this example would expose a property of type Person. As

far as it's concerned, the AOP proxy can be used transparently in place of a "real"
person implementation. However, its class would be a dynamic proxy class. It
would be possible to cast it to the Advised interface (discussed below).

It's possible to conceal the distinction between target and proxy using an
anonymous inner bean, as follows. Only the ProxyFactoryBean definition is different;
the advice is included only for completeness:

<bean id="myAdvisor" class="com.mycompany.MyAdvisor">

<property name="someProperty" value="Custom string property value"/>
</bean>

<bean id="debugInterceptor"
class="org.springframework.aop.interceptor.DebugInterceptor"/>

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<bean id="person" class="org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="proxyInterfaces" value="com.mycompany.Person"/>
<!-- Use inner bean, not local reference to target -->
<property name="target">
<bean class="com.mycompany.PersonImpl">
<property name="name" value="Tony"/>
<property name="age" value="51"/>
</bean>
</property>
<property name="interceptorNames">
<list>
<value>myAdvisor</value>
<value>debugInterceptor</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>

This has the advantage that there's only one object of type Person: useful if we
want to prevent users of the application context from obtaining a reference to the
un-advised object, or need to avoid any ambiguity with Spring IoC autowiring.
There's also arguably an advantage in that the ProxyFactoryBean definition is self-
contained. However, there are times when being able to obtain the un-advised
target from the factory might actually be an advantage: for example, in certain test
scenarios.

8.5.5 Proxying classes

What if you need to proxy a class, rather than one or more interfaces?

Imagine that in our example above, there was no Person interface: we needed to

advise a class called Person that didn't implement any business interface. In this
case, you can configure Spring to use CGLIB proxying, rather than dynamic
proxies. Simply set the proxyTargetClass property on the ProxyFactoryBean above
to true. While it's best to program to interfaces, rather than classes, the ability to
advise classes that don't implement interfaces can be useful when working with
legacy code. (In general, Spring isn't prescriptive. While it makes it easy to apply
good practices, it avoids forcing a particular approach.)

If you want to, you can force the use of CGLIB in any case, even if you do have
interfaces.

CGLIB proxying works by generating a subclass of the target class at runtime.

Spring configures this generated subclass to delegate method calls to the original
target: the subclass is used to implement the Decorator pattern, weaving in the
advice.

333
CGLIB proxying should generally be transparent to users. However, there are
some issues to consider:

 Final methods can't be advised, as they can't be overridden.

 You'll need the CGLIB 2 binaries on your classpath; dynamic proxies are
available with the JDK.

There's little performance difference between CGLIB proxying and dynamic

proxies. As of Spring 1.0, dynamic proxies are slightly faster. However, this may
change in the future. Performance should not be a decisive consideration in this
case.

8.5.6 Using 'global' advisors

By appending an asterisk to an interceptor name, all advisors with bean names

matching the part before the asterisk, will be added to the advisor chain. This can
come in handy if you need to add a standard set of 'global' advisors:

<bean id="proxy" class="org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactoryBean">

<property name="target" ref="service"/>
<property name="interceptorNames">
<list>
<value>global*</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="global_debug"
class="org.springframework.aop.interceptor.DebugInterceptor"/>
<bean id="global_performance"
class="org.springframework.aop.interceptor.PerformanceMonitorInterceptor"/>

8.6 Concise proxy definitions

Especially when defining transactional proxies, you may end up with many similar
proxy definitions. The use of parent and child bean definitions, along with inner
bean definitions, can result in much cleaner and more concise proxy definitions.

First a parent, template, bean definition is created for the proxy:

<bean id="txProxyTemplate" abstract="true"

class="org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="transactionManager" ref="transactionManager"/>
<property name="transactionAttributes">

334
 <props>
<prop key="*">PROPAGATION_REQUIRED</prop>
</props>
</property>
</bean>

This will never be instantiated itself, so may actually be incomplete. Then each
proxy which needs to be created is just a child bean definition, which wraps the
target of the proxy as an inner bean definition, since the target will never be used
on its own anyway.

<bean id="myService" parent="txProxyTemplate">

<property name="target">
<bean class="org.springframework.samples.MyServiceImpl">
</bean>
</property>
</bean>

It is of course possible to override properties from the parent template, such as in

this case, the transaction propagation settings:

<bean id="mySpecialService" parent="txProxyTemplate">

<property name="target">
<bean class="org.springframework.samples.MySpecialServiceImpl">
</bean>
</property>
<property name="transactionAttributes">
<props>
<prop key="get*">PROPAGATION_REQUIRED,readOnly</prop>
<prop key="find*">PROPAGATION_REQUIRED,readOnly</prop>
<prop key="load*">PROPAGATION_REQUIRED,readOnly</prop>
<prop key="store*">PROPAGATION_REQUIRED</prop>
</props>
</property>
</bean>

Note that in the example above, we have explicitly marked the parent bean
definition as abstract by using the abstract attribute, as describedpreviously, so
that it may not actually ever be instantiated. Application contexts (but not simple
bean factories) will by default pre-instantiate all singletons. It is therefore important
(at least for singleton beans) that if you have a (parent) bean definition which you
intend to use only as a template, and this definition specifies a class, you must
make sure to set the abstract attribute to true, otherwise the application context will
actually try to pre-instantiate it.

335
8.7 Creating AOP proxies programmatically with the ProxyFactory

It's easy to create AOP proxies programmatically using Spring. This enables you to
use Spring AOP without dependency on Spring IoC.

The following listing shows creation of a proxy for a target object, with one
interceptor and one advisor. The interfaces implemented by the target object will
automatically be proxied:

ProxyFactory factory = new ProxyFactory(myBusinessInterfaceImpl);

factory.addAdvice(myMethodInterceptor);
factory.addAdvisor(myAdvisor);
MyBusinessInterface tb = (MyBusinessInterface) factory.getProxy();

The first step is to construct an object of

type org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactory. You can create this with a
target object, as in the above example, or specify the interfaces to be proxied in an
alternate constructor.

You can add advices (with interceptors as a specialized kind of advice) and/or
advisors, and manipulate them for the life of the ProxyFactory. If you add an
IntroductionInterceptionAroundAdvisor, you can cause the proxy to implement
additional interfaces.

There are also convenience methods on ProxyFactory (inherited

from AdvisedSupport) which allow you to add other advice types such as before and throws
advice. AdvisedSupport is the superclass of both ProxyFactory and ProxyFactoryBean.

Tip

Integrating AOP proxy creation with the IoC framework is best practice in most applications. We
recommend that you externalize configuration from Java code with AOP, as in general.

8.8 Manipulating advised objects

However you create AOP proxies, you can manipulate them using
the org.springframework.aop.framework.Advised interface. Any AOP proxy can be
cast to this interface, whichever other interfaces it implements. This interface
includes the following methods:

Advisor[] getAdvisors();

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void addAdvice(Advice advice) throws AopConfigException;

void addAdvice(int pos, Advice advice)

throws AopConfigException;

void addAdvisor(Advisor advisor) throws AopConfigException;

void addAdvisor(int pos, Advisor advisor) throws AopConfigException;

int indexOf(Advisor advisor);

boolean removeAdvisor(Advisor advisor) throws AopConfigException;

void removeAdvisor(int index) throws AopConfigException;

boolean replaceAdvisor(Advisor a, Advisor b) throws AopConfigException;

boolean isFrozen();

The getAdvisors() method will return an Advisor for every advisor, interceptor or

other advice type that has been added to the factory. If you added an Advisor, the
returned advisor at this index will be the object that you added. If you added an
interceptor or other advice type, Spring will have wrapped this in an advisor with a
pointcut that always returns true. Thus if you added a MethodInterceptor, the
advisor returned for this index will be an DefaultPointcutAdvisor returning
your MethodInterceptor and a pointcut that matches all classes and methods.

The addAdvisor() methods can be used to add any Advisor. Usually the advisor

holding pointcut and advice will be the genericDefaultPointcutAdvisor, which can be
used with any advice or pointcut (but not for introductions).

By default, it's possible to add or remove advisors or interceptors even once a

proxy has been created. The only restriction is that it's impossible to add or
remove an introduction advisor, as existing proxies from the factory will not show
the interface change. (You can obtain a new proxy from the factory to avoid this
problem.)

A simple example of casting an AOP proxy to the Advised interface and examining

and manipulating its advice:

Advised advised = (Advised) myObject;

Advisor[] advisors = advised.getAdvisors();
int oldAdvisorCount = advisors.length;
System.out.println(oldAdvisorCount + " advisors");

// Add an advice like an interceptor without a pointcut

337
// Will match all proxied methods
// Can use for interceptors, before, after returning or throws advice
advised.addAdvice(new DebugInterceptor());

// Add selective advice using a pointcut

advised.addAdvisor(new DefaultPointcutAdvisor(mySpecialPointcut, myAdvice));

assertEquals("Added two advisors",

oldAdvisorCount + 2, advised.getAdvisors().length);

Note

It's questionable whether it's advisable (no pun intended) to modify advice on a business object in
production, although there are no doubt legitimate usage cases. However, it can be very useful in
development: for example, in tests. I have sometimes found it very useful to be able to add test
code in the form of an interceptor or other advice, getting inside a method invocation I want to
test. (For example, the advice can get inside a transaction created for that method: for example, to
run SQL to check that a database was correctly updated, before marking the transaction for roll
back.)

Depending on how you created the proxy, you can usually set a frozen flag, in
which case the Advised isFrozen() method will return true, and any attempts to
modify advice through addition or removal will result in an AopConfigException. The
ability to freeze the state of an advised object is useful in some cases, for
example, to prevent calling code removing a security interceptor. It may also be
used in Spring 1.1 to allow aggressive optimization if runtime advice modification is
known not to be required.

8.9 Using the "autoproxy" facility

So far we've considered explicit creation of AOP proxies using

a ProxyFactoryBean or similar factory bean.

Spring also allows us to use "autoproxy" bean definitions, which can automatically
proxy selected bean definitions. This is built on Spring "bean post processor"
infrastructure, which enables modification of any bean definition as the container
loads.

In this model, you set up some special bean definitions in your XML bean definition
file to configure the auto proxy infrastructure. This allows you just to declare the
targets eligible for autoproxying: you don't need to use ProxyFactoryBean.

There are two ways to do this:

338
  Using an autoproxy creator that refers to specific beans in the current
context.
 A special case of autoproxy creation that deserves to be considered
separately; autoproxy creation driven by source-level metadata attributes.

8.9.1 Autoproxy bean definitions

The org.springframework.aop.framework.autoproxy package provides the following

standard autoproxy creators.

8.9.1.1 BeanNameAutoProxyCreator

The BeanNameAutoProxyCreator class is a BeanPostProcessor that automatically creates

AOP proxies for beans with names matching literal values or wildcards.

<bean
class="org.springframework.aop.framework.autoproxy.BeanNameAutoProxyCreator">
<property name="beanNames" value="jdk*,onlyJdk"/>
<property name="interceptorNames">
<list>
<value>myInterceptor</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>

As with ProxyFactoryBean, there is an interceptorNames property rather than a list of

interceptors, to allow correct behavior for prototype advisors. Named "interceptors"
can be advisors or any advice type.

As with auto proxying in general, the main point of

using BeanNameAutoProxyCreator is to apply the same configuration consistently to
multiple objects, with minimal volume of configuration. It is a popular choice for
applying declarative transactions to multiple objects.

Bean definitions whose names match, such as "jdkMyBean" and "onlyJdk" in the
above example, are plain old bean definitions with the target class. An AOP proxy
will be created automatically by the BeanNameAutoProxyCreator. The same advice will
be applied to all matching beans. Note that if advisors are used (rather than the
interceptor in the above example), the pointcuts may apply differently to different
beans.

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8.9.1.2 DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator

A more general and extremely powerful auto proxy creator

is DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator. This will automagically apply eligible advisors in
the current context, without the need to include specific bean names in the
autoproxy advisor's bean definition. It offers the same merit of consistent
configuration and avoidance of duplication as BeanNameAutoProxyCreator.

Using this mechanism involves:

 Specifying a DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator bean definition.

 Specifying any number of Advisors in the same or related contexts. Note that
these must be Advisors, not just interceptors or other advices. This is
necessary because there must be a pointcut to evaluate, to check the
eligibility of each advice to candidate bean definitions.

The DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator will automatically evaluate the pointcut

contained in each advisor, to see what (if any) advice it should apply to each
business object (such as "businessObject1" and "businessObject2" in the
example).

This means that any number of advisors can be applied automatically to each
business object. If no pointcut in any of the advisors matches any method in a
business object, the object will not be proxied. As bean definitions are added for
new business objects, they will automatically be proxied if necessary.

Autoproxying in general has the advantage of making it impossible for callers or

dependencies to obtain an un-advised object. Calling getBean("businessObject1")
on this ApplicationContext will return an AOP proxy, not the target business object.
(The "inner bean" idiom shown earlier also offers this benefit.)

<bean
class="org.springframework.aop.framework.autoproxy.DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator"
/>

<bean
class="org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionAttributeSourceAdvis
or">
<property name="transactionInterceptor" ref="transactionInterceptor"/>
</bean>

<bean id="customAdvisor" class="com.mycompany.MyAdvisor"/>

<bean id="businessObject1" class="com.mycompany.BusinessObject1">

<!-- Properties omitted -->

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</bean>

<bean id="businessObject2" class="com.mycompany.BusinessObject2"/>

The DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator is very useful if you want to apply the same

advice consistently to many business objects. Once the infrastructure definitions
are in place, you can simply add new business objects without including specific
proxy configuration. You can also drop in additional aspects very easily - for
example, tracing or performance monitoring aspects - with minimal change to
configuration.

The DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator offers support for filtering (using a naming

convention so that only certain advisors are evaluated, allowing use of multiple,
differently configured, AdvisorAutoProxyCreators in the same factory) and
ordering. Advisors can implement theorg.springframework.core.Ordered interface to
ensure correct ordering if this is an issue. The TransactionAttributeSourceAdvisor
used in the above example has a configurable order value; the default setting is
unordered.

8.9.1.3 AbstractAdvisorAutoProxyCreator

This is the superclass of DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator. You can create your

own autoproxy creators by subclassing this class, in the unlikely event that advisor
definitions offer insufficient customization to the behavior of the
framework DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator.

8.9.2 Using metadata-driven auto-proxying

A particularly important type of autoproxying is driven by metadata. This produces

a similar programming model to .NET ServicedComponents. Instead of using XML
deployment descriptors as in EJB, configuration for transaction management and
other enterprise services is held in source-level attributes.

In this case, you use the DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator, in combination with

Advisors that understand metadata attributes. The metadata specifics are held in
the pointcut part of the candidate advisors, rather than in the autoproxy creation
class itself.

This is really a special case of the DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator, but deserves

consideration on its own. (The metadata-aware code is in the pointcuts contained
in the advisors, not the AOP framework itself.)

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The /attributes directory of the JPetStore sample application shows the use of
attribute-driven autoproxying. In this case, there's no need to use
the TransactionProxyFactoryBean. Simply defining transactional attributes on
business objects is sufficient, because of the use of metadata-aware pointcuts.
The bean definitions include the following code, in /WEB-
INF/declarativeServices.xml. Note that this is generic, and can be used outside the
JPetStore:

<bean
class="org.springframework.aop.framework.autoproxy.DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator"
/>

<bean
class="org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionAttributeSourceAdvis
or">
<property name="transactionInterceptor" ref="transactionInterceptor"/>
</bean>

<bean id="transactionInterceptor"
class="org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionInterceptor">
<property name="transactionManager" ref="transactionManager"/>
<property name="transactionAttributeSource">
<bean
class="org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.AttributesTransactionAttributeS
ource">
<property name="attributes" ref="attributes"/>
</bean>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="attributes"
class="org.springframework.metadata.commons.CommonsAttributes"/>

The DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator bean definition (the name is not significant,

hence it can even be omitted) will pick up all eligible pointcuts in the current
application context. In this case, the "transactionAdvisor" bean definition, of
type TransactionAttributeSourceAdvisor, will apply to classes or methods carrying a
transaction attribute. The TransactionAttributeSourceAdvisor depends on a
TransactionInterceptor, via constructor dependency. The example resolves this via
autowiring. The AttributesTransactionAttributeSource depends on an
implementation of theorg.springframework.metadata.Attributes interface. In this
fragment, the "attributes" bean satisfies this, using the Jakarta Commons
Attributes API to obtain attribute information. (The application code must have
been compiled using the Commons Attributes compilation task.)

The /annotation directory of the JPetStore sample application contains an

analogous example for auto-proxying driven by JDK 1.5+ annotations. The

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following configuration enables automatic detection of
Spring's Transactional annotation, leading to implicit proxies for beans containing
that annotation:

<bean
class="org.springframework.aop.framework.autoproxy.DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator"
/>

<bean
class="org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionAttributeSourceAdvis
or">
<property name="transactionInterceptor" ref="transactionInterceptor"/>
</bean>

<bean id="transactionInterceptor"
class="org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionInterceptor">
<property name="transactionManager" ref="transactionManager"/>
<property name="transactionAttributeSource">
<bean
class="org.springframework.transaction.annotation.AnnotationTransactionAttributeSo
urce"/>
</property>
</bean>

The TransactionInterceptor defined here depends on

a PlatformTransactionManager definition, which is not included in this generic file
(although it could be) because it will be specific to the application's transaction
requirements (typically JTA, as in this example, or Hibernate, JDO or JDBC):

<bean id="transactionManager"
class="org.springframework.transaction.jta.JtaTransactionManager"/>

Tip

If you require only declarative transaction management, using these generic XML definitions will
result in Spring automatically proxying all classes or methods with transaction attributes. You
won't need to work directly with AOP, and the programming model is similar to that of .NET
ServicedComponents.

This mechanism is extensible. It's possible to do autoproxying based on custom

attributes. You need to:

 Define your custom attribute.

 Specify an Advisor with the necessary advice, including a pointcut that is
triggered by the presence of the custom attribute on a class or method. You
may be able to use an existing advice, merely implementing a static pointcut
that picks up the custom attribute.

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It's possible for such advisors to be unique to each advised class (for example,
mixins): they simply need to be defined as prototype, rather than singleton, bean
definitions. For example, the LockMixin introduction interceptor from the Spring test
suite, shown above, could be used in conjunction with an attribute-driven pointcut
to target a mixin, as shown here. We use the generic DefaultPointcutAdvisor,
configured using JavaBean properties:

<bean id="lockMixin" class="org.springframework.aop.LockMixin"

scope="prototype"/>

<bean id="lockableAdvisor"
class="org.springframework.aop.support.DefaultPointcutAdvisor"
scope="prototype">
<property name="pointcut" ref="myAttributeAwarePointcut"/>
<property name="advice" ref="lockMixin"/>
</bean>

<bean id="anyBean" class="anyclass" ...

If the attribute aware pointcut matches any methods in the anyBean or other bean
definitions, the mixin will be applied. Note that
both lockMixin andlockableAdvisor definitions are prototypes.
The myAttributeAwarePointcut pointcut can be a singleton definition, as it doesn't
hold state for individual advised objects.

8.10 Using TargetSources

Spring offers the concept of a TargetSource, expressed in

the org.springframework.aop.TargetSource interface. This interface is responsible for
returning the "target object" implementing the join point.
The TargetSource implementation is asked for a target instance each time the AOP
proxy handles a method invocation.

Developers using Spring AOP don't normally need to work directly with
TargetSources, but this provides a powerful means of supporting pooling, hot
swappable and other sophisticated targets. For example, a pooling TargetSource
can return a different target instance for each invocation, using a pool to manage
instances.

If you do not specify a TargetSource, a default implementation is used that wraps

a local object. The same target is returned for each invocation (as you would
expect).

Let's look at the standard target sources provided with Spring, and how you can use them.

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 Tip

When using a custom target source, your target will usually need to be a prototype rather than a
singleton bean definition. This allows Spring to create a new target instance when required.

8.10.1 Hot swappable target sources

The org.springframework.aop.target.HotSwappableTargetSource exists to allow the

target of an AOP proxy to be switched while allowing callers to keep their
references to it.

Changing the target source's target takes effect immediately.

The HotSwappableTargetSource is threadsafe.

You can change the target via the swap() method on HotSwappableTargetSource

as follows:

HotSwappableTargetSource swapper =
(HotSwappableTargetSource) beanFactory.getBean("swapper");
Object oldTarget = swapper.swap(newTarget);

The XML definitions required look as follows:

<bean id="initialTarget" class="mycompany.OldTarget"/>

<bean id="swapper"
class="org.springframework.aop.target.HotSwappableTargetSource">
<constructor-arg ref="initialTarget"/>
</bean>

<bean id="swappable" class="org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactoryBean">

<property name="targetSource" ref="swapper"/>
</bean>

The above swap() call changes the target of the swappable bean. Clients who hold
a reference to that bean will be unaware of the change, but will immediately start
hitting the new target.

Although this example doesn't add any advice - and it's not necessary to add
advice to use a TargetSource - of course any TargetSource can be used in
conjunction with arbitrary advice.

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8.10.2 Pooling target sources

Using a pooling target source provides a similar programming model to stateless

session EJBs, in which a pool of identical instances is maintained, with method
invocations going to free objects in the pool.

A crucial difference between Spring pooling and SLSB pooling is that Spring
pooling can be applied to any POJO. As with Spring in general, this service can be
applied in a non-invasive way.

Spring provides out-of-the-box support for Jakarta Commons Pool 1.3, which
provides a fairly efficient pooling implementation. You'll need the commons-pool
Jar on your application's classpath to use this feature. It's also possible to
subclassorg.springframework.aop.target.AbstractPoolingTargetSource to support any
other pooling API.

Sample configuration is shown below:

<bean id="businessObjectTarget" class="com.mycompany.MyBusinessObject"

scope="prototype">
... properties omitted
</bean>

<bean id="poolTargetSource"
class="org.springframework.aop.target.CommonsPoolTargetSource">
<property name="targetBeanName" value="businessObjectTarget"/>
<property name="maxSize" value="25"/>
</bean>

<bean id="businessObject"
class="org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="targetSource" ref="poolTargetSource"/>
<property name="interceptorNames" value="myInterceptor"/>
</bean>

Note that the target object - "businessObjectTarget" in the example - must be a

prototype. This allows the PoolingTargetSource implementation to create new
instances of the target to grow the pool as necessary. See the javadoc
for AbstractPoolingTargetSource and the concrete subclass you wish to use for
information about its properties: "maxSize" is the most basic, and always
guaranteed to be present.

In this case, "myInterceptor" is the name of an interceptor that would need to be

defined in the same IoC context. However, it isn't necessary to specify interceptors

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to use pooling. If you want only pooling, and no other advice, don't set the
interceptorNames property at all.

It's possible to configure Spring so as to be able to cast any pooled object to

the org.springframework.aop.target.PoolingConfig interface, which exposes
information about the configuration and current size of the pool through an
introduction. You'll need to define an advisor like this:

<bean id="poolConfigAdvisor"
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.MethodInvokingFactoryBean">
<property name="targetObject" ref="poolTargetSource"/>
<property name="targetMethod" value="getPoolingConfigMixin"/>
</bean>

This advisor is obtained by calling a convenience method on

the AbstractPoolingTargetSource class, hence the use of
MethodInvokingFactoryBean. This advisor's name ("poolConfigAdvisor" here) must
be in the list of interceptors names in the ProxyFactoryBean exposing the pooled
object.

The cast will look as follows:

PoolingConfig conf = (PoolingConfig) beanFactory.getBean("businessObject");

System.out.println("Max pool size is " + conf.getMaxSize());

Note

Pooling stateless service objects is not usually necessary. We don't believe it should be the
default choice, as most stateless objects are naturally thread safe, and instance pooling is
problematic if resources are cached.

Simpler pooling is available using autoproxying. It's possible to set the

TargetSources used by any autoproxy creator.

8.10.3 Prototype target sources

Setting up a "prototype" target source is similar to a pooling TargetSource. In this

case, a new instance of the target will be created on every method invocation.
Although the cost of creating a new object isn't high in a modern JVM, the cost of
wiring up the new object (satisfying its IoC dependencies) may be more expensive.
Thus you shouldn't use this approach without very good reason.

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To do this, you could modify the poolTargetSource definition shown above as
follows. (I've also changed the name, for clarity.)

<bean id="prototypeTargetSource"
class="org.springframework.aop.target.PrototypeTargetSource">
<property name="targetBeanName" ref="businessObjectTarget"/>
</bean>

There's only one property: the name of the target bean. Inheritance is used in the
TargetSource implementations to ensure consistent naming. As with the pooling
target source, the target bean must be a prototype bean definition.

8.10.4 ThreadLocal target sources

ThreadLocal target sources are useful if you need an object to be created for each
incoming request (per thread that is). The concept of aThreadLocal provide a JDK-
wide facility to transparently store resource alongside a thread. Setting up
a ThreadLocalTargetSource is pretty much the same as was explained for the other
types of target source:

<bean id="threadlocalTargetSource"
class="org.springframework.aop.target.ThreadLocalTargetSource">
<property name="targetBeanName" value="businessObjectTarget"/>
</bean>

Note

ThreadLocals come with serious issues (potentially resulting in memory leaks) when incorrectly
using them in a multi-threaded and multi-classloader environments. One should always consider
wrapping a threadlocal in some other class and never directly use the ThreadLocal itself (except
of course in the wrapper class). Also, one should always remember to correctly set and unset
(where the latter simply involved a call to ThreadLocal.set(null)) the resource local to the
thread. Unsetting should be done in any case since not unsetting it might result in problematic
behavior. Spring's ThreadLocal support does this for you and should always be considered in
favor of using ThreadLocals without other proper handling code.

8.11 Defining new  Advice types

Spring AOP is designed to be extensible. While the interception implementation

strategy is presently used internally, it is possible to support arbitrary advice types
in addition to the out-of-the-box interception around advice, before, throws advice
and after returning advice.

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The org.springframework.aop.framework.adapter package is an SPI package allowing
support for new custom advice types to be added without changing the core
framework. The only constraint on a custom Advice type is that it must implement
the org.aopalliance.aop.Advice tag interface.

Please refer to the org.springframework.aop.framework.adapter package's Javadocs

for further information.

8.12 Further resources

Please refer to the Spring sample applications for further examples of Spring AOP:

 The JPetStore's default configuration illustrates the use of

the TransactionProxyFactoryBean for declarative transaction management.
 The /attributes directory of the JPetStore illustrates the use of attribute-
driven declarative transaction management.

9. Testing

9.1 Introduction to testing

Testing is an integral part of enterprise software development. This chapter

focuses on the value-add of the IoC principle to unit testing and on the benefits of
Spring Framework integration testing. (A thorough treatment of testing in the
enterprise is beyond the scope of this chapter.)

9.2 Unit testing

Dependency Injection should make your code less dependent on the container
than it would be with traditional Java EE development. The POJOs that make up
your application should be testable in JUnit or TestNG tests, with objects simply
instantiated using the new operator, without Spring or any other container. You can
use mock objects (in conjunction with other valuable testing techniques) to test
your code in isolation. If you follow the architecture recommendations for Spring,
the resulting clean layering and componentization of your codebase will facilitate
easier unit testing. For example, you can test service layer objects by stubbing or
mocking DAO or Repository interfaces, without needing to access persistent data
while running unit tests.

True unit tests typically run extremely quickly, as there is no runtime infrastructure
to set up. Emphasizing true unit tests as part of your development methodology
will boost your productivity. You may not need this section of the testing chapter to

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help you write effective unit tests for your IoC-based applications. For certain unit
testing scenarios, however, the Spring Framework provides the following mock
objects and testing support classes.

9.2.1 Mock objects

9.2.1.1 JNDI

The org.springframework.mock.jndi package contains an implementation of the

JNDI SPI, which you can use to set up a simple JNDI environment for test suites
or stand-alone applications. If, for example, JDBC DataSources get bound to the
same JNDI names in test code as within a Java EE container, you can reuse both
application code and configuration in testing scenarios without modification.

9.2.1.2 Servlet API

The org.springframework.mock.web package contains a comprehensive set of Servlet

API mock objects, targeted at usage with Spring's Web MVC framework, which are
useful for testing web contexts and controllers. These mock objects are generally
more convenient to use than dynamic mock objects such as EasyMock or existing
Servlet API mock objects such as MockObjects.

9.2.1.3 Portlet API

The org.springframework.mock.web.portlet package contains a set of Portlet API

mock objects, targeted at usage with Spring's Portlet MVC framework.

9.2.2 Unit testing support classes

9.2.2.1 General utilities

The org.springframework.test.util package contains ReflectionTestUtils, which is a

collection of reflection-based utility methods. Developers use these methods in unit
and integration testing scenarios in which they need to set a non- public field or
invoke a non-public setter method when testing application code involving, for
example:

 ORM frameworks such as JPA and Hibernate that

condone private or protected field access as opposed to public setter
methods for properties in a domain entity.

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  Spring's support for annotations such as @Autowired and @Resource, which
provides dependency injection for private or protected fields, setter methods,
and configuration methods

9.2.2.2 Spring MVC

The org.springframework.test.web package contains ModelAndViewAssert, which

you can use in combination with JUnit 4+, TestNG, and so on for unit tests dealing
with Spring MVC ModelAndView objects.

Unit testing Spring MVC Controllers

To test your Spring MVC Controllers, use ModelAndViewAssert combined

with MockHttpServletRequest, MockHttpSession, and so on from
the org.springframework.mock.web package.

9.3 Integration testing
9.3.1 Overview

It is important to be able to perform some integration testing without requiring

deployment to your application server or connecting to other enterprise
infrastructure. This will enable you to test things such as:

 The correct wiring of your Spring IoC container contexts.

 Data access using JDBC or an ORM tool. This would include such things as
the correctness of SQL statements, Hibernate queries, JPA entity mappings,
etc.

The Spring Framework provides first class support for integration testing in
the spring-test module. The name of the actual jar file might include the release
version and might also be in the long org.springframework.test form, depending on
where you got it from (see the section on Dependency Management for an
explanation). This library includes the org.springframework.test package, which
contains valuable classes for integration testing with a Spring container. This
testing does not rely on an application server or other deployment environment.
Such tests are slower to run than unit tests but much faster than the equivalent
Cactus tests or remote tests that rely on deployment to an application server.

In Spring 2.5 and later, unit and integration testing support is provided in the form
of the annotation-driven Spring TestContext Framework. The TestContext Framework is
agnostic of the actual testing framework in use, thus allowing instrumentation of tests in various
environments including JUnit, TestNG, and so on.

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 Legacy JUnit 3.8 class hierarchy is deprecated

As of Spring 3.0, the legacy JUnit 3.8 base class hierarchy (for
example, AbstractDependencyInjectionSpringContextTests,AbstractTransactionalDataS
ourceSpringContextTests, etc.) is officially deprecated and will be removed in a later release.
Migrate this code to the Spring TestContext Framework.

9.3.2 Goals of integration testing

Spring's integration testing support has the following goals:

 Spring IoC container caching between test execution.

 Dependency Injection of test fixture instances.

 Transaction management appropriate to integration testing.

 Spring-specific support classes that are useful in writing integration tests.

The next few sections describe each goal and provide links to implementation and
configuration details.

9.3.2.1 Context management and caching

The Spring TestContext Framework provides consistent loading of

Spring ApplicationContexts and caching of those contexts. Support for the caching
of loaded contexts is important, because startup time can become an issue - not
because of the overhead of Spring itself, but because the objects instantiated by
the Spring container take time to instantiate. For example, a project with 50 to 100
Hibernate mapping files might take 10 to 20 seconds to load the mapping files, and
incurring that cost before running every test in every test fixture leads to slower
overall test runs that could reduce productivity.

Test classes provide an array containing the resource locations of XML

configuration metadata - typically in the classpath - that is used to configure the
application. These locations are the same as or similar to the list of configuration
locations specified in web.xml or other deployment configuration files.

By default, once loaded, the configured ApplicationContext is reused for each test.

Thus the setup cost is incurred only once (per test fixture), and subsequent test
execution is much faster. In the unlikely case that a test corrupts the application
context and requires reloading -- for example, by changing a bean definition or the
state of an application object-- a Spring testing support mechanism causes the test

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fixture to reload the configurations and rebuilds the application context before
executing the next test.

See context management and caching with the TestContext Framework.

9.3.2.2 Dependency Injection of test fixtures

When the TestContext framework loads your application context, it can optionally
configure instances of your test classes via Dependency Injection. This provides a
convenient mechanism for setting up test fixtures using preconfigured beans from
your application context. A strong benefit here is that you can reuse application
contexts across various testing scenarios (e.g., for configuring Spring-managed
object graphs, transactional proxies,DataSources, etc.), thus avoiding the need to
duplicate complex test fixture set up for individual test cases.

As an example, consider the scenario where we have a class, HibernateTitleDao,

that performs data access logic for say, the Title domain object. We want to write
integration tests that test all of the following areas:

 The Spring configuration: basically, is everything related to the configuration

of the HibernateTitleDao bean correct and present?
 The Hibernate mapping file configuration: is everything mapped correctly
and are the correct lazy-loading settings in place?

 The logic of the HibernateTitleDao: does the configured instance of this class

perform as anticipated?

See: dependency injection of test fixtures with the TestContext Framework.

9.3.2.3 Transaction management

One common issue in tests that access a real database is their affect on the state
of the persistence store. Even when you're using a development database,
changes to the state may affect future tests. Also, many operations - such as
inserting or modifying persistent data - cannot be performed (or verified) outside a
transaction.

The TestContext framework addresses this issue. By default, the framework will
create and roll back a transaction for each test. You simply write code that can
assume the existence of a transaction. If you call transactionally proxied objects in
your tests, they will behave correctly, according to their transactional semantics. In
addition, if test methods delete the contents of selected tables while running within

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a transaction, the transaction will roll back by default, and the database will return
to its state prior to execution of the test. Transactional support is provided to your
test class via aPlatformTransactionManager bean defined in the test's application
context.

If you want a transaction to commit - unusual, but occasionally useful when you
want a particular test to populate or modify the database - the TestContext
framework can be instructed to cause the transaction to commit instead of roll
back via the @TransactionConfiguration and@Rollback annotations.

See transaction management with the TestContext Framework.

9.3.2.4 Support classes for integration testing

The Spring TestContext Framework provides several abstract support classes that

simplify the writing of integration tests. These base test classes provide well-
defined hooks into the testing framework as well as convenient instance variables
and methods, which enable you to access:

 The ApplicationContext, for performing explicit bean lookups or testing the

state of the context as a whole.
 A SimpleJdbcTemplate, for querying to confirm state. For example, you use an
ORM tool to query before and after testing application code that creates an
object and persists it, to verify that the data appears in the database. (Spring
ensures that the query runs in the scope of the same transaction.) You need
to tell your ORM tool to 'flush' its changes, by using, for example,
the flush() method on Hibernate's Sessioninterface.

In addition, you may want to create your own custom, application-wide superclass
with instance variables and methods specific to your project.

See support classes for the TestContext Framework.

9.3.3 JDBC testing support

The org.springframework.test.jdbc package contains SimpleJdbcTestUtils, which is a

Java-5-based collection of JDBC related utility functions intended to simplify
standard database testing scenarios. Note
that  AbstractTransactionalJUnit38SpringContextTests,AbstractTransactionalJUnit4Spri
ngContextTests, and  AbstractTransactionalTestNGSpringContextTests provide
convenience methods which delegate to  SimpleJdbcTestUtils internally.

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9.3.4 Annotations

The Spring Framework provides the following set of Spring-specific annotations

that you can use in your unit and integration tests in conjunction with the
TestContext framework. Refer to the respective JavaDoc for further information,
including default attribute values, attribute aliases, and so on.
 @ContextConfiguration

Defines class-level metadata that is used to determine how to load and

configure an ApplicationContext. Specifically,@ContextConfiguration defines
the application context resource locations to load as well as
the ContextLoader strategy to use for loading the context.

@ContextConfiguration(locations={"example/test-context.xml"},
loader=CustomContextLoader.class)
public class CustomConfiguredApplicationContextTests {
// class body...
}

Note

@ContextConfiguration supports inherited resource locations by default. See Context

management and caching and JavaDoc for an example and further details.

 @DirtiesContext

Indicates that the underlying Spring ApplicationContext has

been dirtied (modified)as follows during the execution of a test and should
be closed, regardless of whether the test passed:

o After the current test class, when declared on a class with class mode
set to AFTER_CLASS, which is the default class mode.
o After each test method in the current test class, when declared on a
class with class mode set to AFTER_EACH_TEST_METHOD.

o After the current test, when declared on a method.

Use this annotation if a test has modified the context (for example, by replacing a bean
definition). Subsequent tests are supplied a new context.

Limitations of @DirtiesContext with JUnit 3.8

In a JUnit 3.8 environment @DirtiesContext is only supported on methods and thus not

355
 at the class level.

You can use @DirtiesContext as a class-level and method-level annotation

within the same class. In such scenarios, the ApplicationContextis marked
as dirty after any such annotated method as well as after the entire class. If
the ClassMode is set to AFTER_EACH_TEST_METHOD, the context is marked dirty after
each test method in the class.

@DirtiesContext
public class ContextDirtyingTests {
// some tests that result in the Spring container being dirtied
}
@DirtiesContext(classMode = ClassMode.AFTER_EACH_TEST_METHOD)
public class ContextDirtyingTests {
// some tests that result in the Spring container being dirtied
}
@DirtiesContext
@Test
public void testProcessWhichDirtiesAppCtx() {
// some logic that results in the Spring container being dirtied
}

When an application context is marked dirty, it is removed from the testing

framework's cache and closed; thus the underlying Spring container is rebuilt
for any subsequent test that requires a context with the same set of resource
locations.
 @TestExecutionListeners

Defines class-level metadata for configuring which TestExecutionListeners

should be registered with a TestContextManager.
Typically,@TestExecutionListeners are used in conjunction
with @ContextConfiguration.

@ContextConfiguration
@TestExecutionListeners({CustomTestExecutionListener.class,
AnotherTestExecutionListener.class})
public class CustomTestExecutionListenerTests {
// class body...
}

@TestExecutionListeners supports inherited listeners by default. See the

JavaDoc for an example and further details.

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 @TransactionConfiguration

Defines class-level metadata for configuring transactional tests. Specifically,

the bean name of the PlatformTransactionManager that is to be used to drive
transactions can be explicitly configured if the bean name of the desired
PlatformTransactionManager is not "transactionManager". In addition, you
can change the defaultRollback flag to false.
Typically, @TransactionConfiguration is used in conjunction
with @ContextConfiguration.

@ContextConfiguration
@TransactionConfiguration(transactionManager="txMgr", defaultRollback=false)
public class CustomConfiguredTransactionalTests {
// class body...
}

 @Rollback

Indicates whether the transaction for the annotated test method should
be rolled back after the test method has completed. If true, the transaction is
rolled back; otherwise, the transaction is committed. Use @Rollback to
override the default rollback flag configured at the class level.

@Rollback(false)
@Test
public void testProcessWithoutRollback() {
// ...
}

 @BeforeTransaction

Indicates that the annotated public void method should be

executed before a transaction is started for test methods configured to run
within a transaction through the @Transactional annotation.

@BeforeTransaction
public void beforeTransaction() {
// logic to be executed before a transaction is started
}

 @AfterTransaction

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 Indicates that the annotated public void method should be executed after a
transaction has ended for test methods configured to run within a transaction
through the @Transactional annotation.

@AfterTransaction
public void afterTransaction() {
// logic to be executed after a transaction has ended
}

 @NotTransactional

The presence of this annotation indicates that the annotated test method
must not execute in a transactional context.

@NotTransactional
@Test
public void testProcessWithoutTransaction() {
// ...
}

@NotTransactional is deprecated

As of Spring 3.0, @NotTransactional is deprecated in favor of moving the non-

transactional test method to a separate (non-transactional) test class or to
a @BeforeTransaction or @AfterTransaction method. As an alternative to annotating
an entire class with @Transactional, consider annotating individual methods
with @Transactional; doing so allows a mix of transactional and non-transactional
methods in the same test class without the need for using @NotTransactional.

The following annotations are only supported when used in conjunction with JUnit

(that is., with the SpringJUnit4ClassRunner or the JUnit 3.8.2 andJUnit
4.5+ support classes.
 @IfProfileValue

Indicates that the annotated test is enabled for a specific testing

environment. If the configured ProfileValueSource returns a matching valuefor
the provided name, the test is enabled. This annotation can be applied to an
entire class or to individual methods. Class-level usage overrides method-
level usage.

@IfProfileValue(name="java.vendor", value="Sun Microsystems Inc.")

@Test
public void testProcessWhichRunsOnlyOnSunJvm() {

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 // some logic that should run only on Java VMs from Sun Microsystems
}

Alternatively, you can configure @IfProfileValue with a list

of values (with OR semantics) to achieve TestNG-like support for test
groups in a JUnit environment. Consider the following example:

@IfProfileValue(name="test-groups", values={"unit-tests", "integration-

tests"})
@Test
public void testProcessWhichRunsForUnitOrIntegrationTestGroups() {
// some logic that should run only for unit and integration test groups
}

 @ProfileValueSourceConfiguration

Class-level annotation that specifies what type of ProfileValueSource to use

when retrieving profile values configured through
the@IfProfileValue annotation. If @ProfileValueSourceConfiguration is not
declared for a test, SystemProfileValueSource is used by default.

@ProfileValueSourceConfiguration(CustomProfileValueSource.class)
public class CustomProfileValueSourceTests {
// class body...
}

 @ExpectedException

Indicates that the annotated test method is expected to throw an exception

during execution. The type of the expected exception is provided in the
annotation, and if an instance of the exception is thrown during the test
method execution then the test passes. Likewise if an instance of the
exception is not thrown during the test method execution then the test fails.

@ExpectedException(SomeBusinessException.class)
public void testProcessRainyDayScenario() {
// some logic that should result in an Exception being thrown
}

Using Spring's @ExpectedException annotation in conjunction with JUnit

4's @Test(expected=...) configuration would lead to an unresolvable conflict.
Developers must therefore choose one or the other when integrating with

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 JUnit 4, in which case it is generally preferable to use the explicit JUnit 4
configuration.
 @Timed

Indicates that the annotated test method must finish execution in a specified
time period (in milliseconds). If the text execution time exceeds the specified
time period, the test fails.

The time period includes execution of the test method itself, any repetitions
of the test (see @Repeat), as well as any set up or tear down of the test fixture.

@Timed(millis=1000)
public void testProcessWithOneSecondTimeout() {
// some logic that should not take longer than 1 second to execute
}

Spring's @Timed annotation has different semantics than JUnit

4's @Test(timeout=...) support. Specifically, due to the manner in which JUnit
4 handles test execution timeouts (that is, by executing the test method in a
separate Thread), @Test(timeout=...) applies to each iterationin the case of
repetitions and preemptively fails the test if the test takes too long.
Spring's @Timed, on the other hand, times the total test execution time
(including all repetitions) and does not preemptively fail the test but rather
waits for the test to complete before failing.
 @Repeat

Indicates that the annotated test method must be executed repeatedly. The
number of times that the test method is to be executed is specified in the
annotation.

The scope of execution to be repeated includes execution of the test method

itself as well as any set up or tear down of the test fixture.

@Repeat(10)
@Test
public void testProcessRepeatedly() {
// ...
}

The following non-test-specific annotations are supported with standard semantics

for all configurations of the Spring TestContext Framework.

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  @Autowired
 @Qualifier

 @Resource (javax.annotation) if JSR-250 is present

 @Inject (javax.inject) if JSR-330 is present

 @Named (javax.inject) if JSR-330 is present

 @Provider (javax.inject) if JSR-330 is present

 @PersistenceContext (javax.persistence) if JPA is present

 @PersistenceUnit (javax.persistence) if JPA is present

 @Required

 @Transactional

9.3.5 Spring TestContext Framework

The Spring  TestContext Framework (located in
the org.springframework.test.context package) provides generic, annotation-driven
unit and integration testing support that is agnostic of the testing framework in use,
whether JUnit 3.8.2, JUnit 4.5+, TestNG 5.10, and so on. The TestContext
framework also places a great deal of importance on convention over
configuration with reasonable defaults that can be overridden through annotation-
based configuration.

In addition to generic testing infrastructure, the TestContext framework provides

explicit support for JUnit 3.8.2, JUnit 4.5+, and TestNG 5.10 in the form
of abstract support classes. For JUnit 4.5+, the framework also provides a
custom Runner that allows one to write test classes that are not required to extend a
particular class hierarchy.

The following section provides an overview of the internals of the TestContext

framework. If you are only interested in using the framework and not necessarily
interested in extending it with your own custom listeners, feel free to go directly to
the configuration (context management, dependency injection, transaction
management), support classes, and annotation support sections.

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9.3.5.1 Key abstractions

The core of the framework consists of

the TestContext and TestContextManager classes and
the TestExecutionListener interface. ATestContextManager is created on a per-test
basis. The TestContextManager in turn manages a TestContext that holds the context
of the current test. The TestContextManager also updates the state of
the TestContext as the test progresses and delegates to TestExecutionListeners,
which instrument the actual test execution, by providing dependency injection,
managing transactions, and so on. Consult the JavaDoc and the Spring test suite
for further information and examples of various configurations.

 TestContext: Encapsulates the context in which a test is executed, agnostic of

the actual testing framework in use.
 TestContextManager: The main entry point into the Spring TestContext
Framework, which manages a single TestContext and signals events to all
registered TestExecutionListeners at well-defined test execution points: test
instance preparation, prior to any before methods of a particular testing
framework, and after any after methods of a particular testing framework.

 TestExecutionListener:
Defines a listener API for reacting to test execution
events published by the TestContextManager with which the listener is
registered.

Spring provides three TestExecutionListener implementations that are

configured by default:DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener,
DirtiesContextTestExecutionListener, and TransactionalTestExecutionListener.
Respectively, they support dependency injection of the test instance,
handling of the @DirtiesContext annotation, and transactional test execution
with default rollback semantics.

The following three sections explain how to configure the TestContext framework

through annotations and provide working examples of how to write unit and
integration tests with the framework.

9.3.5.2 Context management and caching

Each TestContext provides context management and caching support for the test

instance for which it is responsible. Test instances do not automatically receive
access to the configured ApplicationContext. However, if a test class implements
the ApplicationContextAware interface, a reference to the ApplicationContext is
supplied to the test instance, if the DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener is

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configured, which is the
default. AbstractJUnit38SpringContextTests, AbstractJUnit4SpringContextTests,
and AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests already
implement ApplicationContextAware and therefore provide this functionality out-of-the-box.

@Autowired ApplicationContext
As an alternative to implementing the ApplicationContextAware interface, you can inject the
application context for your test class through the @Autowired annotation on either a field or setter
method. For example:

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration
public class MyTest {

@Autowired
private ApplicationContext applicationContext;

// class body...
}

In contrast to the now deprecated JUnit 3.8 legacy class hierarchy, test classes
that use the TestContext framework do not need to override anyprotected instance
methods to configure their application context. Rather, configuration is achieved
merely by declaring the@ContextConfiguration annotation at the class level. If your
test class does not explicitly declare application context resource locations, the
configured ContextLoader determines how and whether to load a context from a
default set of locations. For example, GenericXmlContextLoader , which is the
default ContextLoader, generates a default location based on the name of the test
class. If your class is named com.example.MyTest,GenericXmlContextLoader loads your
application context from "classpath:/com/example/MyTest-context.xml".

package com.example;

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
// ApplicationContext will be loaded from "classpath:/com/example/MyTest-
context.xml"
@ContextConfiguration
public class MyTest {
// class body...
}

If the default location does not suit your needs, you can configure explicitly
the locations attribute of @ContextConfiguration with an array that contains the
resource locations of XML configuration metadata (assuming an XML-
capable ContextLoader has been configured) - typically in the classpath - used to

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configure the application. (See the following code example.) This location will be
the same, or nearly the same, as the list of configuration locations specified
in web.xml or other deployment configuration. Alternatively, you can implement and
configure your own customContextLoader.

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
// ApplicationContext will be loaded from "/applicationContext.xml" and
"/applicationContext-test.xml"
// in the root of the classpath
@ContextConfiguration({"/applicationContext.xml", "/applicationContext-test.xml"})
public class MyTest {
// class body...
}

@ContextConfiguration supports an alias for the locations attribute through the

standard value attribute. Thus, if you do not need to configure a
custom ContextLoader, you can omit the declaration of the locations attribute name
and declare the resource locations by using the shorthand format demonstrated in
the following example. @ContextConfiguration also supports a
boolean inheritLocations attribute that denotes whether resource locations from
superclasses should be inherited. The default value is true, which means that an
annotated class inherits the resource locations defined by an annotated
superclass. Specifically, the resource locations for an annotated class are
appended to the list of resource locations defined by an annotated superclass.
Thus, subclasses have the option of extending the list of resource locations. In the
following example, the ApplicationContext for ExtendedTest is loaded from "/base-
context.xml" and "/extended-context.xml", in that order. Beans defined in
"/extended-context.xml" may therefore override those defined in "/base-
context.xml".

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
// ApplicationContext will be loaded from "/base-context.xml" in the root of the
classpath
@ContextConfiguration("/base-context.xml")
public class BaseTest {
// class body...
}

// ApplicationContext will be loaded from "/base-context.xml" and "/extended-

context.xml"
// in the root of the classpath
@ContextConfiguration("/extended-context.xml")
public class ExtendedTest extends BaseTest {
// class body...
}

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If inheritLocations is set to false, the resource locations for the annotated class
shadows and effectively replaces any resource locations defined by a superclass.

By default, once loaded, the configured ApplicationContext is reused for each test.

Thus the setup cost is incurred only once (per test fixture), and subsequent test
execution is much faster. In the unlikely case that a test dirties (modifies) the
application context, requiring reloading -- for example, by changing a bean
definition or the state of an application object -- you can annotate your test method
with @DirtiesContext (assumingDirtiesContextTestExecutionListener has been
configured, which is the default) to cause the test fixture to reload the
configurations and rebuild the application context before executing the next test.

9.3.5.3 Dependency Injection of test fixtures

When you configure the DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener -- which is

configured by default through the @TestExecutionListenersannotation-- the
dependencies of your test instances are injected from beans in the application
context you configured through@ContextConfiguration by setter injection, field
injection, or both, depending on which annotations you choose and whether you
place them on setter methods or fields. For consistency with the annotation
support introduced in Spring 2.5, you can use Spring's @Autowired annotation or
the@Resource annotation from JSR 250. The semantics for both are consistent
throughout the Spring Framework. For example, if you prefer autowiring by type,
annotate your setter methods or fields with @Autowired. If you prefer to have your
dependencies injected by name, annotate your setter methods or fields
with @Resource.

Tip

The TestContext framework does not instrument the manner in which a test instance is
instantiated. Thus the use of @Autowiredfor constructors has no effect for test classes.

Because @Autowired performs autowiring by type, if you have multiple bean

definitions of the same type, you cannot rely on this approach for those particular
beans. In that case, you can use @Resource for injection by name. Alternatively, if
your test class has access to its ApplicationContext, you can perform an explicit
lookup by using (for example) a call to applicationContext.getBean("titleDao"). A
third option is to use @Autowiredin conjunction with @Qualifier.

If you do not want dependency injection applied to your test instances, simply do
not annotate fields or setter methods with @Autowired or@Resource. Alternatively, you
can disable dependency injection altogether by explicitly configuring your class

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with @TestExecutionListeners and
omitting DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.class from the list of listeners.

Consider the scenario of a class, HibernateTitleDao, as outlined in

the Goals section. (We will look at the application context configuration after all
sample code listings.) A JUnit 4-based implementation of the test class itself
uses @Autowired for field injection.

Note
The dependency injection behavior in the following code listings is not in any way specific to
JUnit 4. The same DI techniques can be used in conjunction with any testing framework.

The following examples make calls to static assertion methods such as assertNotNull() but
without prepending the call withAssert. In such cases, assume that the method was properly
imported through an import static declaration that is not shown in the example.
@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
// specifies the Spring configuration to load for this test fixture
@ContextConfiguration("daos.xml")
public final class HibernateTitleDaoTests {

// this instance will be dependency injected by type

@Autowired
private HibernateTitleDao titleDao;

public void testLoadTitle() throws Exception {

Title title = this.titleDao.loadTitle(new Long(10));
assertNotNull(title);
}
}

Alternatively, you can configure the class to use @Autowired for setter injection.

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
// specifies the Spring configuration to load for this test fixture
@ContextConfiguration("daos.xml")
public final class HibernateTitleDaoTests {

// this instance will be dependency injected by type

private HibernateTitleDao titleDao;

@Autowired
public void setTitleDao(HibernateTitleDao titleDao) {
this.titleDao = titleDao;
}

public void testLoadTitle() throws Exception {

Title title = this.titleDao.loadTitle(new Long(10));
assertNotNull(title);

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 }
}

Here is an example of @Resource for field injection.

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
// specifies the Spring configuration to load for this test fixture
@ContextConfiguration("daos.xml")
public final class HibernateTitleDaoTests {

// this instance will be dependency injected by name

@Resource
private HibernateTitleDao titleDao;

public void testLoadTitle() throws Exception {

Title title = this.titleDao.loadTitle(new Long(10));
assertNotNull(title);
}
}

Here is an example of @Resource for setter injection.

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
// specifies the Spring configuration to load for this test fixture
@ContextConfiguration("daos.xml")
public final class HibernateTitleDaoTests {

// this instance will be dependency injected by name

private HibernateTitleDao titleDao;

@Resource
public void setTitleDao(HibernateTitleDao titleDao) {
this.titleDao = titleDao;
}

public void testLoadTitle() throws Exception {

Title title = this.titleDao.loadTitle(new Long(10));
assertNotNull(title);
}
}

The preceding code listings use the same XML context file referenced by
the @ContextConfiguration annotation (that is, daos.xml), which looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

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

367
 http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

<!-- this bean will be injected into the HibernateTitleDaoTests class -->
<bean id="titleDao" class="com.foo.dao.hibernate.HibernateTitleDao">
<property name="sessionFactory" ref="sessionFactory"/>
</bean>

<bean id="sessionFactory"

class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalSessionFactoryBean">
<!-- dependencies elided for clarity -->
</bean>

</beans>

Note
If you are extending from a Spring-provided test base class that happens to use @Autowired on
one of its setter methods, you might have multiple beans of the affected type defined in your
application context: for example, multiple DataSource beans. In such a case, you can override
the setter and use the @Qualifier annotation to indicate a specific target bean as follows:

// ...

@Autowired
@Override
public void setDataSource(@Qualifier("myDataSource") DataSource
dataSource) {
super.setDataSource(dataSource);
}

// ...

The specified qualifier value indicates the specific DataSource bean to inject, narrowing the set
of type matches to a specific bean. Its value is matched against <qualifier> declarations within
the corresponding <bean> definitions. The bean name is used as a fallback qualifier value, so you
may effectively also point to a specific bean by name there (as shown above, assuming that
"myDataSource" is the bean id). If there is only one DataSource bean to begin with, then the
qualifier does not have any effect, independent from the bean name of that single matching bean.

Alternatively, consider using the @Resource annotation on such overridden setter methods,

defining the target bean name explicitly, with no type matching semantics. Note that this always
points to a bean with that specific name, no matter whether there is one or more beans of the
given type.

// ...

@Resource("myDataSource")
@Override
public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

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 super.setDataSource(dataSource);
}

// ...

9.3.5.4 Transaction management

In the TestContext framework, transactions are managed by

the TransactionalTestExecutionListener, which is configured through
the@TestExecutionListeners annotation by default, even if you do not explicitly
declare @TestExecutionListeners on your test class. To enable support for
transactions, however, you must provide a PlatformTransactionManager bean in the
application context loaded by@ContextConfiguration semantics. In addition, you
must declare @Transactional either at the class or method level.

For class-level transaction configuration (that is, setting the bean name for the
transaction manager and the default rollback flag), see
the@TransactionConfiguration entry in the annotation support section.

If transactions are not enabled for the entire test class, you can annotate methods
explicitly with @Transactional. To control whether a transaction should commit for a
particular test method, you can use the @Rollback annotation to override the class-
level default rollback setting.

AbstractTransactionalJUnit38SpringContextTests,  AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringC
ontextTests, andAbstractTransactionalTestNGSpringContextTests are preconfigured
for transactional support at the class level.

Occasionally you need to execute certain code before or after a transactional test
method but outside the transactional context, for example, to verify the initial
database state prior to execution of your test or to verify expected transactional
commit behavior after test execution (for example, if the test was configured not to
roll back the transaction). TransactionalTestExecutionListener supports
the @BeforeTransaction and@AfterTransaction annotations exactly for such
scenarios. Simply annotate any public void method in your test class with one of
these annotations, and the TransactionalTestExecutionListener ensures that
your before transaction method or after transaction method is executed at the
appropriate time.

Tip

Any before methods (for example, methods annotated with JUnit 4's @Before) and any after

369
 methods (such as methods annotated with JUnit 4's @After) are executed within a transaction. In
addition, methods annotated with @BeforeTransaction or@AfterTransaction are naturally not
executed for tests annotated with @NotTransactional. However, @NotTransactional is
deprecated as of Spring 3.0.

The following JUnit 4 based example displays a fictitious integration testing

scenario highlighting several transaction-related annotations. Consult
the annotation support section of the reference manual for further information and
configuration examples.

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration
@TransactionConfiguration(transactionManager="txMgr", defaultRollback=false)
@Transactional
public class FictitiousTransactionalTest {

@BeforeTransaction
public void verifyInitialDatabaseState() {
// logic to verify the initial state before a transaction is started
}

@Before
public void setUpTestDataWithinTransaction() {
// set up test data within the transaction
}

@Test
// overrides the class-level defaultRollback setting
@Rollback(true)
public void modifyDatabaseWithinTransaction() {
// logic which uses the test data and modifies database state
}

@After
public void tearDownWithinTransaction() {
// execute "tear down" logic within the transaction
}

@AfterTransaction
public void verifyFinalDatabaseState() {
// logic to verify the final state after transaction has rolled back
}

Avoid false positives when testing ORM code

When you test code involving an ORM framework such as JPA or Hibernate, flush the
underlying session within test methods which update the state of the session. Failing to flush the
ORM framework's underlying session can produce false positives: your test may pass, but the
same code throws an exception in a live, production environment. In the following Hibernate-

370
 based example test case, one method demonstrates a false positive and the other method correctly
exposes the results of flushing the session.

// ...

@Autowired
private SessionFactory sessionFactory;

@Test // no expected exception!

public void falsePositive() {
updateEntityInHibernateSession();
// False positive: an exception will be thrown once the session is
// finally flushed (i.e., in production code)
}

@Test(expected = GenericJDBCException.class)
public void updateWithSessionFlush() {
updateEntityInHibernateSession();
// Manual flush is required to avoid false positive in test
sessionFactory.getCurrentSession().flush();
}

// ...

9.3.5.5 TestContext support classes

JUnit 3.8 support classes

The org.springframework.test.context.junit38 package provides support classes for

JUnit 3.8 based test cases.

 AbstractJUnit38SpringContextTests: Abstract TestCase that integrates

the Spring TestContext Framework with explicitApplicationContext testing
support in a JUnit 3.8 environment. When you extend
the AbstractJUnit38SpringContextTests class, you need access to the
following protected instance variables:
o applicationContext: Perform explicit bean lookups or test the state of
the context as a whole.

 AbstractTransactionalJUnit38SpringContextTests:
Abstract transactional extension of AbstractJUnit38SpringContextTests that
also adds some convenience functionality for JDBC access. Expects
a javax.sql.DataSource bean and a PlatformTransactionManager bean to be
defined in the ApplicationContext. When you extend
the AbstractTransactionalJUnit38SpringContextTests class, you will have
access to the following protected instance variables:

371
 o applicationContext: Inherited from
the AbstractJUnit38SpringContextTests superclass. Use this variable to
perform explicit bean lookups or to test the state of the context as a
whole.

o simpleJdbcTemplate: Useful for querying to confirm state. For example,

use an ORM tool to query before and after testing application code
that creates an object and persists it, to verify that the data appears in
the database. (Spring ensures that the query runs in the scope of the
same transaction.) You need to tell your ORM tool to 'flush' its
changes for this to work correctly by, for example, using
theflush() method on Hibernate's Session interface.

JUnit 4.5+ support classes

The org.springframework.test.context.junit4 package provides support classes for

JUnit 4.5+ based test cases.

 AbstractJUnit4SpringContextTests:Abstract base test class that integrates

the Spring TestContext Framework with explicitApplicationContext testing
support in a JUnit 4.5+ environment.

When you extend AbstractJUnit4SpringContextTests, you can access the

following protected instance variable:

o applicationContext:Perform explicit bean lookups or test the state of

the context as a whole.
 AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests:
Abstract transactional extension of AbstractJUnit4SpringContextTests that also
adds some convenience functionality for JDBC access. Expects
a javax.sql.DataSource bean and a PlatformTransactionManager bean to be
defined in the ApplicationContext. When you
extend AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests you can access the
followingprotected instance variables:

o applicationContext: Inherited from

the AbstractJUnit4SpringContextTests superclass. Perform explicit bean
lookups or test the state of the context as a whole.

o simpleJdbcTemplate: Useful for querying to confirm state. For

example, use an ORM tool to query before and after testing
application code that creates an object and persists it, to verify that the

372
 data appears in the database. (Spring ensures that the query runs in
the scope of the same transaction.) You need to tell your ORM tool to
'flush' its changes for this to work correctly by, for example, using
theflush() method on Hibernate's Session interface.

Tip

These classes are a convenience for extension. If you do not want your test classes to be tied to a
Spring-specific class hierarchy -- for example, if you want to extend directly the class you are
testing -- you can configure your own custom test classes by
using @RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class), @ContextConfiguration, @TestExecuti
onListeners, and so on.

Custom JUnit 4.5+ Runner

The Spring TestContext Framework offers full integration with JUnit 4.5+ through a

custom runner (tested on JUnit 4.5, 4.6, and 4.7). By annotating test classes
with @RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class), developers can implement standard
JUnit 4.5+ unit and integration tests and simultaneously reap the benefits of the
TestContext framework such as support for loading application contexts,
dependency injection of test instances, transactional test method execution, and
so on. The following code listing displays the minimal requirements for configuring
a test class to run with the custom Spring Runner. @TestExecutionListeners is
configured with an empty list in order to disable the default listeners, which
otherwise would require an ApplicationContext to be configured
through @ContextConfiguration.

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@TestExecutionListeners({})
public class SimpleTest {

@Test
public void testMethod() {
// execute test logic...
}
}

TestNG support classes

The org.springframework.test.context.testng package provides support classes for

TestNG based test cases.

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  AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests:Abstract base test class that integrates
the Spring TestContext Framework with explicitApplicationContext testing
support in a TestNG environment.

When you extend AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests you can access the

following protected instance variable:

o applicationContext:Perform explicit bean lookups or test the state of

the context as a whole.
 AbstractTransactionalTestNGSpringContextTests:
Abstract transactional extension of AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests that
adds some convenience functionality for JDBC access. Expects
a javax.sql.DataSource bean and a PlatformTransactionManager bean to be
defined in the ApplicationContext. When you
extend AbstractTransactionalTestNGSpringContextTests, you can access the
followingprotected instance variables:

o applicationContext: Inherited from

the AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests superclass. Perform explicit bean
lookups or test the state of the context as a whole.

o simpleJdbcTemplate: Useful for querying to confirm state. For

example, use an ORM tool to query before and after testing
application code that creates an object and persists it, to verify that the
data appears in the database. (Spring ensures that the query runs in
the scope of the same transaction.) You need to tell your ORM tool to
'flush' its changes for this to work correctly by, for example, using
theflush() method on Hibernate's Session interface.

Tip

These classes are a convenience for extension. If you do not want your test classes to be tied to a
Spring-specific class hierarchy--for example, if you want to directly extend the class you are
testing--you can configure your own custom test classes by
using @ContextConfiguration, @TestExecutionListeners, and so on, and by manually
instrumenting your test class with aTestContextManager. See the source code
of AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests for an example of how to instrument your test class.

9.3.6 PetClinic example

The PetClinic application, available from the samples repository, illustrates several

features of the Spring TestContext Framework in a JUnit 4.5+ environment. Most

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test functionality is included in the AbstractClinicTests, for which a partial listing is
shown below:

import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;

// import ...

@ContextConfiguration
public abstract class AbstractClinicTests extends
AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests {

@Autowired
protected Clinic clinic;

@Test
public void getVets() {
Collection<Vet> vets = this.clinic.getVets();
assertEquals("JDBC query must show the same number of vets",
super.countRowsInTable("VETS"), vets.size());
Vet v1 = EntityUtils.getById(vets, Vet.class, 2);
assertEquals("Leary", v1.getLastName());
assertEquals(1, v1.getNrOfSpecialties());
assertEquals("radiology", (v1.getSpecialties().get(0)).getName());
// ...
}

// ...
}

Notes:

 This test case extends

the AbstractTransactionalJUnit4SpringContextTests class, from which it inherits
configuration for Dependency Injection (through
the DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener) and transactional behavior
(through theTransactionalTestExecutionListener).
 The clinic instance variable - the application object being tested - is set by
Dependency Injection through @Autowired semantics.

 The testGetVets() method illustrates how you can use the

inherited countRowsInTable() method to easily verify the number of rows in a
given table, thus testing correct behavior of the application code being
tested. This allows for stronger tests and lessens dependency on the exact
test data. For example, you can add additional rows in the database without
breaking tests.

 Like many integration tests that use a database, most of the tests
in AbstractClinicTests depend on a minimum amount of data already in the

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 database before the test cases run. You might, however, choose to populate
the database in your test cases also - again, within the same transaction.

The PetClinic application supports three data access technologies: JDBC,

Hibernate, and JPA. By declaring @ContextConfiguration without any specific
resource locations, the AbstractClinicTests class will have its application context
loaded from the default location,AbstractClinicTests-context.xml, which declares a
common DataSource. Subclasses specify additional context locations that must
declare aPlatformTransactionManager and a concrete implementation of Clinic.

For example, the Hibernate implementation of the PetClinic tests contains the
following implementation. For this example, HibernateClinicTestsdoes not contain a
single line of code: we only need to declare @ContextConfiguration, and the tests
are inherited from AbstractClinicTests. Because @ContextConfiguration is declared
without any specific resource locations, the Spring TestContext Framework loads
an application context from all the beans defined in AbstractClinicTests-
context.xml (that is, the inherited locations) and HibernateClinicTests-context.xml,
with HibernateClinicTests-context.xml possibly overriding beans defined
in AbstractClinicTests-context.xml.

@ContextConfiguration
public class HibernateClinicTests extends AbstractClinicTests { }

As you can see in the PetClinic application, the Spring configuration is split across
multiple files. As is typical of large-scale applications, configuration locations are
often specified in a common base class for all application-specific integration tests.
Such a base class may also add useful instance variables--populated by
Dependency Injection, naturally--such as a HibernateTemplate, in the case of an
application using Hibernate.

As far as possible, you should have exactly the same Spring configuration files in
your integration tests as in the deployed environment. One likely point of difference
concerns database connection pooling and transaction infrastructure. If you are
deploying to a full-blown application server, you will probably use its connection
pool (available through JNDI) and JTA implementation. Thus in production you will
use a JndiObjectFactoryBean /<jee:jndi-lookup> for
the DataSource and JtaTransactionManager. JNDI and JTA will not be available in out-
of-container integration tests, so you should use a combination like the Commons
DBCP BasicDataSource and DataSourceTransactionManager or HibernateTransactionMana
ger for them. You can factor out this variant behavior into a single XML file, having
the choice between application server and a 'local' configuration separated from all

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other configuration, which will not vary between the test and production
environments. In addition, it is advisable to use properties files for connection
settings: see the PetClinic application for an example.

9.4 Further Resources

Consult the following resources for more information about testing:

 JUnit: The Spring Framework's unit and integration test suite, written with
JUnit 3.8.2 and JUnit 4.7 as the testing framework.
 TestNG: A testing framework inspired by JUnit 3.8 with added support for
Java 5 annotations, test groups, data-driven testing, distributed testing, and
so on.

 MockObjects.com: Web site dedicated to mock objects, a technique for

improving the design of code within test-driven development.

 "Mock Objects": Article in Wikipedia.

 EasyMock: Used extensively by the Spring Framework in its test suite.

 JMock: Library that supports test-driven development of Java code with

mock objects.

 Mockito: Java mock library based on the test spy pattern.

 DbUnit: JUnit extension (also usable with Ant and Maven) targeted for
database-driven projects that, among other things, puts your database into a
known state between test runs.

 Grinder: Java load testing framework.

Part IV. Data Access
This part of the reference documentation is concerned with data access and the
interaction between the data access layer and the business or service layer.

Spring's comprehensive transaction management support is covered in some

detail, followed by thorough coverage of the various data access frameworks and
technologies that the Spring Framework integrates with.

 Chapter 10, Transaction Management

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  Chapter 11, DAO support

 Chapter 12, Data access with JDBC

 Chapter 13, Object Relational Mapping (ORM) Data Access

 Chapter 14, Marshalling XML using O/X Mappers

10. Transaction Management

10.1 Introduction to Spring Framework transaction management

Comprehensive transaction support is among the most compelling reasons to use

the Spring Framework. The Spring Framework provides a consistent abstraction
for transaction management that delivers the following benefits:

 Consistent programming model across different transaction APIs such as

Java Transaction API (JTA), JDBC, Hibernate, Java Persistence API (JPA),
and Java Data Objects (JDO).
 Support for declarative transaction management.

 Simpler API for programmatic transaction management than complex

transaction APIs such as JTA.

 Excellent integration with Spring's data access abstractions.

The following sections describe the Spring Framework's transaction value-adds

and technologies. (The chapter also includes discussions of best practices,
application server integration, and solutions to common problems.)

 Advantages of the Spring Framework's transaction support

model describes why you would use the Spring Framework's transaction
abstraction instead of EJB Container-Managed Transactions (CMT) or
choosing to drive local transactions through a proprietary API such as
Hibernate.
 Understanding the Spring Framework transaction abstraction outlines the
core classes and describes how to configure and obtain DataSource instances
from a variety of sources.

 Synchronizing resources with transactions describes how the application

code ensures that resources are created, reused, and cleaned up properly.

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  Declarative transaction management describes support for declarative
transaction management.

 Programmatic transaction management covers support for programmatic

(that is, explicitly coded) transaction management.

10.2 Advantages of the Spring Framework's transaction support model

Traditionally, Java EE developers have had two choices for transaction

management: global or local transactions, both of which have profound limitations.
Global and local transaction management is reviewed in the next two sections,
followed by a discussion of how the Spring Framework's transaction management
support addresses the limitations of the global and local transaction models.

10.2.1 Global transactions

Global transactions enable you to work with multiple transactional resources,

typically relational databases and message queues. The application server
manages global transactions through the JTA, which is a cumbersome API to use
(partly due to its exception model). Furthermore, a JTAUserTransaction normally
needs to be sourced from JNDI, meaning that you also need to use JNDI in order
to use JTA. Obviously the use of global transactions would limit any potential
reuse of application code, as JTA is normally only available in an application
server environment.

Previously, the preferred way to use global transactions was via

EJB CMT (Container Managed Transaction): CMT is a form of declarative
transaction management (as distinguished from programmatic transaction
management). EJB CMT removes the need for transaction-related JNDI lookups,
although of course the use of EJB itself necessitates the use of JNDI. It removes
most but not all of the need to write Java code to control transactions. The
significant downside is that CMT is tied to JTA and an application server
environment. Also, it is only available if one chooses to implement business logic
in EJBs, or at least behind a transactional EJB facade. The negatives of EJB in
general are so great that this is not an attractive proposition, especially in the face
of compelling alternatives for declarative transaction management.

10.2.2 Local transactions

Local transactions are resource-specific, such as a transaction associated with a

JDBC connection. Local transactions may be easier to use, but have significant
disadvantages: they cannot work across multiple transactional resources. For

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example, code that manages transactions using a JDBC connection cannot run
within a global JTA transaction. Because the application server is not involved in
transaction management, it cannot help ensure correctness across multiple
resources. (It is worth noting that most applications use a single transaction
resource.) Another downside is that local transactions are invasive to the
programming model.

10.2.3 Spring Framework's consistent programming model

Spring resolves the disadvantages of global and local transactions. It enables

application developers to use a consistent programming model in any
environment. You write your code once, and it can benefit from different
transaction management strategies in different environments. The Spring
Framework provides both declarative and programmatic transaction management.
Most users prefer declarative transaction management, which is recommended in
most cases.

With programmatic transaction management, developers work with the Spring

Framework transaction abstraction, which can run over any underlying transaction
infrastructure. With the preferred declarative model, developers typically write little
or no code related to transaction management, and hence do not depend on the
Spring Framework transaction API, or any other transaction API.
Do you need an application server for transaction management?

The Spring Framework's transaction management support changes traditional rules as to when an
enterprise Java application requires an application server.

In particular, you do not need an application server simply for declarative transactions through EJBs. In
fact, even if your application server has powerful JTA capabilities, you may decide that the Spring
Framework's declarative transactions offer more power and a more productive programming model than
EJB CMT.

Typically you need an application server's JTA capability only if your application needs to handle
transactions across multiple resources, which is not a requirement for many applications. Many high-end
applications use a single, highly scalable database (such as Oracle RAC) instead. Standalone transaction
managers such as Atomikos Transactions and JOTM are other options. Of course, you may need other
application server capabilities such as Java Message Service (JMS) and J2EE Connector Architecture
(JCA).

The Spring Framework gives you the choice of when to scale your application to a fully loaded application
server. Gone are the days when the only alternative to using EJB CMT or JTA was to write code with local
transactions such as those on JDBC connections, and face a hefty rework if you need that code to run
within global, container-managed transactions. With the Spring Framework, only some of the bean
definitions in your configuration file, rather than your code, need to change.

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10.3 Understanding the Spring Framework transaction abstraction

The key to the Spring transaction abstraction is the notion of a transaction

strategy. A transaction strategy is defined by
theorg.springframework.transaction.PlatformTransactionManager interface:

public interface PlatformTransactionManager {

TransactionStatus getTransaction(TransactionDefinition definition)

throws TransactionException;

void commit(TransactionStatus status) throws TransactionException;

void rollback(TransactionStatus status) throws TransactionException;

}

This is primarily a service provider interface (SPI), although it can be

used programmatically from your application code.
BecausePlatformTransactionManager is an interface, it can be easily mocked or
stubbed as necessary. It is not tied to a lookup strategy such as
JNDI.PlatformTransactionManager implementations are defined like any other object
(or bean) in the Spring Framework IoC container. This benefit alone makes Spring
Framework transactions a worthwhile abstraction even when you work with JTA.
Transactional code can be tested much more easily than if it used JTA directly.

Again in keeping with Spring's philosophy, the TransactionException that can be

thrown by any of the PlatformTransactionManager interface's methods
is unchecked (that is, it extends the java.lang.RuntimeException class). Transaction
infrastructure failures are almost invariably fatal. In rare cases where application
code can actually recover from a transaction failure, the application developer can
still choose to catch and handleTransactionException. The salient point is that
developers are not forced to do so.

The getTransaction(..) method returns a TransactionStatus object, depending on

a TransactionDefinition parameter. The returnedTransactionStatus might represent
a new transaction, or can represent an existing transaction if a matching
transaction exists in the current call stack. The implication in this latter case is that,
as with Java EE transaction contexts, a TransactionStatus is associated with
a thread of execution.

The TransactionDefinition interface specifies:

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  Isolation: The degree to which this transaction is isolated from the work of
other transactions. For example, can this transaction see uncommitted
writes from other transactions?
 Propagation: Typically, all code executed within a transaction scope will run
in that transaction. However, you have the option of specifying the behavior
in the event that a transactional method is executed when a transaction
context already exists. For example, code can continue running in the
existing transaction (the common case); or the existing transaction can be
suspended and a new transaction created. Spring offers all of the
transaction propagation options familiar from EJB CMT. To read about the
semantics of transaction propagation in Spring, see Section 10.5.7,
“Transaction propagation”.

 Timeout: How long this transaction runs before timing out and being rolled
back automatically by the underlying transaction infrastructure.

 Read-only status: A read-only transaction can be used when your code

reads but does not modify data. Read-only transactions can be a useful
optimization in some cases, such as when you are using Hibernate.

These settings reflect standard transactional concepts. If necessary, refer to

resources that discuss transaction isolation levels and other core transaction
concepts. Understanding these concepts is essential to using the Spring
Framework or any transaction management solution.

The TransactionStatus interface provides a simple way for transactional code to

control transaction execution and query transaction status. The concepts should
be familiar, as they are common to all transaction APIs:

public interface TransactionStatus extends SavepointManager {

boolean isNewTransaction();

boolean hasSavepoint();

void setRollbackOnly();

boolean isRollbackOnly();

void flush();

boolean isCompleted();

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Regardless of whether you opt for declarative or programmatic transaction
management in Spring, defining the
correctPlatformTransactionManager implementation is absolutely essential. You
typically define this implementation through dependency injection.

PlatformTransactionManager implementations normally require knowledge of the

environment in which they work: JDBC, JTA, Hibernate, and so on. The following
examples show how you can define a
local PlatformTransactionManager implementation. (This example works with plain
JDBC.)

You define a JDBC DataSource

<bean id="dataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" destroy-

method="close">
<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 related PlatformTransactionManager bean definition will then have a reference to

the DataSource definition. It will look like this:

<bean id="txManager"
class="org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DataSourceTransactionManager">
<property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>
</bean>

If you use JTA in a Java EE container then you use a container DataSource,

obtained through JNDI, in conjunction with Spring's JtaTransactionManager. This is
what the JTA and JNDI lookup version would look like:

<?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:jee="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee
http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee/spring-jee-3.0.xsd">

<jee:jndi-lookup id="dataSource" jndi-name="jdbc/jpetstore"/>

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 <bean id="txManager"
class="org.springframework.transaction.jta.JtaTransactionManager" />

<!-- other <bean/> definitions here -->

</beans>

The JtaTransactionManager does not need to know about the DataSource, or any

other specific resources, because it uses the container's global transaction management infrastructure.

Note

The above definition of the dataSource bean uses the <jndi-lookup/> tag from

the jee namespace. For more information on schema-based configuration, see Appendix C, XML
Schema-based configuration, and for more information on the <jee/>tags see the section
entitled Section C.2.3, “The jee schema”.

You can also use Hibernate local transactions easily, as shown in the following
examples. In this case, you need to define a HibernateLocalSessionFactoryBean,
which your application code will use to obtain Hibernate Session instances.

The DataSource bean definition will be similar to the local JDBC example shown previously and
thus is not shown in the following example.

Note

If the DataSource, used by any non-JTA transaction manager, is looked up via JNDI and
managed by a Java EE container, then it should be non-transactional because the Spring
Framework, rather than the Java EE container, will manage the transactions.

The txManager bean in this case is of the HibernateTransactionManager type. In the

same way as the DataSourceTransactionManager needs a reference to the DataSource,
the HibernateTransactionManager needs a reference to the SessionFactory.

<bean id="sessionFactory"
class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalSessionFactoryBean">
<property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource" />
<property name="mappingResources">
<list>

<value>org/springframework/samples/petclinic/hibernate/petclinic.hbm.xml</value>
</list>
</property>
<property name="hibernateProperties">
<value>
hibernate.dialect=${hibernate.dialect}

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 </value>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="txManager"
class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTransactionManager">
<property name="sessionFactory" ref="sessionFactory" />
</bean>

If you are using Hibernate and Java EE container-managed JTA transactions, then
you should simply use the same JtaTransactionManager as in the previous JTA
example for JDBC.

<bean id="txManager"
class="org.springframework.transaction.jta.JtaTransactionManager"/>

Note

If you use JTA , then your transaction manager definition will look the same regardless of what
data access technology you use, be it JDBC, Hibernate JPA or any other supported technology.
This is due to the fact that JTA transactions are global transactions, which can enlist any
transactional resource.

In all these cases, application code does not need to change. You can change
how transactions are managed merely by changing configuration, even if that
change means moving from local to global transactions or vice versa.

10.4 Synchronizing resources with transactions

It should now be clear how you create different transaction managers, and how
they are linked to related resources that need to be synchronized to transactions
(for example DataSourceTransactionManager to a
JDBC DataSource, HibernateTransactionManager to a Hibernate SessionFactory, and so
forth). This section describes how the application code, directly or indirectly using
a persistence API such as JDBC, Hibernate, or JDO, ensures that these resources
are created, reused, and cleaned up properly. The section also discusses how
transaction synchronization is triggered (optionally) through the
relevant PlatformTransactionManager.

10.4.1 High-level synchronization approach

The preferred approach is to use Spring's highest level template based

persistence integration APIs or to use native ORM APIs with transaction- aware
factory beans or proxies for managing the native resource factories. These

385
transaction-aware solutions internally handle resource creation and reuse,
cleanup, optional transaction synchronization of the resources, and exception
mapping. Thus user data access code does not have to address these tasks, but
can be focused purely on non-boilerplate persistence logic. Generally, you use the
native ORM API or take a templateapproach for JDBC access by using
the JdbcTemplate. These solutions are detailed in subsequent chapters of this
reference documentation.

10.4.2 Low-level synchronization approach

Classes such as DataSourceUtils (for JDBC), EntityManagerFactoryUtils (for

JPA), SessionFactoryUtils (for Hibernate),PersistenceManagerFactoryUtils (for JDO),
and so on exist at a lower level. When you want the application code to deal
directly with the resource types of the native persistence APIs, you use these
classes to ensure that proper Spring Framework-managed instances are obtained,
transactions are (optionally) synchronized, and exceptions that occur in the
process are properly mapped to a consistent API.

For example, in the case of JDBC, instead of the traditional JDBC approach of
calling the getConnection() method on the DataSource, you instead use
Spring's org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DataSourceUtils class as follows:

Connection conn = DataSourceUtils.getConnection(dataSource);

If an existing transaction already has a connection synchronized (linked) to it, that

instance is returned. Otherwise, the method call triggers the creation of a new
connection, which is (optionally) synchronized to any existing transaction, and
made available for subsequent reuse in that same transaction. As mentioned,
any SQLException is wrapped in a Spring
Framework CannotGetJdbcConnectionException, one of the Spring Framework's
hierarchy of unchecked DataAccessExceptions. This approach gives you more
information than can be obtained easily from theSQLException, and ensures
portability across databases, even across different persistence technologies.

This approach also works without Spring transaction management (transaction

synchronization is optional), so you can use it whether or not you are using Spring
for transaction management.

Of course, once you have used Spring's JDBC support, JPA support or Hibernate
support, you will generally prefer not to use DataSourceUtils or the other helper
classes, because you will be much happier working through the Spring abstraction

386
than directly with the relevant APIs. For example, if you use the
Spring JdbcTemplate or jdbc.object package to simplify your use of JDBC, correct
connection retrieval occurs behind the scenes and you won't need to write any
special code.

10.4.3 TransactionAwareDataSourceProxy

At the very lowest level exists the TransactionAwareDataSourceProxy class. This is a

proxy for a target DataSource, which wraps the targetDataSource to add awareness of
Spring-managed transactions. In this respect, it is similar to a transactional
JNDI DataSource as provided by a Java EE server.

It should almost never be necessary or desirable to use this class, except when
existing code must be called and passed a standard JDBCDataSource interface
implementation. In that case, it is possible that this code is usable, but participating
in Spring managed transactions. It is preferable to write your new code by using
the higher level abstractions mentioned above.

10.5 Declarative transaction management

Note

Most Spring Framework users choose declarative transaction management. This option has the
least impact on application code, and hence is most consistent with the ideals of a non-
invasive lightweight container.

The Spring Framework's declarative transaction management is made possible

with Spring aspect-oriented programming (AOP), although, as the transactional
aspects code comes with the Spring Framework distribution and may be used in a
boilerplate fashion, AOP concepts do not generally have to be understood to make
effective use of this code.

The Spring Framework's declarative transaction management is similar to EJB

CMT in that you can specify transaction behavior (or lack of it) down to individual
method level. It is possible to make a setRollbackOnly() call within a transaction
context if necessary. The differences between the two types of transaction
management are:

 Unlike EJB CMT, which is tied to JTA, the Spring Framework's declarative
transaction management works in any environment. It can work with JTA
transactions or local transactions using JDBC, JPA, Hibernate or JDO by
simply adjusting the configuration files.

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  You can apply the Spring Framework declarative transaction management to
any class, not merely special classes such as EJBs.

 The Spring Framework offers declarative rollback rules, a feature with no

EJB equivalent. Both programmatic and declarative support for rollback rules
is provided.

 The Spring Framework enables you to customize transactional behavior, by

using AOP. For example, you can insert custom behavior in the case of
transaction rollback. You can also add arbitrary advice, along with the
transactional advice. With EJB CMT, you cannot influence the container's
transaction management except with setRollbackOnly().

 The Spring Framework does not support propagation of transaction contexts

across remote calls, as do high-end application servers. If you need this
feature, we recommend that you use EJB. However, consider carefully
before using such a feature, because normally, one does not want
transactions to span remote calls.
Where is TransactionProxyFactoryBean?

Declarative transaction configuration in versions of Spring 2.0 and above differs considerably from
previous versions of Spring. The main difference is that there is no longer any need to
configureTransactionProxyFactoryBean beans.

The pre-Spring 2.0 configuration style is still 100% valid configuration; think of the new <tx:tags/> as
simply defining TransactionProxyFactoryBeanbeans on your behalf.

The concept of rollback rules is important: they enable you to specify which
exceptions (and throwables) should cause automatic rollback. You specify this
declaratively, in configuration, not in Java code. So, although you can still
call setRollbackOnly()on theTransactionStatus object to roll back the current
transaction back, most often you can specify a rule
that MyApplicationException must always result in rollback. The significant
advantage to this option is that business objects do not depend on the transaction
infrastructure. For example, they typically do not need to import Spring transaction
APIs or other Spring APIs.

Although EJB container default behavior automatically rolls back the transaction
on asystem exception (usually a runtime exception), EJB CMT does not roll back
the transaction automatically on an application exception (that is, a checked
exception other than java.rmi.RemoteException). While the Spring default behavior
for declarative transaction management follows EJB convention (roll back is

388
automatic only on unchecked exceptions), it is often useful to customize this
behavior.

10.5.1 Understanding the Spring Framework's declarative transaction

implementation

It is not sufficient to tell you simply to annotate your classes with

the @Transactional annotation, add the line (<tx:annotation-driven/>) to your
configuration, and then expect you to understand how it all works. This section
explains the inner workings of the Spring Framework's declarative transaction
infrastructure in the event of transaction-related issues.

The most important concepts to grasp with regard to the Spring Framework's
declarative transaction support are that this support is enabled via AOP proxies,
and that the transactional advice is driven by metadata (currently XML- or
annotation-based). The combination of AOP with transactional metadata yields an
AOP proxy that uses a TransactionInterceptor in conjunction with an
appropriate PlatformTransactionManagerimplementation to drive
transactions around method invocations.

Note

Spring AOP is covered in Chapter 7, Aspect Oriented Programming with Spring.

Conceptually, calling a method on a transactional proxy looks like this...

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10.5.2 Example of declarative transaction implementation

Consider the following interface, and its attendant implementation. This example
uses Foo and Bar classes as placeholders so that you can concentrate on the
transaction usage without focusing on a particular domain model. For the purposes
of this example, the fact that theDefaultFooService class
throws UnsupportedOperationException instances in the body of each implemented
method is good; it allows you to see transactions created and then rolled back in
response to the UnsupportedOperationException instance.

// the service interface that we want to make transactional

package x.y.service;

public interface FooService {

Foo getFoo(String fooName);

Foo getFoo(String fooName, String barName);

void insertFoo(Foo foo);

void updateFoo(Foo foo);

}
// an implementation of the above interface

390
package x.y.service;

public class DefaultFooService implements FooService {

public Foo getFoo(String fooName) {

throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
}

public Foo getFoo(String fooName, String barName) {

throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
}

public void insertFoo(Foo foo) {

throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
}

public void updateFoo(Foo foo) {

throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
}

Assume that the first two methods of the FooService interface,

getFoo(String) and getFoo(String, String), must execute in the context of a
transaction with read-only semantics, and that the other
methods,insertFoo(Foo) and updateFoo(Foo), must execute in the context of a
transaction with read-write semantics. The following configuration is explained in
detail in the next few paragraphs.

<!-- from the file 'context.xml' -->

<?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"
xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-3.0.xsd">

<!-- this is the service object that we want to make transactional -->
<bean id="fooService" class="x.y.service.DefaultFooService"/>

<!-- the transactional advice (what 'happens'; see the <aop:advisor/> bean
below) -->
<tx:advice id="txAdvice" transaction-manager="txManager">
<!-- the transactional semantics... -->
<tx:attributes>

391
 <!-- all methods starting with 'get' are read-only -->
<tx:method name="get*" read-only="true"/>
<!-- other methods use the default transaction settings (see below) -->
<tx:method name="*"/>
</tx:attributes>
</tx:advice>

<!-- ensure that the above transactional advice runs for any execution
of an operation defined by the FooService interface -->
<aop:config>
<aop:pointcut id="fooServiceOperation" expression="execution(*
x.y.service.FooService.*(..))"/>
<aop:advisor advice-ref="txAdvice" pointcut-ref="fooServiceOperation"/>
</aop:config>

<!-- don't forget the DataSource -->

<bean id="dataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" destroy-
method="close">
<property name="driverClassName" value="oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver"/>
<property name="url" value="jdbc:oracle:thin:@rj-t42:1521:elvis"/>
<property name="username" value="scott"/>
<property name="password" value="tiger"/>
</bean>

<!-- similarly, don't forget the PlatformTransactionManager -->

<bean id="txManager"
class="org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DataSourceTransactionManager">
<property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>
</bean>

<!-- other <bean/> definitions here -->

</beans>

Examine the preceding configuration. You want to make a service object,

the fooService bean, transactional. The transaction semantics to apply are
encapsulated in the <tx:advice/> definition. The <tx:advice/> definition reads as “...
all methods on starting with 'get' are to execute in the context of a read-only
transaction, and all other methods are to execute with the default transaction
semantics”. The transaction-managerattribute of the <tx:advice/> tag is set to the
name of the PlatformTransactionManager bean that is going to drive the
transactions, in this case, the txManager bean.

Tip

You can omit the transaction-manager attribute in the transactional advice

(<tx:advice/>) if the bean name of thePlatformTransactionManager that you want to
wire in has the name transactionManager. If the PlatformTransactionManagerbean
that you want to wire in has any other name, then you must use the transaction-
manager attribute explicitly, as in the preceding example.

392
The <aop:config/> definition ensures that the transactional advice defined by
the txAdvice bean executes at the appropriate points in the program. First you
define a pointcut that matches the execution of any operation defined in
the FooService interface (fooServiceOperation). Then you associate the pointcut with
the txAdvice using an advisor. The result indicates that at the execution of
a fooServiceOperation, the advice defined by txAdvice will be run.

The expression defined within the <aop:pointcut/> element is an AspectJ pointcut

expression; see Chapter 7, Aspect Oriented Programming with Spring for more
details on pointcut expressions in Spring 2.0.

A common requirement is to make an entire service layer transactional. The best

way to do this is simply to change the pointcut expression to match any operation
in your service layer. For example:

<aop:config>
<aop:pointcut id="fooServiceMethods" expression="execution(*
x.y.service.*.*(..))"/>
<aop:advisor advice-ref="txAdvice" pointcut-ref="fooServiceMethods"/>
</aop:config>

Note

In this example it is assumed that all your service interfaces are defined in
the  x.y.service package; see Chapter  7,  Aspect Oriented Programming with
Spring for more details.

Now that we've analyzed the configuration, you may be asking yourself, “Okay...
but what does all this configuration actually do?”.

The above configuration will be used to create a transactional proxy around the
object that is created from the fooService bean definition. The proxy will be
configured with the transactional advice, so that when an appropriate method is
invoked on the proxy, a transaction is started, suspended, marked as read-only,
and so on, depending on the transaction configuration associated with that
method. Consider the following program that test drives the above configuration:

public final class Boot {

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

ApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("context.xml",
Boot.class);
FooService fooService = (FooService) ctx.getBean("fooService");
fooService.insertFoo (new Foo());

393
 }
}

The output from running the preceding program will resemble the following. (The
Log4J output and the stack trace from the UnsupportedOperationException thrown
by the insertFoo(..) method of the DefaultFooService class have been truncated
for clarity.)

<!-- the Spring container is starting up... -->

[AspectJInvocationContextExposingAdvisorAutoProxyCreator] - Creating implicit
proxy
for bean 'fooService' with 0 common interceptors and 1 specific interceptors
<!-- the DefaultFooService is actually proxied -->
[JdkDynamicAopProxy] - Creating JDK dynamic proxy for
[x.y.service.DefaultFooService]

<!-- ... the insertFoo(..) method is now being invoked on the proxy -->

[TransactionInterceptor] - Getting transaction for

x.y.service.FooService.insertFoo
<!-- the transactional advice kicks in here... -->
[DataSourceTransactionManager] - Creating new transaction with name
[x.y.service.FooService.insertFoo]
[DataSourceTransactionManager] - Acquired Connection
[org.apache.commons.dbcp.PoolableConnection@a53de4] for JDBC transaction

<!-- the insertFoo(..) method from DefaultFooService throws an exception... -->

[RuleBasedTransactionAttribute] - Applying rules to determine whether transaction
should
rollback on java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException
[TransactionInterceptor] - Invoking rollback for transaction on
x.y.service.FooService.insertFoo
due to throwable [java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException]

<!-- and the transaction is rolled back (by default, RuntimeException instances
cause rollback) -->
[DataSourceTransactionManager] - Rolling back JDBC transaction on Connection
[org.apache.commons.dbcp.PoolableConnection@a53de4]
[DataSourceTransactionManager] - Releasing JDBC Connection after transaction
[DataSourceUtils] - Returning JDBC Connection to DataSource

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException

at x.y.service.DefaultFooService.insertFoo(DefaultFooService.java:14)
<!-- AOP infrastructure stack trace elements removed for clarity -->
at $Proxy0.insertFoo(Unknown Source)
at Boot.main(Boot.java:11)

394
10.5.3 Rolling back a declarative transaction

The previous section outlined the basics of how to specify transactional settings for
classes, typically service layer classes, declaratively in your application. This
section describes how you can control the rollback of transactions in a simple
declarative fashion.

The recommended way to indicate to the Spring Framework's transaction

infrastructure that a transaction's work is to be rolled back is to throw
anException from code that is currently executing in the context of a transaction.
The Spring Framework's transaction infrastructure code will catch any
unhandled Exception as it bubbles up the call stack, and make a determination
whether to mark the transaction for rollback.

In its default configuration, the Spring Framework's transaction infrastructure

code only marks a transaction for rollback in the case of runtime, unchecked
exceptions; that is, when the thrown exception is an instance or subclass
of RuntimeException. (Errors will also - by default - result in a rollback). Checked
exceptions that are thrown from a transactional method do not result in rollback in
the default configuration.

You can configure exactly which Exception types mark a transaction for rollback,

including checked exceptions. The following XML snippet demonstrates how you
configure rollback for a checked, application-specific Exception type.

<tx:advice id="txAdvice" transaction-manager="txManager">

<tx:attributes>
<tx:method name="get*" read-only="true" rollback-
for="NoProductInStockException"/>
<tx:method name="*"/>
</tx:attributes>
</tx:advice>

You can also specify 'no rollback rules', if you do not want a transaction rolled back
when an exception is thrown. The following example tells the Spring Framework's
transaction infrastructure to commit the attendant transaction even in the face of
an unhandled InstrumentNotFoundException.

<tx:advice id="txAdvice">
<tx:attributes>
<tx:method name="updateStock" no-rollback-for="InstrumentNotFoundException"/>
<tx:method name="*"/>
</tx:attributes>

395
</tx:advice>

When the Spring Framework's transaction infrastructure catches an exception and

is consults configured rollback rules to determine whether to mark the transaction
for rollback, the strongest matching rule wins. So in the case of the following
configuration, any exception other than anInstrumentNotFoundException results in a
rollback of the attendant transaction.

<tx:advice id="txAdvice">
<tx:attributes>
<tx:method name="*" rollback-for="Throwable" no-rollback-
for="InstrumentNotFoundException"/>
</tx:attributes>
</tx:advice>

You can also indicate a required rollback programmatically. Although very simple,

this process is quite invasive, and tightly couples your code to the Spring
Framework's transaction infrastructure:

public void resolvePosition() {

try {
// some business logic...
} catch (NoProductInStockException ex) {
// trigger rollback programmatically
TransactionAspectSupport.currentTransactionStatus().setRollbackOnly();
}
}

You are strongly encouraged to use the declarative approach to rollback if at all
possible. Programmatic rollback is available should you absolutely need it, but its
usage flies in the face of achieving a clean POJO-based architecture.

10.5.4 Configuring different transactional semantics for different beans

Consider the scenario where you have a number of service layer objects, and you
want to apply a totally different transactional configuration to each of them. You do
this by defining distinct <aop:advisor/> elements with differing pointcut and advice-
ref attribute values.

As a point of comparison, first assume that all of your service layer classes are
defined in a root x.y.service package. To make all beans that are instances of
classes defined in that package (or in subpackages) and that have names ending

396
in Service have the default transactional configuration, you would write the
following:

<?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"
xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-3.0.xsd">

<aop:config>

<aop:pointcut id="serviceOperation"
expression="execution(* x.y.service..*Service.*(..))"/>

<aop:advisor pointcut-ref="serviceOperation" advice-ref="txAdvice"/>

</aop:config>

<!-- these two beans will be transactional... -->

<bean id="fooService" class="x.y.service.DefaultFooService"/>
<bean id="barService" class="x.y.service.extras.SimpleBarService"/>

<!-- ... and these two beans won't -->

<bean id="anotherService" class="org.xyz.SomeService"/> <!-- (not in the right
package) -->
<bean id="barManager" class="x.y.service.SimpleBarManager"/> <!-- (doesn't end
in 'Service') -->

<tx:advice id="txAdvice">
<tx:attributes>
<tx:method name="get*" read-only="true"/>
<tx:method name="*"/>
</tx:attributes>
</tx:advice>

<!-- other transaction infrastructure beans such as a PlatformTransactionManager

omitted... -->

</beans>

The following example shows how to configure two distinct beans with totally
different transactional settings.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"

397
 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-3.0.xsd">

<aop:config>

<aop:pointcut id="defaultServiceOperation"
expression="execution(* x.y.service.*Service.*(..))"/>

<aop:pointcut id="noTxServiceOperation"
expression="execution(* x.y.service.ddl.DefaultDdlManager.*(..))"/>

<aop:advisor pointcut-ref="defaultServiceOperation" advice-

ref="defaultTxAdvice"/>

<aop:advisor pointcut-ref="noTxServiceOperation" advice-ref="noTxAdvice"/>

</aop:config>

<!-- this bean will be transactional (see the 'defaultServiceOperation'

pointcut) -->
<bean id="fooService" class="x.y.service.DefaultFooService"/>

<!-- this bean will also be transactional, but with totally different
transactional settings -->
<bean id="anotherFooService" class="x.y.service.ddl.DefaultDdlManager"/>

<tx:advice id="defaultTxAdvice">
<tx:attributes>
<tx:method name="get*" read-only="true"/>
<tx:method name="*"/>
</tx:attributes>
</tx:advice>

<tx:advice id="noTxAdvice">
<tx:attributes>
<tx:method name="*" propagation="NEVER"/>
</tx:attributes>
</tx:advice>

<!-- other transaction infrastructure beans such as a PlatformTransactionManager

omitted... -->

</beans>

398
 10.5.5 <tx:advice/> settings

This section summarizes the various transactional settings that can be specified
using the <tx:advice/> tag. The default <tx:advice/> settings are:

 Propagation setting is REQUIRED.
 Isolation level is DEFAULT.

 Transaction is read/write.

 Transaction timeout defaults to the default timeout of the underlying

transaction system, or none if timeouts are not supported.

 Any RuntimeException triggers rollback, and any checked Exception does not.

You can change these default settings; the various attributes of

the <tx:method/> tags that are nested within <tx:advice/> and <tx:attributes/>tags
are summarized below:

Table 10.1. <tx:method/> settings

Required? Default Description

Method name(s) with which the transaction attributes are to be associated. The wildcard (*) character
Yes  
be used to associate the same transaction attribute settings with a number of methods;
example, get*, handle*, on*Event, and so forth.
No REQUIRED Transaction propagation behavior.
No DEFAULT Transaction isolation level.
No -1 Transaction timeout value (in seconds).
No false Is this transaction read-only?

No   Exception(s) that trigger rollback; comma-delimited.

example,com.foo.MyBusinessException,ServletException.

No   Exception(s) that do not trigger rollback; comma-delimited.

example,com.foo.MyBusinessException,ServletException.

399
10.5.6 Using @Transactional

In addition to the XML-based declarative approach to transaction configuration,

you can use an annotation-based approach. Declaring transaction semantics
directly in the Java source code puts the declarations much closer to the affected
code. There is not much danger of undue coupling, because code that is meant to
be used transactionally is almost always deployed that way anyway.

The ease-of-use afforded by the use of the @Transactional annotation is best

illustrated with an example, which is explained in the text that follows. Consider the
following class definition:

// the service class that we want to make transactional

@Transactional
public class DefaultFooService implements FooService {

Foo getFoo(String fooName);

Foo getFoo(String fooName, String barName);

void insertFoo(Foo foo);

void updateFoo(Foo foo);

}

When the above POJO is defined as a bean in a Spring IoC container, the bean
instance can be made transactional by adding merely one line of XML
configuration:

<!-- from the file 'context.xml' -->

<?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"
xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-3.0.xsd">

<!-- this is the service object that we want to make transactional -->
<bean id="fooService" class="x.y.service.DefaultFooService"/>

<!-- enable the configuration of transactional behavior based on annotations -->

<tx:annotation-driven transaction-manager="txManager"/>

400
 <!-- a PlatformTransactionManager is still required -->
<bean id="txManager"
class="org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DataSourceTransactionManager">
<!-- (this dependency is defined somewhere else) -->
<property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>
</bean>

<!-- other <bean/> definitions here -->

</beans>

Tip

You can omit the transaction-manager attribute in the <tx:annotation-driven/> tag

if the bean name of thePlatformTransactionManager that you want to wire in has the
name transactionManager. If the PlatformTransactionManagerbean that you want to
dependency-inject has any other name, then you have to use the transaction-
manager attribute explicitly, as in the preceding example.

Method visibility and @Transactional

When using proxies, you should apply the @Transactional annotation only to methods
withpublic visibility. If you do annotate protected, private or package-visible methods with
the@Transactional annotation, no error is raised, but the annotated method does not exhibit the
configured transactional settings. Consider the use of AspectJ (see below) if you need to annotate non-
public methods.

You can place the @Transactional annotation before an interface definition, a

method on an interface, a class definition, or a public method on a class. However,
the mere presence of the @Transactional annotation is not enough to activate the
transactional behavior. The @Transactional annotation is simply metadata that
can be consumed by some runtime infrastructure that is @Transactional-aware
and that can use the metadata to configure the appropriate beans with
transactional behavior. In the preceding example, the <tx:annotation-
driven/> element switches on the transactional behavior.

Tip

Spring recommends that you only annotate concrete classes (and methods of concrete
classes) with the @Transactional annotation, as opposed to annotating interfaces. You
certainly can place the @Transactionalannotation on an interface (or an interface
method), but this works only as you would expect it to if you are using interface-based
proxies. The fact that Java annotations are not inherited from interfaces means that if you
are using class-based proxies (proxy-target-class="true") or the weaving-based aspect
(mode="aspectj"), then the transaction settings are not recognized by the proxying and
weaving infrastructure, and the object will not be wrapped in a transactional proxy, which

401
 would be decidedly bad.
Note

In proxy mode (which is the default), only external method calls coming in through the proxy are
intercepted. This means that self-invocation, in effect, a method within the target object calling
another method of the target object, will not lead to an actual transaction at runtime even if the
invoked method is marked with @Transactional.

Consider the use of AspectJ mode (see mode attribute in table below) if you
expect self-invocations to be wrapped with transactions as well. In this case, there
will not be a proxy in the first place; instead, the target class will be weaved (that
is, its byte code will be modified) in order to turn @Transactional into runtime
behavior on any kind of method.

Table 10.2. <tx:annotation-driven/> settings

Default Description

transactionManager Name of transaction manager to use. Only required if the name of the transaction manag
not transactionManager, as in the example above.

The default mode "proxy" processes annotated beans to be proxied using Spring's A
framework (following proxy semantics, as discussed above, applying to method
coming in through the proxy only). The alternative mode "aspectj" instead weaves
proxy affected classes with Spring's AspectJ transaction aspect, modifying the target class
code to apply to any kind of method call. AspectJ weaving requires spring-aspects.jar in
classpath as well as load-time weaving (or compile-time weaving) enab
(See Section 7.8.4.5, “Spring configuration” for details on how to set up load-
weaving.)

Applies to proxy mode only. Controls what type of transactional proxies are created
classes annotated with the @Transactional annotation. If the proxy-targ
false class attribute is set to true, then class-based proxies are created. If proxy-targ
class is false or if the attribute is omitted, then standard JDK interface-based proxies
created. (See Section 7.6, “Proxying mechanisms” for a detailed examination of
different proxy types.)

Defines the order of the transaction advice that is applied to beans annot
Ordered.LOWEST_PRECEDENCE with@Transactional. (For more information about the rules related to ordering of A
advice, see Section 7.2.4.7, “Advice ordering”.) No specified ordering means that the A
subsystem determines the order of the advice.

402
 Note

The proxy-target-class attribute on the <tx:annotation-driven/> element controls

what type of transactional proxies are created for classes annotated with
the @Transactional annotation. If proxy-target-class attribute is set to true, class-
based proxies are created. If proxy-target-class is false or if the attribute is omitted,
standard JDK interface-based proxies are created. (See Section 7.6, “Proxying
mechanisms” for a discussion of the different proxy types.)
Note

<tx:annotation-driven/> only looks for @Transactional on beans in the same application

context it is defined in. This means that, if you put <tx:annotation-driven/> in
a WebApplicationContext for a DispatcherServlet, it only checks for@Transactional beans
in your controllers, and not your services. See Section 15.2, “The DispatcherServlet” for more
information.

The most derived location takes precedence when evaluating the transactional
settings for a method. In the case of the following example,
theDefaultFooService class is annotated at the class level with the settings for a
read-only transaction, but the @Transactional annotation on
theupdateFoo(Foo) method in the same class takes precedence over the
transactional settings defined at the class level.

@Transactional(readOnly = true)
public class DefaultFooService implements FooService {

public Foo getFoo(String fooName) {

// do something
}

// these settings have precedence for this method

@Transactional(readOnly = false, propagation = Propagation.REQUIRES_NEW)
public void updateFoo(Foo foo) {
// do something
}
}

10.5.6.1 @Transactional settings

The @Transactional annotation is metadata that specifies that an interface, class, or

method must have transactional semantics; for example, “start a brand new read-
only transaction when this method is invoked, suspending any existing
transaction”. The default @Transactional settings are as follows:

 Propagation setting is PROPAGATION_REQUIRED.

403
  Isolation level is ISOLATION_DEFAULT.

 Transaction is read/write.

 Transaction timeout defaults to the default timeout of the underlying

transaction system, or to none if timeouts are not supported.

 Any RuntimeException triggers rollback, and any checked Exception does not.

These default settings can be changed; the various properties of

the @Transactional annotation are summarized in the following table:

Table 10.3. @Transactional properties

ty Type Description
Optional qualifier specifying the transaction manager to
String
used.
enum: Propagation Optional propagation setting.
enum: Isolation Optional isolation level.
boolean Read/write vs. read-only transaction
int (in seconds granularity) Transaction timeout.
Array of Class objects, which must be derived Optional array of exception classes that must cause
fromThrowable. rollback.
assname
Array of class names. Classes must be derived Optional array of names of exception classes
from Throwable. that mustcause rollback.
Array of Class objects, which must be derived Optional array of exception classes that must notcause
fromThrowable. rollback.
Classname
Array of String class names, which must be derived Optional array of names of exception classes that must
from Throwable. not cause rollback.

Currently you cannot have explicit control over the name of a transaction, where
'name' means the transaction name that will be shown in a transaction monitor, if
applicable (for example, WebLogic's transaction monitor), and in logging output.
For declarative transactions, the transaction name is always the fully-qualified
class name + "." + method name of the transactionally-advised class. For example,
if the handlePayment(..)method of the BusinessService class started a transaction,
the name of the transaction would be: com.foo.BusinessService.handlePayment.

404
10.5.6.2 Multiple Transaction Managers with @Transactional

Most Spring applications only need a single transaction manager, but there may
be situations where you want multiple independent transaction managers in a
single application. The value attribute of the @Transactional annotation can be used
to optionally specify the identity of thePlatformTransactionManager to be used. This
can either be the bean name or the qualifier value of the transaction manager
bean. For example, using the qualifier notation, the following Java code

public class TransactionalService {

@Transactional("order")
public void setSomething(String name) { ... }

@Transactional("account")
public void doSomething() { ... }
}

could be combined with the following transaction manager bean declarations in the
application context.

<tx:annotation-driven/>

<bean id="transactionManager1"
class="org.springframework.jdbc.DataSourceTransactionManager">
...
<qualifier value="order"/>
</bean>

<bean id="transactionManager2"
class="org.springframework.jdbc.DataSourceTransactionManager">
...
<qualifier value="account"/>
</bean>

In this case, the two methods on TransactionalService will run under separate

transaction managers, differentiated by the "order" and "account" qualifiers. The
default <tx:annotation-driven> target bean name transactionManager will still be
used if no specifically qualified PlatformTransactionManager bean is found.

10.5.6.3 Custom shortcut annotations

If you find you are repeatedly using the same attributes with @Transactional on
many different methods, then Spring's meta-annotation support allows you to

405
define custom shortcut annotations for your specific use cases. For example,
defining the following annotations

@Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.TYPE})
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Transactional("order")
public @interface OrderTx {
}

@Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.TYPE})
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Transactional("account")
public @interface AccountTx {
}

allows us to write the example from the previous section as

public class TransactionalService {

@OrderTx
public void setSomething(String name) { ... }

@AccountTx
public void doSomething() { ... }
}

Here we have used the syntax to define the transaction manager qualifier, but
could also have included propagation behavior, rollback rules, timeouts etc.

10.5.7 Transaction propagation

This section describes some semantics of transaction propagation in Spring.

Please note that this section is not an introduction to transaction propagation
proper; rather it details some of the semantics regarding transaction propagation in
Spring.

In Spring-managed transactions, be aware of the difference

between physical and logical transactions, and how the propagation setting applies
to this difference.

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10.5.7.1 Required

PROPAGATION_REQUIRED

When the propagation setting is PROPAGATION_REQUIRED, a logical transaction scope is

created for each method upon which the setting is applied. Each such logical
transaction scope can determine rollback-only status individually, with an outer
transaction scope being logically independent from the inner transaction scope. Of
course, in case of standard PROPAGATION_REQUIRED behavior, all these scopes will be
mapped to the same physical transaction. So a rollback-only marker set in the
inner transaction scope does affect the outer transaction's chance to actually
commit (as you would expect it to).

However, in the case where an inner transaction scope sets the rollback-only
marker, the outer transaction has not decided on the rollback itself, and so the
rollback (silently triggered by the inner transaction scope) is unexpected. A
corresponding UnexpectedRollbackException is thrown at that point. This is expected
behavior so that the caller of a transaction can never be misled to assume that a
commit was performed when it really was not. So if an inner transaction (of which
the outer caller is not aware) silently marks a transaction as rollback-only, the
outer caller still calls commit. The outer caller needs to receive
an UnexpectedRollbackException to indicate clearly that a rollback was performed
instead.

407
10.5.7.2 RequiresNew

PROPAGATION_REQUIRES_NEW

PROPAGATION_REQUIRES_NEW, in contrast to PROPAGATION_REQUIRED, uses

a completely independent transaction for each affected transaction scope. In that
case, the underlying physical transactions are different and hence can commit or
roll back independently, with an outer transaction not affected by an inner
transaction's rollback status.

10.5.7.3 Nested

PROPAGATION_NESTED uses a single physical transaction with multiple savepoints that

it can roll back to. Such partial rollbacks allow an inner transaction scope to trigger
a rollback for its scope, with the outer transaction being able to continue the
physical transaction despite some operations having been rolled back. This setting
is typically mapped onto JDBC savepoints, so will only work with JDBC resource
transactions. See Spring's DataSourceTransactionManager.

10.5.8 Advising transactional operations

Suppose you want to execute both transactional and some basic profiling advice.

How do you effect this in the context of <tx:annotation-driven/>?

When you invoke the updateFoo(Foo) method, you want to see the following actions:

1. Configured profiling aspect starts up.

2. Transactional advice executes.

408
 3. Method on the advised object executes.

4. Transaction commits.

5. Profiling aspect reports exact duration of the whole transactional method invocation.

Note

This chapter is not concerned with explaining AOP in any great detail (except as it applies
to transactions). See Chapter 7,Aspect Oriented Programming with Spring for detailed
coverage of the following AOP configuration and AOP in general.

Here is the code for a simple profiling aspect discussed above. The ordering of
advice is controlled through the Ordered interface. For full details on advice
ordering, see Section 7.2.4.7, “Advice ordering”.

package x.y;

import org.aspectj.lang.ProceedingJoinPoint;
import org.springframework.util.StopWatch;
import org.springframework.core.Ordered;

public class SimpleProfiler implements Ordered {

private int order;

// allows us to control the ordering of advice

public int getOrder() {
return this.order;
}

public void setOrder(int order) {

this.order = order;
}

// this method is the around advice

public Object profile(ProceedingJoinPoint call) throws Throwable {
Object returnValue;
StopWatch clock = new StopWatch(getClass().getName());
try {
clock.start(call.toShortString());
returnValue = call.proceed();
} finally {
clock.stop();
System.out.println(clock.prettyPrint());
}
return returnValue;
}
}
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"

409
 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-3.0.xsd">

<bean id="fooService" class="x.y.service.DefaultFooService"/>

<!-- this is the aspect -->

<bean id="profiler" class="x.y.SimpleProfiler">
<!-- execute before the transactional advice (hence the lower order number)
-->
<property name="order" value="1"/>
</bean>

<tx:annotation-driven transaction-manager="txManager" order="200"/>

<aop:config>
<!-- this advice will execute around the transactional advice -->
<aop:aspect id="profilingAspect" ref="profiler">
<aop:pointcut id="serviceMethodWithReturnValue"
expression="execution(!void x.y..*Service.*(..))"/>
<aop:around method="profile" pointcut-ref="serviceMethodWithReturnValue"/>
</aop:aspect>
</aop:config>

<bean id="dataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" destroy-

method="close">
<property name="driverClassName" value="oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver"/>
<property name="url" value="jdbc:oracle:thin:@rj-t42:1521:elvis"/>
<property name="username" value="scott"/>
<property name="password" value="tiger"/>
</bean>

<bean id="txManager"
class="org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DataSourceTransactionManager">
<property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>
</bean>

</beans>

The result of the above configuration is a fooService bean that has profiling and
transactional aspects applied to it in the desired order. You configure any number
of additional aspects in similar fashion.

The following example effects the same setup as above, but uses the purely XML
declarative approach.

410
<?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"
xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-3.0.xsd">

<bean id="fooService" class="x.y.service.DefaultFooService"/>

<!-- the profiling advice -->

<bean id="profiler" class="x.y.SimpleProfiler">
<!-- execute before the transactional advice (hence the lower order number)
-->
<property name="order" value="1"/>
</bean>

<aop:config>

<aop:pointcut id="entryPointMethod" expression="execution(*

x.y..*Service.*(..))"/>

<!-- will execute after the profiling advice (c.f. the order attribute) -->
<aop:advisor
advice-ref="txAdvice"
pointcut-ref="entryPointMethod"
order="2"/> <!-- order value is higher than the profiling aspect -->

<aop:aspect id="profilingAspect" ref="profiler">

<aop:pointcut id="serviceMethodWithReturnValue"
expression="execution(!void x.y..*Service.*(..))"/>
<aop:around method="profile" pointcut-ref="serviceMethodWithReturnValue"/>
</aop:aspect>

</aop:config>

<tx:advice id="txAdvice" transaction-manager="txManager">

<tx:attributes>
<tx:method name="get*" read-only="true"/>
<tx:method name="*"/>
</tx:attributes>
</tx:advice>

<!-- other <bean/> definitions such as a DataSource and a

PlatformTransactionManager here -->

</beans>

411
The result of the above configuration will be a fooService bean that has profiling
and transactional aspects applied to it in that order. If you want the profiling advice
to execute after the transactional advice on the way in, and before the
transactional advice on the way out, then you simply swap the value of the profiling
aspect bean's order property so that it is higher than the transactional advice's
order value.

You configure additional aspects in similar fashion.

10.5.9 Using @Transactional with AspectJ

It is also possible to use the Spring Framework's @Transactional support outside

of a Spring container by means of an AspectJ aspect. To do so, you first annotate
your classes (and optionally your classes' methods) with
the @Transactional annotation, and then you link (weave) your application with
the org.springframework.transaction.aspectj.AnnotationTransactionAspect defined
in the spring-aspects.jar file. The aspect must also be configured with a transaction
manager. You can of course use the Spring Framework's IoC container to take
care of dependency-injecting the aspect. The simplest way to configure the
transaction management aspect is to use the <tx:annotation-driven/>element and
specify the mode attribute to aspectj as described in Section 10.5.6, “Using
@Transactional”. Because we're focusing here on applications running outside of a Spring
container, we'll show you how to do it programmatically.

Note

Prior to continuing, you may want to read Section 10.5.6, “Using

@Transactional” and Chapter 7, Aspect Oriented Programming with Spring respectively.
// construct an appropriate transaction manager
DataSourceTransactionManager txManager = new
DataSourceTransactionManager(getDataSource());

// configure the AnnotationTransactionAspect to use it; this must be done before

executing any transactional methods
AnnotationTransactionAspect.aspectOf().setTransactionManager(txManager);

Note

When using this aspect, you must annotate the implementation class (and/or methods
within that class), not the interface (if any) that the class implements. AspectJ follows
Java's rule that annotations on interfaces are not inherited.

The @Transactional annotation on a class specifies the default transaction

semantics for the execution of any method in the class.

412
The @Transactional annotation on a method within the class overrides the default
transaction semantics given by the class annotation (if present). Any method may
be annotated, regardless of visibility.

To weave your applications with the AnnotationTransactionAspect you must either

build your application with AspectJ (see the AspectJ Development Guide) or use
load-time weaving. See Section 7.8.4, “Load-time weaving with AspectJ in the
Spring Framework” for a discussion of load-time weaving with AspectJ.

10.6 Programmatic transaction management

The Spring Framework provides two means of programmatic transaction

management:

 Using the TransactionTemplate.
 Using a PlatformTransactionManager implementation directly.

The Spring team generally recommends the TransactionTemplate for programmatic

transaction management. The second approach is similar to using the
JTA UserTransaction API, although exception handling is less cumbersome.

10.6.1 Using the TransactionTemplate

The TransactionTemplate adopts the same approach as other

Spring templates such as the JdbcTemplate. It uses a callback approach, to free application
code from having to do the boilerplate acquisition and release of transactional resources, and results in
code that is intention driven, in that the code that is written focuses solely on what the developer wants
to do.

Note

As you will see in the examples that follow, using the TransactionTemplate absolutely

couples you to Spring's transaction infrastructure and APIs. Whether or not programmatic
transaction management is suitable for your development needs is a decision that you will
have to make yourself.

Application code that must execute in a transactional context, and that will use
the TransactionTemplate explicitly, looks like the following. You, as an application
developer, write a TransactionCallback implementation (typically expressed as an
anonymous inner class) that contains the code that you need to execute in the
context of a transaction. You then pass an instance of your
custom TransactionCallback to the execute(..) method exposed on
the TransactionTemplate.

413
public class SimpleService implements Service {

// single TransactionTemplate shared amongst all methods in this instance

private final TransactionTemplate transactionTemplate;

// use constructor-injection to supply the PlatformTransactionManager

public SimpleService(PlatformTransactionManager transactionManager) {
Assert.notNull(transactionManager, "The 'transactionManager' argument must not
be null.");
this.transactionTemplate = new TransactionTemplate(transactionManager);
}

public Object someServiceMethod() {

return transactionTemplate.execute(new TransactionCallback() {

// the code in this method executes in a transactional context

public Object doInTransaction(TransactionStatus status) {
updateOperation1();
return resultOfUpdateOperation2();
}
});
}
}

If there is no return value, use the

convenient TransactionCallbackWithoutResult class with an anonymous class as
follows:

transactionTemplate.execute(new TransactionCallbackWithoutResult() {

protected void doInTransactionWithoutResult(TransactionStatus status) {

updateOperation1();
updateOperation2();
}
});

Code within the callback can roll the transaction back by calling
the setRollbackOnly() method on the supplied TransactionStatus object:

transactionTemplate.execute(new TransactionCallbackWithoutResult() {

protected void doInTransactionWithoutResult(TransactionStatus status) {

try {
updateOperation1();
updateOperation2();
} catch (SomeBusinessExeption ex) {
status.setRollbackOnly();
}
}
});

414
10.6.1.1 Specifying transaction settings

You can specify transaction settings such as the propagation mode, the isolation
level, the timeout, and so forth on the TransactionTemplate either programmatically
or in configuration. TransactionTemplate instances by default have the default
transactional settings. The following example shows the programmatic
customization of the transactional settings for a specific TransactionTemplate:

public class SimpleService implements Service {

private final TransactionTemplate transactionTemplate;

public SimpleService(PlatformTransactionManager transactionManager) {

Assert.notNull(transactionManager, "The 'transactionManager' argument must not
be null.");
this.transactionTemplate = new TransactionTemplate(transactionManager);

// the transaction settings can be set here explicitly if so desired

this.transactionTemplate.setIsolationLevel(TransactionDefinition.ISOLATION_READ_UN
COMMITTED);
this.transactionTemplate.setTimeout(30); // 30 seconds
// and so forth...
}
}

The following example defines a TransactionTemplate with some custom

transactional settings, using Spring XML configuration.
ThesharedTransactionTemplate can then be injected into as many services as are
required.

<bean id="sharedTransactionTemplate"
class="org.springframework.transaction.support.TransactionTemplate">
<property name="isolationLevelName" value="ISOLATION_READ_UNCOMMITTED"/>
<property name="timeout" value="30"/>
</bean>"

Finally, instances of the TransactionTemplate class are threadsafe, in that instances

do not maintain any conversational state.TransactionTemplate instances do however
maintain configuration state, so while a number of classes may share a single
instance of aTransactionTemplate, if a class needs to use a TransactionTemplate with
different settings (for example, a different isolation level), then you need to create
two distinct TransactionTemplate instances.

415
10.6.2 Using the PlatformTransactionManager

You can also use

the org.springframework.transaction.PlatformTransactionManager directly to manage
your transaction. Simply pass the implementation of
the PlatformTransactionManager you are using to your bean through a bean
reference. Then, using the TransactionDefinitionand TransactionStatus objects you
can initiate transactions, roll back, and commit.

DefaultTransactionDefinition def = new DefaultTransactionDefinition();

// explicitly setting the transaction name is something that can only be done
programmatically
def.setName("SomeTxName");
def.setPropagationBehavior(TransactionDefinition.PROPAGATION_REQUIRED);

TransactionStatus status = txManager.getTransaction(def);

try {
// execute your business logic here
}
catch (MyException ex) {
txManager.rollback(status);
throw ex;
}
txManager.commit(status);

10.7 Choosing between programmatic and declarative transaction

management

Programmatic transaction management is usually a good idea only if you have a

small number of transactional operations. For example, if you have a web
application that require transactions only for certain update operations, you may
not want to set up transactional proxies using Spring or any other technology. In
this case, using the TransactionTemplate may be a good approach. Being able to set
the transaction name explicitly is also something that can only be done using the
programmatic approach to transaction management.

On the other hand, if your application has numerous transactional operations,

declarative transaction management is usually worthwhile. It keeps transaction
management out of business logic, and is not difficult to configure. When using the
Spring Framework, rather than EJB CMT, the configuration cost of declarative
transaction management is greatly reduced.

416
10.8 Application server-specific integration

Spring's transaction abstraction generally is application server agnostic.

Additionally, Spring's JtaTransactionManager class, which can optionally perform a
JNDI lookup for the JTA UserTransaction and TransactionManager objects,
autodetects the location for the latter object, which varies by application server.
Having access to the JTA TransactionManager allows for enhanced transaction
semantics, in particular supporting transaction suspension. See
the JtaTransactionManager Javadocs for details.

Spring's JtaTransactionManager is the standard choice to run on Java EE application

servers, and is known to work on all common servers. Advanced functionality such
as transaction suspension works on many servers as well -- including GlassFish,
JBoss, Geronimo, and Oracle OC4J -- without any special configuration required.
However, for fully supported transaction suspension and further advanced
integration, Spring ships special adapters for IBM WebSphere, BEA WebLogic
Server, and Oracle OC4J. These adapters are discussed in the following sections.

For standard scenarios, including WebLogic Server, WebSphere and OC4J,

consider using the convenient  <tx:jta-transaction-manager/>configuration
element. When configured, this element automatically detects the underlying
server and chooses the best transaction manager available for the platform. This
means that you won't have to configure server-specific adapter classes (as
discussed in the following sections) explicitly; rather, they are chosen
automatically, with the standard JtaTransactionManager as default fallback.

10.8.1 IBM WebSphere

On WebSphere 6.1.0.9 and above, the recommended Spring JTA transaction

manager to use is WebSphereUowTransactionManager. This special adapter leverages
IBM's UOWManager API, which is available in WebSphere Application Server 6.0.2.19
and later and 6.1.0.9 and later. With this adapter, Spring-driven transaction
suspension (suspend/resume as initiated by PROPAGATION_REQUIRES_NEW) is officially
supported by IBM!

10.8.2 BEA WebLogic Server

On WebLogic Server 9.0 or above, you typically would use

the WebLogicJtaTransactionManager instead of the stock JtaTransactionManagerclass.
This special WebLogic-specific subclass of the
normal JtaTransactionManager supports the full power of Spring's transaction
definitions in a WebLogic-managed transaction environment, beyond standard JTA

417
semantics: Features include transaction names, per-transaction isolation levels,
and proper resuming of transactions in all cases.

10.8.3 Oracle OC4J

Spring ships a special adapter class for OC4J 10.1.3 or later

called OC4JJtaTransactionManager. This class is analogous to
theWebLogicJtaTransactionManager class discussed in the previous section, providing
similar value-adds on OC4J: transaction names and per-transaction isolation
levels.

The full JTA functionality, including transaction suspension, works fine with
Spring's JtaTransactionManager on OC4J as well. The
specialOC4JJtaTransactionManager adapter simply provides value-adds beyond
standard JTA.

10.9 Solutions to common problems

10.9.1 Use of the wrong transaction manager for a specific DataSource

Use the correct PlatformTransactionManager implementation based on your choice of

transactional technologies and requirements. Used properly, the Spring
Framework merely provides a straightforward and portable abstraction. If you are
using global transactions, you must use
theorg.springframework.transaction.jta.JtaTransactionManager class (or
an application server-specific subclass of it) for all your transactional operations.
Otherwise the transaction infrastructure attempts to perform local transactions on
resources such as container DataSource instances. Such local transactions do not
make sense, and a good application server treats them as errors.

10.10 Further Resources

For more information about the Spring Framework's transaction support:

 Distributed transactions in Spring, with and without XA  is a JavaWorld

presentation in which SpringSource's David Syer guides you through seven
patterns for distributed transactions in Spring applications, three of them with
XA and four without.
 Java Transaction Design Strategies is a book available from InfoQ that
provides a well-paced introduction to transactions in Java. It also includes
side-by-side examples of how to configure and use transactions with both
the Spring Framework and EJB3.

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11. DAO support

11.1 Introduction

The Data Access Object (DAO) support in Spring is aimed at making it easy to
work with data access technologies like JDBC, Hibernate, JPA or JDO in a
consistent way. This allows one to switch between the aforementioned persistence
technologies fairly easily and it also allows one to code without worrying about
catching exceptions that are specific to each technology.

11.2 Consistent exception hierarchy

Spring provides a convenient translation from technology-specific exceptions

like SQLException to its own exception class hierarchy with theDataAccessException as
the root exception. These exceptions wrap the original exception so there is never
any risk that one might lose any information as to what might have gone wrong.

In addition to JDBC exceptions, Spring can also wrap Hibernate-specific

exceptions, converting them from proprietary, checked exceptions (in the case of
versions of Hibernate prior to Hibernate 3.0), to a set of focused runtime
exceptions (the same is true for JDO and JPA exceptions). This allows one to
handle most persistence exceptions, which are non-recoverable, only in the
appropriate layers, without having annoying boilerplate catch-and-throw blocks
and exception declarations in one's DAOs. (One can still trap and handle
exceptions anywhere one needs to though.) As mentioned above, JDBC
exceptions (including database-specific dialects) are also converted to the same
hierarchy, meaning that one can perform some operations with JDBC within a
consistent programming model.

The above holds true for the various template classes in Springs support for
various ORM frameworks. If one uses the interceptor-based classes then the
application must care about handling HibernateExceptions and JDOExceptions itself,
preferably via delegating
to SessionFactoryUtils'convertHibernateAccessException(..) or convertJdoAccessExcept
ion() methods respectively. These methods convert the exceptions to ones that
are compatible with the exceptions in the org.springframework.dao exception
hierarchy. As JDOExceptions are unchecked, they can simply get thrown too,
sacrificing generic DAO abstraction in terms of exceptions though.

The exception hierarchy that Spring provides can be seen below. (Please note that
the class hierarchy detailed in the image shows only a subset of the
entire DataAccessException hierarchy.)

419
11.3 Annotations used for configuring DAO or Repository classes

The best way to guarantee that your Data Access Objects (DAOs) or repositories
provide exception translation is to use the @Repositoryannotation. This annotation
also allows the component scanning support to find and configure your DAOs and
repositories without having to provide XML configuration entries for them.

@Repository
public class SomeMovieFinder implements MovieFinder {

// ...

Any DAO or repository implementation will need to access to a persistence

resource, depending on the persistence technology used; for example, a JDBC-
based repository will need access to a JDBC DataSource; a JPA-based repository
will need access to an EntityManager. The easiest way to accomplish this is to have
this resource dependency injected using one of
the @Autowired, @Resource or @PersistenceContext annotations. Here is an example
for a JPA repository:

420
@Repository
public class JpaMovieFinder implements MovieFinder {

@PersistenceContext
private EntityManager entityManager;

// ...

If you are using the classic Hibernate APIs than you can inject the SessionFactory:

@Repository
public class HibernateMovieFinder implements MovieFinder {

private SessionFactory sessionFactory;

@Autowired
public void setSessionFactory(SessionFactory sessionFactory) {
this.sessionFactory = sessionFactory;
}

// ...

Last example we will show here is for typical JDBC support. You would have
the DataSource injected into an initialization method where you would create
a JdbcTemplate and other data access support classes like SimpleJdbcCall etc using
this DataSource.

@Repository
public class JdbcMovieFinder implements MovieFinder {

private JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate;

@Autowired
public void init(DataSource dataSource) {
this.jdbcTemplate = new JdbcTemplate(dataSource);
}

// ...

Note

Please see the specific coverage of each persistence technology for details on how to
configure the application context to take advantage of these annotations.

421
 12. Data access with JDBC

12.1 Introduction to Spring Framework JDBC

The value-add provided by the Spring Framework JDBC abstraction is perhaps

best shown by the sequence of actions outlined in the table below. The table
shows what actions Spring will take care of and which actions are the
responsibility of you, the application developer.

Table 12.1. Spring JDBC - who does what?

Action Spring Yo
on parameters. X
tion. X  
statement.   X
ers and provide parameter values   X
cute the statement. X  
o iterate through the results (if any). X  
each iteration.   X
eption. X  
ons. X  
ction, statement and resultset. X  

The Spring Framework takes care of all the low-level details that can make JDBC
such a tedious API to develop with.

12.1.1 Choosing an approach for JDBC database access

You can choose among several approaches to form the basis for your JDBC database access. In
addition to three flavors of the JdbcTemplate, a new SimpleJdbcInsert and SimplejdbcCall approach
optimizes database metadata, and the RDBMS Object style takes a more object-oriented approach
similar to that of JDO Query design. Once you start using one of these approaches, you can still mix
and match to include a feature from a different approach. All approaches require a JDBC 2.0-
compliant driver, and some advanced features require a JDBC 3.0 driver.

Note

Spring 3.0 updates all of the following approaches with Java 5 support such as generics
and varargs.

422
  JdbcTemplate is the classic Spring JDBC approach and the most popular.
This "lowest level" approach and all others use a JdbcTemplate under the
covers, and all are updated with Java 5 support such as generics and
varargs.
 NamedParameterJdbcTemplate wraps a JdbcTemplate to provide named
parameters instead of the traditional JDBC "?" placeholders. This approach
provides better documentation and ease of use when you have multiple
parameters for an SQL statement.

 SimpleJdbcTemplate combines the most frequently used operations of

JdbcTemplate and NamedParameterJdbcTemplate.

 SimpleJdbcInsert and SimpleJdbcCall optimize database metadata to

limit the amount of necessary configuration. This approach simplifies coding
so that you only need to provide the name of the table or procedure and
provide a map of parameters matching the column names. This only works if
the database provides adequate metadata. If the database doesn't provide
this metadata, you will have to provide explicit configuration of the
parameters.

 RDBMS Objects including MappingSqlQuery, SqlUpdate and

StoredProcedure requires you to create reusable and thread-safe objects
during initialization of your data access layer. This approach is modeled after
JDO Query wherein you define your query string, declare parameters, and
compile the query. Once you do that, execute methods can be called
multiple times with various parameter values passed in.

12.1.2 Package hierarchy

The Spring Framework's JDBC abstraction framework consists of four different

packages, namely core, datasource, object, and support.

The org.springframework.jdbc.core package contains the JdbcTemplate class and its

various callback interfaces, plus a variety of related classes. A subpackage
named org.springframework.jdbc.core.simple contains the SimpleJdbcTemplate class
and the relatedSimpleJdbcInsert and SimpleJdbcCall classes. Another subpackage
named org.springframework.jdbc.core.namedparam contains
theNamedParameterJdbcTemplate class and the related support classes.
See Section 12.2, “Using the JDBC core classes to control basic JDBC processing
and error handling”, Section 12.4, “JDBC batch operations”, and Section 12.5,
“Simplifying JDBC operations with the SimpleJdbc classes”

423
The org.springframework.jdbc.datasource package contains a utility class for
easy DataSource access, and various simple DataSourceimplementations that can be
used for testing and running unmodified JDBC code outside of a Java EE
container. A subpackage
namedorg.springfamework.jdbc.datasource.embedded provides support for creating in-
memory database instances using Java database engines such as HSQL and H2.
See Section 12.3, “Controlling database connections” and Section 12.8,
“Embedded database support”

The org.springframework.jdbc.object package contains classes that represent

RDBMS queries, updates, and stored procedures as thread safe, reusable objects.
See Section 12.6, “Modeling JDBC operations as Java objects”.This approach is
modeled by JDO, although of course objects returned by queries are
“disconnected” from the database. This higher level of JDBC abstraction depends
on the lower-level abstraction in the org.springframework.jdbc.core package.

The org.springframework.jdbc.support package provides SQLException translation
functionality and some utility classes. Exceptions thrown during JDBC processing
are translated to exceptions defined in the org.springframework.dao package. This
means that code using the Spring JDBC abstraction layer does not need to
implement JDBC or RDBMS-specific error handling. All translated exceptions are
unchecked, which gives you the option of catching the exceptions from which you
can recover while allowing other exceptions to be propagated to the caller.
SeeSection 12.2.4, “SQLExceptionTranslator”.

12.2 Using the JDBC core classes to control basic JDBC processing and
error handling
12.2.1 JdbcTemplate

The JdbcTemplate class is the central class in the JDBC core package. It handles

the creation and release of resources, which helps you avoid common errors such
as forgetting to close the connection. It performs the basic tasks of the core JDBC
workflow such as statement creation and execution, leaving application code to
provide SQL and extract results. The JdbcTemplate class executes SQL queries,
update statements and stored procedure calls, performs iteration over ResultSets
and extraction of returned parameter values. It also catches JDBC exceptions and
translates them to the generic, more informative, exception hierarchy defined in
the org.springframework.dao package.

When you use the JdbcTemplate for your code, you only need to implement callback
interfaces, giving them a clearly defined contract.

424
ThePreparedStatementCreator callback interface creates a prepared statement given
a Connection provided by this class, providing SQL and any necessary parameters.
The same is true for the CallableStatementCreator interface, which creates callable
statements. The RowCallbackHandlerinterface extracts values from each row of
a ResultSet.

The JdbcTemplate can be used within a DAO implementation through direct

instantiation with a DataSource reference, or be configured in a Spring IoC container and given
to DAOs as a bean reference.

Note

The DataSource should always be configured as a bean in the Spring IoC container. In

the first case the bean is given to the service directly; in the second case it is given to the
prepared template.

All SQL issued by this class is logged at the DEBUG level under the category
corresponding to the fully qualified class name of the template instance
(typically JdbcTemplate, but it may be different if you are using a custom subclass of
the JdbcTemplate class).

12.2.1.1 Examples of JdbcTemplate class usage

This section provides some examples of JdbcTemplate class usage. These

examples are not an exhaustive list of all of the functionality exposed by
the JdbcTemplate; see the attendant Javadocs for that.

Querying (SELECT)

Here is a simple query for getting the number of rows in a relation:

int rowCount = this.jdbcTemplate.queryForInt("select count(*) from t_actor");

A simple query using a bind variable:

int countOfActorsNamedJoe = this.jdbcTemplate.queryForInt(

"select count(*) from t_actor where first_name = ?", "Joe");

Querying for a String:

String lastName = this.jdbcTemplate.queryForObject(

425
 "select last_name from t_actor where id = ?",
new Object[]{1212L}, String.class);

Querying and populating a single domain object:

Actor actor = this.jdbcTemplate.queryForObject(

"select first_name, last_name from t_actor where id = ?",
new Object[]{1212L},
new RowMapper<Actor>() {
public Actor mapRow(ResultSet rs, int rowNum) throws SQLException {
Actor actor = new Actor();
actor.setFirstName(rs.getString("first_name"));
actor.setLastName(rs.getString("last_name"));
return actor;
}
});

Querying and populating a number of domain objects:

List<Actor> actors = this.jdbcTemplate.query(

"select first_name, last_name from t_actor",
new RowMapper<Actor>() {
public Actor mapRow(ResultSet rs, int rowNum) throws SQLException {
Actor actor = new Actor();
actor.setFirstName(rs.getString("first_name"));
actor.setLastName(rs.getString("last_name"));
return actor;
}
});

If the last two snippets of code actually existed in the same application, it would
make sense to remove the duplication present in the two RowMapperanonymous
inner classes, and extract them out into a single class (typically a static inner
class) that can then be referenced by DAO methods as needed. For example, it
may be better to write the last code snippet as follows:

public List<Actor> findAllActors() {

return this.jdbcTemplate.query( "select first_name, last_name from t_actor",
new ActorMapper());
}

private static final class ActorMapper implements RowMapper<Actor> {

public Actor mapRow(ResultSet rs, int rowNum) throws SQLException {

Actor actor = new Actor();
actor.setFirstName(rs.getString("first_name"));
actor.setLastName(rs.getString("last_name"));

426
 return actor;
}
}

Updating (INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE) with jdbcTemplate

You use the update(..) method to perform insert, update and delete operations.

Parameter values are usually provided as var args or alternatively as an object
array.

this.jdbcTemplate.update(
"insert into t_actor (first_name, last_name) values (?, ?)",
"Leonor", "Watling");
this.jdbcTemplate.update(
"update t_actor set = ? where id = ?",
"Banjo", 5276L);
this.jdbcTemplate.update(
"delete from actor where id = ?",
Long.valueOf(actorId));

Other jdbcTemplate operations

You can use the execute(..) method to execute any arbitrary SQL, and as such the
method is often used for DDL statements. It is heavily overloaded with variants
taking callback interfaces, binding variable arrays, and so on.

this.jdbcTemplate.execute("create table mytable (id integer, name varchar(100))");

The following example invokes a simple stored procedure. More sophisticated

stored procedure support is covered later.

this.jdbcTemplate.update(
"call SUPPORT.REFRESH_ACTORS_SUMMARY(?)",
Long.valueOf(unionId));

12.2.1.2 JdbcTemplate best practices

Instances of the JdbcTemplate class are threadsafe once configured. This is

important because it means that you can configure a single instance of
a JdbcTemplate and then safely inject this shared reference into multiple DAOs (or
repositories). The JdbcTemplate is stateful, in that it maintains a reference to
a DataSource, but this state is not conversational state.

427
A common practice when using the JdbcTemplate class (and the
associated SimpleJdbcTemplate and NamedParameterJdbcTemplate classes) is to
configure a DataSource in your Spring configuration file, and then dependency-inject
that shared DataSource bean into your DAO classes; theJdbcTemplate is created in
the setter for the DataSource. This leads to DAOs that look in part like the following:

public class JdbcCorporateEventDao implements CorporateEventDao {

private JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.jdbcTemplate = new JdbcTemplate(dataSource);
}

// JDBC-backed implementations of the methods on the CorporateEventDao

follow...
}

The corresponding configuration might look like this.

<?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:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

<bean id="corporateEventDao" class="com.example.JdbcCorporateEventDao">

<property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>
</bean>

<bean id="dataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" destroy-

method="close">
<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>

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

</beans>

An alternative to explicit configuration is to use component-scanning and

annotation support for dependency injection. In this case you annotate the class

428
with @Repository (which makes it a candidate for component-scanning) and
annotate the DataSource setter method with @Autowired.

@Repository
public class JdbcCorporateEventDao implements CorporateEventDao {

private JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate;

@Autowired
public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {
this.jdbcTemplate = new JdbcTemplate(dataSource);
}

// JDBC-backed implementations of the methods on the CorporateEventDao

follow...
}

The corresponding XML configuration file would look like the following:

<?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:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

<!-- Scans within the base package of the application for @Components to
configure as beans -->
<context:component-scan base-package="org.springframework.docs.test" />

<bean id="dataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" destroy-

method="close">
<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>

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

</beans>

If you are using Spring's JdbcDaoSupport class, and your various JDBC-backed DAO

classes extend from it, then your sub-class inherits a setDataSource(..) method
from the JdbcDaoSupport class. You can choose whether to inherit from this class.
The JdbcDaoSupport class is provided as a convenience only.

429
Regardless of which of the above template initialization styles you choose to use
(or not), it is seldom necessary to create a new instance of a JdbcTemplate class
each time you want to execute SQL. Once configured, a JdbcTemplate instance is
threadsafe. You may want multipleJdbcTemplate instances if your application
accesses multiple databases, which requires multiple DataSources, and
subsequently multiple differently configured JdbcTemplates.

12.2.2 NamedParameterJdbcTemplate

The NamedParameterJdbcTemplate class adds support for programming JDBC

statements using named parameters, as opposed to programming JDBC
statements using only classic placeholder ('?') arguments.
The NamedParameterJdbcTemplate class wraps a JdbcTemplate, and delegates to the
wrapped JdbcTemplate to do much of its work. This section describes only those
areas of the NamedParameterJdbcTemplate class that differ from the JdbcTemplate itself;
namely, programming JDBC statements using named parameters.

// some JDBC-backed DAO class...

private NamedParameterJdbcTemplate namedParameterJdbcTemplate;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.namedParameterJdbcTemplate = new NamedParameterJdbcTemplate(dataSource);
}

public int countOfActorsByFirstName(String firstName) {

String sql = "select count(*) from T_ACTOR where first_name = :first_name";

SqlParameterSource namedParameters = new MapSqlParameterSource("first_name",

firstName);

return namedParameterJdbcTemplate.queryForInt(sql, namedParameters);

}

Notice the use of the named parameter notation in the value assigned to
the sql variable, and the corresponding value that is plugged into
thenamedParameters variable (of type MapSqlParameterSource).

Alternatively, you can pass along named parameters and their corresponding
values to a NamedParameterJdbcTemplate instance by using the Map-based style.The
remaining methods exposed by the NamedParameterJdbcOperations and implemented
by the NamedParameterJdbcTemplate class follow a similar pattern and are not covered
here.

The following example shows the use of the Map-based style.

430
// some JDBC-backed DAO class...
private NamedParameterJdbcTemplate namedParameterJdbcTemplate;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.namedParameterJdbcTemplate = new NamedParameterJdbcTemplate(dataSource);
}

public int countOfActorsByFirstName(String firstName) {

String sql = "select count(*) from T_ACTOR where first_name = :first_name";

Map namedParameters = Collections.singletonMap("first_name", firstName);

return this.namedParameterJdbcTemplate.queryForInt(sql, namedParameters);

}

One nice feature related to the NamedParameterJdbcTemplate (and existing in the

same Java package) is the SqlParameterSource interface. You have already seen an
example of an implementation of this interface in one of the previous code snippet
(the MapSqlParameterSource class). AnSqlParameterSource is a source of named
parameter values to a NamedParameterJdbcTemplate. The MapSqlParameterSource class
is a very simple implementation that is simply an adapter around a java.util.Map,
where the keys are the parameter names and the values are the parameter
values.

Another SqlParameterSource implementation is
the BeanPropertySqlParameterSource class. This class wraps an arbitrary JavaBean
(that is, an instance of a class that adheres to the JavaBean conventions), and
uses the properties of the wrapped JavaBean as the source of named parameter
values.

public class Actor {

private Long id;

private String firstName;
private String lastName;

public String getFirstName() {

return this.firstName;
}

public String getLastName() {

return this.lastName;
}

public Long getId() {

return this.id;
}

431
 // setters omitted...

}
// some JDBC-backed DAO class...
private NamedParameterJdbcTemplate namedParameterJdbcTemplate;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.namedParameterJdbcTemplate = new NamedParameterJdbcTemplate(dataSource);
}

public int countOfActors(Actor exampleActor) {

// notice how the named parameters match the properties of the above 'Actor'
class
String sql =
"select count(*) from T_ACTOR where first_name = :firstName and last_name
= :lastName";

SqlParameterSource namedParameters = new

BeanPropertySqlParameterSource(exampleActor);

return this.namedParameterJdbcTemplate.queryForInt(sql, namedParameters);

}

Remember that the NamedParameterJdbcTemplate class wraps a

classic JdbcTemplate template; if you need access to the
wrapped JdbcTemplateinstance to access functionality only present in
the JdbcTemplate class, you can use the getJdbcOperations() method to access the
wrappedJdbcTemplate through the JdbcOperations interface.

See also Section 12.2.1.2, “JdbcTemplate best practices” for guidelines on using

the NamedParameterJdbcTemplate class in the context of an application.

12.2.3 SimpleJdbcTemplate

The SimpleJdbcTemplate class wraps the classic JdbcTemplate and leverages Java 5

language features such as varargs and autoboxing.

Note

In Spring 3.0, the original JdbcTemplate also supports Java 5-enhanced syntax with

generics and varargs. However, theSimpleJdbcTemplate provides a simpler API that
works best when you do not need access to all the methods that the JdbcTemplate offers.
Also, because the SimpleJdbcTemplate was designed for Java 5, it has more methods
that take advantage of varargs due to different ordering of the parameters.

432
The value-add of the SimpleJdbcTemplate class in the area of syntactic-sugar is best
illustrated with a before-and-after example. The next code snippet shows data
access code that uses the classic JdbcTemplate, followed by a code snippet that
does the same job with theSimpleJdbcTemplate.

// classic JdbcTemplate-style...
private JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.jdbcTemplate = new JdbcTemplate(dataSource);
}

public Actor findActor(String specialty, int age) {

String sql = "select id, first_name, last_name from T_ACTOR" +

" where specialty = ? and age = ?";

RowMapper<Actor> mapper = new RowMapper<Actor>() {

public Actor mapRow(ResultSet rs, int rowNum) throws SQLException {
Actor actor = new Actor();
actor.setId(rs.getLong("id"));
actor.setFirstName(rs.getString("first_name"));
actor.setLastName(rs.getString("last_name"));
return actor;
}
};

// notice the wrapping up of the argumenta in an array

return (Actor) jdbcTemplate.queryForObject(sql, new Object[] {specialty, age},
mapper);
}

Here is the same method, with the SimpleJdbcTemplate.

// SimpleJdbcTemplate-style...
private SimpleJdbcTemplate simpleJdbcTemplate;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.simpleJdbcTemplate = new SimpleJdbcTemplate(dataSource);
}

public Actor findActor(String specialty, int age) {

String sql = "select id, first_name, last_name from T_ACTOR" +

" where specialty = ? and age = ?";
RowMapper<Actor> mapper = new RowMapper<Actor>() {
public Actor mapRow(ResultSet rs, int rowNum) throws SQLException {
Actor actor = new Actor();
actor.setId(rs.getLong("id"));
actor.setFirstName(rs.getString("first_name"));

433
 actor.setLastName(rs.getString("last_name"));
return actor;
}
};

// notice the use of varargs since the parameter values now come
// after the RowMapper parameter
return this.simpleJdbcTemplate.queryForObject(sql, mapper, specialty, age);
}

See Section 12.2.1.2, “JdbcTemplate best practices” for guidelines on how to use

the SimpleJdbcTemplate class in the context of an application.

Note

The SimpleJdbcTemplate class only offers a subset of the methods exposed on

the JdbcTemplate class. If you need to use a method from the JdbcTemplate that is not
defined on the SimpleJdbcTemplate, you can always access the
underlyingJdbcTemplate by calling the getJdbcOperations() method on
the SimpleJdbcTemplate, which then allows you to invoke the method that you want.
The only downside is that the methods on the JdbcOperations interface are not generic,
so you are back to casting and so on.

12.2.4 SQLExceptionTranslator

SQLExceptionTranslator isan interface to be implemented by classes that can

translate between SQLExceptions and Spring's
ownorg.springframework.dao.DataAccessException, which is agnostic in regard to data
access strategy. Implementations can be generic (for example, using SQLState
codes for JDBC) or proprietary (for example, using Oracle error codes) for greater
precision.

SQLErrorCodeSQLExceptionTranslator is the implementation

of SQLExceptionTranslator that is used by default. This implementation uses specific
vendor codes. It is more precise than the SQLState implementation. The error code
translations are based on codes held in a JavaBean type class
called SQLErrorCodes. This class is created and populated by
an SQLErrorCodesFactory which as the name suggests is a factory for
creating SQLErrorCodes based on the contents of a configuration file named sql-
error-codes.xml. This file is populated with vendor codes and based on
the DatabaseProductName taken from the DatabaseMetaData. The codes for the acual
database you are using are used.

434
The SQLErrorCodeSQLExceptionTranslator applies matching rules in the following
sequence:

Note

The SQLErrorCodesFactory is used by default to define Error codes and custom

exception translations. They are looked up in a file named sql-error-codes.xml from
the classpath and the matching SQLErrorCodes instance is located based on the database
name from the database metadata of the database in use.

1. Any custom translation implemented by a subclass. Normally the provided

concrete SQLErrorCodeSQLExceptionTranslator is used so this rule does not
apply. It only applies if you have actually provided a subclass
implementation.
2. Any custom implementation of the SQLExceptionTranslator interface that is
provided as the customSqlExceptionTranslator property of
theSQLErrorCodes class.

3. The list of instances of the CustomSQLErrorCodesTranslation class, provided for

the customTranslations property of the SQLErrorCodesclass, are searched for a
match.

4. Error code matching is applied.

5. Use the fallback translator. SQLExceptionSubclassTranslator is the default

fallback translator. If this translation is not available then the next fallback
translator is the SQLStateSQLExceptionTranslator.

You can extend SQLErrorCodeSQLExceptionTranslator:

public class CustomSQLErrorCodesTranslator extends

SQLErrorCodeSQLExceptionTranslator {

protected DataAccessException customTranslate(String task, String sql,

SQLException sqlex) {
if (sqlex.getErrorCode() == -12345) {
return new DeadlockLoserDataAccessException(task, sqlex);
}
return null;
}
}

In this example, the specific error code -12345 is translated and other errors are left
to be translated by the default translator implementation. To use this custom

435
translator, it is necessary to pass it to the JdbcTemplate through the
method setExceptionTranslator and to use this JdbcTemplate for all of the data
access processing where this translator is needed. Here is an example of how this
custom translator can be used:

private JdbcTemplate jdbcTemoplate;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

// create a JdbcTemplate and set data source
this.jdbcTemplate = new JdbcTemplate();
this.jdbcTemplate.setDataSource(dataSource);
// create a custom translator and set the DataSource for the default
translation lookup
CustomSQLErrorCodesTranslator tr = new CustomSQLErrorCodesTranslator();
tr.setDataSource(dataSource);
this.jdbcTemplate.setExceptionTranslator(tr);
}

public void updateShippingCharge(long orderId, long pct) {

// use the prepared JdbcTemplate for this update
this.jdbcTemplate.update(
"update orders" +
" set shipping_charge = shipping_charge * ? / 100" +
" where id = ?"
pct, orderId);
}

The custom translator is passed a data source in order to look up the error codes
in sql-error-codes.xml.

12.2.5 Executing statements

Executing an SQL statement requires very little code. You need a DataSource and
a JdbcTemplate, including the convenience methods that are provided with
the JdbcTemplate. The following example shows what you need to include for a
minimal but fully functional class that creates a new table:

import javax.sql.DataSource;
import org.springframework.jdbc.core.JdbcTemplate;

public class ExecuteAStatement {

private JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.jdbcTemplate = new JdbcTemplate(dataSource);
}

public void doExecute() {

436
 this.jdbcTemplate.execute("create table mytable (id integer, name
varchar(100))");
}
}

12.2.6 Running queries

Some query methods return a single value. To retrieve a count or a specific value
from one row, use queryForInt(..), queryForLong(..) orqueryForObject(..). The latter
converts the returned JDBC Type to the Java class that is passed in as an
argument. If the type conversion is invalid, then
an InvalidDataAccessApiUsageException is thrown. Here is an example that contains
two query methods, one for an int and one that queries for a String.

import javax.sql.DataSource;
import org.springframework.jdbc.core.JdbcTemplate;

public class RunAQuery {

private JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.jdbcTemplate = new JdbcTemplate(dataSource);
}

public int getCount() {

return this.jdbcTemplate.queryForInt("select count(*) from mytable");
}

public String getName() {

return (String) this.jdbcTemplate.queryForObject("select name from
mytable", String.class);
}

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.dataSource = dataSource;
}
}

In addition to the single result query methods, several methods return a list with an
entry for each row that the query returned. The most generic method
is queryForList(..) which returns a List where each entry is a Map with each entry
in the map representing the column value for that row. If you add a method to the
above example to retrieve a list of all the rows, it would look like this:

private JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate;

437
public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {
this.jdbcTemplate = new JdbcTemplate(dataSource);
}

public List<Map<String, Object>> getList() {

return this.jdbcTemplate.queryForList("select * from mytable");
}

The list returned would look something like this:

[{name=Bob, id=1}, {name=Mary, id=2}]

12.2.7 Updating the database

The following example shows a column updated for a certain primary key. In this
example, an SQL statement has placeholders for row parameters. The parameter
values can be passed in as varargs or alternatively as an array of objects. Thus
primitives should be wrapped in the primitive wrapper classes explicitly or using
auto-boxing.

import javax.sql.DataSource;

import org.springframework.jdbc.core.JdbcTemplate;

public class ExecuteAnUpdate {

private JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.jdbcTemplate = new JdbcTemplate(dataSource);
}

public void setName(int id, String name) {

this.jdbcTemplate.update(
"update mytable set name = ? where id = ?",
name, id);
}
}

12.2.8 Retrieving auto-generated keys

An update() convenience method supports the retrieval of primary keys generated

by the database. This support is part of the JDBC 3.0 standard; see Chapter 13.6
of the specification for details. The method takes a PreparedStatementCreator as its
first argument, and this is the way the required insert statement is specified. The
other argument is a KeyHolder, which contains the generated key on successful

438
return from the update. There is not a standard single way to create an
appropriate PreparedStatement (which explains why the method signature is the way
it is). The following example works on Oracle but may not work on other platforms:

final String INSERT_SQL = "insert into my_test (name) values(?)";

final String name = "Rob";

KeyHolder keyHolder = new GeneratedKeyHolder();

jdbcTemplate.update(
new PreparedStatementCreator() {
public PreparedStatement createPreparedStatement(Connection connection)
throws SQLException {
PreparedStatement ps =
connection.prepareStatement(INSERT_SQL, new String[] {"id"});
ps.setString(1, name);
return ps;
}
},
keyHolder);

// keyHolder.getKey() now contains the generated key

12.3 Controlling database connections

12.3.1 DataSource

Spring obtains a connection to the database through a DataSource. A DataSource is

part of the JDBC specification and is a generalized connection factory. It allows a
container or a framework to hide connection pooling and transaction management
issues from the application code. As a developer, you need not know details about
how to connect to the database; that is the responsibility of the administrator that
sets up the datasource. You most likely fill both roles as you develop and test
code, but you do not necessarily have to know how the production data source is
configured.

When using Spring's JDBC layer, you obtain a data source from JNDI or you
configure your own with a connection pool implementation provided by a third
party. Popular implementations are Apache Jakarta Commons DBCP and C3P0.
Implementations in the Spring distribution are meant only for testing purposes and
do not provide pooling.

This section uses Spring's DriverManagerDataSource implementation, and several

additional implementations are covered later.

Note

439
 Only use the DriverManagerDataSource class should only be used for testing purposes
since it does not provide pooling and will perform poorly when multiple requests for a
connection are made.

You obtain a connection with DriverManagerDataSource as you typically obtain a

JDBC connection. Specify the fully qualified classname of the JDBC driver so that
the DriverManager can load the driver class. Next, provide a URL that varies
between JDBC drivers. (Consult the documentation for your driver for the correct
value.) Then provide a username and a password to connect to the database.
Here is an example of how to configure a DriverManagerDataSource in Java code:

DriverManagerDataSource dataSource = new DriverManagerDataSource();

dataSource.setDriverClassName("org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver");
dataSource.setUrl("jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://localhost:");
dataSource.setUsername("sa");
dataSource.setPassword("");

Here is the corresponding XML configuration:

<bean id="dataSource"
class="org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DriverManagerDataSource">
<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>

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

The following examples show the basic connectivity and configuration for DBCP
and C3P0. To learn about more options that help control the pooling features, see
the product documentation for the respective connection pooling implementations.

DBCP configuration:

<bean id="dataSource"
class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" destroy-method="close">
<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>

440
<context:property-placeholder location="jdbc.properties"/>

C3P0 configuration:

<bean id="dataSource"
class="com.mchange.v2.c3p0.ComboPooledDataSource" destroy-method="close">
<property name="driverClass" value="${jdbc.driverClassName}"/>
<property name="jdbcUrl" value="${jdbc.url}"/>
<property name="user" value="${jdbc.username}"/>
<property name="password" value="${jdbc.password}"/>
</bean>

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

12.3.2 DataSourceUtils

The DataSourceUtils class is a convenient and powerful helper class that

provides static methods to obtain connections from JNDI and close connections if
necessary. It supports thread-bound connections with, for
example, DataSourceTransactionManager.

12.3.3 SmartDataSource

The SmartDataSource interface should be implemented by classes that can provide a

connection to a relational database. It extends the DataSourceinterface to allow
classes using it to query whether the connection should be closed after a given
operation. This usage is efficient when you know that you will reuse a connection.

12.3.4 AbstractDataSource

AbstractDataSource is an abstract base class for

Spring's DataSource implementations that implements code that is common to
all DataSourceimplementations. You extend the AbstractDataSource class if you are
writing your own DataSource implementation.

12.3.5 SingleConnectionDataSource

The SingleConnectionDataSource class is an implementation of
the SmartDataSource interface that wraps a single Connection that is not closed after
each use. Obviously, this is not multi-threading capable.

441
If any client code calls close in the assumption of a pooled connection, as when
using persistence tools, set the suppressClose property to true. This setting returns
a close-suppressing proxy wrapping the physical connection. Be aware that you
will not be able to cast this to a native OracleConnection or the like anymore.

This is primarily a test class. For example, it enables easy testing of code outside
an application server, in conjunction with a simple JNDI environment. In contrast
to DriverManagerDataSource, it reuses the same connection all the time, avoiding
excessive creation of physical connections.

12.3.6 DriverManagerDataSource

The DriverManagerDataSource class is an implementation of the

standard DataSource interface that configures a plain JDBC driver through bean
properties, and returns a new Connection every time.

This implementation is useful for test and stand-alone environments outside of a

Java EE container, either as a DataSource bean in a Spring IoC container, or in
conjunction with a simple JNDI environment. Pool-
assuming Connection.close() calls will simply close the connection, so
anyDataSource-aware persistence code should work. However, using JavaBean-
style connection pools such as commons-dbcp is so easy, even in a test environment,
that it is almost always preferable to use such a connection pool
over DriverManagerDataSource.

12.3.7 TransactionAwareDataSourceProxy

TransactionAwareDataSourceProxy is a proxy for a target DataSource, which

wraps that target DataSource to add awareness of Spring-managed transactions.
In this respect, it is similar to a transactional JNDI DataSource as provided by a Java EE
server.

Note

It is rarely desirable to use this class, except when already existing code that must be
called and passed a standard JDBCDataSource interface implementation. In this case, it's
possible to still have this code be usable, and at the same time have this code participating
in Spring managed transactions. It is generally preferable to write your own new code
using the higher level abstractions for resource management, such
as JdbcTemplate or DataSourceUtils.

(See the  TransactionAwareDataSourceProxy Javadocs for more details.)

442
12.3.8 DataSourceTransactionManager

The DataSourceTransactionManager class is
a PlatformTransactionManager implementation for single JDBC datasources. It binds
a JDBC connection from the specified data source to the currently executing
thread, potentially allowing for one thread connection per data source.

Application code is required to retrieve the JDBC connection

through DataSourceUtils.getConnection(DataSource) instead of Java EE's
standard DataSource.getConnection. It throws
unchecked org.springframework.dao exceptions instead of checked SQLExceptions.
All framework classes like JdbcTemplate use this strategy implicitly. If not used with
this transaction manager, the lookup strategy behaves exactly like the common
one - it can thus be used in any case.

The DataSourceTransactionManager class supports custom isolation levels, and

timeouts that get applied as appropriate JDBC statement query timeouts. To
support the latter, application code must either use JdbcTemplate or call
the DataSourceUtils.applyTransactionTimeout(..) method for each created
statement.

This implementation can be used instead of JtaTransactionManager in the single

resource case, as it does not require the container to support JTA. Switching
between both is just a matter of configuration, if you stick to the required
connection lookup pattern. JTA does not support custom isolation levels!

12.3.9 NativeJdbcExtractor

Sometimes you need to access vendor specific JDBC methods that differ from the
standard JDBC API. This can be problematic if you are running in an application
server or with a DataSource that wraps
the Connection, Statement and ResultSet objects with its own wrapper objects. To
gain access to the native objects you can configure
your JdbcTemplate or OracleLobHandler with a NativeJdbcExtractor.

The NativeJdbcExtractor comes in a variety of flavors to match your execution

environment:

 SimpleNativeJdbcExtractor
 C3P0NativeJdbcExtractor

 CommonsDbcpNativeJdbcExtractor

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  JBossNativeJdbcExtractor

 WebLogicNativeJdbcExtractor

 WebSphereNativeJdbcExtractor

 XAPoolNativeJdbcExtractor

Usually the SimpleNativeJdbcExtractor is sufficient for unwrapping

a Connection object in most environments. See the Javadocs for more details.

12.4 JDBC batch operations

Most JDBC drivers provide improved performance if you batch multiple calls to the
same prepared statement. By grouping updates into batches you limit the number
of round trips to the database. This section covers batch processing using both
the JdbcTemplate and theSimpleJdbcTemplate.

12.4.1 Batch operations with the JdbcTemplate

You accomplish JdbcTemplate batch processing by implementing two methods of a

special interface, BatchPreparedStatementSetter, and passing that in as the second
parameter in your batchUpdate method call. Use the getBatchSize method to provide
the size of the current batch. Use the setValues method to set the values for the
parameters of the prepared statement. This method will be called the number of
times that you specified in the getBatchSize call. The following example updates the
actor table based on entries in a list. The entire list is used as the batch in this
example:

public class JdbcActorDao implements ActorDao {

private JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.jdbcTemplate = new JdbcTemplate(dataSource);
}

public int[] batchUpdate(final List<Actor> actors) {

int[] updateCounts = jdbcTemplate.batchUpdate(
"update t_actor set first_name = ?, last_name = ? where id = ?",
new BatchPreparedStatementSetter() {
public void setValues(PreparedStatement ps, int i) throws
SQLException {
ps.setString(1, actors.get(i).getFirstName());
ps.setString(2, actors.get(i).getLastName());
ps.setLong(3, actors.get(i).getId().longValue());
}

444
 public int getBatchSize() {
return actors.size();
}
} );
return updateCounts;
}

// ... additional methods

}

If you are processing a stream of updates or reading from a file, then you might
have a preferred batch size, but the last batch might not have that number of
entries. In this case you can use
the InterruptibleBatchPreparedStatementSetter interface, which allows you to
interrupt a batch once the input source is exhausted. The isBatchExhausted method
allows you to signal the end of the batch.

12.4.2 Batch operations with the SimpleJdbcTemplate

The SimpleJdbcTemplate provides an alternate way of providing the batch update.

Instead of implementing a special batch interface, you provide all parameter
values in the call. The framework loops over these values and uses an internal
prepared statement setter. The API varies depending on whether you use named
parameters. For the named parameters you provide an array of SqlParameterSource,
one entry for each member of the batch. You can use
the SqlParameterSource.createBatch method to create this array, passing in either an
array of JavaBeans or an array of Maps containing the parameter values.

This example shows a batch update using named parameters:

public class JdbcActorDao implements ActorDao {

private SimpleJdbcTemplate simpleJdbcTemplate;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.simpleJdbcTemplate = new SimpleJdbcTemplate(dataSource);
}

public int[] batchUpdate(final List<Actor> actors) {

SqlParameterSource[] batch =
SqlParameterSourceUtils.createBatch(actors.toArray());
int[] updateCounts = simpleJdbcTemplate.batchUpdate(
"update t_actor set first_name = :firstName, last_name = :lastName
where id = :id",
batch);
return updateCounts;
}

445
 // ... additional methods
}

For an SQL statement using the classic "?" placeholders, you pass in a list
containing an object array with the update values. This object array must have one
entry for each placeholder in the SQL statement, and they must be in the same
order as they are defined in the SQL statement.

The same example using classic JDBC "?" placeholders:

public class JdbcActorDao implements ActorDao {

private SimpleJdbcTemplate simpleJdbcTemplate;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.simpleJdbcTemplate = new SimpleJdbcTemplate(dataSource);
}

public int[] batchUpdate(final List<Actor> actors) {

List<Object[]> batch = new ArrayList<Object[]>();
for (Actor actor : actors) {
Object[] values = new Object[] {
actor.getFirstName(),
actor.getLastName(),
actor.getId()};
batch.add(values);
}
int[] updateCounts = simpleJdbcTemplate.batchUpdate(
"update t_actor set first_name = ?, last_name = ? where id = ?",
batch);
return updateCounts;
}

// ... additional methods

}

All batch update methods return an int array containing the number of affected
rows for each batch entry. This count is reported by the JDBC driver. If the count is
not available, the JDBC driver returns a -2 value.

12.5 Simplifying JDBC operations with the SimpleJdbc classes

The SimpleJdbcInsert and SimpleJdbcCall classes provide a simplified configuration

by taking advantage of database metadata that can be retrieved through the JDBC
driver. This means there is less to configure up front, although you can override or
turn off the metadata processing if you prefer to provide all the details in your
code.

446
12.5.1 Inserting data using SimpleJdbcInsert

Let's start by looking at the SimpleJdbcInsert class with the minimal amount of

configuration options. You should instantiate the SimpleJdbcInsertin the data
access layer's initialization method. For this example, the initializing method is
the setDataSource method. You do not need to subclass the SimpleJdbcInsert class;
simply create a new instance and set the table name using
the withTableName method. Configuration methods for this class follow the "fluid"
style that returns the instance of the SimpleJdbcInsert, which allows you to chain all
configuration methods. This example uses only one configuration method; you will
see examples of multiple ones later.

public class JdbcActorDao implements ActorDao {

private SimpleJdbcTemplate simpleJdbcTemplate;
private SimpleJdbcInsert insertActor;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.simpleJdbcTemplate = new SimpleJdbcTemplate(dataSource);
this.insertActor =
new SimpleJdbcInsert(dataSource).withTableName("t_actor");
}

public void add(Actor actor) {

Map<String, Object> parameters = new HashMap<String, Object>(3);
parameters.put("id", actor.getId());
parameters.put("first_name", actor.getFirstName());
parameters.put("last_name", actor.getLastName());
insertActor.execute(parameters);
}

// ... additional methods

}

The execute method used here takes a plain java.utils.Map as its only parameter.
The important thing to note here is that the keys used for the Map must match the
column names of the table as defined in the database. This is because we read
the metadata in order to construct the actual insert statement.

12.5.2 Retrieving auto-generated keys using SimpleJdbcInsert

This example uses the same insert as the preceding, but instead of passing in the
id it retrieves the auto-generated key and sets it on the new Actor object. When
you create the SimpleJdbcInsert, in addition to specifying the table name, you
specify the name of the generated key column with
theusingGeneratedKeyColumns method.

447
public class JdbcActorDao implements ActorDao {
private SimpleJdbcTemplate simpleJdbcTemplate;
private SimpleJdbcInsert insertActor;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.simpleJdbcTemplate = new SimpleJdbcTemplate(dataSource);
this.insertActor =
new SimpleJdbcInsert(dataSource)
.withTableName("t_actor")
.usingGeneratedKeyColumns("id");
}

public void add(Actor actor) {

Map<String, Object> parameters = new HashMap<String, Object>(2);
parameters.put("first_name", actor.getFirstName());
parameters.put("last_name", actor.getLastName());
Number newId = insertActor.executeAndReturnKey(parameters);
actor.setId(newId.longValue());
}

// ... additional methods

}

The main difference when executing the insert by this second approach is that you
do not add the id to the Map and you call the executeReturningKey method. This
returns a java.lang.Number object with which you can create an instance of the
numerical type that is used in our domain class.You cannot rely on all databases
to return a specific Java class here; java.lang.Number is the base class that you can
rely on. If you have multiple auto-generated columns, or the generated values are
non-numeric, then you can use a KeyHolder that is returned from
theexecuteReturningKeyHolder method.

12.5.3 Specifying columns for a SimpleJdbcInsert

You can limit the columns for an insert by specifying a list of column names with
the usingColumns method:

public class JdbcActorDao implements ActorDao {

private SimpleJdbcTemplate simpleJdbcTemplate;
private SimpleJdbcInsert insertActor;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.simpleJdbcTemplate = new SimpleJdbcTemplate(dataSource);
this.insertActor =
new SimpleJdbcInsert(dataSource)
.withTableName("t_actor")
.usingColumns("first_name", "last_name")
.usingGeneratedKeyColumns("id");
}

448
 public void add(Actor actor) {
Map<String, Object> parameters = new HashMap<String, Object>(2);
parameters.put("first_name", actor.getFirstName());
parameters.put("last_name", actor.getLastName());
Number newId = insertActor.executeAndReturnKey(parameters);
actor.setId(newId.longValue());
}

// ... additional methods

}

The execution of the insert is the same as if you had relied on the metadata to
determine which columns to use.

12.5.4 Using SqlParameterSource to provide parameter values

Using a Map to provide parameter values works fine, but it's not the most
convenient class to use. Spring provides a couple of implementations of
the SqlParameterSource interface that can be used instead.The first one
is BeanPropertySqlParameterSource, which is a very convenient class if you have a
JavaBean-compliant class that contains your values. It will use the corresponding
getter method to extract the parameter values. Here is an example:

public class JdbcActorDao implements ActorDao {

private SimpleJdbcTemplate simpleJdbcTemplate;
private SimpleJdbcInsert insertActor;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.simpleJdbcTemplate = new SimpleJdbcTemplate(dataSource);
this.insertActor =
new SimpleJdbcInsert(dataSource)
.withTableName("t_actor")
.usingGeneratedKeyColumns("id");
}

public void add(Actor actor) {

SqlParameterSource parameters = new BeanPropertySqlParameterSource(actor);
Number newId = insertActor.executeAndReturnKey(parameters);
actor.setId(newId.longValue());
}

// ... additional methods

}

Another option is the MapSqlParameterSource that resembles a Map but provides a

more convenient addValue method that can be chained.

449
public class JdbcActorDao implements ActorDao {
private SimpleJdbcTemplate simpleJdbcTemplate;
private SimpleJdbcInsert insertActor;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.simpleJdbcTemplate = new SimpleJdbcTemplate(dataSource);
this.insertActor =
new SimpleJdbcInsert(dataSource)
.withTableName("t_actor")
.usingGeneratedKeyColumns("id");
}

public void add(Actor actor) {

SqlParameterSource parameters = new MapSqlParameterSource()
.addValue("first_name", actor.getFirstName())
.addValue("last_name", actor.getLastName());
Number newId = insertActor.executeAndReturnKey(parameters);
actor.setId(newId.longValue());
}

// ... additional methods

}

As you can see, the configuration is the same; only the executing code has to
change to use these alternative input classes.

12.5.5 Calling a stored procedure with SimpleJdbcCall

The SimpleJdbcCall class leverages metadata in the database to look up names

of in and out parameters, so that you do not have to declare them explicitly. You
can declare parameters if you prefer to do that, or if you have parameters such
as ARRAY or STRUCT that do not have an automatic mapping to a Java class. The first
example shows a simple procedure that returns only scalar values
in VARCHAR and DATE format from a MySQL database. The example procedure reads
a specified actor entry and returns first_name, last_name, and birth_date columns in
the form of out parameters.

CREATE PROCEDURE read_actor (

IN in_id INTEGER,
OUT out_first_name VARCHAR(100),
OUT out_last_name VARCHAR(100),
OUT out_birth_date DATE)
BEGIN
SELECT first_name, last_name, birth_date
INTO out_first_name, out_last_name, out_birth_date
FROM t_actor where id = in_id;
END;

450
The in_id parameter contains the id of the actor you are looking up.
The out parameters return the data read from the table.

The SimpleJdbcCall is declared in a similar manner to the SimpleJdbcInsert. You

should instantiate and configure the class in the initialization method of your data
access layer. Compared to the StoredProcedure class, you don't have to create a
subclass and you don't have to declare parameters that can be looked up in the
database metadata. Following is an example of a SimpleJdbcCall configuration
using the above stored procedure. The only configuration option, in addition to
the DataSource, is the name of the stored procedure.

public class JdbcActorDao implements ActorDao {

private SimpleJdbcTemplate simpleJdbcTemplate;
private SimpleJdbcCall procReadActor;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.simpleJdbcTemplate = new SimpleJdbcTemplate(dataSource);
this.procReadActor =
new SimpleJdbcCall(dataSource)
.withProcedureName("read_actor");
}

public Actor readActor(Long id) {

SqlParameterSource in = new MapSqlParameterSource()
.addValue("in_id", id);
Map out = procReadActor.execute(in);
Actor actor = new Actor();
actor.setId(id);
actor.setFirstName((String) out.get("out_first_name"));
actor.setLastName((String) out.get("out_last_name"));
actor.setBirthDate((Date) out.get("out_birth_date"));
return actor;
}

// ... additional methods

}

The code you write for the execution of the call involves creating
an SqlParameterSource containing the IN parameter. It's important to match the
name provided for the input value with that of the parameter name declared in the
stored procedure. The case does not have to match because you use metadata to
determine how database objects should be referred to in a stored procedure. What
is specified in the source for the stored procedure is not necessarily the way it is
stored in the database. Some databases transform names to all upper case while
others use lower case or use the case as specified.

451
The execute method takes the IN parameters and returns a Map containing
any out parameters keyed by the name as specified in the stored procedure. In this
case they are out_first_name, out_last_name and out_birth_date.

The last part of the execute method creates an Actor instance to use to return the
data retrieved. Again, it is important to use the names of the outparameters as they
are declared in the stored procedure. Also, the case in the names of
the out parameters stored in the results map matches that of the out parameter
names in the database, which could vary between databases. To make your code
more portable you should do a case-insensitive lookup or instruct Spring to use
a CaseInsensitiveMap from the Jakarta Commons project. To do the latter, you
create your ownJdbcTemplate and set the setResultsMapCaseInsensitive property
to true. Then you pass this customized JdbcTemplate instance into the constructor
of your SimpleJdbcCall. You must include the commons-collections.jar in your
classpath for this to work. Here is an example of this configuration:

public class JdbcActorDao implements ActorDao {

private SimpleJdbcCall procReadActor;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate = new JdbcTemplate(dataSource);
jdbcTemplate.setResultsMapCaseInsensitive(true);
this.procReadActor =
new SimpleJdbcCall(jdbcTemplate)
.withProcedureName("read_actor");
}

// ... additional methods

}

By taking this action, you avoid conflicts in the case used for the names of your
returned out parameters.

12.5.6 Explicitly declaring parameters to use for a SimpleJdbcCall

You have seen how the parameters are deduced based on metadata, but you can
declare then explicitly if you wish. You do this by creating and
configuring SimpleJdbcCall with the declareParameters method, which takes a
variable number of SqlParameter objects as input. See the next section for details
on how to define an SqlParameter.

Note

Explicit declarations are necessary if the database you use is not a Spring-supported

452
 database. Currently Spring supports metadata lookup of stored procedure calls for the
following databases: Apache Derby, DB2, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and
Sybase. We also support metadata lookup of stored functions for: MySQL, Microsoft
SQL Server, and Oracle.

You can opt to declare one, some, or all the parameters explicitly. The parameter
metadata is still used where you do not declare parameters explicitly. To bypass
all processing of metadata lookups for potential parameters and only use the
declared parameters, you call the methodwithoutProcedureColumnMetaDataAccess as
part of the declaration. Suppose that you have two or more different call signatures
declared for a database function. In this case you call the useInParameterNames to
specify the list of IN parameter names to include for a given signature.

The following example shows a fully declared procedure call, using the information
from the preceding example.

public class JdbcActorDao implements ActorDao {

private SimpleJdbcCall procReadActor;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate = new JdbcTemplate(dataSource);
jdbcTemplate.setResultsMapCaseInsensitive(true);
this.procReadActor =
new SimpleJdbcCall(jdbcTemplate)
.withProcedureName("read_actor")
.withoutProcedureColumnMetaDataAccess()
.useInParameterNames("in_id")
.declareParameters(
new SqlParameter("in_id", Types.NUMERIC),
new SqlOutParameter("out_first_name",
Types.VARCHAR),
new SqlOutParameter("out_last_name",
Types.VARCHAR),
new SqlOutParameter("out_birth_date", Types.DATE)
);
}

// ... additional methods

}

The execution and end results of the two examples are the same; this one
specifies all details explicitly rather than relying on metadata.

453
12.5.7 How to define SqlParameters

To define a parameter for the SimpleJdbc classes and also for the RDBMS
operations classes, covered in Section 12.6, “Modeling JDBC operations as Java
objects”, you use an SqlParameter or one of its subclasses. You typically specify the
parameter name and SQL type in the constructor. The SQL type is specified using
the java.sql.Types constants. We have already seen declarations like:

new SqlParameter("in_id", Types.NUMERIC),

new SqlOutParameter("out_first_name", Types.VARCHAR),

The first line with the SqlParameter declares an IN parameter. IN parameters can be

used for both stored procedure calls and for queries using theSqlQuery and its
subclasses covered in the following section.

The second line with the SqlOutParameter declares an out parameter to be used

in a stored procedure call. There is also
an SqlInOutParameterfor InOut parameters, parameters that provide an IN value to
the procedure and that also return a value.

Note

Only parameters declared as SqlParameter and SqlInOutParameter will be used to

provide input values. This is different from the StoredProcedure class, which for
backwards compatibility reasons allows input values to be provided for parameters
declared as SqlOutParameter.

For IN parameters, in addition to the name and the SQL type, you can specify a
scale for numeric data or a type name for custom database types.
For out parameters, you can provide a RowMapper to handle mapping of rows
returned from a REF cursor. Another option is to specify an SqlReturnType that
provides an opportunity to define customized handling of the return values.

12.5.8 Calling a stored function using SimpleJdbcCall

You call a stored function in almost the same way as you call a stored procedure,
except that you provide a function name rather than a procedure name. You use
the withFunctionName method as part of the configuration to indicate that we want to
make a call to a function, and the corresponding string for a function call is
generated. A specialized execute call, executeFunction, is used to execute the
function and it returns the function return value as an object of a specified type,
which means you do not have to retrieve the return value from the results map. A

454
similar convenience method named executeObject is also available for stored
procedures that only have one out parameter. The following example is based on a
stored function named get_actor_name that returns an actor's full name. Here is the
MySQL source for this function:

CREATE FUNCTION get_actor_name (in_id INTEGER)

RETURNS VARCHAR(200) READS SQL DATA
BEGIN
DECLARE out_name VARCHAR(200);
SELECT concat(first_name, ' ', last_name)
INTO out_name
FROM t_actor where id = in_id;
RETURN out_name;
END;

To call this function we again create a SimpleJdbcCall in the initialization method.

public class JdbcActorDao implements ActorDao {

private SimpleJdbcTemplate simpleJdbcTemplate;
private SimpleJdbcCall funcGetActorName;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.simpleJdbcTemplate = new SimpleJdbcTemplate(dataSource);
JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate = new JdbcTemplate(dataSource);
jdbcTemplate.setResultsMapCaseInsensitive(true);
this.funcGetActorName =
new SimpleJdbcCall(jdbcTemplate)
.withFunctionName("get_actor_name");
}

public String getActorName(Long id) {

SqlParameterSource in = new MapSqlParameterSource()
.addValue("in_id", id);
String name = funcGetActorName.executeFunction(String.class, in);
return name;
}

// ... additional methods

}

The execute method used returns a String containing the return value from the
function call.

12.5.9 Returning ResultSet/REF Cursor from a SimpleJdbcCall

Calling a stored procedure or function that returns a result set is a bit tricky. Some
databases return result sets during the JDBC results processing while others
require an explicitly registered out parameter of a specific type. Both approaches

455
need additional processing to loop over the result set and process the returned
rows. With the SimpleJdbcCall you use the returningResultSet method and declare
a RowMapper implementation to be used for a specific parameter. In the case where
the result set is returned during the results processing, there are no names
defined, so the returned results will have to match the order in which you declare
the RowMapper implementations. The name specified is still used to store the
processed list of results in the results map that is returned from the execute
statement.

The next example uses a stored procedure that takes no IN parameters and
returns all rows from the t_actor table. Here is the MySQL source for this
procedure:

CREATE PROCEDURE read_all_actors()

BEGIN
SELECT a.id, a.first_name, a.last_name, a.birth_date FROM t_actor a;
END;

To call this procedure you declare the RowMapper. Because the class you want to
map to follows the JavaBean rules, you can use
aParameterizedBeanPropertyRowMapper that is created by passing in the required class
to map to in the newInstance method.

public class JdbcActorDao implements ActorDao {

private SimpleJdbcTemplate simpleJdbcTemplate;
private SimpleJdbcCall procReadAllActors;

public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {

this.simpleJdbcTemplate = new SimpleJdbcTemplate(dataSource);
JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate = new JdbcTemplate(dataSource);
jdbcTemplate.setResultsMapCaseInsensitive(true);
this.procReadAllActors =
new SimpleJdbcCall(jdbcTemplate)
.withProcedureName("read_all_actors")
.returningResultSet("actors",

ParameterizedBeanPropertyRowMapper.newInstance(Actor.class));
}

public List getActorsList() {

Map m = procReadAllActors.execute(new HashMap<String, Object>(0));
return (List) m.get("actors");
}

// ... additional methods

}

456
The execute call passes in an empty Map because this call does not take any
parameters. The list of Actors is then retrieved from the results map and returned
to the caller.

12.6 Modeling JDBC operations as Java objects

The org.springframework.jdbc.object package contains classes that allow you to access the

database in a more object-oriented manner. As an example, you can execute queries and get the results
back as a list containing business objects with the relational column data mapped to the properties of
the business object. You can also execute stored procedures and run update, delete, and insert
statements.

Note
Many Spring developers believe that the various RDBMS operation classes described
below (with the exception of theStoredProcedure class) can often be replaced with
straight JdbcTemplate calls. Often it is simpler to write a DAO method that simply calls
a method on a JdbcTemplate directly (as opposed to encapsulating a query as a full-
blown class).

However, if you are getting measurable value from using the RDBMS operation classes,
continue using these classes.

12.6.1 SqlQuery

SqlQuery is a reusable, threadsafe class that encapsulates an SQL query.

Subclasses must implement the newRowMapper(..) method to provide
aRowMapper instance that can create one object per row obtained from iterating over
the ResultSet that is created during the execution of the query. The SqlQuery class
is rarely used directly because the MappingSqlQuery subclass provides a much more
convenient implementation for mapping rows to Java classes. Other
implementations that
extend SqlQuery are MappingSqlQueryWithParameters and UpdatableSqlQuery.

12.6.2 MappingSqlQuery

MappingSqlQuery is a reusable query in which concrete subclasses must implement

the abstract mapRow(..) method to convert each row of the supplied ResultSet into
an object of the type specified. The following example shows a custom query that
maps the data from the t_actor relation to an instance of the Actor class.

public class ActorMappingQuery extends MappingSqlQuery<Actor> {

public ActorMappingQuery(DataSource ds) {

457
 super(ds, "select id, first_name, last_name from t_actor where id = ?");
super.declareParameter(new SqlParameter("id", Types.INTEGER));
compile();
}

@Override
protected Actor mapRow(ResultSet rs, int rowNumber) throws SQLException {
Actor actor = new Actor();
actor.setId(rs.getLong("id"));
actor.setFirstName(rs.getString("first_name"));
actor.setLastName(rs.getString("last_name"));
return actor;
}

The class extends MappingSqlQuery parameterized with the Actor type. The

constructor for this customer query takes the DataSource as the only parameter. In
this constructor you call the constructor on the superclass with the DataSource and
the SQL that should be executed to retrieve the rows for this query. This SQL will
be used to create a PreparedStatement so it may contain place holders for any
parameters to be passed in during execution.You must declare each parameter
using the declareParameter method passing in an SqlParameter.
The SqlParameter takes a name and the JDBC type as defined in java.sql.Types.
After you define all parameters, you call the compile() method so the statement
can be prepared and later executed. This class is thread-safe after it is compiled,
so as long as these instances are created when the DAO is initialized they can be
kept as instance variables and be reused.

private ActorMappingQuery actorMappingQuery;

@Autowired
public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {
this.actorMappingQuery = new ActorMappingQuery(dataSource);
}

public Customer getCustomer(Long id) {

return actorMappingQuery.findObject(id);
}

The method in this example retrieves the customer with the id that is passed in as
the only parameter. Since we only want one object returned we simply call the
convenience method findObject with the id as parameter. If we had instead a query
that returned a list of objects and took additional parameters then we would use
one of the execute methods that takes an array of parameter values passed in as
varargs.

458
public List<Actor> searchForActors(int age, String namePattern) {
List<Actor> actors = actorSearchMappingQuery.execute(age, namePattern);
return actors;
}

12.6.3 SqlUpdate

The SqlUpdate class encapsulates an SQL update. Like a query, an update object

is reusable, and like all RdbmsOperation classes, an update can have parameters
and is defined in SQL. This class provides a number of update(..) methods
analogous to the execute(..) methods of query objects. The SQLUpdate class is
concrete. It can be subclassed, for example, to add a custom update method, as in
the following snippet where it's simply called execute. However, you don't have to
subclass the SqlUpdate class since it can easily be parameterized by setting SQL
and declaring parameters.

import java.sql.Types;

import javax.sql.DataSource;

import org.springframework.jdbc.core.SqlParameter;
import org.springframework.jdbc.object.SqlUpdate;

public class UpdateCreditRating extends SqlUpdate {

public UpdateCreditRating(DataSource ds) {

setDataSource(ds);
setSql("update customer set credit_rating = ? where id = ?");
declareParameter(new SqlParameter("creditRating", Types.NUMERIC));
declareParameter(new SqlParameter("id", Types.NUMERIC));
compile();
}

/**
* @param id for the Customer to be updated
* @param rating the new value for credit rating
* @return number of rows updated
*/
public int execute(int id, int rating) {
return update(rating, id);
}
}

12.6.4 StoredProcedure

The StoredProcedure class is a superclass for object abstractions of RDBMS stored

procedures. This class is abstract, and its variousexecute(..) methods

459
have protected access, preventing use other than through a subclass that offers
tighter typing.

The inherited sql property will be the name of the stored procedure in the RDBMS.

To define a parameter for the StoredProcedure class, you use an SqlParameter or one

of its subclasses. You must specify the parameter name and SQL type in the
constructor like in the following code snippet. The SQL type is specified using
the java.sql.Types constants.

new SqlParameter("in_id", Types.NUMERIC),

new SqlOutParameter("out_first_name", Types.VARCHAR),

The first line with the SqlParameter declares an IN parameter. IN parameters can be

used for both stored procedure calls and for queries using theSqlQuery and its
subclasses covered in the following section.

The second line with the SqlOutParameter declares an out parameter to be used in

the stored procedure call. There is also an SqlInOutParameterfor InOut parameters,
parameters that provide an in value to the procedure and that also return a value.

For in parameters, in addition to the name and the SQL type, you can specify a
scale for numeric data or a type name for custom database types.
For out parameters you can provide a RowMapper to handle mapping of rows
returned from a REF cursor. Another option is to specify an SqlReturnType that
enables you to define customized handling of the return values.

Here is an example of a simple DAO that uses a StoredProcedure to call a

function, sysdate(),which comes with any Oracle database. To use the stored
procedure functionality you have to create a class that extends StoredProcedure. In
this example, the StoredProcedure class is an inner class, but if you need to reuse
the StoredProcedure you declare it as a top-level class. This example has no input
parameters, but an output parameter is declared as a date type using the
class SqlOutParameter. The execute() method executes the procedure and extracts
the returned date from the results Map. The results Map has an entry for each
declared output parameter, in this case only one, using the parameter name as the
key.

import java.sql.Types;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.HashMap;

460
import java.util.Map;

import javax.sql.DataSource;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.jdbc.core.SqlOutParameter;
import org.springframework.jdbc.object.StoredProcedure;

public class StoredProcedureDao {

private GetSysdateProcedure getSysdate;

@Autowired
public void init(DataSource dataSource) {
this.getSysdate = new GetSysdateProcedure(dataSource);
}

public Date getSysdate() {

return getSysdate.execute();
}

private class GetSysdateProcedure extends StoredProcedure {

private static final String SQL = "sysdate";

public GetSysdateProcedure(DataSource dataSource) {

setDataSource(dataSource);
setFunction(true);
setSql(SQL);
declareParameter(new SqlOutParameter("date", Types.DATE));
compile();
}

public Date execute() {

// the 'sysdate' sproc has no input parameters, so an empty Map is
supplied...
Map<String, Object> results = execute(new HashMap<String, Object>());
Date sysdate = (Date) results.get("date");
return sysdate;
}
}

The following example of a StoredProcedure has two output parameters (in this

case, Oracle REF cursors).

import oracle.jdbc.OracleTypes;
import org.springframework.jdbc.core.SqlOutParameter;
import org.springframework.jdbc.object.StoredProcedure;

import javax.sql.DataSource;
import java.util.HashMap;

461
import java.util.Map;

public class TitlesAndGenresStoredProcedure extends StoredProcedure {

private static final String SPROC_NAME = "AllTitlesAndGenres";

public TitlesAndGenresStoredProcedure(DataSource dataSource) {

super(dataSource, SPROC_NAME);
declareParameter(new SqlOutParameter("titles", OracleTypes.CURSOR, new
TitleMapper()));
declareParameter(new SqlOutParameter("genres", OracleTypes.CURSOR, new
GenreMapper()));
compile();
}

public Map<String, Object> execute() {

// again, this sproc has no input parameters, so an empty Map is supplied
return super.execute(new HashMap<String, Object>());
}
}

Notice how the overloaded variants of the declareParameter(..) method that have

been used in the TitlesAndGenresStoredProcedureconstructor are
passed RowMapper implementation instances; this is a very convenient and powerful
way to reuse existing functionality. The code for the two RowMapper implementations
is provided below.

The TitleMapper class maps a ResultSet to a Title domain object for each row in

the supplied ResultSet:

import org.springframework.jdbc.core.RowMapper;

import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;

import com.foo.domain.Title;

public final class TitleMapper implements RowMapper<Title> {

public Title mapRow(ResultSet rs, int rowNum) throws SQLException {

Title title = new Title();
title.setId(rs.getLong("id"));
title.setName(rs.getString("name"));
return title;
}
}

The GenreMapper class maps a ResultSet to a Genre domain object for each row in

the supplied ResultSet.

462
import org.springframework.jdbc.core.RowMapper;

import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;

import com.foo.domain.Genre;

public final class GenreMapper implements RowMapper<Genre> {

public Genre mapRow(ResultSet rs, int rowNum) throws SQLException {

return new Genre(rs.getString("name"));
}
}

To pass parameters to a stored procedure that has one or more input parameters
in its definition in the RDBMS, you can code a strongly typed execute(..) method
that would delegate to the superclass' untyped execute(Map parameters) method
(which has protected access); for example:

import oracle.jdbc.OracleTypes;
import org.springframework.jdbc.core.SqlOutParameter;
import org.springframework.jdbc.core.SqlParameter;
import org.springframework.jdbc.object.StoredProcedure;

import javax.sql.DataSource;

import java.sql.Types;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

public class TitlesAfterDateStoredProcedure extends StoredProcedure {

private static final String SPROC_NAME = "TitlesAfterDate";

private static final String CUTOFF_DATE_PARAM = "cutoffDate";

public TitlesAfterDateStoredProcedure(DataSource dataSource) {

super(dataSource, SPROC_NAME);
declareParameter(new SqlParameter(CUTOFF_DATE_PARAM, Types.DATE);
declareParameter(new SqlOutParameter("titles", OracleTypes.CURSOR, new
TitleMapper()));
compile();
}

public Map<String, Object> execute(Date cutoffDate) {

Map<String, Object> inputs = new HashMap<String, Object>();
inputs.put(CUTOFF_DATE_PARAM, cutoffDate);
return super.execute(inputs);
}
}

463
12.7 Common problems with parameter and data value handling

Common problems with parameters and data values exist in the different
approaches provided by the Spring Framework JDBC.

12.7.1 Providing SQL type information for parameters

Usually Spring determines the SQL type of the parameters based on the type of
parameter passed in. It is possible to explicitly provide the SQL type to be used
when setting parameter values. This is sometimes necessary to correctly set NULL
values.

You can provide SQL type information in several ways:

 Many update and query methods of the JdbcTemplate take an additional

parameter in the form of an int array. This array is used to indicate the SQL
type of the coresponding parameter using constant values from
the java.sql.Types class. Provide one entry for each parameter.

 You can use the SqlParameterValue class to wrap the parameter value that

needs this additional information. Create a new instance for each value and
pass in the SQL type and parameter value in the constructor. You can also
provide an optional scale parameter for numeric values.

 For methods working with named parameters, use

the SqlParameterSource classes BeanPropertySqlParameterSource orMapSqlParamet
erSource. They both have methods for registering the SQL type for any of the
named parameter values.

12.7.2 Handling BLOB and CLOB objects

You can store images, other binary objects, and large chunks of text. These large
object are called BLOB for binary data and CLOB for character data. In Spring you
can handle these large objects by using the JdbcTemplate directly and also when
using the higher abstractions provided by RDBMS Objects and
the SimpleJdbc classes. All of these approaches use an implementation of
the LobHandler interface for the actual management of the LOB data.
The LobHandler provides access to a LobCreator class, through
the getLobCreator method, used for creating new LOB objects to be inserted.

The LobCreator/LobHandler provides the following support for LOB input and output:

464
  BLOB
o byte[] – getBlobAsBytes and setBlobAsBytes

o InputStream – getBlobAsBinaryStream and setBlobAsBinaryStream

 CLOB

o String – getClobAsString and setClobAsString

o InputStream – getClobAsAsciiStream and setClobAsAsciiStream

o Reader – getClobAsCharacterStream and setClobAsCharacterStream

The next example shows how to create and insert a BLOB. Later you will see how
to read it back from the database.

This example uses a JdbcTemplate and an implementation of

the AbstractLobCreatingPreparedStatementCallback. It implements one
method,setValues. This method provides a LobCreator that you use to set the values
for the LOB columns in your SQL insert statement.

For this example we assume that there is a variable, lobHandler, that already is set
to an instance of a DefaultLobHandler. You typically set this value through
dependency injection.

final File blobIn = new File("spring2004.jpg");

final InputStream blobIs = new FileInputStream(blobIn);
final File clobIn = new File("large.txt");
final InputStream clobIs = new FileInputStream(clobIn);
final InputStreamReader clobReader = new InputStreamReader(clobIs);
jdbcTemplate.execute(
"INSERT INTO lob_table (id, a_clob, a_blob) VALUES (?, ?, ?)",
new AbstractLobCreatingPreparedStatementCallback(lobHandler) {

protected void setValues(PreparedStatement ps, LobCreator lobCreator)

throws SQLException {
ps.setLong(1, 1L);
lobCreator.setClobAsCharacterStream(ps, 2, clobReader,
(int)clobIn.length());
lobCreator.setBlobAsBinaryStream(ps, 3, blobIs, (int)blobIn.length());

}
}
);
blobIs.close();
clobReader.close();

465
 Pass in the lobHandler that in this example is a plain DefaultLobHandler

Using the method setClobAsCharacterStream, pass in the contents of the CLOB.

Using the method setBlobAsBinaryStream, pass in the contents of the BLOB.

Now it's time to read the LOB data from the database. Again, you use
a JdbcTemplate with the same instance variable lobHandler and a reference to
a DefaultLobHandler.

List<Map<String, Object>> l = jdbcTemplate.query("select id, a_clob, a_blob from

lob_table",
new RowMapper<Map<String, Object>>() {
public Map<String, Object> mapRow(ResultSet rs, int i) throws
SQLException {
Map<String, Object> results = new HashMap<String, Object>();
String clobText = lobHandler.getClobAsString(rs, "a_clob");

results.put("CLOB", clobText);
byte[] blobBytes = lobHandler.getBlobAsBytes(rs, "a_blob");

results.put("BLOB", blobBytes);
return results;
}
});

Using the method getClobAsString, retrieve the contents of the CLOB.

Using the method getBlobAsBytes, retrieve the contents of the BLOB.

12.7.3 Passing in lists of values for IN clause

The SQL standard allows for selecting rows based on an expression that includes
a variable list of values. A typical example would be select * from T_ACTOR where
id in (1, 2, 3). This variable list is not directly supported for prepared statements by
the JDBC standard; you cannot declare a variable number of placeholders. You
need a number of variations with the desired number of placeholders prepared, or
you need to generate the SQL string dynamically once you know how many
placeholders are required. The named parameter support provided in
theNamedParameterJdbcTemplate and SimpleJdbcTemplate takes the latter
approach. Pass in the values as a java.util.List of primitive objects. This list will be used to
insert the required placeholders and pass in the values during the statement execution.

Note

466
 Be careful when passing in many values. The JDBC standard does not guarantee that you
can use more than 100 values for anin expression list. Various databases exceed this
number, but they usually have a hard limit for how many values are allowed. Oracle's
limit is 1000.

In addition to the primitive values in the value list, you can create
a java.util.List of object arrays. This list would support multiple expressions
defined for the in clause such as select * from T_ACTOR where (id, last_name) in
((1, 'Johnson'), (2, 'Harrop')). This of course requires that your database
supports this syntax.

12.7.4 Handling complex types for stored procedure calls

When you call stored procedures you can sometimes use complex types specific
to the database. To accommodate these types, Spring provides aSqlReturnType for
handling them when they are returned from the stored procedure call
and SqlTypeValue when they are passed in as a parameter to the stored procedure.

Here is an example of returning the value of an Oracle STRUCT object of the user

declared type ITEM_TYPE. The SqlReturnType interface has a single method
named getTypeValue that must be implemented. This interface is used as part of the
declaration of an SqlOutParameter.

final TestItem - new TestItem(123L, "A test item",

new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-M-d").parse("2010-12-31"););

declareParameter(new SqlOutParameter("item", OracleTypes.STRUCT, "ITEM_TYPE",

new SqlReturnType() {
public Object getTypeValue(CallableStatement cs, int colIndx, int sqlType,
String typeName)
throws SQLException {
STRUCT struct = (STRUCT)cs.getObject(colIndx);
Object[] attr = struct.getAttributes();
TestItem item = new TestItem();
item.setId(((Number) attr[0]).longValue());
item.setDescription((String)attr[1]);
item.setExpirationDate((java.util.Date)attr[2]);
return item;
}
}));

You use the SqlTypeValue to pass in the value of a Java object like TestItem into a

stored procedure. The SqlTypeValue interface has a single method

467
named createTypeValue that you must implement. The active connection is passed
in, and you can use it to create database-specific objects such
as StructDescriptors, as shown in the following example, or ArrayDescriptors.

final TestItem - new TestItem(123L, "A test item",

new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-M-d").parse("2010-12-31"););

SqlTypeValue value = new AbstractSqlTypeValue() {

protected Object createTypeValue(Connection conn, int sqlType, String typeName)
throws SQLException {
StructDescriptor itemDescriptor = new StructDescriptor(typeName, conn);
Struct item = new STRUCT(itemDescriptor, conn,
new Object[] {
testItem.getId(),
testItem.getDescription(),
new java.sql.Date(testItem.getExpirationDate().getTime())
});
return item;
}
};

This SqlTypeValue can now be added to the Map containing the input parameters

for the execute call of the stored procedure.

Another use for the SqlTypeValue is passing in an array of values to an Oracle

stored procedure. Oracle has its own internal ARRAY class that must be used in this
case, and you can use the SqlTypeValue to create an instance of the
Oracle ARRAY and populate it with values from the Java ARRAY.

final Long[] ids = new Long[] {1L, 2L};

SqlTypeValue value = new AbstractSqlTypeValue() {

protected Object createTypeValue(Connection conn, int sqlType, String typeName)
throws SQLException {
ArrayDescriptor arrayDescriptor = new ArrayDescriptor(typeName, conn);
ARRAY idArray = new ARRAY(arrayDescriptor, conn, ids);
return idArray;
}
};

12.8 Embedded database support

The org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.embedded package provides support for

embedded Java database engines. Support for HSQL, H2, and Derby is provided
natively. You can also use an extensible API to plug in new embedded database
types and DataSource implementations.

468
12.8.1 Why use an embedded database?

An embedded database is useful during the development phase of a project

because of its lightweight nature. Benefits include ease of configuration, quick
startup time, testability, and the ability to rapidly evolve SQL during development.

12.8.2 Creating an embedded database instance using Spring XML

If you want to expose an embedded database instance as a bean in a Spring

ApplicationContext, use the embedded-database tag in the spring-jdbc
namespace:

<jdbc:embedded-database id="dataSource">
<jdbc:script location="classpath:schema.sql"/>
<jdbc:script location="classpath:test-data.sql"/>
</jdbc:embedded-database>

The preceding configuration creates an embedded HSQL database populated with

SQL from schema.sql and testdata.sql resources in the classpath. The database
instance is made available to the Spring container as a bean of
type javax.sql.DataSource. This bean can then be injected into data access objects
as needed.

12.8.3 Creating an embedded database instance programmatically

The EmbeddedDatabaseBuilder class provides a fluent API for constructing an

embedded database programmatically. Use this when you need to create an
embedded database instance in a standalone environment, such as a data access
object unit test:

EmbeddedDatabaseBuilder builder = new EmbeddedDatabaseBuilder();

EmbeddedDatabase db = builder.setType(H2).addScript("my-
schema.sql").addScript("my-test-data.sql").build();
// do stuff against the db (EmbeddedDatabase extends javax.sql.DataSource)
db.shutdown()

12.8.4 Extending the embedded database support

Spring JDBC embedded database support can be extended in two ways:

1. Implement EmbeddedDatabaseConfigurer to support a new embedded database

type, such as Apache Derby.

469
 2. Implement DataSourceFactory to support a new DataSource implementation,
such as a connection pool, to manage embedded database connections.

You are encouraged to contribute back extensions to the Spring community

at jira.springframework.org.

12.8.5 Using HSQL

Spring supports HSQL 1.8.0 and above. HSQL is the default embedded database
if no type is specified explicitly. To specify HSQL explicitly, set the type attribute of
the embedded-database tag to HSQL. If you are using the builder API, call
the setType(EmbeddedDatabaseType) method withEmbeddedDatabaseType.HSQL.

12.8.6 Using H2

Spring supports the H2 database as well. To enable H2, set the type attribute of

the embedded-database tag to H2. If you are using the builder API, call
the setType(EmbeddedDatabaseType) method with EmbeddedDatabaseType.H2.

12.8.7 Using Derby

Spring also supports Apache Derby 10.5 and above. To enable Derby, set
the type attribute of the embedded-database tag to Derby. If using the builder API, call
the setType(EmbeddedDatabaseType) method with EmbeddedDatabaseType.Derby.

12.8.8 Testing data access logic with an embedded database

Embedded databases provide a lightweight way to test data access code. The
following is a data access unit test template that uses an embedded database:

public class DataAccessUnitTestTemplate {

private EmbeddedDatabase db;

@Before
public void setUp() {
// creates a HSQL in-memory db populated from default scripts
classpath:schema.sql and classpath:test-data.sql
db = new EmbeddedDatabaseBuilder().addDefaultScripts().build();
}

@Test
public void testDataAccess() {
JdbcTemplate template = new JdbcTemplate(db);
template.query(...);
}

470
 @After
public void tearDown() {
db.shutdown();
}
}

12.9 Initializing a DataSource

The org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.init package provides support for

initializing an existing DataSource. The embedded database support provides one
option for creating and initializing a DataSource for an application, but sometimes
you need to initialize an instance running on a server somewhere.

12.9.1 Initializing a database instance using Spring XML

If you want to initialize a database and you can provide a reference to a

DataSource bean, use the initialize-database tag in the spring-jdbcnamespace:

<jdbc:initialize-database data-source="dataSource">
<jdbc:script location="classpath:com/foo/sql/db-schema.sql"/>
<jdbc:script location="classpath:com/foo/sql/db-test-data.sql"/>
</jdbc:initialize-database>

The example above runs the two scripts specified against the database: the first
script is a schema creation, and the second is a test data set insert. The script
locations can also be patterns with wildcards in the usual ant style used for
resources in Spring (e.g.classpath*:/com/foo/**/sql/*-data.sql). If a pattern is used
the scripts are executed in lexical order of their URL or filename.

The default behaviour of the database initializer is to unconditionally execute the

scripts provided. This will not always be what you want, for instance if running
against an existing database that already has test data in it. The likelihood of
accidentally deleting data is reduced by the commonest pattern (as shown above)
that creates the tables first and then inserts the data - the first step will fail if the
tables already exist.

However, to get more control over the creation and deletion of existing data, the
XML namespace provides a couple more options. The first is flag to switch the
initialization on and off. This can be set according to the environment (e.g. to pull a
boolean value from system properties or an environment bean), e.g.

<jdbc:initialize-database data-source="dataSource"

471
 enabled="#{systemProperties.INITIALIZE_DATABASE}">
<jdbc:script location="..."/>
</jdbc:initialize-database>

The second option to control what happens with existing data is to be more
tolerant of failures. To this end you can control the ability of the initializer to ignore
certain errors in the SQL it executes from the scripts, e.g.

<jdbc:initialize-database data-source="dataSource" ignore-failures="DROPS">

<jdbc:script location="..."/>
</jdbc:initialize-database>

In this example we are saying we expect that sometimes the scripts will be run
against an empty dtabase and there are some DROP statements in the scripts
which would therefore fail. So failed SQL DROP statements will be ignored, but other
failures will cause an exception. This is useful if your SQL dialect doesn't
support DROP ... IF EXISTS (or similar) but you want to unconditionally remove all
test data before re-creating it. In that case the first script is usually a set of drops,
followed by a set of CREATE statements.

The ignore-failures option can be set to NONE (the default), DROPS (ignore failed

drops) or ALL (ignore all failures).

If you need more control than you get from the XML namespace, you can simply
use the DataSourceInitializer directly, and define it as a component in your
application.

12.9.1.1 Initialization of Other Components that Depend on the Database

A large class of applications can just use the database initializer with no further
complications: those that do not use the database until after the Spring context has
started. If your application is not one of those then you might need to read the rest
of this section.

The database initializer depends on a data source instance and runs the scripts
provided in its initialization callback (c.f. init-method in an XML bean definition
or InitializingBean). If other beans depend on the same data source and also use
the data source in an initialization callback then there might be a problem because
the data has not yet been initialized. A common example of this is a cache that
initializes eagerly and loads up data from the database on application startup.

472
To get round this issue you two options: change your cache initialization strategy
to a later phase, or ensure that the database initializer is initialized first.

The first option might be easy if the application is in your control, and not
otherwise. Some suggestions for how to implement this are

 Make the cache initialize lazily on first usage, which improves application
startup time
 Have your cache or a separate component that initializes the cache
implement Lifecycle or SmartLifecycle. When the application context starts
up a SmartLifecycle can be automatically started if its autoStartup flag is set,
and a Lifecycle can be started manually by
callingConfigurableApplicationContext.start() on the enclosing context.

 Use a Spring ApplicationEvent or similar custom observer mechanism to

trigger the cache initialization. ContextRefreshedEvent is always published by
the context when it is ready for use (after all beans have been initialized), so
that is often a useful hook (this is how theSmartLifecycle works by default).

The second option can also be easy. Some suggestions on how to implement this
are

 Rely on Spring BeanFactory default behaviour, which is that beans are

initialized in registration order. You can easily arrange that by adopting the
common practice of a set of <import/> elements that order your application
modules, and ensure that the database and database initialization are listed
first
 Separate the datasource and the business components that use it and
control their startup order by putting them in separate ApplicationContext
instances (e.g. parent has the datasource and child has the business
components). This structure is common in Spring web applications, but can
be more generally applied.

 Use a modular runtime like SpringSource dm Server and separate the data
source and the components that depend on it. E.g. specify the bundle start
up order as datasource -> initializer -> business components.

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13. Object Relational Mapping (ORM) Data Access

13.1 Introduction to ORM with Spring

The Spring Framework supports integration with Hibernate, Java Persistence API
(JPA), Java Data Objects (JDO) and iBATIS SQL Maps for resource management,
data access object (DAO) implementations, and transaction strategies. For
example, for Hibernate there is first-class support with several convenient IoC
features that address many typical Hibernate integration issues. You can configure
all of the supported features for O/R (object relational) mapping tools through
Dependency Injection. They can participate in Spring's resource and transaction
management, and they comply with Spring's generic transaction and DAO
exception hierarchies. The recommended integration style is to code DAOs
against plain Hibernate, JPA, and JDO APIs. The older style of using Spring's
DAO templates is no longer recommended; however, coverage of this style can be
found in the Section A.1, “Classic ORM usage” in the appendices.

Spring adds significant enhancements to the ORM layer of your choice when you
create data access applications. You can leverage as much of the integration
support as you wish, and you should compare this integration effort with the cost
and risk of building a similar infrastructure in-house. You can use much of the
ORM support as you would a library, regardless of technology, because everything
is designed as a set of reusable JavaBeans. ORM in a Spring IoC container
facilitates configuration and deployment. Thus most examples in this section show
configuration inside a Spring container.

Benefits of using the Spring Framework to create your ORM DAOs include:

 Easier testing. Spring's IoC approach makes it easy to swap the

implementations and configuration locations of
Hibernate SessionFactoryinstances, JDBC DataSource instances, transaction
managers, and mapped object implementations (if needed). This in turn
makes it much easier to test each piece of persistence-related code in
isolation.
 Common data access exceptions. Spring can wrap exceptions from your
ORM tool, converting them from proprietary (potentially checked) exceptions
to a common runtime DataAccessException hierarchy. This feature allows
you to handle most persistence exceptions, which are non-recoverable, only
in the appropriate layers, without annoying boilerplate catches, throws, and
exception declarations. You can still trap and handle exceptions as
necessary. Remember that JDBC exceptions (including DB-specific dialects)

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 are also converted to the same hierarchy, meaning that you can perform
some operations with JDBC within a consistent programming model.

 General resource management. Spring application contexts can handle the

location and configuration of Hibernate SessionFactoryinstances,
JPA EntityManagerFactory instances, JDBC DataSource instances, iBATIS SQL
Maps configuration objects, and other related resources. This makes these
values easy to manage and change. Spring offers efficient, easy, and safe
handling of persistence resources. For example, related code that uses
Hibernate generally needs to use the same Hibernate Session to ensure
efficiency and proper transaction handling. Spring makes it easy to create
and bind a Session to the current thread transparently, by exposing a
current Sessionthrough the Hibernate SessionFactory. Thus Spring solves
many chronic problems of typical Hibernate usage, for any local or JTA
transaction environment.

 Integrated transaction management. You can wrap your ORM code with a

declarative, aspect-oriented programming (AOP) style method interceptor
either through the @Transactional annotation or by explicitly configuring the
transaction AOP advice in an XML configuration file. In both cases,
transaction semantics and exception handling (rollback, and so on) are
handled for you. As discussed below, in Resource and transaction
management, you can also swap various transaction managers, without
affecting your ORM-related code. For example, you can swap between local
transactions and JTA, with the same full services (such as declarative
transactions) available in both scenarios. Additionally, JDBC-related code
can fully integrate transactionally with the code you use to do ORM. This is
useful for data access that is not suitable for ORM, such as batch processing
and BLOB streaming, which still need to share common transactions with
ORM operations.

TODO: provide links to current samples

13.2 General ORM integration considerations

This section highlights considerations that apply to all ORM technologies.

The Section 13.3, “Hibernate” section provides more details and also show these
features and configurations in a concrete context.

The major goal of Spring's ORM integration is clear application layering, with any
data access and transaction technology, and for loose coupling of application
objects. No more business service dependencies on the data access or

475
transaction strategy, no more hard-coded resource lookups, no more hard-to-
replace singletons, no more custom service registries. One simple and consistent
approach to wiring up application objects, keeping them as reusable and free from
container dependencies as possible. All the individual data access features are
usable on their own but integrate nicely with Spring's application context concept,
providing XML-based configuration and cross-referencing of plain JavaBean
instances that need not be Spring-aware. In a typical Spring application, many
important objects are JavaBeans: data access templates, data access objects,
transaction managers, business services that use the data access objects and
transaction managers, web view resolvers, web controllers that use the business
services,and so on.

13.2.1 Resource and transaction management

Typical business applications are cluttered with repetitive resource management

code. Many projects try to invent their own solutions, sometimes sacrificing proper
handling of failures for programming convenience. Spring advocates simple
solutions for proper resource handling, namely IoC through templating in the case
of JDBC and applying AOP interceptors for the ORM technologies.

The infrastructure provides proper resource handling and appropriate conversion

of specific API exceptions to an unchecked infrastructure exception hierarchy.
Spring introduces a DAO exception hierarchy, applicable to any data access
strategy. For direct JDBC, the JdbcTemplateclass mentioned in a previous section
provides connection handling and proper conversion of SQLException to
the DataAccessException hierarchy, including translation of database-specific SQL
error codes to meaningful exception classes. For ORM technologies, see the next
section for how to get the same exception translation benefits.

When it comes to transaction management, the JdbcTemplate class hooks in to the

Spring transaction support and supports both JTA and JDBC transactions, through
respective Spring transaction managers. For the supported ORM technologies
Spring offers Hibernate, JPA and JDO support through the Hibernate, JPA, and
JDO transaction managers as well as JTA support. For details on transaction
support, see the Chapter 10,Transaction Management chapter.

13.2.2 Exception translation

When you use Hibernate, JPA, or JDO in a DAO, you must decide how to handle
the persistence technology's native exception classes. The DAO throws a subclass
of a HibernateException, PersistenceException or JDOException depending on the
technology. These exceptions are all run-time exceptions and do not have to be

476
declared or caught. You may also have to deal
with IllegalArgumentException andIllegalStateException. This means that callers
can only treat exceptions as generally fatal, unless they want to depend on the
persistence technology's own exception structure. Catching specific causes such
as an optimistic locking failure is not possible without tying the caller to the
implementation strategy. This trade off might be acceptable to applications that are
strongly ORM-based and/or do not need any special exception treatment.
However, Spring enables exception translation to be applied transparently through
the @Repository annotation:

@Repository
public class ProductDaoImpl implements ProductDao {

// class body here...

}
<beans>

<!-- Exception translation bean post processor -->

<bean
class="org.springframework.dao.annotation.PersistenceExceptionTranslationPostProce
ssor"/>

<bean id="myProductDao" class="product.ProductDaoImpl"/>

</beans>

The postprocessor automatically looks for all exception translators

(implementations of the PersistenceExceptionTranslator interface) and advises all
beans marked with the @Repository annotation so that the discovered translators
can intercept and apply the appropriate translation on the thrown exceptions.

In summary: you can implement DAOs based on the plain persistence

technology's API and annotations, while still benefiting from Spring-managed
transactions, dependency injection, and transparent exception conversion (if
desired) to Spring's custom exception hierarchies.

13.3 Hibernate

We will start with a coverage of Hibernate 3 in a Spring environment, using it to

demonstrate the approach that Spring takes towards integrating O/R mappers. This section will cover
many issues in detail and show different variations of DAO implementations and transaction
demarcation. Most of these patterns can be directly translated to all other supported ORM tools. The
following sections in this chapter will then cover the other ORM technologies, showing briefer
examples there.

477
 Note

As of Spring 3.0, Spring requires Hibernate 3.2 or later.

13.3.1 SessionFactory setup in a Spring container

To avoid tying application objects to hard-coded resource lookups, you can define
resources such as a JDBC DataSource or a HibernateSessionFactory as beans in the
Spring container. Application objects that need to access resources receive
references to such predefined instances through bean references, as illustrated in
the DAO definition in the next section.

The following excerpt from an XML application context definition shows how to set
up a JDBC DataSource and a Hibernate SessionFactory on top of it:

<beans>

<bean id="myDataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" destroy-

method="close">
<property name="driverClassName" value="org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver"/>
<property name="url" value="jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://localhost:9001"/>
<property name="username" value="sa"/>
<property name="password" value=""/>
</bean>

<bean id="mySessionFactory"
class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalSessionFactoryBean">
<property name="dataSource" ref="myDataSource"/>
<property name="mappingResources">
<list>
<value>product.hbm.xml</value>
</list>
</property>
<property name="hibernateProperties">
<value>
hibernate.dialect=org.hibernate.dialect.HSQLDialect
</value>
</property>
</bean>

</beans>

Switching from a local Jakarta Commons DBCP BasicDataSource to a JNDI-

located DataSource (usually managed by an application server) is just a matter of
configuration:

<beans>

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 <jee:jndi-lookup id="myDataSource" jndi-name="java:comp/env/jdbc/myds"/>

</beans>

You can also access a JNDI-located SessionFactory, using

Spring's JndiObjectFactoryBean / <jee:jndi-lookup> to retrieve and expose it.
However, that is typically not common outside of an EJB context.

13.3.2 Implementing DAOs based on plain Hibernate 3 API

Hibernate 3 has a feature called contextual sessions, wherein Hibernate itself

manages one current Session per transaction. This is roughly equivalent to Spring's
synchronization of one Hibernate Session per transaction. A corresponding DAO
implementation resembles the following example, based on the plain Hibernate
API:

public class ProductDaoImpl implements ProductDao {

private SessionFactory sessionFactory;

public void setSessionFactory(SessionFactory sessionFactory) {

this.sessionFactory = sessionFactory;
}

public Collection loadProductsByCategory(String category) {

return this.sessionFactory.getCurrentSession()
.createQuery("from test.Product product where product.category=?")
.setParameter(0, category)
.list();
}
}

This style is similar to that of the Hibernate reference documentation and

examples, except for holding the SessionFactory in an instance variable. We
strongly recommend such an instance-based setup over the old-
school static HibernateUtil class from Hibernate's CaveatEmptor sample
application. (In general, do not keep any resources in static variables
unless absolutely necessary.)

The above DAO follows the dependency injection pattern: it fits nicely into a Spring
IoC container, just as it would if coded against Spring'sHibernateTemplate. Of
course, such a DAO can also be set up in plain Java (for example, in unit tests).
Simply instantiate it and callsetSessionFactory(..) with the desired factory
reference. As a Spring bean definition, the DAO would resemble the following:

479
<beans>

<bean id="myProductDao" class="product.ProductDaoImpl">

<property name="sessionFactory" ref="mySessionFactory"/>
</bean>

</beans>

The main advantage of this DAO style is that it depends on Hibernate API only; no
import of any Spring class is required. This is of course appealing from a non-
invasiveness perspective, and will no doubt feel more natural to Hibernate
developers.

However, the DAO throws plain HibernateException (which is unchecked, so does

not have to be declared or caught), which means that callers can only treat
exceptions as generally fatal - unless they want to depend on Hibernate's own
exception hierarchy. Catching specific causes such as an optimistic locking failure
is not possible without tying the caller to the implementation strategy. This trade off
might be acceptable to applications that are strongly Hibernate-based and/or do
not need any special exception treatment.

Fortunately, Spring's LocalSessionFactoryBean supports
Hibernate's SessionFactory.getCurrentSession() method for any Spring transaction
strategy, returning the current Spring-managed transactional Session even
with HibernateTransactionManager. Of course, the standard behavior of that method
remains the return of the current Session associated with the ongoing JTA
transaction, if any. This behavior applies regardless of whether you are using
Spring's JtaTransactionManager, EJB container managed transactions (CMTs), or
JTA.

In summary: you can implement DAOs based on the plain Hibernate 3 API, while
still being able to participate in Spring-managed transactions.

13.3.3 Declarative transaction demarcation

We recommend that you use Spring's declarative transaction support, which enables you to replace
explicit transaction demarcation API calls in your Java code with an AOP transaction interceptor. This
transaction interceptor can be configured in a Spring container using either Java annotations or
XML.This declarative transaction capability allows you to keep business services free of repetitive
transaction demarcation code and to focus on adding business logic, which is the real value of your
application.

Note

480
 Prior to continuing, you are strongly encouraged to read Section 10.5, “Declarative
transaction management” if you have not done so.

Furthermore, transaction semantics like propagation behavior and isolation level

can be changed in a configuration file and do not affect the business service
implementations.

The following example shows how you can configure an AOP transaction
interceptor, using XML, for a simple service 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"
xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-3.0.xsd">

<!-- SessionFactory, DataSource, etc. omitted -->

<bean id="transactionManager"

class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTransactionManager">
<property name="sessionFactory" ref="sessionFactory"/>
</bean>

<aop:config>
<aop:pointcut id="productServiceMethods"
expression="execution(* product.ProductService.*(..))"/>
<aop:advisor advice-ref="txAdvice" pointcut-ref="productServiceMethods"/>
</aop:config>

<tx:advice id="txAdvice" transaction-manager="myTxManager">

<tx:attributes>
<tx:method name="increasePrice*" propagation="REQUIRED"/>
<tx:method name="someOtherBusinessMethod" propagation="REQUIRES_NEW"/>
<tx:method name="*" propagation="SUPPORTS" read-only="true"/>
</tx:attributes>
</tx:advice>

<bean id="myProductService" class="product.SimpleProductService">

<property name="productDao" ref="myProductDao"/>
</bean>

</beans>

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This is the service class that is advised:

public class ProductServiceImpl implements ProductService {

private ProductDao productDao;

public void setProductDao(ProductDao productDao) {

this.productDao = productDao;
}

// notice the absence of transaction demarcation code in this method

// Spring's declarative transaction infrastructure will be demarcating
// transactions on your behalf
public void increasePriceOfAllProductsInCategory(final String category) {
List productsToChange = this.productDao.loadProductsByCategory(category);
// ...
}
}

We also show an attribute-support based configuration, in the following example.

You annotate the service layer with @Transactional annotations and instruct the
Spring container to find these annotations and provide transactional semantics for
these annotated methods.

public class ProductServiceImpl implements ProductService {

private ProductDao productDao;

public void setProductDao(ProductDao productDao) {

this.productDao = productDao;
}

@Transactional
public void increasePriceOfAllProductsInCategory(final String category) {
List productsToChange = this.productDao.loadProductsByCategory(category);
// ...
}

@Transactional(readOnly = true)
public List<Product> findAllProducts() {
return this.productDao.findAllProducts();
}

As you can see from the following configuration example, the configuration is
much simplified, compared to the XML example above, while still providing the
same functionality driven by the annotations in the service layer code. All you need

482
to provide is the TransactionManager implementation and a "<tx:annotation-
driven/>" entry.

<?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"
xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-3.0.xsd">

<!-- SessionFactory, DataSource, etc. omitted -->

<bean id="transactionManager"

class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTransactionManager">
<property name="sessionFactory" ref="sessionFactory"/>
</bean>

<tx:annotation-driven/>

<bean id="myProductService" class="product.SimpleProductService">

<property name="productDao" ref="myProductDao"/>
</bean>

</beans>

13.3.4 Programmatic transaction demarcation

You can demarcate transactions in a higher level of the application, on top of such
lower-level data access services spanning any number of operations. Nor do
restrictions exist on the implementation of the surrounding business service; it just
needs a SpringPlatformTransactionManager. Again, the latter can come from
anywhere, but preferably as a bean reference through
asetTransactionManager(..) method, just as the productDAO should be set by
a setProductDao(..) method. The following snippets show a transaction manager
and a business service definition in a Spring application context, and an example
for a business method implementation:

<beans>

<bean id="myTxManager"
class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTransactionManager">
<property name="sessionFactory" ref="mySessionFactory"/>

483
 </bean>

<bean id="myProductService" class="product.ProductServiceImpl">

<property name="transactionManager" ref="myTxManager"/>
<property name="productDao" ref="myProductDao"/>
</bean>

</beans>
public class ProductServiceImpl implements ProductService {

private TransactionTemplate transactionTemplate;

private ProductDao productDao;

public void setTransactionManager(PlatformTransactionManager

transactionManager) {
this.transactionTemplate = new TransactionTemplate(transactionManager);
}

public void setProductDao(ProductDao productDao) {

this.productDao = productDao;
}

public void increasePriceOfAllProductsInCategory(final String category) {

this.transactionTemplate.execute(new TransactionCallbackWithoutResult() {

public void doInTransactionWithoutResult(TransactionStatus status)

{
List productsToChange =
this.productDao.loadProductsByCategory(category);
// do the price increase...
}
}
);
}
}

Spring's TransactionInterceptor allows any checked application exception to be

thrown with the callback code, while TransactionTemplate is restricted to unchecked
exceptions within the callback. TransactionTemplate triggers a rollback in case of an
unchecked application exception, or if the transaction is marked rollback-only by
the application (via TransactionStatus). TransactionInterceptor behaves the same
way by default but allows configurable rollback policies per method.

13.3.5 Transaction management strategies

Both TransactionTemplate and TransactionInterceptor delegate the actual

transaction handling to a PlatformTransactionManager instance, which can be
a HibernateTransactionManager (for a single Hibernate SessionFactory, using
a ThreadLocal Session under the hood) or aJtaTransactionManager (delegating to the
JTA subsystem of the container) for Hibernate applications. You can even use a

484
customPlatformTransactionManager implementation. Switching from native Hibernate
transaction management to JTA, such as when facing distributed transaction
requirements for certain deployments of your application, is just a matter of
configuration. Simply replace the Hibernate transaction manager with Spring's JTA
transaction implementation. Both transaction demarcation and data access code
will work without changes, because they just use the generic transaction
management APIs.

For distributed transactions across multiple Hibernate session factories, simply

combine JtaTransactionManager as a transaction strategy with
multiple LocalSessionFactoryBean definitions. Each DAO then gets one
specific SessionFactory reference passed into its corresponding bean property. If all
underlying JDBC data sources are transactional container ones, a business
service can demarcate transactions across any number of DAOs and any number
of session factories without special regard, as long as it is
using JtaTransactionManager as the strategy.

<beans>

<jee:jndi-lookup id="dataSource1" jndi-name="java:comp/env/jdbc/myds1"/>

<jee:jndi-lookup id="dataSource2" jndi-name="java:comp/env/jdbc/myds2"/>

<bean id="mySessionFactory1"
class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalSessionFactoryBean">
<property name="dataSource" ref="myDataSource1"/>
<property name="mappingResources">
<list>
<value>product.hbm.xml</value>
</list>
</property>
<property name="hibernateProperties">
<value>
hibernate.dialect=org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect
hibernate.show_sql=true
</value>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="mySessionFactory2"
class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalSessionFactoryBean">
<property name="dataSource" ref="myDataSource2"/>
<property name="mappingResources">
<list>
<value>inventory.hbm.xml</value>
</list>
</property>
<property name="hibernateProperties">
<value>

485
 hibernate.dialect=org.hibernate.dialect.OracleDialect
</value>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="myTxManager"
class="org.springframework.transaction.jta.JtaTransactionManager"/>

<bean id="myProductDao" class="product.ProductDaoImpl">

<property name="sessionFactory" ref="mySessionFactory1"/>
</bean>

<bean id="myInventoryDao" class="product.InventoryDaoImpl">

<property name="sessionFactory" ref="mySessionFactory2"/>
</bean>

<bean id="myProductService" class="product.ProductServiceImpl">

<property name="productDao" ref="myProductDao"/>
<property name="inventoryDao" ref="myInventoryDao"/>
</bean>

<aop:config>
<aop:pointcut id="productServiceMethods"
expression="execution(* product.ProductService.*(..))"/>
<aop:advisor advice-ref="txAdvice" pointcut-ref="productServiceMethods"/>
</aop:config>

<tx:advice id="txAdvice" transaction-manager="myTxManager">

<tx:attributes>
<tx:method name="increasePrice*" propagation="REQUIRED"/>
<tx:method name="someOtherBusinessMethod" propagation="REQUIRES_NEW"/>
<tx:method name="*" propagation="SUPPORTS" read-only="true"/>
</tx:attributes>
</tx:advice>

</beans>

Both HibernateTransactionManager and JtaTransactionManager allow for proper JVM-

level cache handling with Hibernate, without container-specific transaction
manager lookup or a JCA connector (if you are not using EJB to initiate
transactions).

HibernateTransactionManager can export the Hibernate JDBC Connection to plain

JDBC access code, for a specific DataSource. This capability allows for high-level
transaction demarcation with mixed Hibernate and JDBC data access completely
without JTA, if you are accessing only one
database. HibernateTransactionManager automatically exposes the Hibernate
transaction as a JDBC transaction if you have set up the passed-
inSessionFactory with a DataSource through the dataSource property of
the LocalSessionFactoryBean class. Alternatively, you can specify explicitly

486
the DataSource for which the transactions are supposed to be exposed through
the dataSource property of the HibernateTransactionManagerclass.

13.3.6 Comparing container-managed and locally defined resources

You can switch between a container-managed JNDI SessionFactory and a locally

defined one, without having to change a single line of application code. Whether to
keep resource definitions in the container or locally within the application is mainly
a matter of the transaction strategy that you use. Compared to a Spring-defined
local SessionFactory, a manually registered JNDI SessionFactory does not provide
any benefits. Deploying aSessionFactory through Hibernate's JCA connector
provides the added value of participating in the Java EE server's management
infrastructure, but does not add actual value beyond that.

Spring's transaction support is not bound to a container. Configured with any

strategy other than JTA, transaction support also works in a stand-alone or test
environment. Especially in the typical case of single-database transactions,
Spring's single-resource local transaction support is a lightweight and powerful
alternative to JTA. When you use local EJB stateless session beans to drive
transactions, you depend both on an EJB container and JTA, even if you access
only a single database, and only use stateless session beans to provide
declarative transactions through container-managed transactions. Also, direct use
of JTA programmatically requires a Java EE environment as well. JTA does not
involve only container dependencies in terms of JTA itself and of
JNDI DataSource instances. For non-Spring, JTA-driven Hibernate transactions, you
have to use the Hibernate JCA connector, or extra Hibernate transaction code with
the TransactionManagerLookup configured for proper JVM-level caching.

Spring-driven transactions can work as well with a locally defined

Hibernate SessionFactory as they do with a local JDBC DataSource if they are
accessing a single database. Thus you only have to use Spring's JTA transaction
strategy when you have distributed transaction requirements. A JCA connector
requires container-specific deployment steps, and obviously JCA support in the
first place. This configuration requires more work than deploying a simple web
application with local resource definitions and Spring-driven transactions. Also, you
often need the Enterprise Edition of your container if you are using, for example,
WebLogic Express, which does not provide JCA. A Spring application with local
resources and transactions spanning one single database works in any Java EE
web container (without JTA, JCA, or EJB) such as Tomcat, Resin, or even plain
Jetty. Additionally, you can easily reuse such a middle tier in desktop applications
or test suites.

487
All things considered, if you do not use EJBs, stick with local SessionFactory setup
and Spring's HibernateTransactionManager orJtaTransactionManager. You get all of the
benefits, including proper transactional JVM-level caching and distributed
transactions, without the inconvenience of container deployment. JNDI registration
of a Hibernate SessionFactory through the JCA connector only adds value when
used in conjunction with EJBs.

13.3.7 Spurious application server warnings with Hibernate

In some JTA environments with very strict XADataSource implementations --

currently only some WebLogic Server and WebSphere versions -- when Hibernate
is configured without regard to the JTA PlatformTransactionManager object for that
environment, it is possible for spurious warning or exceptions to show up in the
application server log. These warnings or exceptions indicate that the connection
being accessed is no longer valid, or JDBC access is no longer valid, possibly
because the transaction is no longer active. As an example, here is an actual
exception from WebLogic:

java.sql.SQLException: The transaction is no longer active - status: 'Committed'.

No further JDBC access is allowed within this transaction.

You resolve this warning by simply making Hibernate aware of the

JTA PlatformTransactionManager instance, to which it will synchronize (along with
Spring). You have two options for doing this:

 If in your application context you are already directly obtaining the

JTA PlatformTransactionManager object (presumably from JNDI
throughJndiObjectFactoryBean/<jee:jndi-lookup>) and feeding it, for example,
to Spring's JtaTransactionManager, then the easiest way is to specify a
reference to the bean defining this JTA PlatformTransactionManager instance
as the value of the jtaTransactionManager property
for LocalSessionFactoryBean. Spring then makes the object available to
Hibernate.
 More likely you do not already have the
JTA PlatformTransactionManager instance, because
Spring's JtaTransactionManager can find it itself. Thus you need to configure
Hibernate to look up JTA PlatformTransactionManager directly. You do this by
configuring an application server- specific TransactionManagerLookup class in
the Hibernate configuration, as described in the Hibernate manual.

488
The remainder of this section describes the sequence of events that occur with
and without Hibernate's awareness of the JTAPlatformTransactionManager.

When Hibernate is not configured with any awareness of the

JTA PlatformTransactionManager, the following events occur when a JTA transaction
commits:

1. The JTA transaction commits.

2. Spring's JtaTransactionManager is synchronized to the JTA transaction, so it is
called back through an afterCompletion callback by the JTA transaction
manager.

3. Among other activities, this synchronization can trigger a callback by Spring

to Hibernate, through Hibernate's afterTransactionCompletioncallback (used
to clear the Hibernate cache), followed by an explicit close() call on the
Hibernate Session, which causes Hibernate to attempt to close() the JDBC
Connection.

4. In some environments, this Connection.close() call then triggers the warning

or error, as the application server no longer considers the Connection usable
at all, because the transaction has already been committed.

When Hibernate is configured with awareness of the

JTA PlatformTransactionManager, the following events occur when a JTA transaction
commits:

1. the JTA transaction is ready to commit.

2. Spring's JtaTransactionManager is synchronized to the JTA transaction, so the
transaction is called back through a beforeCompletioncallback by the JTA
transaction manager.

3. Spring is aware that Hibernate itself is synchronized to the JTA transaction,

and behaves differently than in the previous scenario. Assuming the
Hibernate Session needs to be closed at all, Spring will close it now.

4. The JTA transaction commits.

5. Hibernate is synchronized to the JTA transaction, so the transaction is called

back through an afterCompletion callback by the JTA transaction manager,
and can properly clear its cache.

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13.4 JDO

Spring supports the standard JDO 2.0 and 2.1 APIs as data access strategy,
following the same style as the Hibernate support. The corresponding integration
classes reside in the org.springframework.orm.jdo package.

13.4.1 PersistenceManagerFactory setup

Spring provides a LocalPersistenceManagerFactoryBean class that allows you to

define a local JDO PersistenceManagerFactory within a Spring application context:

<beans>

<bean id="myPmf"
class="org.springframework.orm.jdo.LocalPersistenceManagerFactoryBean">
<property name="configLocation" value="classpath:kodo.properties"/>
</bean>

</beans>

Alternatively, you can set up a PersistenceManagerFactory through direct

instantiation of a PersistenceManagerFactory implementation class. A
JDO PersistenceManagerFactory implementation class follows the JavaBeans
pattern, just like a JDBC DataSource implementation class, which is a natural fit for
a configuration that uses Spring. This setup style usually supports a Spring-
defined JDBC DataSource, passed into theconnectionFactory property. For example,
for the open source JDO implementation DataNucleus (formerly JPOX)
(http://www.datanucleus.org/), this is the XML configuration of
the PersistenceManagerFactory implementation:

<beans>

<bean id="dataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" destroy-

method="close">
<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>

<bean id="myPmf" class="org.datanucleus.jdo.JDOPersistenceManagerFactory"

destroy-method="close">
<property name="connectionFactory" ref="dataSource"/>
<property name="nontransactionalRead" value="true"/>
</bean>

490
</beans>

You can also set up JDO PersistenceManagerFactory in the JNDI environment of a

Java EE application server, usually through the JCA connector provided by the
particular JDO implementation. Spring's
standard JndiObjectFactoryBean / <jee:jndi-lookup> can be used to retrieve and
expose such a PersistenceManagerFactory. However, outside an EJB context, no
real benefit exists in holding the PersistenceManagerFactory in JNDI: only choose
such a setup for a good reason. See Section 13.3.6, “Comparing container-
managed and locally defined resources” for a discussion; the arguments there
apply to JDO as well.

13.4.2 Implementing DAOs based on the plain JDO API

DAOs can also be written directly against plain JDO API, without any Spring
dependencies, by using an injected PersistenceManagerFactory. The following is an
example of a corresponding DAO implementation:

public class ProductDaoImpl implements ProductDao {

private PersistenceManagerFactory persistenceManagerFactory;

public void setPersistenceManagerFactory(PersistenceManagerFactory pmf) {

this.persistenceManagerFactory = pmf;
}

public Collection loadProductsByCategory(String category) {

PersistenceManager pm =
this.persistenceManagerFactory.getPersistenceManager();
try {
Query query = pm.newQuery(Product.class, "category = pCategory");
query.declareParameters("String pCategory");
return query.execute(category);
}
finally {
pm.close();
}
}
}

Because the above DAO follows the dependency injection pattern, it fits nicely into
a Spring container, just as it would if coded against Spring'sJdoTemplate:

<beans>

491
 <bean id="myProductDao" class="product.ProductDaoImpl">
<property name="persistenceManagerFactory" ref="myPmf"/>
</bean>

</beans>

The main problem with such DAOs is that they always get a
new PersistenceManager from the factory. To access a Spring-managed
transactionalPersistenceManager, define
a TransactionAwarePersistenceManagerFactoryProxy (as included in Spring) in front of
your targetPersistenceManagerFactory, then passing a reference to that proxy into
your DAOs as in the following example:

<beans>

<bean id="myPmfProxy"

class="org.springframework.orm.jdo.TransactionAwarePersistenceManagerFactoryProxy"
>
<property name="targetPersistenceManagerFactory" ref="myPmf"/>
</bean>

<bean id="myProductDao" class="product.ProductDaoImpl">

<property name="persistenceManagerFactory" ref="myPmfProxy"/>
</bean>

</beans>

Your data access code will receive a transactional PersistenceManager (if any) from

the PersistenceManagerFactory.getPersistenceManager()method that it calls. The latter
method call goes through the proxy, which first checks for a current
transactional PersistenceManager before getting a new one from the factory.
Any close() calls on the PersistenceManager are ignored in case of a
transactional PersistenceManager.

If your data access code always runs within an active transaction (or at least within
active transaction synchronization), it is safe to omit
thePersistenceManager.close() call and thus the entire finally block, which you
might do to keep your DAO implementations concise:

public class ProductDaoImpl implements ProductDao {

private PersistenceManagerFactory persistenceManagerFactory;

public void setPersistenceManagerFactory(PersistenceManagerFactory pmf) {

492
 this.persistenceManagerFactory = pmf;
}

public Collection loadProductsByCategory(String category) {

PersistenceManager pm =
this.persistenceManagerFactory.getPersistenceManager();
Query query = pm.newQuery(Product.class, "category = pCategory");
query.declareParameters("String pCategory");
return query.execute(category);
}
}

With such DAOs that rely on active transactions, it is recommended that you
enforce active transactions through turning
offTransactionAwarePersistenceManagerFactoryProxy's allowCreate flag:

<beans>

<bean id="myPmfProxy"

class="org.springframework.orm.jdo.TransactionAwarePersistenceManagerFactoryProxy"
>
<property name="targetPersistenceManagerFactory" ref="myPmf"/>
<property name="allowCreate" value="false"/>
</bean>

<bean id="myProductDao" class="product.ProductDaoImpl">

<property name="persistenceManagerFactory" ref="myPmfProxy"/>
</bean>

</beans>

The main advantage of this DAO style is that it depends on JDO API only; no
import of any Spring class is required. This is of course appealing from a non-
invasiveness perspective, and might feel more natural to JDO developers.

However, the DAO throws plain JDOException (which is unchecked, so does not

have to be declared or caught), which means that callers can only treat exceptions
as fatal, unless you want to depend on JDO's own exception structure. Catching
specific causes such as an optimistic locking failure is not possible without tying
the caller to the implementation strategy. This trade off might be acceptable to
applications that are strongly JDO-based and/or do not need any special exception
treatment.

In summary, you can DAOs based on the plain JDO API, and they can still
participate in Spring-managed transactions. This strategy might appeal to you if

493
you are already familiar with JDO. However, such DAOs throw plain JDOException,
and you would have to convert explicitly to Spring'sDataAccessException (if desired).

13.4.3 Transaction management
Note

You are strongly encouraged to read Section 10.5, “Declarative transaction

management” if you have not done so, to get a more detailed coverage of Spring's
declarative transaction support.

To execute service operations within transactions, you can use Spring's common
declarative transaction facilities. For example:

<?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"
xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-3.0.xsd">

<bean id="myTxManager"
class="org.springframework.orm.jdo.JdoTransactionManager">
<property name="persistenceManagerFactory" ref="myPmf"/>
</bean>

<bean id="myProductService" class="product.ProductServiceImpl">

<property name="productDao" ref="myProductDao"/>
</bean>

<tx:advice id="txAdvice" transaction-manager="txManager">

<tx:attributes>
<tx:method name="increasePrice*" propagation="REQUIRED"/>
<tx:method name="someOtherBusinessMethod" propagation="REQUIRES_NEW"/>
<tx:method name="*" propagation="SUPPORTS" read-only="true"/>
</tx:attributes>
</tx:advice>

<aop:config>
<aop:pointcut id="productServiceMethods"
expression="execution(* product.ProductService.*(..))"/>
<aop:advisor advice-ref="txAdvice" pointcut-ref="productServiceMethods"/>
</aop:config>

494
</beans>

JDO requires an active transaction to modify a persistent object. The non-

transactional flush concept does not exist in JDO, in contrast to Hibernate. For this
reason, you need to set up the chosen JDO implementation for a specific
environment. Specifically, you need to set it up explicitly for JTA synchronization,
to detect an active JTA transaction itself. This is not necessary for local
transactions as performed by Spring'sJdoTransactionManager, but it is necessary to
participate in JTA transactions, whether driven by Spring's JtaTransactionManager or
by EJB CMT and plain JTA.

JdoTransactionManager iscapable of exposing a JDO transaction to JDBC access

code that accesses the same JDBC DataSource, provided that the
registered JdoDialect supports retrieval of the underlying JDBC Connection. This is
the case for JDBC-based JDO 2.0 implementations by default.

13.4.4 JdoDialect

As an advanced feature, both JdoTemplate and JdoTransactionManager support a

custom JdoDialect that can be passed into the jdoDialectbean property. In this
scenario, the DAOs will not receive a PersistenceManagerFactory reference but
rather a full JdoTemplate instance (for example, passed into the jdoTemplate property
of JdoDaoSupport). Using a JdoDialect implementation, you can enable advanced
features supported by Spring, usually in a vendor-specific manner:

 Applying specific transaction semantics such as custom isolation level or

transaction timeout
 Retrieving the transactional JDBC Connection for exposure to JDBC-based
DAOs

 Applying query timeouts, which are automatically calculated from Spring-

managed transaction timeouts

 Eagerly flushing a PersistenceManager, to make transactional changes visible

to JDBC-based data access code

 Advanced translation of JDOExceptions to Spring DataAccessExceptions

See the JdoDialect Javadoc for more details on its operations and how to use them
within Spring's JDO support.

495
13.5 JPA

The Spring JPA, available under the org.springframework.orm.jpa package, offers

comprehensive support for the Java Persistence API in a similar manner to the
integration with Hibernate or JDO, while being aware of the underlying
implementation in order to provide additional features.

13.5.1 Three options for JPA setup in a Spring environment

The Spring JPA support offers three ways of setting up the

JPA EntityManagerFactory that will be used by the application to obtain an entity
manager.

13.5.1.1 LocalEntityManagerFactoryBean
Note

Only use this option in simple deployment environments such as stand-alone applications
and integration tests.

The LocalEntityManagerFactoryBean creates an EntityManagerFactory suitable for

simple deployment environments where the application uses only JPA for data
access. The factory bean uses the JPA PersistenceProvider autodetection
mechanism (according to JPA's Java SE bootstrapping) and, in most cases,
requires you to specify only the persistence unit name:

<beans>

<bean id="myEmf"
class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalEntityManagerFactoryBean">
<property name="persistenceUnitName" value="myPersistenceUnit"/>
</bean>

</beans>

This form of JPA deployment is the simplest and the most limited. You cannot refer
to an existing JDBC DataSource bean definition and no support for global
transactions exists. Furthermore, weaving (byte-code transformation) of persistent
classes is provider-specific, often requiring a specific JVM agent to specified on
startup. This option is sufficient only for stand-alone applications and test
environments, for which the JPA specification is designed.

13.5.1.2 Obtaining an EntityManagerFactory from JNDI

Note

496
 Use this option when deploying to a Java EE 5 server. Check your server's documentation
on how to deploy a custom JPA provider into your server, allowing for a different
provider than the server's default.

Obtaining an EntityManagerFactory from JNDI (for example in a Java EE 5

environment), is simply a matter of changing the XML configuration:

<beans>

<jee:jndi-lookup id="myEmf" jndi-name="persistence/myPersistenceUnit"/>

</beans>

This action assumes standard Java EE 5 bootstrapping: the Java EE server

autodetects persistence units (in effect, META-INF/persistence.xmlfiles in application
jars) and persistence-unit-ref entries in the Java EE deployment descriptor (for
example, web.xml) and defines environment naming context locations for those
persistence units.

In such a scenario, the entire persistence unit deployment, including the weaving
(byte-code transformation) of persistent classes, is up to the Java EE server. The
JDBC DataSource is defined through a JNDI location in the META-
INF/persistence.xml file; EntityManager transactions are integrated with the server's
JTA subsystem. Spring merely uses the obtained EntityManagerFactory, passing it
on to application objects through dependency injection, and managing transactions
for the persistence unit, typically through JtaTransactionManager.

If multiple persistence units are used in the same application, the bean names of
such JNDI-retrieved persistence units should match the persistence unit names
that the application uses to refer to them, for example,
in @PersistenceUnit and @PersistenceContext annotations.

13.5.1.3 LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean
Note

Use this option for full JPA capabilities in a Spring-based application environment. This
includes web containers such as Tomcat as well as stand-alone applications and
integration tests with sophisticated persistence requirements.

The LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean gives full control

over EntityManagerFactory configuration and is appropriate for environments where

497
fine-grained customization is required.
The LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean creates a PersistenceUnitInfo instance
based on the persistence.xml file, the supplied dataSourceLookup strategy, and the
specified loadTimeWeaver. It is thus possible to work with custom data sources
outside of JNDI and to control the weaving process. The following example shows
a typical bean definition for aLocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean:

<beans>

<bean id="myEmf"
class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean">
<property name="dataSource" ref="someDataSource"/>
<property name="loadTimeWeaver">
<bean
class="org.springframework.instrument.classloading.InstrumentationLoadTimeWeaver"/
>
</property>
</bean>

</beans>

The following example shows a typical persistence.xml file:

<persistence xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence" version="1.0">

<persistence-unit name="myUnit" transaction-type="RESOURCE_LOCAL">

<mapping-file>META-INF/orm.xml</mapping-file>
<exclude-unlisted-classes/>
</persistence-unit>

</persistence>

Note

The exclude-unlisted-classes element always indicates that no scanning for

annotated entity classes is supposed to occur, in order to support the <exclude-
unlisted-classes/> shortcut. This is in line with the JPA specification, which suggests
that shortcut, but unfortunately is in conflict with the JPA XSD, which implies false for
that shortcut. Consequently, <exclude-unlisted-classes> false </exclude-
unlisted-classes/> is not supported. Simply omit the exclude-unlisted-
classeselement if you want entity class scanning to occur.

Using the LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean is the most powerful JPA setup

option, allowing for flexible local configuration within the application. It supports
links to an existing JDBC DataSource, supports both local and global transactions,
and so on. However, it also imposes requirements on the runtime environment,

498
such as the availability of a weaving-capable class loader if the persistence
provider demands byte-code transformation.

This option may conflict with the built-in JPA capabilities of a Java EE 5 server. In
a full Java EE 5 environment, consider obtaining yourEntityManagerFactory from
JNDI. Alternatively, specify a custom persistenceXmlLocation on
your LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBeandefinition, for example, META-INF/my-
persistence.xml, and only include a descriptor with that name in your application
jar files. Because the Java EE 5 server only looks for default META-
INF/persistence.xml files, it ignores such custom persistence units and hence avoid
conflicts with a Spring-driven JPA setup upfront. (This applies to Resin 3.1, for
example.)
When is load-time weaving required?

Not all JPA providers require a JVM agent ; Hibernate is an example of one that does not. If your provider
does not require an agent or you have other alternatives, such as applying enhancements at build time
through a custom compiler or an ant task, the load-time weaver should not be used.

The LoadTimeWeaver interface is a Spring-provided class that allows

JPAClassTransformer instances to be plugged in a specific manner, depending
whether the environment is a web container or application server.
Hooking ClassTransformersthrough a Java 5 agent typically is not efficient. The
agents work against the entire virtual machine and inspect every class that is
loaded, which is usually undesirable in a production server environment.

Spring provides a number of LoadTimeWeaver implementations for various

environments, allowing ClassTransformer instances to be applied only per class
loader and not per VM.

Refer to Section 7.8.4.5, “Spring configuration” in the AOP chapter for more insight
regarding the LoadTimeWeaver implementations and their setup, either generic or
customized to various platforms (such as Tomcat, WebLogic, OC4J, GlassFish,
Resin and JBoss).

As described in the aforementioned section, you can configure a context-

wide LoadTimeWeaver using the context:load-time-weaver configuration element. (This
has been available since Spring 2.5.) Such a global weaver is picked up by all
JPA LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBeansautomatically. This is the preferred
way of setting up a load-time weaver, delivering autodetection of the platform
(WebLogic, OC4J, GlassFish, Tomcat, Resin, JBoss or VM agent) and automatic
propagation of the weaver to all weaver-aware beans:

499
<context:load-time-weaver/>
<bean id="emf"
class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean">
...
</bean>

However, if needed, one can manually specify a dedicated weaver through

the loadTimeWeaver property:

<bean id="emf"
class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean">
<property name="loadTimeWeaver">
<bean
class="org.springframework.instrument.classloading.ReflectiveLoadTimeWeaver"/>
</property>
</bean>

No matter how the LTW is configured, using this technique, JPA applications
relying on instrumentation can run in the target platform (ex: Tomcat) without
needing an agent. This is important especially when the hosting applications rely
on different JPA implementations because the JPA transformers are applied only
at class loader level and thus are isolated from each other.

13.5.1.4 Dealing with multiple persistence units

For applications that rely on multiple persistence units locations, stored in various
JARS in the classpath, for example, Spring offers thePersistenceUnitManager to act
as a central repository and to avoid the persistence units discovery process, which
can be expensive. The default implementation allows multiple locations to be
specified that are parsed and later retrieved through the persistence unit name.
(By default, the classpath is searched for META-INF/persistence.xml files.)

<bean id="pum"
class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.persistenceunit.DefaultPersistenceUnitManager">
<property name="persistenceXmlLocations">
<list>
<value>org/springframework/orm/jpa/domain/persistence-multi.xml</value>
<value>classpath:/my/package/**/custom-persistence.xml</value>
<value>classpath*:META-INF/persistence.xml</value>
</list>
</property>
<property name="dataSources">
<map>
<entry key="localDataSource" value-ref="local-db"/>
<entry key="remoteDataSource" value-ref="remote-db"/>
</map>

500
 </property>
<!-- if no datasource is specified, use this one -->
<property name="defaultDataSource" ref="remoteDataSource"/>
</bean>

<bean id="emf"
class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean">
<property name="persistenceUnitManager" ref="pum"/>
<property name="persistenceUnitName" value="myCustomUnit"/>
</bean>

The default implementation allows customization of

the PersistenceUnitInfo instances, before they are fed to the JPA provider,
declaratively through its properties, which affect all hosted units, or
programmatically, through the PersistenceUnitPostProcessor, which allows
persistence unit selection. If no PersistenceUnitManager is specified, one is created
and used internally by LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.

13.5.2 Implementing DAOs based on plain JPA

Note

Although EntityManagerFactory instances are thread-safe, EntityManager instances

are not. The injected JPA EntityManagerbehaves like an EntityManager fetched from
an application server's JNDI environment, as defined by the JPA specification. It
delegates all calls to the current transactional EntityManager, if any; otherwise, it falls
back to a newly created EntityManagerper operation, in effect making its usage thread-
safe.

It is possible to write code against the plain JPA without any Spring dependencies,
by using an injected EntityManagerFactory or EntityManager. Spring can
understand @PersistenceUnit and @PersistenceContext annotations both at field and
method level if aPersistenceAnnotationBeanPostProcessor is enabled. A plain JPA
DAO implementation using the @PersistenceUnit annotation might look like this:

public class ProductDaoImpl implements ProductDao {

private EntityManagerFactory emf;

@PersistenceUnit
public void setEntityManagerFactory(EntityManagerFactory emf) {
this.emf = emf;
}

public Collection loadProductsByCategory(String category) {

EntityManager em = this.emf.createEntityManager();
try {

501
 Query query = em.createQuery("from Product as p where p.category = ?
1");
query.setParameter(1, category);
return query.getResultList();
}
finally {
if (em != null) {
em.close();
}
}
}
}

The DAO above has no dependency on Spring and still fits nicely into a Spring
application context. Moreover, the DAO takes advantage of annotations to require
the injection of the default EntityManagerFactory:

<beans>

<!-- bean post-processor for JPA annotations -->

<bean
class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.support.PersistenceAnnotationBeanPostProcessor"
/>

<bean id="myProductDao" class="product.ProductDaoImpl"/>

</beans>

As an alternative to defining a PersistenceAnnotationBeanPostProcessor explicitly,

consider using the Spring context:annotation-config XML element in your
application context configuration. Doing so automatically registers all Spring
standard post-processors for annotation-based configuration,
including CommonAnnotationBeanPostProcessor and so on.

<beans>

<!-- post-processors for all standard config annotations -->

<context:annotation-config/>

<bean id="myProductDao" class="product.ProductDaoImpl"/>

</beans>

The main problem with such a DAO is that it always creates a

new EntityManager through the factory. You can avoid this by requesting a
transactional EntityManager (also called "shared EntityManager" because it is a

502
shared, thread-safe proxy for the actual transactional EntityManager) to be
injected instead of the factory:

public class ProductDaoImpl implements ProductDao {

@PersistenceContext
private EntityManager em;

public Collection loadProductsByCategory(String category) {

Query query = em.createQuery("from Product as p where p.category =
:category");
query.setParameter("category", category);
return query.getResultList();
}
}

The @PersistenceContext annotation has an optional attribute type, which defaults

to PersistenceContextType.TRANSACTION. This default is what you need to receive a
shared EntityManager proxy. The alternative, PersistenceContextType.EXTENDED, is a
completely different affair: This results in a so-called extended EntityManager,
which is not thread-safe and hence must not be used in a concurrently accessed
component such as a Spring-managed singleton bean. Extended EntityManagers
are only supposed to be used in stateful components that, for example, reside in a
session, with the lifecycle of the EntityManager not tied to a current transaction but
rather being completely up to the application.
Method- and field-level Injection

Annotations that indicate dependency injections (such

as @PersistenceUnit and@PersistenceContext) can be applied on field or methods inside a class,
hence the expressionsmethod-level injection and field-level injection. Field-level annotations are concise
and easier to use while method-level allows for further processing of the injected dependency. In both
cases the member visibility (public, protected, private) does not matter.

What about class-level annotations?

On the Java EE 5 platform, they are used for dependency declaration and not for resource injection.

The injected EntityManager is Spring-managed (aware of the ongoing transaction).

It is important to note that even though the new DAO implementation uses method
level injection of an EntityManager instead of an EntityManagerFactory, no change is
required in the application context XML due to annotation usage.

The main advantage of this DAO style is that it only depends on Java Persistence
API; no import of any Spring class is required. Moreover, as the JPA annotations
are understood, the injections are applied automatically by the Spring container.

503
This is appealing from a non-invasiveness perspective, and might feel more
natural to JPA developers.

13.5.3 Transaction Management
Note

You are strongly encouraged to read Section 10.5, “Declarative transaction

management” if you have not done so, to get a more detailed coverage of Spring's
declarative transaction support.

To execute service operations within transactions, you can use Spring's common
declarative transaction facilities. For example:

<?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"
xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-3.0.xsd">

<bean id="myTxManager"
class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.JpaTransactionManager">
<property name="entityManagerFactory" ref="myEmf"/>
</bean>

<bean id="myProductService" class="product.ProductServiceImpl">

<property name="productDao" ref="myProductDao"/>
</bean>

<aop:config>
<aop:pointcut id="productServiceMethods" expression="execution(*
product.ProductService.*(..))"/>
<aop:advisor advice-ref="txAdvice" pointcut-ref="productServiceMethods"/>
</aop:config>

<tx:advice id="txAdvice" transaction-manager="myTxManager">

<tx:attributes>
<tx:method name="increasePrice*" propagation="REQUIRED"/>
<tx:method name="someOtherBusinessMethod" propagation="REQUIRES_NEW"/>
<tx:method name="*" propagation="SUPPORTS" read-only="true"/>
</tx:attributes>
</tx:advice>

</beans>

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Spring JPA allows a configured JpaTransactionManager to expose a JPA transaction
to JDBC access code that accesses the same JDBC DataSource, provided that the
registered JpaDialect supports retrieval of the underlying JDBC Connection. Out of
the box, Spring provides dialects for the Toplink, Hibernate and OpenJPA JPA
implementations. See the next section for details on the JpaDialect mechanism.

13.5.4 JpaDialect

As an advanced feature JpaTemplate, JpaTransactionManager and subclasses

of AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean support a customJpaDialect, to be passed into
the jpaDialect bean property. In such a scenario, the DAOs do not receive
an EntityManagerFactory reference but rather a full JpaTemplate instance (for
example, passed into the jpaTemplate property of JpaDaoSupport).
A JpaDialect implementation can enable some advanced features supported by
Spring, usually in a vendor-specific manner:

 Applying specific transaction semantics such as custom isolation level or

transaction timeout)
 Retrieving the transactional JDBC Connection for exposure to JDBC-based
DAOs)

 Advanced translation of PersistenceExceptions to Spring DataAccessExceptions

This is particularly valuable for special transaction semantics and for advanced
translation of exception. The default implementation used ( DefaultJpaDialect) does
not provide any special capabilities and if the above features are required, you
have to specify the appropriate dialect.

See the JpaDialect Javadoc for more details of its operations and how they are
used within Spring's JPA support.

13.6 iBATIS SQL Maps

The iBATIS support in the Spring Framework much resembles the JDBC support
in that it supports the same template style programming, and as with JDBC and
other ORM technologies, the iBATIS support works with Spring's exception
hierarchy and lets you enjoy Spring's IoC features.

Transaction management can be handled through Spring's standard facilities. No

special transaction strategies are necessary for iBATIS, because no special
transactional resource involved other than a JDBC Connection. Hence, Spring's

505
standard JDBC DataSourceTransactionManager orJtaTransactionManager are
perfectly sufficient.

Note

Spring supports iBATIS 2.x. The iBATIS 1.x support classes are no longer provided.

13.6.1 Setting up the SqlMapClient

Using iBATIS SQL Maps involves creating SqlMap configuration files containing
statements and result maps. Spring takes care of loading those using
the SqlMapClientFactoryBean. For the examples we will be using the
following Account class:

public class Account {

private String name;

private String email;

public String getName() {

return this.name;
}

public void setName(String name) {

this.name = name;
}

public String getEmail() {

return this.email;
}

public void setEmail(String email) {

this.email = email;
}
}

To map this Account class with iBATIS 2.x we need to create the following SQL
map Account.xml:

<sqlMap namespace="Account">

<resultMap id="result" class="examples.Account">

<result property="name" column="NAME" columnIndex="1"/>
<result property="email" column="EMAIL" columnIndex="2"/>
</resultMap>

<select id="getAccountByEmail" resultMap="result">

select ACCOUNT.NAME, ACCOUNT.EMAIL

506
 from ACCOUNT
where ACCOUNT.EMAIL = #value#
</select>

<insert id="insertAccount">
insert into ACCOUNT (NAME, EMAIL) values (#name#, #email#)
</insert>

</sqlMap>

The configuration file for iBATIS 2 looks like this:

<sqlMapConfig>

<sqlMap resource="example/Account.xml"/>

</sqlMapConfig>

Remember that iBATIS loads resources from the class path, so be sure to add
theAccount.xml file to the class path.

We can use the SqlMapClientFactoryBean in the Spring container. Note that with

iBATIS SQL Maps 2.x, the JDBC DataSource is usually specified on
the SqlMapClientFactoryBean, which enables lazy loading. This is the configuration
needed for these bean definitions:

<beans>

<bean id="dataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" destroy-

method="close">
<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>

<bean id="sqlMapClient"
class="org.springframework.orm.ibatis.SqlMapClientFactoryBean">
<property name="configLocation" value="WEB-INF/sqlmap-config.xml"/>
<property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>
</bean>

</beans>

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13.6.2 Using SqlMapClientTemplate and SqlMapClientDaoSupport

The SqlMapClientDaoSupport class offers a supporting class similar to

the SqlMapDaoSupport. We extend it to implement our DAO:

public class SqlMapAccountDao extends SqlMapClientDaoSupport implements AccountDao

{

public Account getAccount(String email) throws DataAccessException {

return (Account)
getSqlMapClientTemplate().queryForObject("getAccountByEmail", email);
}

public void insertAccount(Account account) throws DataAccessException {

getSqlMapClientTemplate().update("insertAccount", account);
}
}

In the DAO, we use the pre-configured SqlMapClientTemplate to execute the queries,

after setting up the SqlMapAccountDao in the application context and wiring it with
our SqlMapClient instance:

<beans>

<bean id="accountDao" class="example.SqlMapAccountDao">

<property name="sqlMapClient" ref="sqlMapClient"/>
</bean>

</beans>

An SqlMapTemplate instance can also be created manually, passing in

the SqlMapClient as constructor argument. The SqlMapClientDaoSupportbase class
simply preinitializes a SqlMapClientTemplate instance for us.

The SqlMapClientTemplate offers a generic execute method, taking a

custom SqlMapClientCallback implementation as argument. This can, for example,
be used for batching:

public class SqlMapAccountDao extends SqlMapClientDaoSupport implements AccountDao

{

public void insertAccount(Account account) throws DataAccessException {

getSqlMapClientTemplate().execute(new SqlMapClientCallback() {
public Object doInSqlMapClient(SqlMapExecutor executor) throws
SQLException {
executor.startBatch();

508
 executor.update("insertAccount", account);
executor.update("insertAddress", account.getAddress());
executor.executeBatch();
}
});
}
}

In general, any combination of operations offered by the native SqlMapExecutor API

can be used in such a callback. Any thrown SQLException is converted automatically
to Spring's generic DataAccessException hierarchy.

13.6.3 Implementing DAOs based on plain iBATIS API

DAOs can also be written against plain iBATIS API, without any Spring
dependencies, directly using an injected SqlMapClient. The following example
shows a corresponding DAO implementation:

public class SqlMapAccountDao implements AccountDao {

private SqlMapClient sqlMapClient;

public void setSqlMapClient(SqlMapClient sqlMapClient) {

this.sqlMapClient = sqlMapClient;
}

public Account getAccount(String email) {

try {
return (Account) this.sqlMapClient.queryForObject("getAccountByEmail",
email);
}
catch (SQLException ex) {
throw new MyDaoException(ex);
}
}

public void insertAccount(Account account) throws DataAccessException {

try {
this.sqlMapClient.update("insertAccount", account);
}
catch (SQLException ex) {
throw new MyDaoException(ex);
}
}
}

In this scenario, you need to handle the SQLException thrown by the iBATIS API in a

custom fashion, usually by wrapping it in your own application-specific DAO
exception. Wiring in the application context would still look like it does in the

509
example for the SqlMapClientDaoSupport, due to the fact that the plain iBATIS-based
DAO still follows the dependency injection pattern:

<beans>

<bean id="accountDao" class="example.SqlMapAccountDao">

<property name="sqlMapClient" ref="sqlMapClient"/>
</bean>

</beans>

14. Marshalling XML using O/X Mappers

14.1 Introduction

In this chapter, we will describe Spring's Object/XML Mapping support.

Object/XML Mapping, or O/X mapping for short, is the act of converting an XML
document to and from an object. This conversion process is also known as XML
Marshalling, or XML Serialization. This chapter uses these terms interchangeably.

Within the field of O/X mapping, a marshaller is responsible for serializing an

object (graph) to XML. In similar fashion, an unmarshallerdeserializes the XML to
an object graph. This XML can take the form of a DOM document, an input or
output stream, or a SAX handler.

Some of the benefits of using Spring for your O/X mapping needs are:

Ease of configuration.  Spring's bean factory makes it easy to configure

marshallers, without needing to construct JAXB context, JiBX binding factories,
etc. The marshallers can be configured as any other bean in your application
context. Additionally, XML Schema-based configuration is available for a number
of marshallers, making the configuration even simpler.

Consistent Interfaces.  Spring's O/X mapping operates through two global

interfaces: the Marshaller and Unmarshaller interface. These abstractions allow you
to switch O/X mapping frameworks with relative ease, with little or no changes
required on the classes that do the marshalling. This approach has the additional
benefit of making it possible to do XML marshalling with a mix-and-match
approach (e.g. some marshalling performed using JAXB, other using XMLBeans)
in a non-intrusive fashion, leveraging the strength of each technology.

Consistent Exception Hierarchy.  Spring provides a conversion from exceptions

from the underlying O/X mapping tool to its own exception hierarchy with

510
the XmlMappingException as the root exception. As can be expected, these runtime
exceptions wrap the original exception so no information is lost.

14.2 Marshaller and Unmarshaller

As stated in the introduction, a marshaller serializes an object to XML, and

an unmarshaller deserializes XML stream to an object. In this section, we will
describe the two Spring interfaces used for this purpose.

14.2.1 Marshaller

Spring abstracts all marshalling operations behind

the org.springframework.oxm.Marshaller interface, the main methods of which is
listed below.

public interface Marshaller {

/**
* Marshals the object graph with the given root into the provided Result.
*/
void marshal(Object graph, Result result)
throws XmlMappingException, IOException;
}

The Marshaller interface has one main method, which marshals the given object to
a given javax.xml.transform.Result. Result is a tagging interface that basically represents an
XML output abstraction: concrete implementations wrap various XML representations, as indicated in
the table below.

Result implementation Wraps XML representation

DOMResult org.w3c.dom.Node
SAXResult org.xml.sax.ContentHandler
StreamResult java.io.File, java.io.OutputStream, or java.io.Writer
Note

Although the marshal() method accepts a plain object as its first parameter,

most Marshaller implementations cannot handle arbitrary objects. Instead, an object class must
be mapped in a mapping file, marked with an annotation, registered with the marshaller, or have a
common base class. Refer to the further sections in this chapter to determine how your O/X
technology of choice manages this.

511
14.2.2 Unmarshaller

Similar to the Marshaller, there is

the org.springframework.oxm.Unmarshaller interface.

public interface Unmarshaller {

/**
* Unmarshals the given provided Source into an object graph.
*/
Object unmarshal(Source source)
throws XmlMappingException, IOException;
}

This interface also has one method, which reads from the
given javax.xml.transform.Source (an XML input abstraction), and returns the object read. As
with Result, Source is a tagging interface that has three concrete implementations. Each wraps a
different XML representation, as indicated in the table below.

Source implementation Wraps XML representation

DOMSource org.w3c.dom.Node
SAXSource org.xml.sax.InputSource, and org.xml.sax.XMLReader
StreamSource java.io.File, java.io.InputStream, or java.io.Reader

Even though there are two separate marshalling interfaces

(Marshaller and Unmarshaller), all implementations found in Spring-WS implement
both in one class. This means that you can wire up one marshaller class and refer
to it both as a marshaller and an unmarshaller in yourapplicationContext.xml.

14.2.3 XmlMappingException

Spring converts exceptions from the underlying O/X mapping tool to its own
exception hierarchy with the XmlMappingException as the root exception. As can be
expected, these runtime exceptions wrap the original exception so no information
will be lost.

Additionally,
the MarshallingFailureException and UnmarshallingFailureException provide a
distinction between marshalling and unmarshalling operations, even though the
underlying O/X mapping tool does not do so.

The O/X Mapping exception hierarchy is shown in the following figure:

512
O/X Mapping exception hierarchy

14.3 Using Marshaller and Unmarshaller

Spring's OXM can be used for a wide variety of situations. In the following
example, we will use it to marshal the settings of a Spring-managed application as
an XML file. We will use a simple JavaBean to represent the settings:

public class Settings {

private boolean fooEnabled;

public boolean isFooEnabled() {

return fooEnabled;
}

public void setFooEnabled(boolean fooEnabled) {

this.fooEnabled = fooEnabled;
}
}

The application class uses this bean to store its settings. Besides a main method,
the class has two methods: saveSettings() saves the settings bean to a file
named settings.xml, and loadSettings() loads these settings again.
A main() method constructs a Spring application context, and calls these two
methods.

import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamSource;

import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.oxm.Marshaller;

513
import org.springframework.oxm.Unmarshaller;

public class Application {

private static final String FILE_NAME = "settings.xml";
private Settings settings = new Settings();
private Marshaller marshaller;
private Unmarshaller unmarshaller;

public void setMarshaller(Marshaller marshaller) {

this.marshaller = marshaller;
}

public void setUnmarshaller(Unmarshaller unmarshaller) {

this.unmarshaller = unmarshaller;
}

public void saveSettings() throws IOException {

FileOutputStream os = null;
try {
os = new FileOutputStream(FILE_NAME);
this.marshaller.marshal(settings, new StreamResult(os));
} finally {
if (os != null) {
os.close();
}
}
}

public void loadSettings() throws IOException {

FileInputStream is = null;
try {
is = new FileInputStream(FILE_NAME);
this.settings = (Settings) this.unmarshaller.unmarshal(new
StreamSource(is));
} finally {
if (is != null) {
is.close();
}
}
}

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

ApplicationContext appContext =
new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("applicationContext.xml");
Application application = (Application) appContext.getBean("application");
application.saveSettings();
application.loadSettings();
}
}

The Application requires both a marshaller and unmarshaller property to be set.

We can do so using the following applicationContext.xml:

514
<beans>
<bean id="application" class="Application">
<property name="marshaller" ref="castorMarshaller" />
<property name="unmarshaller" ref="castorMarshaller" />
</bean>
<bean id="castorMarshaller"
class="org.springframework.oxm.castor.CastorMarshaller"/>
</beans>

This application context uses Castor, but we could have used any of the other
marshaller instances described later in this chapter. Note that Castor does not
require any further configuration by default, so the bean definition is rather simple.
Also note that the CastorMarshaller implements bothMarshaller and Unmarshaller, so
we can refer to the castorMarshaller bean in both
the marshaller and unmarshaller property of the application.

This sample application produces the following settings.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<settings foo-enabled="false"/>

14.4 XML Schema-based Configuration

Marshallers could be configured more concisely using tags from the OXM
namespace. To make these tags available, the appropriate schema has to be
referenced first in the preamble of the XML configuration file. The emboldened text
in the below snippet references the OXM schema:

<?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:oxm="http://www.springframework.org/schema/oxm"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/oxm
http://www.springframework.org/schema/oxm/spring-oxm-3.0.xsd">

Currently, the following tags are available:

 jaxb2-marshaller
 xmlbeans-marshaller

 jibx-marshaller

515
Each tag will be explained in its respective marshaller's section. As an example
though, here is how the configuration of a JAXB2 marshaller might look like:

<oxm:jaxb2-marshaller id="marshaller"
contextPath="org.springframework.ws.samples.airline.schema"/>

14.5 JAXB

The JAXB binding compiler translates a W3C XML Schema into one or more Java
classes, a jaxb.properties file, and possibly some resource files. JAXB also offers
a way to generate a schema from annotated Java classes.

Spring supports the JAXB 2.0 API as XML marshalling strategies, following
the Marshaller and Unmarshaller interfaces described inSection 14.2, “Marshaller
and Unmarshaller”. The corresponding integration classes reside in
the org.springframework.oxm.jaxb package.

14.5.1 Jaxb2Marshaller

The Jaxb2Marshaller class implements both the

Spring Marshaller and Unmarshallerinterface. It requires a context path to operate,
which you can set using the contextPath property. The context path is a list of
colon (:) separated Java package names that contain schema derived classes. It
also offers a classesToBeBound property, which allows you to set an array of
classes to be supported by the marshaller. Schema validation is performed by
specifying one or more schema resource to the bean, like so:

<beans>

<bean id="jaxb2Marshaller"
class="org.springframework.oxm.jaxb.Jaxb2Marshaller">
<property name="classesToBeBound">
<list>
<value>org.springframework.oxm.jaxb.Flight</value>
<value>org.springframework.oxm.jaxb.Flights</value>
</list>
</property>
<property name="schema"
value="classpath:org/springframework/oxm/schema.xsd"/>
</bean>
...

</beans>

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14.5.1.1 XML Schema-based Configuration

The jaxb2-marshaller tag configures a org.springframework.oxm.jaxb.Jaxb2Marshaller.

Here is an example:

<oxm:jaxb2-marshaller id="marshaller"
contextPath="org.springframework.ws.samples.airline.schema"/>

Alternatively, the list of classes to bind can be provided to the marshaller via
the class-to-be-bound child tag:

<oxm:jaxb2-marshaller id="marshaller">
<oxm:class-to-be-bound
name="org.springframework.ws.samples.airline.schema.Airport"/>
<oxm:class-to-be-bound
name="org.springframework.ws.samples.airline.schema.Flight"/>
...
</oxm:jaxb2-marshaller>

Available attributes are:

Attribute Description Required

id the id of the marshaller no
contextPath the JAXB Context path no

14.6 Castor

Castor XML mapping is an open source XML binding framework. It allows you to
transform the data contained in a java object model into/from an XML document.
By default, it does not require any further configuration, though a mapping file can
be used to have more control over the behavior of Castor.

For more information on Castor, refer to the Castor web site. The Spring
integration classes reside in the org.springframework.oxm.castorpackage.

14.6.1 CastorMarshaller

As with JAXB, the CastorMarshaller implements both

the Marshaller and Unmarshaller interface. It can be wired up as follows:

<beans>

517
 <bean id="castorMarshaller"
class="org.springframework.oxm.castor.CastorMarshaller" />
...

</beans>

14.6.2 Mapping

Although it is possible to rely on Castor's default marshalling behavior, it might be

necessary to have more control over it. This can be accomplished using a Castor
mapping file. For more information, refer to Castor XML Mapping.

The mapping can be set using the mappingLocation resource property, indicated

below with a classpath resource.

<beans>
<bean id="castorMarshaller"
class="org.springframework.oxm.castor.CastorMarshaller" >
<property name="mappingLocation" value="classpath:mapping.xml" />
</bean>
</beans>

14.7 XMLBeans

XMLBeans is an XML binding tool that has full XML Schema support, and offers
full XML Infoset fidelity. It takes a different approach to that of most other O/X
mapping frameworks, in that all classes that are generated from an XML Schema
are all derived from XmlObject, and contain XML binding information in them.

For more information on XMLBeans, refer to the XMLBeans web site  . The Spring-
WS integration classes reside in theorg.springframework.oxm.xmlbeans package.

14.7.1 XmlBeansMarshaller

The XmlBeansMarshaller implements both the Marshaller and Unmarshaller interfaces. It

can be configured as follows:

<beans>

<bean id="xmlBeansMarshaller" class="org.springframework.oxm.xmlbeans.XmlBeansMarshaller"

/>
...

518
</beans>

Note

Note that the XmlBeansMarshaller can only marshal objects of type XmlObject, and not

every java.lang.Object.

14.7.1.1 XML Schema-based Configuration

The xmlbeans-marshaller tag configures
a org.springframework.oxm.xmlbeans.XmlBeansMarshaller. Here is an example:

<oxm:xmlbeans-marshaller id="marshaller"/>

Available attributes are:

Attribute Description Required

id the id of the marshaller no
the bean name of the XmlOptions that is to be used for this marshaller. Typically
options no
a XmlOptionsFactoryBean definition

14.8 JiBX

The JiBX framework offers a solution similar to that which JDO provides for ORM:
a binding definition defines the rules for how your Java objects are converted to or
from XML. After preparing the binding and compiling the classes, a JiBX binding
compiler enhances the class files, and adds code to handle converting instances
of the classes from or to XML.

For more information on JiBX, refer to the JiBX web site. The Spring integration
classes reside in the org.springframework.oxm.jibx package.

14.8.1 JibxMarshaller

The JibxMarshaller class implements both the Marshaller and Unmarshaller interface. To

operate, it requires the name of the class to marshal in, which you can set using
the targetClass property. Optionally, you can set the binding name using
the bindingName property. In the next sample, we bind the Flights class:

<beans>

519
 <bean id="jibxFlightsMarshaller" class="org.springframework.oxm.jibx.JibxMarshaller">
<property name="targetClass">org.springframework.oxm.jibx.Flights</property>
</bean>

...

A JibxMarshaller is configured for a single class. If you want to marshal multiple

classes, you have to configure multiple JibxMarshallers with
different targetClass property values.

14.8.1.1 XML Schema-based Configuration

The jibx-marshaller tag configures a org.springframework.oxm.jibx.JibxMarshaller. Here is

an example:

<oxm:jibx-marshaller id="marshaller" target-

class="org.springframework.ws.samples.airline.schema.Flight"/>

Available attributes are:

Attribute Description Required

id the id of the marshaller no
target-class the target class for this marshaller yes
bindingName the binding name used by this marshaller no

14.9 XStream

XStream is a simple library to serialize objects to XML and back again. It does not
require any mapping, and generates clean XML.

For more information on XStream, refer to the XStream web site. The Spring
integration classes reside in the org.springframework.oxm.xstreampackage.

14.9.1 XStreamMarshaller

The XStreamMarshaller does not require any configuration, and can be configured in

an application context directly. To further customize the XML, you can set an alias
map, which consists of string aliases mapped to classes:

520
<beans>

<bean id="xstreamMarshaller" class="org.springframework.oxm.xstream.XStreamMarshaller">

<property name="aliases">
<props>
<prop key="Flight">org.springframework.oxm.xstream.Flight</prop>
</props>
</property>
</bean>
...

</beans>

Warning
By default, XStream allows for arbitrary classes to be unmarshalled, which can result in
security vulnerabilities. As such, it is recommended to set the supportedClasses property on
the XStreamMarshaller, like so:

<bean id="xstreamMarshaller"
class="org.springframework.oxm.xstream.XStreamMarshaller">
<property name="supportedClasses"
value="org.springframework.oxm.xstream.Flight"/>
...
</bean>

This will make sure that only the registered classes are eligible for unmarshalling.

Additionally, you can register custom converters to make sure that only your supported
classes can be unmarshalled.
Note

Note that XStream is an XML serialization library, not a data binding library. Therefore, it has
limited namespace support. As such, it is rather unsuitable for usage within Web services.

Part V. The Web
This part of the reference documentation covers the Spring Framework's support
for the presentation tier (and specifically web-based presentation tiers).

The Spring Framework's own web framework, Spring Web MVC, is covered in the
first couple of chapters. A number of the remaining chapters in this part of the
reference documentation are concerned with the Spring Framework's integration
with other web technologies, such as Struts andJSF (to name but two).

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This section concludes with coverage of Spring's MVC portlet framework.

 Chapter 15, Web MVC framework

 Chapter 16, View technologies

 Chapter 17, Integrating with other web frameworks

 Chapter 18, Portlet MVC Framework

15. Web MVC framework

15.1 Introduction to Spring Web MVC framework

The Spring Web model-view-controller (MVC) framework is designed around

a DispatcherServlet that dispatches requests to handlers, with configurable handler
mappings, view resolution, locale and theme resolution as well as support for
uploading files. The default handler is based on
the @Controller and @RequestMapping annotations, offering a wide range of flexible
handling methods. With the introduction of Spring 3.0, the @Controller mechanism
also allows you to create RESTful Web sites and applications, through
the @PathVariable annotation and other features.
“Open for extension...”

A key design principle in Spring Web MVC and in Spring in general is the “ Open for extension, closed for
modification” principle.

Some methods in the core classes of Spring Web MVC are marked final. As a developer you cannot
override these methods to supply your own behavior. This has not been done arbitrarily, but specifically
with this principal in mind.

For an explanation of this principle, refer to Expert Spring Web MVC and Web Flow by Seth Ladd and
others; specifically see the section "A Look At Design," on page 117 of the first edition. Alternatively, see

 Bob Martin, The Open-Closed Principle (PDF)

You cannot add advice to final methods when you use Spring MVC. For example, you cannot add advice
to theAbstractController.setSynchronizeOnSession()method. Refer to Section 7.6.1, “Understanding
AOP proxies” for more information on AOP proxies and why you cannot add advice to final methods.

In Spring Web MVC you can use any object as a command or form-backing object;
you do not need to implement a framework-specific interface or base class.
Spring's data binding is highly flexible: for example, it treats type mismatches as
validation errors that can be evaluated by the application, not as system errors.
Thus you need not duplicate your business objects' properties as simple, untyped

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strings in your form objects simply to handle invalid submissions, or to convert the
Strings properly. Instead, it is often preferable to bind directly to your business
objects.

Spring's view resolution is extremely flexible. A Controller implementation can even

write directly to the response stream. Typically, a ModelAndView instance consists
of a view name and a model Map, which contains bean names and corresponding
objects such as a command or form, which contain reference data. View name
resolution is highly configurable, through bean names, a properties file, or your
own ViewResolverimplementation. The model (the M in MVC) is based on
the Map interface, which allows for the complete abstraction of the view technology.
You can integrate directly JSP, Velocity, or any other rendering technology. The
model Map is simply transformed into an appropriate format, such as JSP request
attributes or a Velocity template model.

15.1.1 Features of Spring Web MVC

Spring Web Flow

Spring Web Flow (SWF) aims to be the best solution for the management of web application page flow.

SWF integrates with existing frameworks like Spring MVC, Struts, and JSF, in both servlet and portlet
environments. If you have a business process (or processes) that would benefit from a conversational
model as opposed to a purely request model, then SWF may be the solution.

SWF allows you to capture logical page flows as self-contained modules that are reusable in different
situations, and as such is ideal for building web application modules that guide the user through controlled
navigations that drive business processes.

For more information about SWF, consult the Spring Web Flow website.

Spring's web module includes many unique web support features:

 Clear separation of roles. Each role -- controller, validator, command object,

form object, model object,DispatcherServlet, handler mapping, view resolver,
and so on -- can be fulfilled by a specialized object.
 Powerful and straightforward configuration of both framework and
application classes as JavaBeans. This configuration capability includes
easy referencing across contexts, such as from web controllers to business
objects and validators.

 Adaptability, non-intrusiveness, and flexibility. Define any controller method

signature you need, possibly using one of the parameter annotations (such
as @RequestParam, @RequestHeader, @PathVariable, and more) for a
given scenario.

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  Reusable business code, no need for duplication. Use existing business
objects as command or form objects instead of mirroring them to extend a
particular framework base class.

 Customizable binding and validation. Type mismatches as application-level

validation errors that keep the offending value, localized date and number
binding, and so on instead of String-only form objects with manual parsing
and conversion to business objects.

 Customizable handler mapping and view resolution. Handler mapping and

view resolution strategies range from simple URL-based configuration, to
sophisticated, purpose-built resolution strategies. Spring is more flexible
than web MVC frameworks that mandate a particular technique.

 Flexible model transfer. Model transfer with a name/value Map supports easy

integration with any view technology.

 Customizable locale and theme resolution, support for JSPs with or without
Spring tag library, support for JSTL, support for Velocity without the need for
extra bridges, and so on.

 A simple yet powerful JSP tag library known as the Spring tag library that
provides support for features such as data binding and themes. The custom
tags allow for maximum flexibility in terms of markup code. For information
on the tag library descriptor, see the appendix entitledAppendix F, spring.tld

 A JSP form tag library, introduced in Spring 2.0, that makes writing forms in
JSP pages much easier. For information on the tag library descriptor, see
the appendix entitled Appendix G, spring-form.tld

 Beans whose lifecycle is scoped to the current HTTP request or

HTTP  Session. This is not a specific feature of Spring MVC itself, but rather of
the WebApplicationContext container(s) that Spring MVC uses. These bean
scopes are described in Section 3.5.4, “Request, session, and global
session scopes”

15.1.2 Pluggability of other MVC implementations

Non-Spring MVC implementations are preferable for some projects. Many teams
expect to leverage their existing investment in skills and tools. A large body of
knowledge and experience exist for the Struts framework. If you can abide Struts'

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architectural flaws, it can be a viable choice for the web layer; the same applies to
WebWork and other web MVC frameworks.

If you do not want to use Spring's web MVC, but intend to leverage other solutions
that Spring offers, you can integrate the web MVC framework of your choice with
Spring easily. Simply start up a Spring root application context through
its ContextLoaderListener, and access it through itsServletContext attribute (or Spring's
respective helper method) from within a Struts or WebWork action. No "plug-ins"
are involved, so no dedicated integration is necessary. From the web layer's point
of view, you simply use Spring as a library, with the root application context
instance as the entry point.

Your registered beans and Spring's services can be at your fingertips even without
Spring's Web MVC. Spring does not compete with Struts or WebWork in this
scenario. It simply addresses the many areas that the pure web MVC frameworks
do not, from bean configuration to data access and transaction handling. So you
can enrich your application with a Spring middle tier and/or data access tier, even
if you just want to use, for example, the transaction abstraction with JDBC or
Hibernate.

15.2 The DispatcherServlet

Spring's web MVC framework is, like many other web MVC frameworks, request-
driven, designed around a central servlet that dispatches requests to controllers
and offers other functionality that facilitates the development of web applications.
Spring's DispatcherServlet however, does more than just that. It is completely
integrated with the Spring IoC container and as such allows you to use every other
feature that Spring has.

The request processing workflow of the Spring Web MVC DispatcherServlet is

illustrated in the following diagram. The pattern-savvy reader will recognize that
the DispatcherServlet is an expression of the “Front Controller” design pattern (this is
a pattern that Spring Web MVC shares with many other leading web frameworks).

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The requesting processing workflow in Spring Web MVC (high level)

The DispatcherServlet is an actual Servlet (it inherits from the HttpServlet base class),

and as such is declared in the web.xml of your web application. You need to map
requests that you want the DispatcherServlet to handle, by using a URL mapping in
the same web.xml file. This is standard J2EE servlet configuration; the following
example shows such a DispatcherServlet declaration and mapping:

<web-app>

<servlet>
<servlet-name>example</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

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 <servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>example</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>*.form</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

</web-app>

In the preceding example, all requests ending with .form will be handled by

the example DispatcherServlet. This is only the first step in setting up Spring Web MVC.
You now need to configure the various beans used by the Spring Web MVC
framework (over and above the DispatcherServletitself).

As detailed in Section 3.13, “Additional Capabilities of the

ApplicationContext”, ApplicationContext instances in Spring can be scoped. In the
Web MVC framework, each DispatcherServlet has its own WebApplicationContext, which
inherits all the beans already defined in the root WebApplicationContext. These
inherited beans can be overridden in the servlet-specific scope, and you can
define new scope-specific beans local to a given servlet instance.

Context hierarchy in Spring Web MVC

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Upon initialization of a DispatcherServlet, the framework looks for a file named  [servlet-
name]-servlet.xml in the WEB-INF directory of your web application and creates the
beans defined there, overriding the definitions of any beans defined with the same
name in the global scope.

Consider the following DispatcherServlet servlet configuration (in the web.xml file):

<web-app>

<servlet>
<servlet-name>golfing</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>golfing</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/golfing/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

</web-app>

With the above servlet configuration in place, you will need to have a file
called /WEB-INF/golfing-servlet.xml in your application; this file will contain all of your
Spring Web MVC-specific components (beans). You can change the exact location
of this configuration file through a servlet initialization parameter (see below for
details).

The WebApplicationContext is an extension of the plain ApplicationContext that has some

extra features necessary for web applications. It differs from a
normal ApplicationContext in that it is capable of resolving themes (see Section 15.7,
“Using themes”), and that it knows which servlet it is associated with (by having a
link to the ServletContext). The WebApplicationContext is bound in the ServletContext, and
by using static methods on the RequestContextUtils class you can always look up
the WebApplicationContext if you need access to it.

The Spring DispatcherServlet uses special beans to process requests and render the

appropriate views. These beans are part of Spring Framework. You can configure
them in the WebApplicationContext, just as you configure any other bean. However,
for most beans, sensible defaults are provided so you initially do not need to
configure them. These beans are described in the following table.

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 Table 15.1. Special beans in the WebApplicationContext
Explanation
Form the C part of the MVC.
Handle the execution of a list of pre-processors and post-processors and controllers that will be executed if they match cert
s
criteria (for example, a matching URL specified with the controller).
Resolves view names to views.
A locale resolver is a component capable of resolving the locale a client is using, in order to be able to offer internationaliz
views
A theme resolver is capable of resolving themes your web application can use, for example, to offer personalized layouts
Contains functionality to process file uploads from HTML forms.
n
Contains functionality to map exceptions to views or implement other more complex exception handling code.

After you set up a DispatcherServlet, and a request comes in for that

specific DispatcherServlet, the DispatcherServlet starts processing the request as
follows:

1. The WebApplicationContext is searched for and bound in the request as an

attribute that the controller and other elements in the process can use. It is
bound by default under the
key DispatcherServlet.WEB_APPLICATION_CONTEXT_ATTRIBUTE.
2. The locale resolver is bound to the request to enable elements in the
process to resolve the locale to use when processing the request (rendering
the view, preparing data, and so on). If you do not need locale resolving, you
do not need it.

3. The theme resolver is bound to the request to let elements such as views
determine which theme to use. If you do not use themes, you can ignore it.

4. If you specify a multipart file resolver, the request is inspected for multiparts;
if multiparts are found, the request is wrapped in
aMultipartHttpServletRequest for further processing by other elements in the
process. (See Section 15.8.2, “Using the MultipartResolver” for further
information about multipart handling).

5. An appropriate handler is searched for. If a handler is found, the execution

chain associated with the handler (preprocessors, postprocessors, and
controllers) is executed in order to prepare a model or rendering.

6. If a model is returned, the view is rendered. If no model is returned, (may be

due to a preprocessor or postprocessor intercepting the request, perhaps for

529
 security reasons), no view is rendered, because the request could already
have been fulfilled.

Handler exception resolvers that are declared in the WebApplicationContext pick up

exceptions that are thrown during processing of the request. Using these
exception resolvers allows you to define custom behaviors to address exceptions.

The Spring DispatcherServlet also supports the return of the last-modification-date,

as specified by the Servlet API. The process of determining the last modification
date for a specific request is straightforward: the DispatcherServlet looks up an
appropriate handler mapping and tests whether the handler that is found
implements the LastModified interface. If so, the value of the long
getLastModified(request) method of theLastModified interface is returned to the
client.

You can customize individual DispatcherServlet instances by adding servlet

initialization parameters (init-param elements) to the servlet declaration in
the web.xml file. See the following table for the list of supported parameters.

Table 15.2. DispatcherServlet initialization parameters

er Explanation
Class that implements WebApplicationContext, which instantiates the context used by this servlet. By default,
the XmlWebApplicationContext is used.
String that is passed to the context instance (specified by contextClass) to indicate where context(s) can be found. T
Location string consists potentially of multiple strings (using a comma as a delimiter) to support multiple contexts. In case of
multiple context locations with beans that are defined twice, the latest location takes precedence.
Namespace of the WebApplicationContext. Defaults to [servlet-name]-servlet.

15.3 Implementing Controllers

Controllers provide access to the application behavior that you typically define
through a service interface. Controllers interpret user input and transform it into a
model that is represented to the user by the view. Spring implements a controller
in a very abstract way, which enables you to create a wide variety of controllers.

Spring 2.5 introduced an annotation-based programming model for MVC

controllers that uses annotations such
as @RequestMapping,@RequestParam, @ModelAttribute, and so on. This annotation
support is available for both Servlet MVC and Portlet MVC. Controllers implemented in this style do
not have to extend specific base classes or implement specific interfaces. Furthermore, they do not

530
usually have direct dependencies on Servlet or Portlet APIs, although you can easily configure access
to Servlet or Portlet facilities.

Tip

Available in the samples repository, the PetClinic web application leverages the annotation

support described in this section, in the context of simple form processing.
@Controller
public class HelloWorldController {

@RequestMapping("/helloWorld")
public ModelAndView helloWorld() {
ModelAndView mav = new ModelAndView();
mav.setViewName("helloWorld");
mav.addObject("message", "Hello World!");
return mav;
}
}

As you can see, the @Controller and @RequestMapping annotations allow flexible

method names and signatures. In this particular example the method has no
parameters and returns a ModelAndView, but various other (and better) strategies
exist, as are explained later in this section.ModelAndView, @Controller,
and @RequestMapping form the basis for the Spring MVC implementation. This
section documents these annotations and how they are most commonly used in a
Servlet environment.

15.3.1 Defining a controller with @Controller

The @Controller annotation indicates that a particular class serves the role of

a controller. Spring does not require you to extend any controller base class or
reference the Servlet API. However, you can still reference Servlet-specific
features if you need to.

The @Controller annotation acts as a stereotype for the annotated class, indicating

its role. The dispatcher scans such annotated classes for mapped methods and
detects @RequestMapping annotations (see the next section).

You can define annotated controller beans explicitly, using a standard Spring bean
definition in the dispatcher's context. However, the @Controllerstereotype also
allows for autodetection, aligned with Spring general support for detecting
component classes in the classpath and auto-registering bean definitions for them.

531
To enable autodetection of such annotated controllers, you add component
scanning to your configuration. Use the spring-context schema as shown in the
following XML snippet:

<?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:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

<context:component-scan base-
package="org.springframework.samples.petclinic.web"/>

// ...

</beans>

15.3.2 Mapping requests with @RequestMapping

You use the @RequestMapping annotation to map URLs such as /appointments onto

an entire class or a particular handler method. Typically the class-level annotation
maps a specific request path (or path pattern) onto a form controller, with
additional method-level annotations narrowing the primary mapping for a specific
HTTP method request method ("GET"/"POST") or specific HTTP request
parameters.

The following example shows a controller in a Spring MVC application that uses
this annotation:

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/appointments")
public class AppointmentsController {

private final AppointmentBook appointmentBook;

@Autowired
public AppointmentsController(AppointmentBook appointmentBook) {
this.appointmentBook = appointmentBook;
}

@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET)
public Map<String, Appointment> get() {
return appointmentBook.getAppointmentsForToday();

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 }

@RequestMapping(value="/{day}", method = RequestMethod.GET)

public Map<String, Appointment> getForDay(@PathVariable
@DateTimeFormat(iso=ISO.DATE) Date day, Model model) {
return appointmentBook.getAppointmentsForDay(day);
}

@RequestMapping(value="/new", method = RequestMethod.GET)

public AppointmentForm getNewForm() {
return new AppointmentForm();
}

@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String add(@Valid AppointmentForm appointment, BindingResult result) {
if (result.hasErrors()) {
return "appointments/new";
}
appointmentBook.addAppointment(appointment);
return "redirect:/appointments";
}
}

In the example, the @RequestMapping is used in a number of places. The first usage

is on the type (class) level, which indicates that all handling methods on this
controller are relative to the /appointments path. The get() method has a
further @RequestMapping refinement: it only accepts GET requests, meaning that an
HTTP GET for /appointments invokes this method. The post() has a similar
refinement, and the getNewForm()combines the definition of HTTP method and path
into one, so that GET requests for appointments/new are handled by that method.

The getForDay() method shows another usage of @RequestMapping: URI templates.

(See the next section ).

A @RequestMapping on the class level is not required. Without it, all paths are simply
absolute, and not relative. The following example from the PetClinic sample
application shows a multi-action controller using @RequestMapping:

@Controller
public class ClinicController {

private final Clinic clinic;

@Autowired
public ClinicController(Clinic clinic) {
this.clinic = clinic;
}

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 @RequestMapping("/")
public void welcomeHandler() {
}

@RequestMapping("/vets")
public ModelMap vetsHandler() {
return new ModelMap(this.clinic.getVets());
}

Working with interface-based @Controller classes

A common pitfall when working with annotated controller classes happens when applying
functionality that requires creating a proxy proxy for the controller object
(e.g. @Transactional methods). Usually you will introduce an interface for the controller in order
to use JDK dynamic proxies. To make this work you must move
the @RequestMapping annotations to the interface as as the mapping mechanism can only "see"
the interface exposed by the proxy. As an alternative, you may choose to activate proxy-target-
class="true" in the configuration for the functionality applied to the controller (in our
transaction scenario in<tx:annotation-driven />). Doing so indicates that CGLIB-based
subclass proxies should be used instead of interface-based JDK proxies. For more information on
various proxying mechanisms see Section 7.6, “Proxying mechanisms”.

15.3.2.1 URI Templates

To access parts of a request URL in your handling methods, use the URI

templates in the @RequestMapping path value.
URI Templates

A URI Template is a URI-like string, containing one or more variable names. When you substitute values
for these variables, the template becomes a URI. The proposed RFC for URI Templates defines how a
URI is parameterized. For example, the URI Template

http://www.example.com/users/{userid}

contains the variable userid. If we assign the variable the value fred, the URI Template yields:

http://www.example.com/users/fred

During the processing of a request, the URI can be compared to an expected URI Template in order to
extract a collection of variables.

Use the @PathVariable method parameter annotation to indicate that a method

parameter should be bound to the value of a URI template variable.

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The following code snippet shows the usage of a single @PathVariable in a
controller method:

@RequestMapping(value="/owners/{ownerId}", method=RequestMethod.GET)
public String findOwner(@PathVariable String ownerId, Model model) {
Owner owner = ownerService.findOwner(ownerId);
model.addAttribute("owner", owner);
return "displayOwner";
}

The URI Template "/owners/{ownerId}" specifies the variable name ownerId. When

the controller handles this request, the value of ownerId is set to the value in the
request URI. For example, when a request comes in for /owners/fred, the value
fred is bound to the method parameter String ownerId.

The matching of method parameter names to URI Template variable names can
only be done if your code is compiled with debugging enabled. If you do not have
debugging enabled, you must specify the name of the URI Template variable
name in the @PathVariable annotation in order to bind the resolved value of the
variable name to a method parameter. For example:

@RequestMapping(value="/owners/{ownerId}", method=RequestMethod.GET)
public String findOwner(@PathVariable("ownerId") String ownerId, Model model) {
// implementation omitted
}

You can also use a controller method with the following signature:

@RequestMapping(value="/owners/{ownerId}", method=RequestMethod.GET)
public String findOwner(@PathVariable("ownerId") String theOwner, Model model) {
// implementation omitted
}

You can use multiple @PathVariable annotations to bind to multiple URI Template
variables:

@RequestMapping(value="/owners/{ownerId}/pets/{petId}", method=RequestMethod.GET)
public String findPet(@PathVariable String ownerId, @PathVariable String petId,
Model model) {
Owner owner = ownerService.findOwner(ownderId);
Pet pet = owner.getPet(petId);
model.addAttribute("pet", pet);
return "displayPet";
}

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The following code snippet shows the usage of path variables on a relative path,
so that the findPet() method will be invoked for/owners/42/pets/21, for instance.

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/owners/{ownerId}")
public class RelativePathUriTemplateController {

@RequestMapping("/pets/{petId}")
public void findPet(@PathVariable String ownerId, @PathVariable String petId,
Model model) {
// implementation omitted
}
}

Tip

Method parameters that are decorated with the @PathVariable annotation can be of any simple
type such as int, long, Date, etc. Spring automatically converts to the appropriate type and throws
a TypeMismatchException if the type is not correct. You can further customize this conversion
process by customizing the data binder. See Section 15.3.2.12, “Customizing WebDataBinder
initialization”.

15.3.2.2 Advanced @RequestMapping options

In addition to URI templates, the @RequestMapping annotation also supports Ant-style

path patterns (for example, /myPath/*.do). A combination of URI templates and Ant-
style globs is also supported (for example, /owners/*/pets/{petId}).

The handler method names are taken into account for narrowing if no path was
specified explicitly, according to the
specifiedorg.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.multiaction.MethodNameResolver (by
default
anorg.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.multiaction.InternalPathMethodNameResolver).
This only applies if annotation mappings do not specify a path mapping explicitly.
In other words, the method name is only used for narrowing among a set of
matching methods; it does not constitute a primary path mapping itself.

If you have a single default method (without explicit path mapping), then all
requests without a more specific mapped method found are dispatched to it. If you
have multiple such default methods, then the method name is taken into account
for choosing between them.

You can narrow path mappings through parameter conditions: a sequence of

"myParam=myValue" style expressions, with a request only mapped if each such
parameter is found to have the given value. For example:

536
@Controller
@RequestMapping("/owners/{ownerId}")
public class RelativePathUriTemplateController {

@RequestMapping(value = "/pets/{petId}", params="myParam=myValue")

public void findPet(@PathVariable String ownerId, @PathVariable String petId,
Model model) {
// implementation omitted
}
}

"myParam" style expressions are also supported, with such parameters having to
be present in the request (allowed to have any value). Finally, "!myParam" style
expressions indicate that the specified parameter is not supposed to be present in
the request.

Similarly, path mappings can be narrowed down through header conditions:

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/owners/{ownerId}")
public class RelativePathUriTemplateController {

@RequestMapping(value = "/pets", method = RequestMethod.POST, headers="content-

type=text/*")
public void addPet(Pet pet, @PathVariable String ownerId) {
// implementation omitted
}
}

In the above example, the addPet() method is only invoked when the content-

type matches the text/* pattern, for example, text/xml.

15.3.2.3 Supported handler method arguments and return types

Handler methods that are annotated with @RequestMapping can have very flexible

signatures. Most of them can be used in arbitrary order (see below for more
details).

 Request or response objects (Servlet API). Choose any specific request or

response type, for example ServletRequest orHttpServletRequest.
 Session object (Servlet API): of type HttpSession. An argument of this type
enforces the presence of a corresponding session. As a consequence, such
an argument is never null.

Note

537
 Session access may not be thread-safe, in particular in a Servlet environment. Consider
setting theAnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter's "synchronizeOnSession" flag to "true"
if multiple requests are allowed to access a session concurrently.

 org.springframework.web.context.request.WebRequest or org.springframework.web
.context.request.NativeWebRequest.Allows for generic request parameter
access as well as request/session attribute access, without ties to the native
Servlet/Portlet API.

 java.util.Locale for the current request locale, determined by the most

specific locale resolver available, in effect, the configuredLocaleResolver in a
Servlet environment.

 java.io.InputStream / java.io.Reader for
access to the request's content. This
value is the raw InputStream/Reader as exposed by the Servlet API.

 java.io.OutputStream / java.io.Writer for
generating the response's content.
This value is the raw OutputStream/Writer as exposed by the Servlet API.

 java.security.Principal containing the currently authenticated user.

 @PathVariable annotated parameters for access to URI template variables.

See Section 15.3.2.1, “URI Templates”.

 @RequestParam annotatedparameters for access to specific Servlet request

parameters. Parameter values are converted to the declared method
argument type. See Section 15.3.2.4, “Binding request parameters to
method parameters with @RequestParam”.

 @RequestHeader annotated
parameters for access to specific Servlet request
HTTP headers. Parameter values are converted to the declared method
argument type.

 @RequestBody annotated parameters for access to the HTTP request body.

Parameter values are converted to the declared method argument type
using HttpMessageConverters. See Section 15.3.2.5, “Mapping the request
body with the @RequestBody annotation”.

 HttpEntity<?> parameters for access to the Servlet request HTTP headers

and contents. The request stream will be converted to the entity body
using HttpMessageConverters. See Section 15.3.2.7, “Using HttpEntity<?>”.

538
  java.util.Map / org.springframework.ui.Model / org.springframework.ui.ModelMap 
for enriching the implicit model that is exposed to the web view.

 Command or form objects to bind parameters to: as bean properties or

fields, with customizable type conversion, depending on @InitBindermethods
and/or the HandlerAdapter configuration. See
the webBindingInitializer property on AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter. Such
command objects along with their validation results will be exposed as
model attributes by default, using the non-qualified command class name in
property notation. For example, "orderAddress" for type
"mypackage.OrderAddress". Specify a parameter-
level ModelAttributeannotation for declaring a specific model attribute name.

 org.springframework.validation.Errors / org.springframework.validation.Bindin
gResult validation
results for a preceding command or form object (the
immediately preceding method argument).

 org.springframework.web.bind.support.SessionStatus status
handle for marking
form processing as complete, which triggers the cleanup of session
attributes that have been indicated by the @SessionAttributes annotation at
the handler type level.

The Errors or BindingResult parameters have to follow the model object that is

being bound immediately as the method signature might have more that one
model object and Spring will create a separate BindingResult instance for each of
them so the following sample won't work:

Example 15.1. Invalid ordering of BindingResult and @ModelAttribute

@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String processSubmit(@ModelAttribute("pet") Pet pet,
Model model, BindingResult result) { … }

Note, that there is a Model parameter in between Pet and BindingResult. To get this

working you have to reorder the parameters as follows:

@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String processSubmit(@ModelAttribute("pet") Pet pet,
BindingResult result, Model model) { … }

The following return types are supported for handler methods:

539
 A ModelAndView object, with the model implicitly enriched with command
objects and the results of @ModelAttribute annotated reference data accessor
methods.
 A Model object, with the view name implicitly determined through
a RequestToViewNameTranslator and the model implicitly enriched with
command objects and the results of @ModelAttribute annotated reference
data accessor methods.

 A Map object for exposing a model, with the view name implicitly determined
through a RequestToViewNameTranslator and the model implicitly enriched with
command objects and the results of @ModelAttribute annotated reference
data accessor methods.

 A View object, with the model implicitly determined through command objects

and @ModelAttribute annotated reference data accessor methods. The
handler method may also programmatically enrich the model by declaring
a Model argument (see above).

 A String value that is interpreted as the logical view name, with the model
implicitly determined through command objects
and@ModelAttribute annotated reference data accessor methods. The
handler method may also programmatically enrich the model by declaring
a Model argument (see above).

 void ifthe method handles the response itself (by writing the response
content directly, declaring an argument of
type ServletResponse /HttpServletResponse for that purpose) or if the view
name is supposed to be implicitly determined through
a RequestToViewNameTranslator(not declaring a response argument in the
handler method signature).

 If the method is annotated with @ResponseBody, the return type is written to the

response HTTP body. The return value will be converted to the declared
method argument type using HttpMessageConverters. See Section 15.3.2.6,
“Mapping the response body with the @ResponseBody annotation”.

 A HttpEntity<?> or ResponseEntity<?> object to provide access to the Servlet

reponse HTTP headers and contents. The entity body will be converted to
the response stream using HttpMessageConverters. See Section 15.3.2.7,
“Using HttpEntity<?>”.

540
  Any other return type is considered to be a single model attribute to be
exposed to the view, using the attribute name specified
through@ModelAttribute at the method level (or the default attribute name
based on the return type class name). The model is implicitly enriched with
command objects and the results of @ModelAttribute annotated reference
data accessor methods.

15.3.2.4 Binding request parameters to method parameters

with @RequestParam

Use the @RequestParam annotation to bind request parameters to a method

parameter in your controller.

The following code snippet shows the usage:

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/pets")
@SessionAttributes("pet")
public class EditPetForm {

// ...

@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String setupForm(@RequestParam("petId") int petId, ModelMap model) {
Pet pet = this.clinic.loadPet(petId);
model.addAttribute("pet", pet);
return "petForm";
}

// ...

Parameters using this annotation are required by default, but you can specify that
a parameter is optional by setting @RequestParam's requiredattribute
to false (e.g., @RequestParam(value="id", required=false)).

15.3.2.5 Mapping the request body with the @RequestBody annotation

The @RequestBody method parameter annotation indicates that a method parameter

should be bound to the value of the HTTP request body. For example:

@RequestMapping(value = "/something", method = RequestMethod.PUT)

public void handle(@RequestBody String body, Writer writer) throws IOException {
writer.write(body);
}

541
You convert the request body to the method argument by using
an HttpMessageConverter. HttpMessageConverter is responsible for converting from the
HTTP request message to an object and converting from an object to the HTTP
response body. DispatcherServlet supports annotation based processing using
the DefaultAnnotationHandlerMapping and AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter. In Spring
3.0 theAnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter is extended to support the @RequestBody and
has the following HttpMessageConverters registered by default:

 ByteArrayHttpMessageConverter converts byte arrays.

 StringHttpMessageConverter converts strings.

 FormHttpMessageConverter converts form data to/from a MultiValueMap<String,

String>.

 SourceHttpMessageConverter converts to/from a javax.xml.transform.Source.

 MarshallingHttpMessageConverter converts to/from an object using

the org.springframework.oxm package.

For more information on these converters, see Message Converters.

The MarshallingHttpMessageConverter requires a Marshaller and Unmarshaller from
the org.springframework.oxm package to be configured on an instance
of AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter in the application context. For example:

<bean
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapt
er">
<property name="messageConverters">
<util:list id="beanList">
<ref bean="stringHttpMessageConverter"/>
<ref bean="marshallingHttpMessageConverter"/>
</util:list>
</property
</bean>

<bean id="stringHttpMessageConverter"
class="org.springframework.http.converter.StringHttpMessageConverter"/>

<bean id="marshallingHttpMessageConverter"

class="org.springframework.http.converter.xml.MarshallingHttpMessageConverter">
<property name="marshaller" ref="castorMarshaller" />
<property name="unmarshaller" ref="castorMarshaller" />
</bean>

542
<bean id="castorMarshaller"
class="org.springframework.oxm.castor.CastorMarshaller"/>

15.3.2.6 Mapping the response body with the @ResponseBody annotation

The @ResponseBody annotation is similar to @RequestBody. This annotation can be put

on a method and indicates that the return type should be written straight to the
HTTP response body (and not placed in a Model, or interpreted as a view name).
For example:

@RequestMapping(value = "/something", method = RequestMethod.PUT)

@ResponseBody
public String helloWorld() {
return "Hello World";
}

The above example will result in the text Hello World being written to the HTTP
response stream.

As with @RequestBody, Spring converts the returned object to a response body by

using an HttpMessageConverter. For more information on these converters, see the
previous section and Message Converters.

15.3.2.7 Using HttpEntity<?>

The HttpEntity is similar to @RequestBody and @ResponseBody. Besides getting access

to the request and response body, HttpEntity (and the response-specific
subclass ResponseEntity) also allows access to the request and response headers,
like so:

@RequestMapping("/something")
public ResponseEntity<String> handle(HttpEntity<byte[]> requestEntity) throws
UnsupportedEncodingException {
String requestHeader = requestEntity.getHeaders().getFirst("MyRequestHeader"));
byte[] requestBody = requestEntity.getBody();
// do something with request header and body

HttpHeaders responseHeaders = new HttpHeaders();

responseHeaders.set("MyResponseHeader", "MyValue");
return new ResponseEntity<String>("Hello World", responseHeaders,
HttpStatus.CREATED);
}

543
The above example gets the value of the "MyRequestHeader" request header, and
reads the body as a byte array. It adds the "MyResponseHeader" to the response,
writes Hello World to the response stream, and sets the response status code to
201 (Created).

As with @RequestBody and @ResponseBody, Spring uses HttpMessageConverter to convert

from and to the request and response streams. For more information on these
converters, see the previous section and Message Converters.

15.3.2.8 Providing a link to data from the model with @ModelAttribute

@ModelAttribute has two usage scenarios in controllers. When you place it on a

method parameter, @ModelAttribute maps a model attribute to the specific,
annotated method parameter (see the processSubmit() method below). This is how
the controller gets a reference to the object holding the data entered in the form.

You can also use @ModelAttribute at the method level to provide reference

data for the model (see the populatePetTypes() method in the following example).
For this usage the method signature can contain the same types as documented
previously for the @RequestMapping annotation.

Note

@ModelAttribute annotated methods are executed before the

chosen @RequestMapping annotated handler method. They effectively pre-populate the implicit
model with specific attributes, often loaded from a database. Such an attribute can then already be
accessed through @ModelAttribute annotated handler method parameters in the chosen handler
method, potentially with binding and validation applied to it.

The following code snippet shows these two usages of this annotation:

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/owners/{ownerId}/pets/{petId}/edit")
@SessionAttributes("pet")
public class EditPetForm {

// ...

@ModelAttribute("types")
public Collection<PetType> populatePetTypes() {
return this.clinic.getPetTypes();
}

@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String processSubmit(

544
 @ModelAttribute("pet") Pet pet,
BindingResult result, SessionStatus status) {

new PetValidator().validate(pet, result);

if (result.hasErrors()) {
return "petForm";
}
else {
this.clinic.storePet(pet);
status.setComplete();
return "redirect:owner.do?ownerId=" + pet.getOwner().getId();
}
}

15.3.2.9 Specifying attributes to store in a session with @SessionAttributes

The type-level @SessionAttributes annotation declares session attributes used by a

specific handler. This will typically list the names of model attributes or types of
model attributes which should be transparently stored in the session or some
conversational storage, serving as form-backing beans between subsequent
requests.

The following code snippet shows the usage of this annotation, specifying the
model attribute name:

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/editPet.do")
@SessionAttributes("pet")
public class EditPetForm {
// ...
}

Note

When using controller interfaces (e.g. for AOP proxying), make sure to consistently put all your
mapping annotations - such as@RequestMapping and @SessionAttributes - on the
controller interface rather than on the implementation class.

15.3.2.10 Mapping cookie values with the @CookieValue annotation

The @CookieValue annotation allows a method parameter to be bound to the value

of an HTTP cookie.

Let us consider that the following cookie has been received with an http request:

545
JSESSIONID=415A4AC178C59DACE0B2C9CA727CDD84

The following code sample demonstrates how to get the value of

the JSESSIONID cookie:

@RequestMapping("/displayHeaderInfo.do")
public void displayHeaderInfo(@CookieValue("JSESSIONID") String cookie) {

//...

This annotation is supported for annotated handler methods in Servlet and Portlet
environments.

15.3.2.11 Mapping request header attributes with the @RequestHeader

annotation

The @RequestHeader annotation allows a method parameter to be bound to a request

header.

Here is a sample request header:

Host localhost:8080
Accept text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9
Accept-Language fr,en-gb;q=0.7,en;q=0.3
Accept-Encoding gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive 300

The following code sample demonstrates how to get the value of the Accept-
Encoding and Keep-Alive headers:

@RequestMapping("/displayHeaderInfo.do")
public void displayHeaderInfo(@RequestHeader("Accept-Encoding") String encoding,
@RequestHeader("Keep-Alive") long keepAlive) {

//...

This annotation is supported for annotated handler methods in Servlet and Portlet
environments.

546
15.3.2.12 Customizing WebDataBinder initialization

To customize request parameter binding with PropertyEditors through

Spring's WebDataBinder, you can use either @InitBinder-annotated methods within
your controller or externalize your configuration by providing a
custom WebBindingInitializer.

Customizing data binding with  @InitBinder

Annotating controller methods with @InitBinder allows you to configure web data

binding directly within your controller class. @InitBinder identifies methods that
initialize the WebDataBinder that will be used to populate command and form object
arguments of annotated handler methods.

Such init-binder methods support all arguments that @RequestMapping supports,

except for command/form objects and corresponding validation result objects. Init-
binder methods must not have a return value. Thus, they are usually declared
as void. Typical arguments include WebDataBinderin combination
with WebRequest or java.util.Locale, allowing code to register context-specific
editors.

The following example demonstrates the use of @InitBinder to configure

a CustomDateEditor for all java.util.Date form properties.

@Controller
public class MyFormController {

@InitBinder
public void initBinder(WebDataBinder binder) {
SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
dateFormat.setLenient(false);
binder.registerCustomEditor(Date.class, new CustomDateEditor(dateFormat,
false));
}

// ...
}

Configuring a custom  WebBindingInitializer

To externalize data binding initialization, you can provide a custom implementation

of the WebBindingInitializer interface, which you then enable by supplying a
custom bean configuration for an AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter, thus overriding
the default configuration.

547
The following example from the PetClinic application shows a configuration using a
custom implementation of
the WebBindingInitializerinterface, org.springframework.samples.petclinic.web.Clini
cBindingInitializer, which configures PropertyEditors required by several of the
PetClinic controllers.

<bean
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapt
er">
<property name="cacheSeconds" value="0" />
<property name="webBindingInitializer">
<bean
class="org.springframework.samples.petclinic.web.ClinicBindingInitializer" />
</property>
</bean>

15.4 Handler mappings

In previous versions of Spring, users were required to define HandlerMappings in the

web application context to map incoming web requests to appropriate handlers.
With the introduction of Spring 2.5, the DispatcherServlet enables
the DefaultAnnotationHandlerMapping, which looks for@RequestMapping annotations
on @Controllers. Typically, you do not need to override this default mapping, unless
you need to override the default property values. These properties are:
interceptors

List of interceptors to use. HandlerInterceptors are discussed

in Section 15.4.1, “Intercepting requests - the HandlerInterceptor interface”.
defaultHandler

Default handler to use, when this handler mapping does not result in a
matching handler.
order

Based on the value of the order property (see

the org.springframework.core.Ordered interface), Spring sorts all handler
mappings available in the context and applies the first matching handler.
alwaysUseFullPath

If true , Spring uses the full path within the current servlet context to find an
appropriate handler. If false (the default), the path within the current servlet

548
 mapping is used. For example, if a servlet is mapped using /testing/* and
the alwaysUseFullPath property is set to true,/testing/viewPage.html is used,
whereas if the property is set to false, /viewPage.html is used.
urlDecode

Defaults to true, as of Spring 2.5. If you prefer to compare encoded paths,

set this flag to false. However, the HttpServletRequest always exposes the
servlet path in decoded form. Be aware that the servlet path will not match
when compared with encoded paths.
lazyInitHandlers

Allows lazy initialization of singleton handlers (prototype handlers are always

lazy-initialized). The default value is false.

Note

The alwaysUseFullPath, urlDecode, and lazyInitHandlers properties are only available to

subclasses oforg.springframework.web.servlet.handler.AbstractUrlHandlerMapping.

The following example shows how to override the default mapping and add an
interceptor:

<beans>
<bean id="handlerMapping"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.DefaultAnnotationHandlerMapp
ing">
<property name="interceptors">
<bean class="example.MyInterceptor"/>
</property>
</bean>

<beans>

15.4.1 Intercepting requests - the HandlerInterceptor interface

Spring's handler mapping mechanism includes handler interceptors, which are

useful when you want to apply specific functionality to certain requests, for
example, checking for a principal.

Interceptors located in the handler mapping must

implement HandlerInterceptor from the org.springframework.web.servlet package.
This interface defines three methods: one is called before the actual handler is
executed; one is called after the handler is executed; and one is calledafter the

549
complete request has finished. These three methods should provide enough
flexibility to do all kinds of preprocessing and postprocessing.

The preHandle(..) method returns a boolean value. You can use this method to

break or continue the processing of the execution chain. When this method
returns true, the handler execution chain will continue; when it returns false,
the DispatcherServlet assumes the interceptor itself has taken care of requests
(and, for example, rendered an appropriate view) and does not continue executing
the other interceptors and the actual handler in the execution chain.

The following example defines a handler mapping which maps all requests
matching the URL patterns "/*.form" and "/*.view" to a particular
controller, editAccountFormController. An interceptor has been added that intercepts
these requests and reroutes the user to a specific page if the time is not between 9
a.m. and 6 p.m.

<beans>
<bean id="handlerMapping"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping">
<property name="interceptors">
<list>
<ref bean="officeHoursInterceptor"/>
</list>
</property>
<property name="mappings">
<value>
/*.form=editAccountFormController
/*.view=editAccountFormController
</value>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="officeHoursInterceptor"
class="samples.TimeBasedAccessInterceptor">
<property name="openingTime" value="9"/>
<property name="closingTime" value="18"/>
</bean>
<beans>
package samples;

public class TimeBasedAccessInterceptor extends HandlerInterceptorAdapter {

private int openingTime;

private int closingTime;

public void setOpeningTime(int openingTime) {

this.openingTime = openingTime;
}

public void setClosingTime(int closingTime) {

550
 this.closingTime = closingTime;
}

public boolean preHandle(

HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response,
Object handler) throws Exception {

Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();

int hour = cal.get(HOUR_OF_DAY);
if (openingTime <= hour < closingTime) {
return true;
} else {
response.sendRedirect("http://host.com/outsideOfficeHours.html");
return false;
}
}
}

Any request handled by this mapping is intercepted by

the TimeBasedAccessInterceptor. If the current time is outside office hours, the user
is redirected to a static HTML file that says, for example, you can only access the
website during office hours.

As you can see, the Spring adapter class HandlerInterceptorAdapter makes it easier

to extend the HandlerInterceptor interface.

15.5 Resolving views

All MVC frameworks for web applications provide a way to address views. Spring
provides view resolvers, which enable you to render models in a browser without
tying you to a specific view technology. Out of the box, Spring enables you to use
JSPs, Velocity templates and XSLT views, for example. See Chapter 16, View
technologies for a discussion of how to integrate and use a number of disparate
view technologies.

The two interfaces that are important to the way Spring handles views
are ViewResolver and View. The ViewResolver provides a mapping between view
names and actual views. The View interface addresses the preparation of the
request and hands the request over to one of the view technologies.

15.5.1 Resolving views with the ViewResolver interface

As discussed in Section 15.3, “Implementing Controllers”, all handler methods in

the Spring Web MVC controllers must resolve to a logical view name, either
explicitly (e.g., by returning a String, View, or ModelAndView) or implicitly (i.e., based

551
 on conventions). Views in Spring are addressed by a logical view name and are
resolved by a view resolver. Spring comes with quite a few view resolvers. This
table lists most of them; a couple of examples follow.

Table 15.3. View resolvers

ViewResolver Description
ngViewResolver
Abstract view resolver that caches views. Often views need preparation before they can b
used; extending this view resolver provides caching.
Implementation of ViewResolver that accepts a configuration file written in XML with th
er same DTD as Spring's XML bean factories. The default configuration file is /WEB-
INF/views.xml.
Implementation of ViewResolver that uses bean definitions in a ResourceBundle, specif
eViewResolver by the bundle base name. Typically you define the bundle in a properties file, located in th
classpath. The default file name is views.properties.
Simple implementation of the ViewResolver interface that effects the direct resolution of
esolver logical view names to URLs, without an explicit mapping definition. This is appropriate i
your logical names match the names of your view resources in a straightforward manner,
without the need for arbitrary mappings.
Convenient subclass of UrlBasedViewResolver that supports InternalResourceView (i
rceViewResolver
effect, Servlets and JSPs) and subclasses such as JstlView and TilesView. You can spec
the view class for all views generated by this resolver by using setViewClass(..). See t
Javadocs for theUrlBasedViewResolver class for details.
Convenient subclass of UrlBasedViewResolver that supports VelocityView (in effect,
esolver /FreeMarkerViewResolver
Velocity templates) or FreeMarkerView ,respectively, and custom subclasses of them.
atingViewResolver
Implementation of the ViewResolver interface that resolves a view based on the request f
name orAccept header. See Section 15.5.4, “ContentNegotiatingViewResolver”.

As an example, with JSP as a view technology, you can use

the UrlBasedViewResolver. This view resolver translates a view name to a URL and
hands the request over to the RequestDispatcher to render the view.

<bean id="viewResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.UrlBasedViewResolver">
<property name="viewClass"
value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView"/>
<property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/"/>
<property name="suffix" value=".jsp"/>
</bean>

When returning test as a logical view name, this view resolver forwards the
request to the RequestDispatcher that will send the request to /WEB-INF/jsp/test.jsp.

552
When you combine different view technologies in a web application, you can use
the ResourceBundleViewResolver:

<bean id="viewResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.ResourceBundleViewResolver">
<property name="basename" value="views"/>
<property name="defaultParentView" value="parentView"/>
</bean>

The ResourceBundleViewResolver inspects the ResourceBundle identified by the

basename, and for each view it is supposed to resolve, it uses the value of the
property [viewname].(class) as the view class and the value of the
property [viewname].url as the view url. Examples can be found in the next chapter
which covers view technologies. As you can see, you can identify a parent view,
from which all views in the properties file “extend”. This way you can specify a default
view class, for example.

Note

Subclasses of AbstractCachingViewResolver cache view instances that they resolve. Caching

improves performance of certain view technologies. It's possible to turn off the cache by setting
the cache property to false. Furthermore, if you must refresh a certain view at runtime (for
example when a Velocity template is modified), you can use the removeFromCache(String
viewName, Locale loc) method.

15.5.2 Chaining ViewResolvers

Spring supports multiple view resolvers. Thus you can chain resolvers and, for
example, override specific views in certain circumstances. You chain view
resolvers by adding more than one resolver to your application context and, if
necessary, by setting the order property to specify ordering. Remember, the higher
the order property, the later the view resolver is positioned in the chain.

In the following example, the chain of view resolvers consists of two resolvers,
an InternalResourceViewResolver, which is always automatically positioned as the
last resolver in the chain, and an XmlViewResolver for specifying Excel views. Excel
views are not supported by theInternalResourceViewResolver.

<bean id="jspViewResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
<property name="viewClass"
value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView"/>
<property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/"/>

553
 <property name="suffix" value=".jsp"/>
</bean>

<bean id="excelViewResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.XmlViewResolver">
<property name="order" value="1"/>
<property name="location" value="/WEB-INF/views.xml"/>
</bean>

<!-- in views.xml -->

<beans>
<bean name="report" class="org.springframework.example.ReportExcelView"/>
</beans>

If a specific view resolver does not result in a view, Spring examines the context
for other view resolvers. If additional view resolvers exist, Spring continues to
inspect them until a view is resolved. If no view resolver returns a view, Spring
throws a ServletException.

The contract of a view resolver specifies that a view resolver can return null to

indicate the view could not be found. Not all view resolvers do this, however,
because in some cases, the resolver simply cannot detect whether or not the view
exists. For example, theInternalResourceViewResolver uses
the RequestDispatcher internally, and dispatching is the only way to figure out if a
JSP exists, but this action can only execute once. The same holds for
the VelocityViewResolver and some others. Check the Javadoc for the view resolver
to see whether it reports non-existing views. Thus, putting
an InternalResourceViewResolver in the chain in a place other than the last, results in
the chain not being fully inspected, because
the InternalResourceViewResolver will always return a view!

15.5.3 Redirecting to views

As mentioned previously, a controller typically returns a logical view name, which a

view resolver resolves to a particular view technology. For view technologies such
as JSPs that are processed through the Servlet or JSP engine, this resolution is
usually handled through the combination
ofInternalResourceViewResolver and InternalResourceView, which issues an internal
forward or include via the Servlet API'sRequestDispatcher.forward(..) method
or RequestDispatcher.include() method. For other view technologies, such as
Velocity, XSLT, and so on, the view itself writes the content directly to the
response stream.

554
It is sometimes desirable to issue an HTTP redirect back to the client, before the
view is rendered. This is desirable, for example, when one controller has been
called with POSTed data, and the response is actually a delegation to another
controller (for example on a successful form submission). In this case, a normal
internal forward will mean that the other controller will also see the same POST data,
which is potentially problematic if it can confuse it with other expected data.
Another reason to perform a redirect before displaying the result is to eliminate the
possibility of the user submitting the form data multiple times. In this scenario, the
browser will first send an initial POST; it will then receive a response to redirect to a
different URL; and finally the browser will perform a subsequent GET for the URL
named in the redirect response. Thus, from the perspective of the browser, the
current page does not reflect the result of a POST but rather of a GET. The end effect
is that there is no way the user can accidentally re-POST the same data by
performing a refresh. The refresh forces a GET of the result page, not a resend of
the initial POSTdata.

15.5.3.1 RedirectView

One way to force a redirect as the result of a controller response is for the
controller to create and return an instance of Spring's RedirectView. In this
case, DispatcherServlet does not use the normal view resolution mechanism.
Rather because it has been given the (redirect) view already,
the DispatcherServlet simply instructs the view to do its work.

The RedirectView issues an HttpServletResponse.sendRedirect() call that returns to

the client browser as an HTTP redirect. All model attributes are exposed as HTTP
query parameters. This means that the model must contain only objects (generally
Strings or objects converted to a String representation), which can be readily
converted to a textual HTTP query parameter.

If you use RedirectView and the view is created by the controller itself, it is

recommended that you configure the redirect URL to be injected into the controller
so that it is not baked into the controller but configured in the context along with
the view names. The next section discusses this process.

15.5.3.2 The redirect: prefix

While the use of RedirectView works fine, if the controller itself creates

the RedirectView, there is no avoiding the fact that the controller is aware that a
redirection is happening. This is really suboptimal and couples things too tightly.
The controller should not really care about how the response gets handled. In

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general it should operate only in terms of view names that have been injected into
it.

The special redirect: prefix allows you to accomplish this. If a view name is

returned that has the prefix redirect:, the UrlBasedViewResolver(and all subclasses)
will recognize this as a special indication that a redirect is needed. The rest of the
view name will be treated as the redirect URL.

The net effect is the same as if the controller had returned a RedirectView, but now
the controller itself can simply operate in terms of logical view names. A logical
view name such as redirect:/my/response/controller.html will redirect relative to
the current servlet context, while a name such
as redirect:http://myhost.com/some/arbitrary/path.html will redirect to an absolute
URL. The important thing is that, as long as this redirect view name is injected into
the controller like any other logical view name, the controller is not even aware that
redirection is happening.

15.5.3.3 The forward: prefix

It is also possible to use a special forward: prefix for view names that are ultimately
resolved by UrlBasedViewResolver and subclasses. This creates
an InternalResourceView (which ultimately does a RequestDispatcher.forward())
around the rest of the view name, which is considered a URL. Therefore, this
prefix is not useful with InternalResourceViewResolver and InternalResourceView (for
JSPs for example). But the prefix can be helpful when you are primarily using
another view technology, but still want to force a forward of a resource to be
handled by the Servlet/JSP engine. (Note that you may also chain multiple view
resolvers, instead.)

As with the redirect: prefix, if the view name with the forward: prefix is injected into

the controller, the controller does not detect that anything special is happening in
terms of handling the response.

15.5.4 ContentNegotiatingViewResolver

The ContentNegotiatingViewResolver does not resolve views itself but rather

delegates to other view resolvers, selecting the view that resembles the
representation requested by the client. Two strategies exist for a client to request a
representation from the server:

 Use a distinct URI for each resource, typically by using a different file
extension in the URI. For example, the

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 URIhttp://www.example.com/users/fred.pdf requests a PDF representation of
the user fred, and http://www.example.com/users/fred.xmlrequests an XML
representation.

 Use the same URI for the client to locate the resource, but set
the Accept HTTP request header to list the media types that it understands.
For example, an HTTP request for http://www.example.com/users/fred with
an Accept header set to application/pdf requests a PDF representation of the
user fred, while http://www.example.com/users/fred with an Accept header
set to text/xml requests an XML representation. This strategy is known
as content negotiation.

Note
One issue with the Accept header is that it is impossible to set it in a web browser within HTML.
For example, in Firefox, it is fixed to:

Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8

For this reason it is common to see the use of a distinct URI for each representation when
developing browser based web applications.

To support multiple representations of a resource, Spring provides

the ContentNegotiatingViewResolver to resolve a view based on the file extension
or Accept header of the HTTP request. ContentNegotiatingViewResolver does not
perform the view resolution itself but instead delegates to a list of view resolvers
that you specify through the bean property ViewResolvers.

The ContentNegotiatingViewResolver selects an appropriate View to handle the

request by comparing the request media type(s) with the media type (also known
as Content-Type) supported by the View associated with each of its ViewResolvers.
The first View in the list that has a compatible Content-Type returns the
representation to the client. If a compatible view cannot be supplied by
the ViewResolver chain, then the list of views specified through
the DefaultViews property will be consulted. This latter option is appropriate for
singleton Views that can render an appropriate representation of the current
resource regardless of the logical view name. The Accept header may include
wildcards, for example text/*, in which case a View whose Content-Type was
text/xml is a compatible match.

To support the resolution of a view based on a file extension, use

the ContentNegotiatingViewResolver bean property mediaTypes to specify a mapping

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of file extensions to media types. For more information on the algorithm used to
determine the request media type, refer to the API documentation
for ContentNegotiatingViewResolver.

Here is an example configuration of a ContentNegotiatingViewResolver:

<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.ContentNegotiatingViewResolver">
<property name="mediaTypes">
<map>
<entry key="atom" value="application/atom+xml"/>
<entry key="html" value="text/html"/>
<entry key="json" value="application/json"/>
</map>
</property>
<property name="viewResolvers">
<list>
<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.BeanNameViewResolver"/>
<bean
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
<property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/"/>
<property name="suffix" value=".jsp"/>
</bean>
</list>
</property>
<property name="defaultViews">
<list>
<bean
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.json.MappingJacksonJsonView" />
</list>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="content" class="com.springsource.samples.rest.SampleContentAtomView"/>

The InternalResourceViewResolver handles the translation of view names and JSP

pages, while the BeanNameViewResolver returns a view based on the name of a bean.
(See "Resolving views with the ViewResolver interface" for more details on how
Spring looks up and instantiates a view.) In this example, the content bean is a
class that inherits from AbstractAtomFeedView, which returns an Atom RSS feed. For
more information on creating an Atom Feed representation, see the section Atom
Views.

In the above configuration, if a request is made with an .html extension, the view

resolver looks for a view that matches the text/html media type.
The InternalResourceViewResolver provides the matching view for text/html. If the
request is made with the file extension .atom, the view resolver looks for a view
that matches the application/atom+xml media type. This view is provided by

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the BeanNameViewResolver that maps to theSampleContentAtomView if the view
name returned is content. If the request is made with the file extension .json,
the MappingJacksonJsonViewinstance from the DefaultViews list will be selected
regardless of the view name. Alternatively, client requests can be made without a
file extension but with the Accept header set to the preferred media-type, and the same
resolution of request to views would occur.

Note

If ContentNegotiatingViewResolver's list of ViewResolvers is not configured explicitly, it

automatically uses any ViewResolvers defined in the application context.

The corresponding controller code that returns an Atom RSS feed for a URI of the
form http://localhost/content.atom orhttp://localhost/content with
an Accept header of application/atom+xml is shown below.

@Controller
public class ContentController {

private List<SampleContent> contentList = new ArrayList<SampleContent>();

@RequestMapping(value="/content", method=RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView getContent() {
ModelAndView mav = new ModelAndView();
mav.setViewName("content");
mav.addObject("sampleContentList", contentList);
return mav;
}

15.6 Using locales

Most parts of Spring's architecture support internationalization, just as the Spring

web MVC framework does. DispatcherServlet enables you to automatically resolve
messages using the client's locale. This is done with LocaleResolver objects.

When a request comes in, the DispatcherServlet looks for a locale resolver, and if it

finds one it tries to use it to set the locale. Using
theRequestContext.getLocale() method, you can always retrieve the locale that was
resolved by the locale resolver.

In addition to automatic locale resolution, you can also attach an interceptor to the
handler mapping (see Section 15.4.1, “Intercepting requests - the
HandlerInterceptor interface” for more information on handler mapping

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 interceptors) to change the locale under specific circumstances, for example,
based on a parameter in the request.

Locale resolvers and interceptors are defined in

the org.springframework.web.servlet.i18n package and are configured in your
application context in the normal way. Here is a selection of the locale resolvers
included in Spring.

15.6.1 AcceptHeaderLocaleResolver

This locale resolver inspects the accept-language header in the request that was

sent by the client (e.g., a web browser). Usually this header field contains the
locale of the client's operating system.

15.6.2 CookieLocaleResolver

This locale resolver inspects a Cookie that might exist on the client to see if a locale
is specified. If so, it uses the specified locale. Using the properties of this locale
resolver, you can specify the name of the cookie as well as the maximum age.
Find below an example of defining aCookieLocaleResolver.

<bean id="localeResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.i18n.CookieLocaleResolver">

<property name="cookieName" value="clientlanguage"/>

<!-- in seconds. If set to -1, the cookie is not persisted (deleted when
browser shuts down) -->
<property name="cookieMaxAge" value="100000">

</bean>

Table 15.4. CookieLocaleResolver properties

Default Description
classname + LOCALE The name of the cookie
The maximum time a cookie will stay persistent on the client. If -1 is specified, the cookie will not be
Integer.MAX_INT
persisted; it will only be available until the client shuts down his or her browser.
Limits the visibility of the cookie to a certain part of your site. When cookiePath is specified, the cookie
/
only be visible to that path and the paths below it.

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15.6.3 SessionLocaleResolver

The SessionLocaleResolver allows you to retrieve locales from the session that

might be associated with the user's request.

15.6.4 LocaleChangeInterceptor

You can enable changing of locales by adding the LocaleChangeInterceptor to one

of the handler mappings (see Section 15.4, “Handler mappings”). It will detect a
parameter in the request and change the locale. It calls setLocale() on
the LocaleResolver that also exists in the context. The following example shows that
calls to all *.view resources containing a parameter named siteLanguage will now
change the locale. So, for example, a request for the following
URL, http://www.sf.net/home.view?siteLanguage=nl will change the site language to
Dutch.

<bean id="localeChangeInterceptor"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.i18n.LocaleChangeInterceptor">
<property name="paramName" value="siteLanguage"/>
</bean>

<bean id="localeResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.i18n.CookieLocaleResolver"/>

<bean id="urlMapping"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping">
<property name="interceptors">
<list>
<ref bean="localeChangeInterceptor"/>
</list>
</property>
<property name="mappings">
<value>/**/*.view=someController</value>
</property>
</bean>

15.7 Using themes
15.7.1 Overview of themes

You can apply Spring Web MVC framework themes to set the overall look-and-feel
of your application, thereby enhancing user experience. A theme is a collection of
static resources, typically style sheets and images, that affect the visual style of
the application.

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15.7.2 Defining themes

To use themes in your web application, you must set up an implementation of

the org.springframework.ui.context.ThemeSource interface.
TheWebApplicationContext interface extends ThemeSource but delegates its
responsibilities to a dedicated implementation. By default the delegate will be
an org.springframework.ui.context.support.ResourceBundleThemeSource implementatio
n that loads properties files from the root of the classpath. To use a
custom ThemeSource implementation or to configure the base name prefix of
the ResourceBundleThemeSource, you can register a bean in the application context
with the reserved name themeSource. The web application context automatically
detects a bean with that name and uses it.

When using the ResourceBundleThemeSource, a theme is defined in a simple

properties file. The properties file lists the resources that make up the theme. Here
is an example:

styleSheet=/themes/cool/style.css
background=/themes/cool/img/coolBg.jpg

The keys of the properties are the names that refer to the themed elements from
view code. For a JSP, you typically do this using the spring:themecustom tag, which
is very similar to the spring:message tag. The following JSP fragment uses the
theme defined in the previous example to customize the look and feel:

<%@ taglib prefix="spring" uri="http://www.springframework.org/tags"%>

<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="<spring:theme code='styleSheet'/>"
type="text/css"/>
</head>
<body style="background=<spring:theme code='background'/>">
...
</body>
</html>

By default, the ResourceBundleThemeSource uses an empty base name prefix. As a

result, the properties files are loaded from the root of the classpath. Thus you
would put the cool.properties theme definition in a directory at the root of the
classpath, for example, in /WEB-INF/classes. The ResourceBundleThemeSource uses the
standard Java resource bundle loading mechanism, allowing for full
internationalization of themes. For example, we could have a /WEB-

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 INF/classes/cool_nl.properties that references a special background image with
Dutch text on it.

15.7.3 Theme resolvers

After you define themes, as in the preceding section, you decide which theme to
use. The DispatcherServlet will look for a bean namedthemeResolver to find out
which ThemeResolver implementation to use. A theme resolver works in much the
same way as a LocaleResolver. It detects the theme to use for a particular request
and can also alter the request's theme. The following theme resolvers are provided
by Spring:

Table 15.5. ThemeResolver implementations

Description
olver Selects a fixed theme, set using the defaultThemeName property.
esolver
The theme is maintained in the user's HTTP session. It only needs to be set once for each session, but is not persisted
between sessions.
solver The selected theme is stored in a cookie on the client.

Spring also provides a ThemeChangeInterceptor that allows theme changes on every

request with a simple request parameter.

15.8 Spring's multipart (fileupload) support

15.8.1 Introduction

Spring's built-in multipart support handles file uploads in web applications. You
enable this multipart support with pluggable MultipartResolverobjects, defined in
the org.springframework.web.multipart package. Spring provides
a MultipartResolver for use with Commons FileUpload).

By default, Spring does no multipart handling, because some developers want to

handle multiparts themselves. You enable Spring multipart handling by adding a
multipart resolver to the web application's context. Each request is inspected to
see if it contains a multipart. If no multipart is found, the request continues as
expected. If a multipart is found in the request, the MultipartResolver that has been
declared in your context is used. After that, the multipart attribute in your request is
treated like any other attribute.

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15.8.2 Using the MultipartResolver

The following example shows how to use the CommonsMultipartResolver:

<bean id="multipartResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.multipart.commons.CommonsMultipartResolver">

<!-- one of the properties available; the maximum file size in bytes -->
<property name="maxUploadSize" value="100000"/>
</bean>

Of course you also need to put the appropriate jars in your classpath for the
multipart resolver to work. In the case of theCommonsMultipartResolver, you need to
use commons-fileupload.jar.

When the Spring DispatcherServlet detects a multi-part request, it activates the

resolver that has been declared in your context and hands over the request. The
resolver then wraps the current HttpServletRequest into
a MultipartHttpServletRequest that supports multipart file uploads. Using
the MultipartHttpServletRequest, you can get information about the multiparts
contained by this request and actually get access to the multipart files themselves
in your controllers.

15.8.3 Handling a file upload in a form

After the MultipartResolver completes its job, the request is processed like any

other. First, create a form with a file input that will allow the user to upload a form.
The encoding attribute (enctype="multipart/form-data") lets the browser know how
to encode the form as multipart request:

<html>
<head>
<title>Upload a file please</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Please upload a file</h1>
<form method="post" action="/form" enctype="multipart/form-data">
<input type="text" name="name"/>
<input type="file" name="file"/>
<input type="submit"/>
</form>
</body>
</html>

564
The next step is to create a controller that handles the file upload. This controller is
very similar to a normal annotated @Controller, except that we
use MultipartHttpServletRequest or MultipartFile in the method parameters:

@Controller
public class FileUpoadController {

@RequestMapping(value = "/form", method = RequestMethod.POST)

public String handleFormUpload(@RequestParam("name") String name,
@RequestParam("file") MultipartFile file) {

if (!file.isEmpty()) {
byte[] bytes = file.getBytes();
// store the bytes somewhere
return "redirect:uploadSuccess";
} else {
return "redirect:uploadFailure";
}
}

Note how the @RequestParam method parameters map to the input elements

declared in the form. In this example, nothing is done with the byte[], but in
practice you can save it in a database, store it on the file system, and so on.

Finally, you will have to declare the controller and the resolver in the application
context:

<beans>
<bean id="multipartResolver"

class="org.springframework.web.multipart.commons.CommonsMultipartResolver"/>
<!-- Declare explicitly, or use <context:annotation-config/> -->
<bean id="fileUploadController" class="examples.FileUploadController"/>

</beans>

15.9 Handling exceptions
15.9.1 HandlerExceptionResolver

Spring HandlerExceptionResolvers ease the pain of unexpected exceptions that

occur while your request is handled by a controller that matched the
request. HandlerExceptionResolvers somewhat resemble the exception mappings
you can define in the web application descriptor web.xml. However, they provide a
more flexible way to handle exceptions. They provide information about which

565
handler was executing when the exception was thrown. Furthermore, a
programmatic way of handling exceptions gives you more options for responding
appropriately before the request is forwarded to another URL (the same end result
as when you use the servlet specific exception mappings).

Besides implementing the HandlerExceptionResolver interface, which is only a

matter of implementing the resolveException(Exception, Handler) method and
returning a ModelAndView, you may also use the SimpleMappingExceptionResolver. This
resolver enables you to take the class name of any exception that might be thrown
and map it to a view name. This is functionally equivalent to the exception
mapping feature from the Servlet API, but it is also possible to implement more
finely grained mappings of exceptions from different handlers.

By default, the DispatcherServlet registers the DefaultHandlerExceptionResolver.

This resolver handles certain standard Spring MVC exceptions by setting a specific response status
code:

Exception HTTP Status Code

ConversionNotSupportedException 500 (Internal Server Error)
HttpMediaTypeNotAcceptableException 406 (Not Acceptable)
HttpMediaTypeNotSupportedException 415 (Unsupported Media Type)
HttpMessageNotReadableException 400 (Bad Request)
HttpMessageNotWritableException 500 (Internal Server Error)
HttpRequestMethodNotSupportedException 405 (Method Not Allowed)
MissingServletRequestParameterException 400 (Bad Request)
NoSuchRequestHandlingMethodException 404 (Not Found)
TypeMismatchException 400 (Bad Request)

15.9.2 @ExceptionHandler

An alternative to the HandlerExceptionResolver interface is
the @ExceptionHandler annotation. You use the @ExceptionHandler method annotation
within a controller to specify which method is invoked when an exception of a
specific type is thrown during the execution of controller methods. For example:

@Controller
public class SimpleController {

// other controller method omitted

@ExceptionHandler(IOException.class)
public String handleIOException(IOException ex, HttpServletRequest request) {
return ClassUtils.getShortName(ex.getClass());

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 }
}

will invoke the 'handlerIOException' method when a java.io.IOException is thrown.

The @ExceptionHandler value can be set to an array of Exception types. If an

exception is thrown matches one of the types in the list, then the method
annotated with the matching @ExceptionHandler will be invoked. If the annotation
value is not set then the exception types listed as method arguments are used.

Much like standard controller methods annotated with

a @RequestMapping annotation, the method arguments and return values
of@ExceptionHandler methods are very flexible. For example,
the HttpServletRequest can be accessed in Servlet environments and
thePortletRequest in Portlet environments. The return type can be a String, which is
interpreted as a view name or a ModelAndView object. Refer to the API
documentation for more details.

15.10 Convention over configuration support

For a lot of projects, sticking to established conventions and having reasonable

defaults is just what they (the projects) need... this theme of convention-over-
configuration now has explicit support in Spring Web MVC. What this means is
that if you establish a set of naming conventions and suchlike, you
can substantially cut down on the amount of configuration that is required to set up
handler mappings, view resolvers,ModelAndView instances, etc. This is a great boon
with regards to rapid prototyping, and can also lend a degree of (always good-to-
have) consistency across a codebase should you choose to move forward with it
into production.

Convention-over-configuration support addresses the three core areas of MVC --

models, views, and controllers.

15.10.1 The Controller ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping

The ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping class is a HandlerMapping implementation that

uses a convention to determine the mapping between request URLs and
the Controller instances that are to handle those requests.

Consider the following simple Controller implementation. Take special notice of

the name of the class.

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public class ViewShoppingCartController implements Controller {

public ModelAndView handleRequest(HttpServletRequest request,

HttpServletResponse response) {
// the implementation is not hugely important for this example...
}
}

Here is a snippet from the attendent Spring Web MVC configuration file...

<bean
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.ControllerClassNameHandlerMappi
ng"/>

<bean id="viewShoppingCart" class="x.y.z.ViewShoppingCartController">

<!-- inject dependencies as required... -->
</bean>

The ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping finds all of the various handler

(or Controller) beans defined in its application context and strips Controller off the
name to define its handler mappings. Thus, ViewShoppingCartController maps to
the /viewshoppingcart* request URL.

Let's look at some more examples so that the central idea becomes immediately
familiar. (Notice all lowercase in the URLs, in contrast to camel-
cased Controller class names.)

 WelcomeController maps to the /welcome* request URL

 HomeController maps to the /home* request URL

 IndexController maps to the /index* request URL

 RegisterController maps to the /register* request URL

In the case of MultiActionController handler classes, the mappings generated are

slightly more complex. The Controller names in the following examples are
assumed to be MultiActionController implementations:

 AdminController maps to the /admin/* request URL

 CatalogController maps to the /catalog/* request URL

If you follow the convention of naming your Controller implementations

as xxxController, the ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping saves you the tedium of

568
defining and maintaining a potentially looooong SimpleUrlHandlerMapping (or
suchlike).

The ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping class extends
the AbstractHandlerMapping base class so you can
define HandlerInterceptorinstances and everything else just as you would with
many other HandlerMapping implementations.

15.10.2 The Model ModelMap (ModelAndView)

The ModelMap class is essentially a glorified Map that can make adding objects that

are to be displayed in (or on) a View adhere to a common naming convention.
Consider the following Controller implementation; notice that objects are added to
the ModelAndView without any associated name specified.

public class DisplayShoppingCartController implements Controller {

public ModelAndView handleRequest(HttpServletRequest request,

HttpServletResponse response) {

List cartItems = // get a List of CartItem objects

User user = // get the User doing the shopping

ModelAndView mav = new ModelAndView("displayShoppingCart"); <-- the

logical view name

mav.addObject(cartItems); <-- look ma, no name, just the object

mav.addObject(user); <-- and again ma!

return mav;
}
}

The ModelAndView class uses a ModelMap class that is a custom Map implementation

that automatically generates a key for an object when an object is added to it. The
strategy for determining the name for an added object is, in the case of a scalar
object such as User, to use the short class name of the object's class. The following
examples are names that are generated for scalar objects put into
a ModelMap instance.

 An x.y.User instance added will have the name user generated.

 An x.y.Registration instance added will have the
name registration generated.

 An x.y.Foo instance added will have the name foo generated.

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  A java.util.HashMap instance added will have the name hashMap generated.
You probably want to be explicit about the name in this case
because hashMap is less than intuitive.

 Adding null will result in an IllegalArgumentException being thrown. If the

object (or objects) that you are adding could be null, then you will also want
to be explicit about the name.
What, no automatic pluralisation?

Spring Web MVC's convention-over-configuration support does not support automatic pluralisation. That
is, you cannot add a List of Person objects to a ModelAndView and have the generated name
bepeople.

This decision was made after some debate, with the “Principle of Least Surprise” winning out in the end.

The strategy for generating a name after adding a Set, List or array object is to
peek into the collection, take the short class name of the first object in the
collection, and use that with List appended to the name. Some examples will
make the semantics of name generation for collections clearer...

 An x.y.User[] array with one or more x.y.User elements added will have the

name userList generated.
 An x.y.Foo[] array with one or more x.y.User elements added will have the
name fooList generated.

 A java.util.ArrayList with one or more x.y.User elements added will have

the name userList generated.

 A java.util.HashSet with one or more x.y.Foo elements added will have the

name fooList generated.

 An empty java.util.ArrayList will not be added at all (in effect,

the addObject(..) call will essentially be a no-op).

15.10.3 The View - RequestToViewNameTranslator

The RequestToViewNameTranslator interface determines a logical View name when no

such logical view name is explicitly supplied. It has just one implementation,
the DefaultRequestToViewNameTranslator class.

The DefaultRequestToViewNameTranslator maps request URLs to logical view names,

as with this example:

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public class RegistrationController implements Controller {

public ModelAndView handleRequest(HttpServletRequest request,

HttpServletResponse response) {
// process the request...
ModelAndView mav = new ModelAndView();
// add data as necessary to the model...
return mav;
// notice that no View or logical view name has been set
}
}
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE beans PUBLIC "-//SPRING//DTD BEAN 2.0//EN"
"http://www.springframework.org/dtd/spring-beans-2.0.dtd">
<beans>

<!-- this bean with the well known name generates view names for us -->
<bean id="viewNameTranslator"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.DefaultRequestToViewNameTranslator"/>

<bean class="x.y.RegistrationController">
<!-- inject dependencies as necessary -->
</bean>

<!-- maps request URLs to Controller names -->

<bean
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.ControllerClassNameHandlerMappi
ng"/>

<bean id="viewResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
<property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/"/>
<property name="suffix" value=".jsp"/>
</bean>

</beans>

Notice how in the implementation of the handleRequest(..) method no View or

logical view name is ever set on the ModelAndView that is returned.
The DefaultRequestToViewNameTranslator is tasked with generating a logical
view name from the URL of the request. In the case of the
aboveRegistrationController, which is used in conjunction with
the ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping, a request URL
ofhttp://localhost/registration.html results in a logical view name
of registration being generated by theDefaultRequestToViewNameTranslator. This
logical view name is then resolved into the /WEB-INF/jsp/registration.jsp view by
theInternalResourceViewResolver bean.

Tip

571
 You do not need to define a DefaultRequestToViewNameTranslator bean explicitly. If you like
the default settings of theDefaultRequestToViewNameTranslator, you can rely on the Spring
Web MVC DispatcherServlet to instantiate an instance of this class if one is not explicitly
configured.

Of course, if you need to change the default settings, then you do need to
configure your own DefaultRequestToViewNameTranslator bean explicitly. Consult the
comprehensive Javadoc for the DefaultRequestToViewNameTranslator class for details
of the various properties that can be configured.

15.11 ETag support

An ETag (entity tag) is an HTTP response header returned by an HTTP/1.1

compliant web server used to determine change in content at a given URL. It can
be considered to be the more sophisticated successor to the Last-Modified header.
When a server returns a representation with an ETag header, the client can use
this header in subsequent GETs, in an If-None-Match header. If the content has not
changed, the server returns304: Not Modified.

Support for ETags is provided by the servlet filter ShallowEtagHeaderFilter. It is a

plain Servlet Filter, and thus can be used in combination with any web framework.
The ShallowEtagHeaderFilter filter creates so-called shallow ETags (as opposed to
deep ETags, more about that later).The filter caches the content of the rendered
JSP (or other content), generates an MD5 hash over that, and returns that as an
ETag header in the response. The next time a client sends a request for the same
resource, it uses that hash as the If-None-Match value. The filter detects this,
renders the view again, and compares the two hashes. If they are equal, a 304 is
returned. This filter will not save processing power, as the view is still rendered.
The only thing it saves is bandwidth, as the rendered response is not sent back
over the wire.

You configure the ShallowEtagHeaderFilter in web.xml:

<filter>
<filter-name>etagFilter</filter-name>
<filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.ShallowEtagHeaderFilter</filter-
class>
</filter>

<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>etagFilter</filter-name>

572
 <servlet-name>petclinic</servlet-name>
</filter-mapping>

15.12 Configuring Spring MVC

Spring 3 introduces a mvc XML configuration namespace that simplifies the setup

of Spring MVC inside your web application. Instead of registering low-level beans
such as AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter, you can simply use the namespace
and its higher-level constructs. This is generally preferred unless you require finer-
grained control of the configuration at the bean level.

The mvc namespace consists of three tags: mvc:annotation-driven,

mvc:interceptors, and mvc:view-controller. Each of these tags is documented
below and in the XML schema.

15.12.1 mvc:annotation-driven

This tag registers the DefaultAnnotationHandlerMapping and

AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter beans that are required for Spring MVC to
dispatch requests to @Controllers. The tag configures those two beans with
sensible defaults based on what is present in your classpath. The defaults are:

1. Support for Spring 3's Type ConversionService in addition to JavaBeans

PropertyEditors during Data Binding. A ConversionService instance
produced by
the org.springframework.format.support.FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBea
n is used by default. This can be overriden by setting the conversion-
service attribute.
2. Support for formatting Number fields using the @NumberFormat annotation

3. Support for formatting Date, Calendar, Long, and Joda Time fields using the
@DateTimeFormat annotation, if Joda Time 1.3 or higher is present on the
classpath.

4. Support for validating @Controller inputs with @Valid, if a JSR-303 Provider

is present on the classpath. The validation system can be explicitly
configured by setting the validator attribute.

5. Support for reading and writing XML, if JAXB is present on the classpath.

6. Support for reading and writing JSON, if Jackson is present on the

classpath.

573
A typical usage is shown below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd">

<!-- JSR-303 support will be detected on classpath and enabled automatically

-->
<mvc:annotation-driven/>

</beans>

15.12.2 mvc:interceptors

This tag allows you to register custom HandlerInterceptors or

WebRequestInterceptors that should be applied to all HandlerMapping beans. You
can also restrict the URL paths specifc interceptors apply to.

An example of registering an interceptor applied to all URL paths:

<mvc:interceptors>
<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.i18n.LocaleChangeInterceptor" />
</mvc:interceptors>

An example of registering an interceptor limited to a specific URL path:

<mvc:interceptors>
<mvc:interceptor>
<mapping path="/secure/*"/>
<bean class="org.example.SecurityInterceptor" />
</mvc:interceptor>
</mvc:interceptors>

15.12.3 mvc:view-controller

This tag is a shorcut for defining a ParameterizableViewController that immediately

forwards to a view when invoked. Use it in static cases when there is no Java
Controller logic to execute before the view generates the response.

574
An example of view-controller that forwards to a home page is shown below:

<mvc:view-controller path="/" view-name="home"/>

15.12.4 mvc:resources

This tag allows static resource requests following a particular URL pattern to be
served by a ResourceHttpRequestHandler from any of a list ofResource locations. This
provides a convenient way to serve static resources from locations other than the
web application root, including locations on the classpath. The cache-
period property may be used to set far future expiration headers (1 year is the
recommendation of optimization tools such as Page Speed and YSlow) so that
they will be more efficiently utilized by the client. The handler also properly
evaluates the Last-Modifiedheader (if present) so that a 304 status code will be
returned as appropriate, avoiding unnecessary overhead for resources that are
already cached by the client. For example, to serve resource requests with a URL
pattern of /resources/** from a public-resources directory within the web application
root, the tag would be used as follows:

<mvc:resources mapping="/resources/**" location="/public-resources/"/>

To serve these resources with a 1-year future expiration to ensure maximum use
of the browser cache and a reduction in HTTP requests made by the browser:

<mvc:resources mapping="/resources/**" location="/public-resources/" cache-

period="31556926"/>

The mapping attribute must be an Ant pattern that can be used

by SimpleUrlHandlerMapping, and the location attribute must specify one or more
valid resource directory locations. Multiple resource locations may be specified
using a comma-seperated list of values. The locations specified will be checked in
the specified order for the presence of the resource for any given request. For
example, to enable the serving of resources from both the web application root
and from a known path of /META-INF/public-web-resources/ in any jar on the
classpath, the tag would be specified as:

575
<mvc:resources mapping="/resources/**" location="/, classpath:/META-INF/public-
web-resources/"/>

When serving resources that may change when a new version of the application is
deployed, it is recommended that you incorporate a version string into the mapping
pattern used to request the resources, so that you may force clients to request the
newly deployed version of your application's resources. Such a version string can
be parameterized and accessed using SpEL so that it may be easily managed in a
single place when deploying new versions.

As an example, let's consider an application that uses a performance-optimized

custom build (as recommended) of the Dojo JavaScript library in production, and
that the build is generally deployed within the web application at a path of /public-
resources/dojo/dojo.js. Since different parts of Dojo may be incorporated into the
custom build for each new version of the application, the client web browsers need
to be forced to re-download that custom-built dojo.js resource any time a new
version of the application is deployed. A simple way to achieve this would be to
manage the version of the application in a properties file, such as:

application.version=1.0.0

and then to make the properties file's values accessible to SpEL as a bean using
the util:properties tag:

<util:properties id="applicationProps" location="/WEB-

INF/spring/application.properties"/>

With the application version now accessible via SpEL, we can incorporate this into
the use of the resources tag:

<mvc:resources mapping="/resources-#{applicationProps['application.version']}/**"
location="/public-resources/"/>

and finally, to request the resource with the proper URL, we can take advantage of
the Spring JSP tags:

576
<spring:eval expression="@applicationProps['application.version']"
var="applicationVersion"/>

<spring:url value="/resources-{applicationVersion}" var="resourceUrl">

<spring:param name="applicationVersion" value="${applicationVersion}"/>
</spring:url>

<script src="${resourceUrl}/dojo/dojo.js" type="text/javascript"> </script>

15.12.5 mvc:default-servlet-handler

This tag allows for mapping the DispatcherServlet to "/" (thus overriding the
mapping of the container's default Servlet), while still allowing static resource
requests to be handled by the container's default Servlet. It configures
a DefaultServletHttpRequestHandler with a URL mapping (given a lowest
precedence order) of "/**". This handler will forward all requests to the default
Servlet. To enable this feature using the default setup, simply include the tag in the
form:

<mvc:default-servlet-handler/>

The caveat to overriding the "/" Servlet mapping is that the RequestDispatcher for

the default Servlet must be retrieved by name rather than by path.
The DefaultServletHttpRequestHandler will attempt to auto-detect the default Servlet
for the container at startup time, using a list of known names for most of the major
Servlet containers (including Tomcat, Jetty, Glassfish, JBoss, Resin, WebLogic,
and WebSphere). If the default Servlet has been custom configured with a different
name, or if a different Servlet container is being used where the default Servlet
name is unknown, then the default Servlet's name must be explicitly provided as in
the following example:

<mvc:default-servlet-handler default-servlet-name="myCustomDefaultServlet"/>

15.13 More Spring Web MVC Resources

See the following links and pointers for more resources about Spring Web MVC:

 There are many excellent articles and tutorials that show how to build web
applications with Spring MVC. Read them at the Spring
Documentation page.

577
  “Expert Spring Web MVC and Web Flow” by Seth Ladd and others
(published by Apress) is an excellent hard copy source of Spring Web MVC
goodness.

16. View technologies

16.1 Introduction

One of the areas in which Spring excels is in the separation of view technologies
from the rest of the MVC framework. For example, deciding to use Velocity or
XSLT in place of an existing JSP is primarily a matter of configuration. This
chapter covers the major view technologies that work with Spring and touches
briefly on how to add new ones. This chapter assumes you are already familiar
with Section 15.5, “Resolving views” which covers the basics of how views in
general are coupled to the MVC framework.

16.2 JSP & JSTL

Spring provides a couple of out-of-the-box solutions for JSP and JSTL views.
Using JSP or JSTL is done using a normal view resolver defined in
the WebApplicationContext. Furthermore, of course you need to write some JSPs that will
actually render the view.

Note

Setting up your application to use JSTL is a common source of error, mainly caused by confusion
over the different servlet spec., JSP and JSTL version numbers, what they mean and how to
declare the taglibs correctly. The article How to Reference and Use JSTL in your Web
Application provides a useful guide to the common pitfalls and how to avoid them. Note that as
of Spring 3.0, the minimum supported servlet version is 2.4 (JSP 2.0 and JSTL 1.1), which
reduces the scope for confusion somewhat.

16.2.1 View resolvers

Just as with any other view technology you're integrating with Spring, for JSPs
you'll need a view resolver that will resolve your views. The most commonly used
view resolvers when developing with JSPs are
the InternalResourceViewResolver and the ResourceBundleViewResolver. Both are
declared in the WebApplicationContext:

<!-- the ResourceBundleViewResolver -->

<bean id="viewResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.ResourceBundleViewResolver">

578
 <property name="basename" value="views"/>
</bean>

# And a sample properties file is uses (views.properties in WEB-INF/classes):

welcome.(class)=org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView
welcome.url=/WEB-INF/jsp/welcome.jsp

productList.(class)=org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView
productList.url=/WEB-INF/jsp/productlist.jsp

As you can see, the ResourceBundleViewResolver needs a properties file defining the

view names mapped to 1) a class and 2) a URL. With
aResourceBundleViewResolver you can mix different types of views using only one
resolver.

<bean id="viewResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
<property name="viewClass"
value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView"/>
<property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/"/>
<property name="suffix" value=".jsp"/>
</bean>

The InternalResourceBundleViewResolver can be configured for using JSPs as

described above. As a best practice, we strongly encourage placing your JSP files
in a directory under the 'WEB-INF' directory, so there can be no direct access by
clients.

16.2.2 'Plain-old' JSPs versus JSTL

When using the Java Standard Tag Library you must use a special view class,
the JstlView, as JSTL needs some preparation before things such as the I18N
features will work.

16.2.3 Additional tags facilitating development

Spring provides data binding of request parameters to command objects as

described in earlier chapters. To facilitate the development of JSP pages in
combination with those data binding features, Spring provides a few tags that
make things even easier. All Spring tags have HTML escaping features to enable
or disable escaping of characters.

579
The tag library descriptor (TLD) is included in the spring-webmvc.jar. Further
information about the individual tags can be found in the appendix
entitled Appendix F, spring.tld.

16.2.4 Using Spring's form tag library

As of version 2.0, Spring provides a comprehensive set of data binding-aware tags

for handling form elements when using JSP and Spring Web MVC. Each tag
provides support for the set of attributes of its corresponding HTML tag
counterpart, making the tags familiar and intuitive to use. The tag-generated HTML
is HTML 4.01/XHTML 1.0 compliant.

Unlike other form/input tag libraries, Spring's form tag library is integrated with
Spring Web MVC, giving the tags access to the command object and reference
data your controller deals with. As you will see in the following examples, the form
tags make JSPs easier to develop, read and maintain.

Let's go through the form tags and look at an example of how each tag is used.
We have included generated HTML snippets where certain tags require further
commentary.

16.2.4.1 Configuration

The form tag library comes bundled in spring-webmvc.jar. The library descriptor is
called spring-form.tld.

To use the tags from this library, add the following directive to the top of your JSP
page:

<%@ taglib prefix="form" uri="http://www.springframework.org/tags/form" %>

... where form is the tag name prefix you want to use for the tags from this library.

16.2.4.2 The form tag

This tag renders an HTML 'form' tag and exposes a binding path to inner tags for
binding. It puts the command object in the PageContext so that the command object
can be accessed by inner tags. All the other tags in this library are nested tags of
the  form tag.

580
Let's assume we have a domain object called User. It is a JavaBean with properties
such as firstName and lastName. We will use it as the form backing object of our
form controller which returns form.jsp. Below is an example of what form.jsp would
look like:

<form:form>
<table>
<tr>
<td>First Name:</td>
<td><form:input path="firstName" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Last Name:</td>
<td><form:input path="lastName" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<input type="submit" value="Save Changes" />
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form:form>

The firstName and lastName values are retrieved from the command object placed

in the PageContext by the page controller. Keep reading to see more complex
examples of how inner tags are used with the form tag.

The generated HTML looks like a standard form:

<form method="POST">
<table>
<tr>
<td>First Name:</td>
<td><input name="firstName" type="text" value="Harry"/></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Last Name:</td>
<td><input name="lastName" type="text" value="Potter"/></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<input type="submit" value="Save Changes" />
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>

The preceding JSP assumes that the variable name of the form backing object
is 'command'. If you have put the form backing object into the model under another

581
name (definitely a best practice), then you can bind the form to the named variable
like so:

<form:form commandName="user">
<table>
<tr>
<td>First Name:</td>
<td><form:input path="firstName" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Last Name:</td>
<td><form:input path="lastName" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<input type="submit" value="Save Changes" />
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form:form>

16.2.4.3 The input tag

This tag renders an HTML 'input' tag with type 'text' using the bound value. For an
example of this tag, see Section 16.2.4.2, “The form tag”.

16.2.4.4 The checkbox tag

This tag renders an HTML 'input' tag with type 'checkbox'.

Let's assume our User has preferences such as newsletter subscription and a list of

hobbies. Below is an example of the Preferences class:

public class Preferences {

private boolean receiveNewsletter;

private String[] interests;

private String favouriteWord;

public boolean isReceiveNewsletter() {

return receiveNewsletter;
}

public void setReceiveNewsletter(boolean receiveNewsletter) {

this.receiveNewsletter = receiveNewsletter;
}

582
 public String[] getInterests() {
return interests;
}

public void setInterests(String[] interests) {

this.interests = interests;
}

public String getFavouriteWord() {

return favouriteWord;
}

public void setFavouriteWord(String favouriteWord) {

this.favouriteWord = favouriteWord;
}
}

The form.jsp would look like:

<form:form>
<table>
<tr>
<td>Subscribe to newsletter?:</td>
<%-- Approach 1: Property is of type java.lang.Boolean --%>
<td><form:checkbox path="preferences.receiveNewsletter"/></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Interests:</td>
<td>
<%-- Approach 2: Property is of an array or of type
java.util.Collection --%>
Quidditch: <form:checkbox path="preferences.interests"
value="Quidditch"/>
Herbology: <form:checkbox path="preferences.interests"
value="Herbology"/>
Defence Against the Dark Arts: <form:checkbox
path="preferences.interests"
value="Defence Against the Dark Arts"/>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Favourite Word:</td>
<td>
<%-- Approach 3: Property is of type java.lang.Object --%>
Magic: <form:checkbox path="preferences.favouriteWord"
value="Magic"/>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form:form>

583
There are 3 approaches to the checkbox tag which should meet all your checkbox
needs.

 Approach One - When the bound value is of type java.lang.Boolean,

the input(checkbox) is marked as 'checked' if the bound value is true.
The value attribute corresponds to the resolved value of
the setValue(Object) value property.
 Approach Two - When the bound value is of
type array or java.util.Collection, the input(checkbox) is marked as 'checked'
if the configured setValue(Object) value is present in the bound Collection.

 Approach Three - For any other bound value type, the input(checkbox) is

marked as 'checked' if the configured setValue(Object) is equal to the bound
value.

Note that regardless of the approach, the same HTML structure is generated.
Below is an HTML snippet of some checkboxes:

<tr>
<td>Interests:</td>
<td>
Quidditch: <input name="preferences.interests" type="checkbox"
value="Quidditch"/>
<input type="hidden" value="1" name="_preferences.interests"/>
Herbology: <input name="preferences.interests" type="checkbox"
value="Herbology"/>
<input type="hidden" value="1" name="_preferences.interests"/>
Defence Against the Dark Arts: <input name="preferences.interests"
type="checkbox"
value="Defence Against the Dark Arts"/>
<input type="hidden" value="1" name="_preferences.interests"/>
</td>
</tr>

What you might not expect to see is the additional hidden field after each
checkbox. When a checkbox in an HTML page is not checked, its value will not be
sent to the server as part of the HTTP request parameters once the form is
submitted, so we need a workaround for this quirk in HTML in order for Spring
form data binding to work. The checkbox tag follows the existing Spring convention
of including a hidden parameter prefixed by an underscore ("_") for each
checkbox. By doing this, you are effectively telling Spring that “ the checkbox was
visible in the form and I want my object to which the form data will be bound to
reflect the state of the checkbox no matter what ”.

584
16.2.4.5 The checkboxes tag

This tag renders multiple HTML 'input' tags with type 'checkbox'.

Building on the example from the previous checkbox tag section. Sometimes you

prefer not to have to list all the possible hobbies in your JSP page. You would
rather provide a list at runtime of the available options and pass that in to the tag.
That is the purpose of the checkboxes tag. You pass in an Array, a List or
a Map containing the available options in the "items" property. Typically the bound
property is a collection so it can hold multiple values selected by the user. Below is
an example of the JSP using this tag:

<form:form>
<table>
<tr>
<td>Interests:</td>
<td>
<%-- Property is of an array or of type java.util.Collection --
%>
<form:checkboxes path="preferences.interests" items="$
{interestList}"/>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form:form>

This example assumes that the "interestList" is a List available as a model

attribute containing strings of the values to be selected from. In the case where
you use a Map, the map entry key will be used as the value and the map entry's
value will be used as the label to be displayed. You can also use a custom object
where you can provide the property names for the value using "itemValue" and the
label using "itemLabel".

16.2.4.6 The radiobutton tag

This tag renders an HTML 'input' tag with type 'radio'.

A typical usage pattern will involve multiple tag instances bound to the same
property but with different values.

<tr>
<td>Sex:</td>
<td>Male: <form:radiobutton path="sex" value="M"/> <br/>
Female: <form:radiobutton path="sex" value="F"/> </td>
</tr>

585
16.2.4.7 The radiobuttons tag

This tag renders multiple HTML 'input' tags with type 'radio'.

Just like the checkboxes tag above, you might want to pass in the available options
as a runtime variable. For this usage you would use the radiobuttons tag. You pass
in an Array, a List or a Map containing the available options in the "items" property.
In the case where you use a Map, the map entry key will be used as the value and
the map entry's value will be used as the label to be displayed. You can also use a
custom object where you can provide the property names for the value using
"itemValue" and the label using "itemLabel".

<tr>
<td>Sex:</td>
<td><form:radiobuttons path="sex" items="${sexOptions}"/></td>
</tr>

16.2.4.8 The password tag

This tag renders an HTML 'input' tag with type 'password' using the bound value.

<tr>
<td>Password:</td>
<td>
<form:password path="password" />
</td>
</tr>

Please note that by default, the password value is not shown. If you do want the
password value to be shown, then set the value of the'showPassword' attribute to
true, like so.

<tr>
<td>Password:</td>
<td>
<form:password path="password" value="^76525bvHGq"
showPassword="true" />
</td>
</tr>

16.2.4.9 The select tag

This tag renders an HTML 'select' element. It supports data binding to the selected
option as well as the use of nested option and options tags.

586
Let's assume a User has a list of skills.

<tr>
<td>Skills:</td>
<td><form:select path="skills" items="${skills}"/></td>
</tr>

If the User's skill were in Herbology, the HTML source of the 'Skills' row would look
like:

<tr>
<td>Skills:</td>
<td><select name="skills" multiple="true">
<option value="Potions">Potions</option>
<option value="Herbology" selected="selected">Herbology</option>
<option value="Quidditch">Quidditch</option></select>
</td>
</tr>

16.2.4.10 The option tag

This tag renders an HTML 'option'. It sets 'selected' as appropriate based on the
bound value.

<tr>
<td>House:</td>
<td>
<form:select path="house">
<form:option value="Gryffindor"/>
<form:option value="Hufflepuff"/>
<form:option value="Ravenclaw"/>
<form:option value="Slytherin"/>
</form:select>
</td>
</tr>

If the User's house was in Gryffindor, the HTML source of the 'House' row would
look like:

<tr>
<td>House:</td>
<td>
<select name="house">
<option value="Gryffindor" selected="selected">Gryffindor</option>
<option value="Hufflepuff">Hufflepuff</option>
<option value="Ravenclaw">Ravenclaw</option>

587
 <option value="Slytherin">Slytherin</option>
</select>
</td>
</tr>

16.2.4.11 The options tag

This tag renders a list of HTML 'option' tags. It sets the 'selected' attribute as
appropriate based on the bound value.

<tr>
<td>Country:</td>
<td>
<form:select path="country">
<form:option value="-" label="--Please Select"/>
<form:options items="${countryList}" itemValue="code"
itemLabel="name"/>
</form:select>
</td>
</tr>

If the User lived in the UK, the HTML source of the 'Country' row would look like:

<tr>
<td>Country:</td>
<td>
<select name="country">
<option value="-">--Please Select</option>
<option value="AT">Austria</option>
<option value="UK" selected="selected">United Kingdom</option>
<option value="US">United States</option>
</select>
</td>
</tr>

As the example shows, the combined usage of an option tag with the options tag

generates the same standard HTML, but allows you to explicitly specify a value in
the JSP that is for display only (where it belongs) such as the default string in the
example: "-- Please Select".

The items attribute is typically populated with a collection or array of item

objects. itemValue and itemLabel simply refer to bean properties of those item
objects, if specified; otherwise, the item objects themselves will be stringified.
Alternatively, you may specify a Map of items, in which case the map keys are
interpreted as option values and the map values correspond to option labels.

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If itemValue and/or itemLabel happen to be specified as well, the item value property
will apply to the map key and the item label property will apply to the map value.

16.2.4.12 The textarea tag

This tag renders an HTML 'textarea'.

<tr>
<td>Notes:</td>
<td><form:textarea path="notes" rows="3" cols="20" /></td>
<td><form:errors path="notes" /></td>
</tr>

16.2.4.13 The hidden tag

This tag renders an HTML 'input' tag with type 'hidden' using the bound value. To
submit an unbound hidden value, use the HTML input tag with type 'hidden'.

<form:hidden path="house" />

If we choose to submit the 'house' value as a hidden one, the HTML would look
like:

<input name="house" type="hidden" value="Gryffindor"/>

16.2.4.14 The errors tag

This tag renders field errors in an HTML 'span' tag. It provides access to the errors
created in your controller or those that were created by any validators associated
with your controller.

Let's assume we want to display all error messages for

the firstName and lastName fields once we submit the form. We have a validator for
instances of the User class called UserValidator.

public class UserValidator implements Validator {

public boolean supports(Class candidate) {

return User.class.isAssignableFrom(candidate);
}

589
 public void validate(Object obj, Errors errors) {
ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmptyOrWhitespace(errors, "firstName",
"required", "Field is required.");
ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmptyOrWhitespace(errors, "lastName",
"required", "Field is required.");
}
}

The form.jsp would look like:

<form:form>
<table>
<tr>
<td>First Name:</td>
<td><form:input path="firstName" /></td>
<%-- Show errors for firstName field --%>
<td><form:errors path="firstName" /></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Last Name:</td>
<td><form:input path="lastName" /></td>
<%-- Show errors for lastName field --%>
<td><form:errors path="lastName" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="3">
<input type="submit" value="Save Changes" />
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form:form>

If we submit a form with empty values in the firstName and lastName fields, this is

what the HTML would look like:

<form method="POST">
<table>
<tr>
<td>First Name:</td>
<td><input name="firstName" type="text" value=""/></td>
<%-- Associated errors to firstName field displayed --%>
<td><span name="firstName.errors">Field is required.</span></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Last Name:</td>
<td><input name="lastName" type="text" value=""/></td>
<%-- Associated errors to lastName field displayed --%>

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 <td><span name="lastName.errors">Field is required.</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="3">
<input type="submit" value="Save Changes" />
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>

What if we want to display the entire list of errors for a given page? The example
below shows that the errors tag also supports some basic wildcarding functionality.

 path="*" -displays all errors

 path="lastName" - displays all errors associated with the lastName field

The example below will display a list of errors at the top of the page, followed by
field-specific errors next to the fields:

<form:form>
<form:errors path="*" cssClass="errorBox" />
<table>
<tr>
<td>First Name:</td>
<td><form:input path="firstName" /></td>
<td><form:errors path="firstName" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Last Name:</td>
<td><form:input path="lastName" /></td>
<td><form:errors path="lastName" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="3">
<input type="submit" value="Save Changes" />
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form:form>

The HTML would look like:

<form method="POST">
<span name="*.errors" class="errorBox">Field is required.<br/>Field is
required.</span>
<table>
<tr>
<td>First Name:</td>

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 <td><input name="firstName" type="text" value=""/></td>
<td><span name="firstName.errors">Field is required.</span></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Last Name:</td>
<td><input name="lastName" type="text" value=""/></td>
<td><span name="lastName.errors">Field is required.</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="3">
<input type="submit" value="Save Changes" />
</td>
</tr>
</form>

16.2.4.15 HTTP Method Conversion

A key principle of REST is the use of the Uniform Interface. This means that all
resources (URLs) can be manipulated using the same four HTTP methods: GET,
PUT, POST, and DELETE. For each method, the HTTP specification defines the
exact semantics. For instance, a GET should always be a safe operation, meaning
that is has no side effects, and a PUT or DELETE should be idempotent, meaning
that you can repeat these operations over and over again, but the end result
should be the same. While HTTP defines these four methods, HTML only supports
two: GET and POST. Fortunately, there are two possible workarounds: you can
either use JavaScript to do your PUT or DELETE, or simply do a POST with the
'real' method as an additional parameter (modeled as a hidden input field in an
HTML form). This latter trick is what Spring's HiddenHttpMethodFilter does. This filter
is a plain Servlet Filter and therefore it can be used in combination with any web
framework (not just Spring MVC). Simply add this filter to your web.xml, and a
POST with a hidden _method parameter will be converted into the corresponding
HTTP method request.

To support HTTP method conversion the Spring MVC form tag was updated to
support setting the HTTP method. For example, the following snippet taken from
the updated Petclinic sample

<form:form method="delete">
<p class="submit"><input type="submit" value="Delete Pet"/></p>
</form:form>

This will actually perform an HTTP POST, with the 'real' DELETE method hidden
behind a request parameter, to be picked up by the HiddenHttpMethodFilter, as
defined in web.xml:

592
<filter>
<filter-name>httpMethodFilter</filter-name>
<filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.HiddenHttpMethodFilter</filter-
class>
</filter>

<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>httpMethodFilter</filter-name>
<servlet-name>petclinic</servlet-name>
</filter-mapping>

The corresponding @Controller method is shown below:

@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.DELETE)
public String deletePet(@PathVariable int ownerId, @PathVariable int petId) {
this.clinic.deletePet(petId);
return "redirect:/owners/" + ownerId;
}

16.3 Tiles

It is possible to integrate Tiles - just as any other view technology - in web

applications using Spring. The following describes in a broad way how to do this.

NOTE: This section focuses on Spring's support for Tiles 2 (the standalone version
of Tiles, requiring Java 5+) in
theorg.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2 package. Spring also continues to
support Tiles 1.x (a.k.a. "Struts Tiles", as shipped with Struts 1.1+; compatible with
Java 1.4) in the original org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles package.

16.3.1 Dependencies

To be able to use Tiles you have to have a couple of additional dependencies

included in your project. The following is the list of dependencies you need.
 Tiles version 2.1.2 or higher
 Commons BeanUtils

 Commons Digester

 Commons Logging

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16.3.2 How to integrate Tiles

To be able to use Tiles, you have to configure it using files containing definitions
(for basic information on definitions and other Tiles concepts, please have a look
at http://tiles.apache.org). In Spring this is done using the TilesConfigurer. Have a
look at the following piece of example ApplicationContext configuration:

<bean id="tilesConfigurer"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesConfigurer">
<property name="definitions">
<list>
<value>/WEB-INF/defs/general.xml</value>
<value>/WEB-INF/defs/widgets.xml</value>
<value>/WEB-INF/defs/administrator.xml</value>
<value>/WEB-INF/defs/customer.xml</value>
<value>/WEB-INF/defs/templates.xml</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>

As you can see, there are five files containing definitions, which are all located in
the 'WEB-INF/defs' directory. At initialization of theWebApplicationContext, the files
will be loaded and the definitions factory will be initialized. After that has been
done, the Tiles includes in the definition files can be used as views within your
Spring web application. To be able to use the views you have to have
a ViewResolver just as with any other view technology used with Spring. Below you
can find two possibilities, the UrlBasedViewResolver and
the ResourceBundleViewResolver.

16.3.2.1  UrlBasedViewResolver

The UrlBasedViewResolver instantiates the given viewClass for each view it has to

resolve.

<bean id="viewResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.UrlBasedViewResolver">
<property name="viewClass"
value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesView"/>
</bean>

16.3.2.2  ResourceBundleViewResolver

The ResourceBundleViewResolver has to be provided with a property file containing

viewnames and viewclasses the resolver can use:

594
<bean id="viewResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.ResourceBundleViewResolver">
<property name="basename" value="views"/>
</bean>
...
welcomeView.(class)=org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesView
welcomeView.url=welcome (this is the name of a Tiles definition)

vetsView.(class)=org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesView
vetsView.url=vetsView (again, this is the name of a Tiles definition)

findOwnersForm.(class)=org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView
findOwnersForm.url=/WEB-INF/jsp/findOwners.jsp
...

As you can see, when using the ResourceBundleViewResolver, you can easily mix
different view technologies.

Note that the TilesView class for Tiles 2 supports JSTL (the JSP Standard Tag
Library) out of the box, whereas there is a separate TilesJstlViewsubclass in the
Tiles 1.x support.

16.3.2.3 SimpleSpringPreparerFactory and SpringBeanPreparerFactory

As an advanced feature, Spring also supports two special Tiles

2 PreparerFactory implementations. Check out the Tiles documentation for details
on how to use ViewPreparer references in your Tiles definition files.

Specify SimpleSpringPreparerFactory to autowire ViewPreparer instances based on

specified preparer classes, applying Spring's container callbacks as well as
applying configured Spring BeanPostProcessors. If Spring's context-wide
annotation-config has been activated, annotations in ViewPreparer classes will be
automatically detected and applied. Note that this expects preparer classes in the
Tiles definition files, just like the default PreparerFactory does.

Specify SpringBeanPreparerFactory to operate on specified preparer names instead

of classes, obtaining the corresponding Spring bean from the DispatcherServlet's
application context. The full bean creation process will be in the control of the
Spring application context in this case, allowing for the use of explicit dependency
injection configuration, scoped beans etc. Note that you need to define one Spring
bean definition per preparer name (as used in your Tiles definitions).

<bean id="tilesConfigurer"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesConfigurer">

595
 <property name="definitions">
<list>
<value>/WEB-INF/defs/general.xml</value>
<value>/WEB-INF/defs/widgets.xml</value>
<value>/WEB-INF/defs/administrator.xml</value>
<value>/WEB-INF/defs/customer.xml</value>
<value>/WEB-INF/defs/templates.xml</value>
</list>
</property>

<!-- resolving preparer names as Spring bean definition names -->

<property name="preparerFactoryClass"

value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.SpringBeanPreparerFactory"/>

</bean>

16.4 Velocity & FreeMarker

Velocity and FreeMarker are two templating languages that can be used as view

technologies within Spring MVC applications. The languages are quite similar and
serve similar needs and so are considered together in this section. For semantic
and syntactic differences between the two languages, see the FreeMarker web
site.

16.4.1 Dependencies

Your web application will need to include velocity-1.x.x.jar or freemarker-

2.x.jar in order to work with Velocity or FreeMarker respectively and commons-
collections.jar is required for Velocity. Typically they are included in the WEB-
INF/lib folder where they are guaranteed to be found by a Java EE server and
added to the classpath for your application. It is of course assumed that you
already have the spring-webmvc.jar in your'WEB-INF/lib' directory too! If you make
use of Spring's 'dateToolAttribute' or 'numberToolAttribute' in your Velocity views,
you will also need to include the velocity-tools-generic-1.x.jar

16.4.2 Context configuration

A suitable configuration is initialized by adding the relevant configurer bean

definition to your '*-servlet.xml' as shown below:

<!--
This bean sets up the Velocity environment for us based on a root path for
templates.
Optionally, a properties file can be specified for more control over the
Velocity

596
 environment, but the defaults are pretty sane for file based template loading.
-->
<bean id="velocityConfig"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.velocity.VelocityConfigurer">
<property name="resourceLoaderPath" value="/WEB-INF/velocity/"/>
</bean>

<!--

View resolvers can also be configured with ResourceBundles or XML files. If you
need
different view resolving based on Locale, you have to use the resource bundle
resolver.

-->
<bean id="viewResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.velocity.VelocityViewResolver">
<property name="cache" value="true"/>
<property name="prefix" value=""/>
<property name="suffix" value=".vm"/>
</bean>
<!-- freemarker config -->
<bean id="freemarkerConfig"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.freemarker.FreeMarkerConfigurer">
<property name="templateLoaderPath" value="/WEB-INF/freemarker/"/>
</bean>

<!--

View resolvers can also be configured with ResourceBundles or XML files. If you
need
different view resolving based on Locale, you have to use the resource bundle
resolver.

-->
<bean id="viewResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.freemarker.FreeMarkerViewResolver">
<property name="cache" value="true"/>
<property name="prefix" value=""/>
<property name="suffix" value=".ftl"/>
</bean>

Note

For non web-apps add a VelocityConfigurationFactoryBean or

a FreeMarkerConfigurationFactoryBean to your application context definition file.

16.4.3 Creating templates

Your templates need to be stored in the directory specified by the *Configurer bean

shown above. This document does not cover details of creating templates for the
two languages - please see their relevant websites for information. If you use the
view resolvers highlighted, then the logical view names relate to the template file

597
names in similar fashion to InternalResourceViewResolver for JSP's. So if your
controller returns a ModelAndView object containing a view name of "welcome"
then the resolvers will look for the /WEB-INF/freemarker/welcome.ftl or /WEB-
INF/velocity/welcome.vm template as appropriate.

16.4.4 Advanced configuration

The basic configurations highlighted above will be suitable for most application
requirements, however additional configuration options are available for when
unusual or advanced requirements dictate.

16.4.4.1 velocity.properties

This file is completely optional, but if specified, contains the values that are passed
to the Velocity runtime in order to configure velocity itself. Only required for
advanced configurations, if you need this file, specify its location on
the VelocityConfigurer bean definition above.

<bean id="velocityConfig"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.velocity.VelocityConfigurer">
<property name="configLocation" value="/WEB-INF/velocity.properties"/>
</bean>

Alternatively, you can specify velocity properties directly in the bean definition for
the Velocity config bean by replacing the "configLocation" property with the
following inline properties.

<bean id="velocityConfig"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.velocity.VelocityConfigurer">
<property name="velocityProperties">
<props>
<prop key="resource.loader">file</prop>
<prop key="file.resource.loader.class">
org.apache.velocity.runtime.resource.loader.FileResourceLoader
</prop>
<prop key="file.resource.loader.path">${webapp.root}/WEB-INF/velocity</prop>
<prop key="file.resource.loader.cache">false</prop>
</props>
</property>
</bean>

Refer to the API documentation for Spring configuration of Velocity, or the Velocity

documentation for examples and definitions of the'velocity.properties' file itself.

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16.4.4.2 FreeMarker

FreeMarker 'Settings' and 'SharedVariables' can be passed directly to the

FreeMarker Configuration object managed by Spring by setting the appropriate
bean properties on the FreeMarkerConfigurer bean. The freemarkerSettings property
requires a java.util.Properties object and the freemarkerVariables property
requires a java.util.Map.

<bean id="freemarkerConfig"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.freemarker.FreeMarkerConfigurer">
<property name="templateLoaderPath" value="/WEB-INF/freemarker/"/>
<property name="freemarkerVariables">
<map>
<entry key="xml_escape" value-ref="fmXmlEscape"/>
</map>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="fmXmlEscape" class="freemarker.template.utility.XmlEscape"/>

See the FreeMarker documentation for details of settings and variables as they
apply to the Configuration object.

16.4.5 Bind support and form handling

Spring provides a tag library for use in JSP's that contains (amongst other things)
a <spring:bind/> tag. This tag primarily enables forms to display values from form
backing objects and to show the results of failed validations from a Validator in the
web or business tier. From version 1.1, Spring now has support for the same
functionality in both Velocity and FreeMarker, with additional convenience macros
for generating form input elements themselves.

16.4.5.1 The bind macros

A standard set of macros are maintained within the spring-webmvc.jar file for both

languages, so they are always available to a suitably configured application.

Some of the macros defined in the Spring libraries are considered internal (private)
but no such scoping exists in the macro definitions making all macros visible to
calling code and user templates. The following sections concentrate only on the
macros you need to be directly calling from within your templates. If you wish to
view the macro code directly, the files are called spring.vm / spring.ftl and are in
the

599
packagesorg.springframework.web.servlet.view.velocity or org.springframework.web.
servlet.view.freemarker respectively.

16.4.5.2 Simple binding

In your html forms (vm / ftl templates) that act as the 'formView' for a Spring form
controller, you can use code similar to the following to bind to field values and
display error messages for each input field in similar fashion to the JSP equivalent.
Note that the name of the command object is "command" by default, but can be
overridden in your MVC configuration by setting the 'commandName' bean
property on your form controller. Example code is shown below for
the personFormV and personFormF views configured earlier;

<!-- velocity macros are automatically available -->

<html>
...
<form action="" method="POST">
Name:
#springBind( "command.name" )
<input type="text"
name="${status.expression}"
value="$!status.value" /><br>
#foreach($error in $status.errorMessages) <b>$error</b> <br> #end
<br>
...
<input type="submit" value="submit"/>
</form>
...
</html>
<!-- freemarker macros have to be imported into a namespace. We strongly
recommend sticking to 'spring' -->
<#import "spring.ftl" as spring />
<html>
...
<form action="" method="POST">
Name:
<@spring.bind "command.name" />
<input type="text"
name="${spring.status.expression}"
value="${spring.status.value?default("")}" /><br>
<#list spring.status.errorMessages as error> <b>${error}</b> <br> </#list>
<br>
...
<input type="submit" value="submit"/>
</form>
...
</html>

#springBind / <@spring.bind> requires
a 'path' argument which consists of the name
of your command object (it will be 'command' unless you changed it in your

600
 FormController properties) followed by a period and the name of the field on the
command object you wish to bind to. Nested fields can be used too such as
"command.address.street". The bind macro assumes the default HTML escaping
behavior specified by the ServletContext parameter defaultHtmlEscape in web.xml

The optional form of the macro

called #springBindEscaped / <@spring.bindEscaped> takes a second argument and
explicitly specifies whether HTML escaping should be used in the status error
messages or values. Set to true or false as required. Additional form handling
macros simplify the use of HTML escaping and these macros should be used
wherever possible. They are explained in the next section.

16.4.5.3 Form input generation macros

Additional convenience macros for both languages simplify both binding and form
generation (including validation error display). It is never necessary to use these
macros to generate form input fields, and they can be mixed and matched with
simple HTML or calls direct to the spring bind macros highlighted previously.

The following table of available macros show the VTL and FTL definitions and the
parameter list that each takes.

Table 16.1. Table of macro definitions

macro VTL definition FTL definition

a string from a resource bundle #springMessage($code) <@spring.message code/>
e parameter)
utput a string from a resource
the code parameter, falling back to #springMessageText($code $text) <@spring.messageText code, text/>
default parameter)
tive URL with the application's #springUrl($relativeUrl) <@spring.url relativeUrl/>

dard input field for gathering user #springFormInput($path $attributes)

<@spring.formInput path, attribute
fieldType/>
ut * (hidden input field for #springFormHiddenInput($path <@spring.formHiddenInput path,
user input) $attributes) attributes/>
nput * (standard input field for
#springFormPasswordInput($path <@spring.formPasswordInput path,
ords. Note that no value will ever $attributes) attributes/>
ields of this type)
large text field for gathering long, #springFormTextarea($path $attributes)
<@spring.formTextarea path,
ut) attributes/>
ct (drop down box of options #springFormSingleSelect( $path $options <@spring.formSingleSelect path,
$attributes) options, attributes/>

601
 macro VTL definition FTL definition
e required value to be selected)
t (a list box of options allowing #springFormMultiSelect($path $options <@spring.formMultiSelect path,
0 or more values) $attributes) options, attributes/>
ons (a set of radio buttons allowing
#springFormRadioButtons($path $options <@spring.formRadioButtons path,
n to be made from the available $separator $attributes) options separator, attributes/>

es (a set of checkboxes allowing 0 #springFormCheckboxes($path $options <@spring.formCheckboxes path,

o be selected) $separator $attributes) options, separator, attributes/>
<@spring.formCheckbox path,
(a single checkbox) #springFormCheckbox($path $attributes)
attributes/>
mplify display of validation errors #springShowErrors($separator <@spring.showErrors separator,
ld) $classOrStyle) classOrStyle/>

* In FTL (FreeMarker), these two macros are not actually required as you can use
the normal formInput macro, specifying 'hidden' or 'password' as the value for
the fieldType parameter.

The parameters to any of the above macros have consistent meanings:

 path: the name of the field to bind to (ie "command.name")

 options: a Map of all the available values that can be selected from in the
input field. The keys to the map represent the values that will be POSTed
back from the form and bound to the command object. Map objects stored
against the keys are the labels displayed on the form to the user and may be
different from the corresponding values posted back by the form. Usually
such a map is supplied as reference data by the controller. Any Map
implementation can be used depending on required behavior. For strictly
sorted maps, a SortedMap such as aTreeMap with a suitable Comparator may
be used and for arbitrary Maps that should return values in insertion order,
use a LinkedHashMap or aLinkedMap from commons-collections.

 separator: where multiple options are available as discreet elements (radio

buttons or checkboxes), the sequence of characters used to separate each
one in the list (ie "<br>").

 attributes: an additional string of arbitrary tags or text to be included within

the HTML tag itself. This string is echoed literally by the macro. For example,
in a textarea field you may supply attributes as 'rows="5" cols="60"' or you
could pass style information such as 'style="border:1px solid silver"'.

602
  classOrStyle: for the showErrors macro, the name of the CSS class that the
span tag wrapping each error will use. If no information is supplied (or the
value is empty) then the errors will be wrapped in <b></b> tags.

Examples of the macros are outlined below some in FTL and some in VTL. Where
usage differences exist between the two languages, they are explained in the
notes.

Input Fields
<!-- the Name field example from above using form macros in VTL -->
...
Name:
#springFormInput("command.name" "")<br>
#springShowErrors("<br>" "")<br>

The formInput macro takes the path parameter (command.name) and an

additional attributes parameter which is empty in the example above. The macro,
along with all other form generation macros, performs an implicit spring bind on the
path parameter. The binding remains valid until a new bind occurs so the
showErrors macro doesn't need to pass the path parameter again - it simply
operates on whichever field a bind was last created for.

The showErrors macro takes a separator parameter (the characters that will be
used to separate multiple errors on a given field) and also accepts a second
parameter, this time a class name or style attribute. Note that FreeMarker is able
to specify default values for the attributes parameter, unlike Velocity, and the two
macro calls above could be expressed as follows in FTL:

<@spring.formInput "command.name"/>
<@spring.showErrors "<br>"/>

Output is shown below of the form fragment generating the name field, and
displaying a validation error after the form was submitted with no value in the field.
Validation occurs through Spring's Validation framework.

The generated HTML looks like this:

Name:
<input type="text" name="name" value=""
>
<br>
<b>required</b>

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<br>
<br>

The formTextarea macro works the same way as the formInput macro and accepts
the same parameter list. Commonly, the second parameter (attributes) will be used
to pass style information or rows and cols attributes for the textarea.

Selection Fields

Four selection field macros can be used to generate common UI value selection
inputs in your HTML forms.

 formSingleSelect
 formMultiSelect

 formRadioButtons

 formCheckboxes

Each of the four macros accepts a Map of options containing the value for the form
field, and the label corresponding to that value. The value and the label can be the
same.

An example of radio buttons in FTL is below. The form backing object specifies a
default value of 'London' for this field and so no validation is necessary. When the
form is rendered, the entire list of cities to choose from is supplied as reference
data in the model under the name 'cityMap'.

...
Town:
<@spring.formRadioButtons "command.address.town", cityMap, "" /><br><br>

This renders a line of radio buttons, one for each value in cityMap using the
separator "". No additional attributes are supplied (the last parameter to the macro
is missing). The cityMap uses the same String for each key-value pair in the map.
The map's keys are what the form actually submits as POSTed request
parameters, map values are the labels that the user sees. In the example above,
given a list of three well known cities and a default value in the form backing
object, the HTML would be

Town:

604
<input type="radio" name="address.town" value="London"

>
London
<input type="radio" name="address.town" value="Paris"
checked="checked"
>
Paris
<input type="radio" name="address.town" value="New York"

>
New York

If your application expects to handle cities by internal codes for example, the map
of codes would be created with suitable keys like the example below.

protected Map referenceData(HttpServletRequest request) throws Exception {

Map cityMap = new LinkedHashMap();
cityMap.put("LDN", "London");
cityMap.put("PRS", "Paris");
cityMap.put("NYC", "New York");

Map m = new HashMap();

m.put("cityMap", cityMap);
return m;
}

The code would now produce output where the radio values are the relevant codes
but the user still sees the more user friendly city names.

Town:
<input type="radio" name="address.town" value="LDN"

>
London
<input type="radio" name="address.town" value="PRS"
checked="checked"
>
Paris
<input type="radio" name="address.town" value="NYC"

>
New York

16.4.5.4 HTML escaping and XHTML compliance

Default usage of the form macros above will result in HTML tags that are HTML
4.01 compliant and that use the default value for HTML escaping defined in your

605
web.xml as used by Spring's bind support. In order to make the tags XHTML
compliant or to override the default HTML escaping value, you can specify two
variables in your template (or in your model where they will be visible to your
templates). The advantage of specifying them in the templates is that they can be
changed to different values later in the template processing to provide different
behavior for different fields in your form.

To switch to XHTML compliance for your tags, specify a value of 'true' for a
model/context variable named xhtmlCompliant:

## for Velocity..
#set($springXhtmlCompliant = true)

<#-- for FreeMarker -->

<#assign xhtmlCompliant = true in spring>

Any tags generated by the Spring macros will now be XHTML compliant after
processing this directive.

In similar fashion, HTML escaping can be specified per field:

<#-- until this point, default HTML escaping is used -->

<#assign htmlEscape = true in spring>

<#-- next field will use HTML escaping -->
<@spring.formInput "command.name" />

<#assign htmlEscape = false in spring>

<#-- all future fields will be bound with HTML escaping off -->

16.5 XSLT

XSLT is a transformation language for XML and is popular as a view technology

within web applications. XSLT can be a good choice as a view technology if your
application naturally deals with XML, or if your model can easily be converted to
XML. The following section shows how to produce an XML document as model
data and have it transformed with XSLT in a Spring Web MVC application.

16.5.1 My First Words

This example is a trivial Spring application that creates a list of words in

the Controller and adds them to the model map. The map is returned along with
the view name of our XSLT view. See Section 15.3, “Implementing Controllers” for

606
details of Spring Web MVC's Controller interface. The XSLT view will turn the list
of words into a simple XML document ready for transformation.

16.5.1.1 Bean definitions

Configuration is standard for a simple Spring application. The dispatcher servlet

config file contains a reference to a ViewResolver, URL mappings and a single
controller bean...

<bean id="homeController"class="xslt.HomeController"/>

... that encapsulates our word generation logic.

16.5.1.2 Standard MVC controller code

The controller logic is encapsulated in a subclass of AbstractController, with the

handler method being defined like so...

protected ModelAndView handleRequestInternal(

HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {

Map map = new HashMap();

List wordList = new ArrayList();

wordList.add("hello");
wordList.add("world");

map.put("wordList", wordList);

return new ModelAndView("home", map);

}

So far we've done nothing that's XSLT specific. The model data has been created
in the same way as you would for any other Spring MVC application. Depending
on the configuration of the application now, that list of words could be rendered by
JSP/JSTL by having them added as request attributes, or they could be handled
by Velocity by adding the object to the VelocityContext. In order to have XSLT
render them, they of course have to be converted into an XML document
somehow. There are software packages available that will automatically 'domify'
an object graph, but within Spring, you have complete flexibility to create the DOM
from your model in any way you choose. This prevents the transformation of XML
playing too great a part in the structure of your model data which is a danger when
using tools to manage the domification process.

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16.5.1.3 Convert the model data to XML

In order to create a DOM document from our list of words or any other model data,
we must subclass the
(provided)org.springframework.web.servlet.view.xslt.AbstractXsltView class. In
doing so, we must also typically implement the abstract
methodcreateXsltSource(..) method. The first parameter passed to this method is
our model map. Here's the complete listing of the HomePage class in our trivial word
application:

package xslt;

// imports omitted for brevity

public class HomePage extends AbstractXsltView {

protected Source createXsltSource(Map model, String rootName,

HttpServletRequest
request, HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {

Document document =
DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder().newDocument();
Element root = document.createElement(rootName);

List words = (List) model.get("wordList");

for (Iterator it = words.iterator(); it.hasNext();) {
String nextWord = (String) it.next();
Element wordNode = document.createElement("word");
Text textNode = document.createTextNode(nextWord);
wordNode.appendChild(textNode);
root.appendChild(wordNode);
}
return new DOMSource(root);
}

A series of parameter name/value pairs can optionally be defined by your subclass

which will be added to the transformation object. The parameter names must
match those defined in your XSLT template declared with <xsl:param
name="myParam">defaultValue</xsl:param>. To specify the parameters, override
the getParameters() method of the AbstractXsltView class and return a Map of the
name/value pairs. If your parameters need to derive information from the current
request, you can override the getParameters(HttpServletRequest request) method
instead.

608
16.5.1.4 Defining the view properties

The views.properties file (or equivalent xml definition if you're using an XML based
view resolver as we did in the Velocity examples above) looks like this for the one-
view application that is 'My First Words':

home.(class)=xslt.HomePage
home.stylesheetLocation=/WEB-INF/xsl/home.xslt
home.root=words

Here, you can see how the view is tied in with the HomePage class just written which
handles the model domification in the first property '.(class)'.
The 'stylesheetLocation' property points to the XSLT file which will handle the
XML transformation into HTML for us and the final property '.root' is the name that
will be used as the root of the XML document. This gets passed to
the HomePage class above in the second parameter to
the createXsltSource(..) method(s).

16.5.1.5 Document transformation

Finally, we have the XSLT code used for transforming the above document. As
shown in the above 'views.properties' file, the stylesheet is called'home.xslt' and
it lives in the war file in the 'WEB-INF/xsl' directory.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

<xsl:output method="html" omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>

<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<head><title>Hello!</title></head>
<body>
<h1>My First Words</h1>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="word">
<xsl:value-of select="."/><br/>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

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16.5.2 Summary

A summary of the files discussed and their location in the WAR file is shown in the
simplified WAR structure below.

ProjectRoot
|
+- WebContent
|
+- WEB-INF
|
+- classes
| |
| +- xslt
| | |
| | +- HomePageController.class
| | +- HomePage.class
| |
| +- views.properties
|
+- lib
| |
| +- spring-*.jar
|
+- xsl
| |
| +- home.xslt
|
+- frontcontroller-servlet.xml

You will also need to ensure that an XML parser and an XSLT engine are available
on the classpath. JDK 1.4 provides them by default, and most Java EE containers
will also make them available by default, but it's a possible source of errors to be
aware of.

16.6 Document views (PDF/Excel)

16.6.1 Introduction

Returning an HTML page isn't always the best way for the user to view the model
output, and Spring makes it simple to generate a PDF document or an Excel
spreadsheet dynamically from the model data. The document is the view and will
be streamed from the server with the correct content type to (hopefully) enable the
client PC to run their spreadsheet or PDF viewer application in response.

In order to use Excel views, you need to add the 'poi' library to your classpath, and
for PDF generation, the iText library.

610
16.6.2 Configuration and setup

Document based views are handled in an almost identical fashion to XSLT views,
and the following sections build upon the previous one by demonstrating how the
same controller used in the XSLT example is invoked to render the same model as
both a PDF document and an Excel spreadsheet (which can also be viewed or
manipulated in Open Office).

16.6.2.1 Document view definitions

First, let's amend the views.properties file (or xml equivalent) and add a simple
view definition for both document types. The entire file now looks like this with the
XSLT view shown from earlier:

home.(class)=xslt.HomePage
home.stylesheetLocation=/WEB-INF/xsl/home.xslt
home.root=words

xl.(class)=excel.HomePage

pdf.(class)=pdf.HomePage

If you want to start with a template spreadsheet or a fillable PDF form to add your
model data to, specify the location as the 'url' property in the view definition

16.6.2.2 Controller code

The controller code we'll use remains exactly the same from the XSLT example
earlier other than to change the name of the view to use. Of course, you could be
clever and have this selected based on a URL parameter or some other logic -
proof that Spring really is very good at decoupling the views from the controllers!

16.6.2.3 Subclassing for Excel views

Exactly as we did for the XSLT example, we'll subclass suitable abstract classes in
order to implement custom behavior in generating our output documents. For
Excel, this involves writing a subclass
of org.springframework.web.servlet.view.document.AbstractExcelView (for Excel files
generated by POI)
or org.springframework.web.servlet.view.document.AbstractJExcelView (for JExcelApi-
generated Excel files) and implementing the buildExcelDocument() method.

611
Here's the complete listing for our POI Excel view which displays the word list from
the model map in consecutive rows of the first column of a new spreadsheet:

package excel;

// imports omitted for brevity

public class HomePage extends AbstractExcelView {

protected void buildExcelDocument(

Map model,
HSSFWorkbook wb,
HttpServletRequest req,
HttpServletResponse resp)
throws Exception {

HSSFSheet sheet;
HSSFRow sheetRow;
HSSFCell cell;

// Go to the first sheet

// getSheetAt: only if wb is created from an existing document
// sheet = wb.getSheetAt(0);
sheet = wb.createSheet("Spring");
sheet.setDefaultColumnWidth((short) 12);

// write a text at A1
cell = getCell(sheet, 0, 0);
setText(cell, "Spring-Excel test");

List words = (List) model.get("wordList");

for (int i=0; i < words.size(); i++) {
cell = getCell(sheet, 2+i, 0);
setText(cell, (String) words.get(i));

}
}
}

And the following is a view generating the same Excel file, now using JExcelApi:

package excel;

// imports omitted for brevity

public class HomePage extends AbstractJExcelView {

protected void buildExcelDocument(Map model,

WritableWorkbook wb,
HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response)
throws Exception {

612
 WritableSheet sheet = wb.createSheet("Spring", 0);

sheet.addCell(new Label(0, 0, "Spring-Excel test"));

List words = (List) model.get("wordList");

for (int i = 0; i < words.size(); i++) {
sheet.addCell(new Label(2+i, 0, (String) words.get(i)));
}
}
}

Note the differences between the APIs. We've found that the JExcelApi is
somewhat more intuitive, and furthermore, JExcelApi has slightly better image-
handling capabilities. There have been memory problems with large Excel files
when using JExcelApi however.

If you now amend the controller such that it returns xl as the name of the view
(return new ModelAndView("xl", map);) and run your application again, you should
find that the Excel spreadsheet is created and downloaded automatically when you
request the same page as before.

16.6.2.4 Subclassing for PDF views

The PDF version of the word list is even simpler. This time, the class
extendsorg.springframework.web.servlet.view.document.AbstractPdfView and
implements the buildPdfDocument() method as follows:

package pdf;

// imports omitted for brevity

public class PDFPage extends AbstractPdfView {

protected void buildPdfDocument(

Map model,
Document doc,
PdfWriter writer,
HttpServletRequest req,
HttpServletResponse resp)
throws Exception {

List words = (List) model.get("wordList");

for (int i=0; i<words.size(); i++)

doc.add( new Paragraph((String) words.get(i)));

613
}

Once again, amend the controller to return the pdf view with return new

ModelAndView("pdf", map);, and reload the URL in your application. This time a PDF
document should appear listing each of the words in the model map.

16.7 JasperReports

JasperReports (http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net) is a powerful open-source

reporting engine that supports the creation of report designs using an easily
understood XML file format. JasperReports is capable of rendering reports in four
different formats: CSV, Excel, HTML and PDF.

16.7.1 Dependencies

Your application will need to include the latest release of JasperReports, which at
the time of writing was 0.6.1. JasperReports itself depends on the following
projects:

 BeanShell
 Commons BeanUtils

 Commons Collections

 Commons Digester

 Commons Logging

 iText

 POI

JasperReports also requires a JAXP compliant XML parser.

16.7.2 Configuration

To configure JasperReports views in your Spring container configuration you need

to define a ViewResolver to map view names to the appropriate view class
depending on which format you want your report rendered in.

614
 16.7.2.1 Configuring the ViewResolver

Typically, you will use the ResourceBundleViewResolver to map view names to view

classes and files in a properties file.

<bean id="viewResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.ResourceBundleViewResolver">
<property name="basename" value="views"/>
</bean>

Here we've configured an instance of the ResourceBundleViewResolver class that will

look for view mappings in the resource bundle with base name views. (The content
of this file is described in the next section.)

16.7.2.2 Configuring the Views

The Spring Framework contains five different View implementations for

JasperReports, four of which correspond to one of the four output formats
supported by JasperReports, and one that allows for the format to be determined
at runtime:

Table 16.2. JasperReports View classes

Class Name Render Format

CsvView CSV
HtmlView HTML
PdfView PDF
XlsView Microsoft Excel
MultiFormatView The view is decided upon at runtime

Mapping one of these classes to a view name and a report file is a matter of
adding the appropriate entries in the resource bundle configured in the previous
section as shown here:

simpleReport.
(class)=org.springframework.web.servlet.view.jasperreports.JasperReportsPdfView
simpleReport.url=/WEB-INF/reports/DataSourceReport.jasper

Here you can see that the view with name simpleReport is mapped to
the JasperReportsPdfView class, causing the output of this report to be rendered in

615
PDF format. The url property of the view is set to the location of the underlying
report file.

16.7.2.3 About Report Files

JasperReports has two distinct types of report file: the design file, which has
a .jrxml extension, and the compiled report file, which has a .jasperextension.
Typically, you use the JasperReports Ant task to compile your .jrxml design file
into a .jasper file before deploying it into your application. With the Spring
Framework you can map either of these files to your report file and the framework
will take care of compiling the .jrxmlfile on the fly for you. You should note that
after a .jrxml file is compiled by the Spring Framework, the compiled report is
cached for the lifetime of the application. Thus, to make changes to the file you will
need to restart your application.

16.7.2.4 Using JasperReportsMultiFormatView

The JasperReportsMultiFormatView allows for the report format to be specified at

runtime. The actual rendering of the report is delegated to one of the other
JasperReports view classes - the JasperReportsMultiFormatView class simply adds a
wrapper layer that allows for the exact implementation to be specified at runtime.

The JasperReportsMultiFormatView class introduces two concepts: the format key

and the discriminator key. The JasperReportsMultiFormatViewclass uses the mapping
key to look up the actual view implementation class, and it uses the format key to
lookup up the mapping key. From a coding perspective you add an entry to your
model with the format key as the key and the mapping key as the value, for
example:

public ModelAndView handleSimpleReportMulti(HttpServletRequest request,

HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {

String uri = request.getRequestURI();

String format = uri.substring(uri.lastIndexOf(".") + 1);

Map model = getModel();

model.put("format", format);

return new ModelAndView("simpleReportMulti", model);

}

In this example, the mapping key is determined from the extension of the request
URI and is added to the model under the default format key: format. If you wish to

616
 use a different format key then you can configure this using the formatKey property
of the JasperReportsMultiFormatViewclass.

By default the following mapping key mappings are configured

in JasperReportsMultiFormatView:

Table 16.3. JasperReportsMultiFormatView Default Mapping Key Mappings

Mapping Key View Class

JasperReportsCsvView
JasperReportsHtmlView
JasperReportsPdfView
JasperReportsXlsView

So in the example above a request to URI /foo/myReport.pdf would be mapped to

the JasperReportsPdfView class. You can override the mapping key to view class
mappings using the formatMappings property of JasperReportsMultiFormatView.

16.7.3 Populating the ModelAndView

In order to render your report correctly in the format you have chosen, you must
supply Spring with all of the data needed to populate your report. For
JasperReports this means you must pass in all report parameters along with the
report datasource. Report parameters are simple name/value pairs and can be
added to the Map for your model as you would add any name/value pair.

When adding the datasource to the model you have two approaches to choose
from. The first approach is to add an instance of JRDataSource or aCollection type to
the model Map under any arbitrary key. Spring will then locate this object in the
model and treat it as the report datasource. For example, you may populate your
model like so:

private Map getModel() {

Map model = new HashMap();
Collection beanData = getBeanData();
model.put("myBeanData", beanData);
return model;
}

The second approach is to add the instance of JRDataSource or Collection under a

specific key and then configure this key using the reportDataKey property of the view

617
class. In both cases Spring will wrap instances of Collection in
a JRBeanCollectionDataSource instance. For example:

private Map getModel() {

Map model = new HashMap();
Collection beanData = getBeanData();
Collection someData = getSomeData();
model.put("myBeanData", beanData);
model.put("someData", someData);
return model;
}

Here you can see that two Collection instances are being added to the model. To
ensure that the correct one is used, we simply modify our view configuration as
appropriate:

simpleReport.
(class)=org.springframework.web.servlet.view.jasperreports.JasperReportsPdfView
simpleReport.url=/WEB-INF/reports/DataSourceReport.jasper
simpleReport.reportDataKey=myBeanData

Be aware that when using the first approach, Spring will use the first instance
of JRDataSource or Collection that it encounters. If you need to place multiple
instances of JRDataSource or Collection into the model you need to use the second
approach.

16.7.4 Working with Sub-Reports

JasperReports provides support for embedded sub-reports within your master

report files. There are a wide variety of mechanisms for including sub-reports in
your report files. The easiest way is to hard code the report path and the SQL
query for the sub report into your design files. The drawback of this approach is
obvious: the values are hard-coded into your report files reducing reusability and
making it harder to modify and update report designs. To overcome this you can
configure sub-reports declaratively, and you can include additional data for these
sub-reports directly from your controllers.

16.7.4.1 Configuring Sub-Report Files

To control which sub-report files are included in a master report using Spring, your
report file must be configured to accept sub-reports from an external source. To do
this you declare a parameter in your report file like so:

618
<parameter name="ProductsSubReport"
class="net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JasperReport"/>

Then, you define your sub-report to use this sub-report parameter:

<subreport>
<reportElement isPrintRepeatedValues="false" x="5" y="25" width="325"
height="20" isRemoveLineWhenBlank="true" backcolor="#ffcc99"/>
<subreportParameter name="City">
<subreportParameterExpression><!
[CDATA[$F{city}]]></subreportParameterExpression>
</subreportParameter>
<dataSourceExpression><![CDATA[$P{SubReportData}]]></dataSourceExpression>
<subreportExpression class="net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JasperReport">
<![CDATA[$P{ProductsSubReport}]]></subreportExpression>
</subreport>

This defines a master report file that expects the sub-report to be passed in as an
instance of net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JasperReportsunder the
parameter ProductsSubReport. When configuring your Jasper view class, you can
instruct Spring to load a report file and pass it into the JasperReports engine as a
sub-report using the subReportUrls property:

<property name="subReportUrls">
<map>
<entry key="ProductsSubReport" value="/WEB-
INF/reports/subReportChild.jrxml"/>
</map>
</property>

Here, the key of the Map corresponds to the name of the sub-report parameter in

the report design file, and the entry is the URL of the report file. Spring will load
this report file, compiling it if necessary, and pass it into the JasperReports engine
under the given key.

16.7.4.2 Configuring Sub-Report Data Sources

This step is entirely optional when using Spring to configure your sub-reports. If
you wish, you can still configure the data source for your sub-reports using static
queries. However, if you want Spring to convert data returned in
your ModelAndView into instances of JRDataSource then you need to specify which of
the parameters in your ModelAndView Spring should convert. To do this, configure
the list of parameter names using thesubReportDataKeys property of your chosen
view class:

619
<property name="subReportDataKeys" value="SubReportData"/>

Here, the key you supply must correspond to both the key used in

your ModelAndView and the key used in your report design file.

16.7.5 Configuring Exporter Parameters

If you have special requirements for exporter configuration -- perhaps you want a
specific page size for your PDF report -- you can configure these exporter
parameters declaratively in your Spring configuration file using
the exporterParameters property of the view class. The exporterParameters property is
typed as a Map. In your configuration the key of an entry should be the fully-
qualified name of a static field that contains the exporter parameter definition, and
the value of an entry should be the value you want to assign to the parameter. An
example of this is shown below:

<bean id="htmlReport"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.jasperreports.JasperReportsHtmlView">
<property name="url" value="/WEB-INF/reports/simpleReport.jrxml"/>
<property name="exporterParameters">
<map>
<entry
key="net.sf.jasperreports.engine.export.JRHtmlExporterParameter.HTML_FOOTER">
<value>Footer by Spring!
&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td width="50%"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/body&gt;&lt;/html&gt;
</value>
</entry>
</map>
</property>
</bean>

Here you can see that the JasperReportsHtmlView is configured with an exporter

parameter
fornet.sf.jasperreports.engine.export.JRHtmlExporterParameter.HTML_FOOTER which
will output a footer in the resulting HTML.

16.8 Feed Views

Both AbstractAtomFeedView and AbstractRssFeedView inherit from the base

class AbstractFeedView and are used to provide Atom and RSS Feed views
respectfully. They are based on java.net's ROME project and are located in the
packageorg.springframework.web.servlet.view.feed.

620
AbstractAtomFeedView requires you to implement the buildFeedEntries() method and
optionally override the buildFeedMetadata() method (the default implementation is
empty), as shown below.

public class SampleContentAtomView extends AbstractAtomFeedView {

@Override
protected void buildFeedMetadata(Map<String, Object> model, Feed feed,
HttpServletRequest request) {
// implementation omitted
}

@Override
protected List<Entry> buildFeedEntries(Map<String, Object> model,
HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
throws Exception {

// implementation omitted
}
}

Similar requirements apply for implementing AbstractRssFeedView, as shown below.

public class SampleContentAtomView extends AbstractRssFeedView {

@Override
protected void buildFeedMetadata(Map<String, Object> model, Channel feed,
HttpServletRequest request) {
// implementation omitted
}

@Override
protected List<Item> buildFeedItems(Map<String, Object> model,
HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
throws Exception {
// implementation omitted
}

The buildFeedItems() and buildFeedEntires() methods pass in the HTTP request in

case you need to access the Locale. The HTTP response is passed in only for the
setting of cookies or other HTTP headers. The feed will automatically be written to
the response object after the method returns.

For an example of creating an Atom view please refer to Alef Arendsen's

SpringSource Team Blog entry.

621
16.9 XML Marshalling View

The MarhsallingView uses an XML Marshaller defined in
the org.springframework.oxm package to render the response content as XML. The
object to be marshalled can be set explicitly
using MarhsallingView's modelKey bean property. Alternatively, the view will iterate
over all model properties and marshal only those types that are supported by
the Marshaller. For more information on the functionality in
theorg.springframework.oxm package refer to the chapter Marshalling XML using
O/X Mappers.

16.10 JSON Mapping View

The MappingJacksonJsonView uses the Jackson library's ObjectMapper to render the

response content as JSON. By default, the entire contents of the model map (with
the exception of framework-specific classes) will be encoded as JSON. For cases
where the contents of the map need to be filtered, users may specify a specific set
of model attributes to encode via the RenderedAttributes property.

JSON mapping can be customized as needed through the use of Jackson's

provided annotations. When further control is needed, a customObjectMapper can
be injected through the ObjectMapper property for cases where custom JSON
serializers/deserializers need to be provided for specific types.

17. Integrating with other web frameworks

17.1 Introduction

This chapter details Spring's integration with third party web frameworks such
as JSF, Struts, WebWork, and Tapestry.
Spring Web Flow

Spring Web Flow (SWF) aims to be the best solution for the management of web application page flow.

SWF integrates with existing frameworks like Spring MVC, Struts, and JSF, in both servlet and portlet
environments. If you have a business process (or processes) that would benefit from a conversational
model as opposed to a purely request model, then SWF may be the solution.

SWF allows you to capture logical page flows as self-contained modules that are reusable in different
situations, and as such is ideal for building web application modules that guide the user through controlled
navigations that drive business processes.

For more information about SWF, consult the Spring Web Flow website.

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One of the core value propositions of the Spring Framework is that of
enabling choice. In a general sense, Spring does not force one to use or buy into
any particular architecture, technology, or methodology (although it certainly
recommends some over others). This freedom to pick and choose the architecture,
technology, or methodology that is most relevant to a developer and his or her
development team is arguably most evident in the web area, where Spring
provides its own web framework (Spring MVC), while at the same time providing
integration with a number of popular third party web frameworks. This allows one
to continue to leverage any and all of the skills one may have acquired in a
particular web framework such as Struts, while at the same time being able to
enjoy the benefits afforded by Spring in other areas such as data access,
declarative transaction management, and flexible configuration and application
assembly.

Having dispensed with the woolly sales patter (c.f. the previous paragraph), the remainder of this
chapter will concentrate upon the meaty details of integrating your favorite web framework with
Spring. One thing that is often commented upon by developers coming to Java from other languages is
the seeming super-abundance of web frameworks available in Java. There are indeed a great number
of web frameworks in the Java space; in fact there are far too many to cover with any semblance of
detail in a single chapter. This chapter thus picks four of the more popular web frameworks in Java,
starting with the Spring configuration that is common to all of the supported web frameworks, and
then detailing the specific integration options for each supported web framework.

Note

Please note that this chapter does not attempt to explain how to use any of the supported web
frameworks. For example, if you want to use Struts for the presentation layer of your web
application, the assumption is that you are already familiar with Struts. If you need further details
about any of the supported web frameworks themselves, please do consult Section 17.7, “Further
Resources” at the end of this chapter.

17.2 Common configuration

Before diving into the integration specifics of each supported web framework, let
us first take a look at the Spring configuration that is not specific to any one web
framework. (This section is equally applicable to Spring's own web framework,
Spring MVC.)

One of the concepts (for want of a better word) espoused by (Spring's) lightweight
application model is that of a layered architecture. Remember that in a 'classic'
layered architecture, the web layer is but one of many layers; it serves as one of
the entry points into a server side application and it delegates to service objects
(facades) defined in a service layer to satisfy business specific (and presentation-

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technology agnostic) use cases. In Spring, these service objects, any other
business-specific objects, data access objects, etc. exist in a distinct 'business
context', which contains noweb or presentation layer objects (presentation objects
such as Spring MVC controllers are typically configured in a distinct 'presentation
context'). This section details how one configures a Spring container
(a WebApplicationContext) that contains all of the 'business beans' in one's
application.

On to specifics: all that one need do is to declare a ContextLoaderListener in the

standard Java EE servlet web.xml file of one's web application, and add
a contextConfigLocation <context-param/> section (in the same file) that defines
which set of Spring XML configuration files to load.

Find below the <listener/> configuration:

<listener>
<listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-
class>
</listener>

Find below the <context-param/> configuration:

<context-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/applicationContext*.xml</param-value>
</context-param>

If you don't specify the contextConfigLocation context parameter,

the ContextLoaderListener will look for a file called /WEB-
INF/applicationContext.xml to load. Once the context files are loaded, Spring
creates a WebApplicationContext object based on the bean definitions and stores it
in the ServletContext of the web application.

All Java web frameworks are built on top of the Servlet API, and so one can use
the following code snippet to get access to this 'business
context'ApplicationContext created by the ContextLoaderListener.

WebApplicationContext ctx =
WebApplicationContextUtils.getWebApplicationContext(servletContext);

The WebApplicationContextUtils class is for convenience, so you don't have to

remember the name of the ServletContext attribute.

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ItsgetWebApplicationContext() method will return null if an object doesn't exist
under theWebApplicationContext.ROOT_WEB_APPLICATION_CONTEXT_ATTRIBUTE key. Rather
than risk getting NullPointerExceptions in your application, it's better to use
the getRequiredWebApplicationContext() method. This method throws an exception
when the ApplicationContext is missing.

Once you have a reference to the WebApplicationContext, you can retrieve beans by

their name or type. Most developers retrieve beans by name and then cast them to
one of their implemented interfaces.

Fortunately, most of the frameworks in this section have simpler ways of looking
up beans. Not only do they make it easy to get beans from a Spring container, but
they also allow you to use dependency injection on their controllers. Each web
framework section has more detail on its specific integration strategies.

17.3 JavaServer Faces 1.1 and 1.2

JavaServer Faces (JSF) is the JCP's standard component-based, event-driven

web user interface framework. As of Java EE 5, it is an official part of the Java EE
umbrella.

For a popular JSF runtime as well as for popular JSF component libraries, check
out the Apache MyFaces project. The MyFaces project also provides common JSF
extensions such as MyFaces Orchestra: a Spring-based JSF extension that provides rich
conversation scope support.

Note

Spring Web Flow 2.0 provides rich JSF support through its newly established Spring Faces
module, both for JSF-centric usage (as described in this section) and for Spring-centric usage
(using JSF views within a Spring MVC dispatcher). Check out theSpring Web Flow website for
details!

The key element in Spring's JSF integration is the JSF

1.1 VariableResolver mechanism. On JSF 1.2, Spring supports
the ELResolvermechanism as a next-generation version of JSF EL integration.

17.3.1 DelegatingVariableResolver (JSF 1.1/1.2)

The easiest way to integrate one's Spring middle-tier with one's JSF web layer is
to use the DelegatingVariableResolver class. To configure this variable resolver in
one's application, one will need to edit one's faces-context.xml file. After the
opening <faces-config/> element, add an<application/> element and a <variable-

625
resolver/> element within it. The value of the variable resolver should reference
Spring'sDelegatingVariableResolver; for example:

<faces-config>
<application>
<variable-
resolver>org.springframework.web.jsf.DelegatingVariableResolver</variable-
resolver>
<locale-config>
<default-locale>en</default-locale>
<supported-locale>en</supported-locale>
<supported-locale>es</supported-locale>
</locale-config>
<message-bundle>messages</message-bundle>
</application>
</faces-config>

The DelegatingVariableResolver will first delegate value lookups to the default

resolver of the underlying JSF implementation and then to Spring's 'business
context' WebApplicationContext. This allows one to easily inject dependencies into
one's JSF-managed beans.

Managed beans are defined in one's faces-config.xml file. Find below an example

where #{userManager} is a bean that is retrieved from the Spring 'business context'.

<managed-bean>
<managed-bean-name>userList</managed-bean-name>
<managed-bean-class>com.whatever.jsf.UserList</managed-bean-class>
<managed-bean-scope>request</managed-bean-scope>
<managed-property>
<property-name>userManager</property-name>
<value>#{userManager}</value>
</managed-property>
</managed-bean>

17.3.2 SpringBeanVariableResolver (JSF 1.1/1.2)

SpringBeanVariableResolver is
a variant of DelegatingVariableResolver. It delegates to
the Spring's 'business context' WebApplicationContextfirst and then to the default
resolver of the underlying JSF implementation. This is useful in particular when
using request/session-scoped beans with special Spring resolution rules, e.g.
Spring FactoryBean implementations.

Configuration-wise, simply define SpringBeanVariableResolver in your faces-

context.xml file:

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<faces-config>
<application>
<variable-
resolver>org.springframework.web.jsf.SpringBeanVariableResolver</variable-
resolver>
...
</application>
</faces-config>

17.3.3 SpringBeanFacesELResolver (JSF 1.2+)

SpringBeanFacesELResolver is a JSF 1.2 compliant ELResolver implementation,

integrating with the standard Unified EL as used by JSF 1.2 and JSP 2.1.
Like SpringBeanVariableResolver, it delegates to the Spring's 'business
context' WebApplicationContext first, then to the default resolver of the underlying
JSF implementation.

Configuration-wise, simply define SpringBeanFacesELResolver in your JSF 1.2 faces-

context.xml file:

<faces-config>
<application>
<el-resolver>org.springframework.web.jsf.el.SpringBeanFacesELResolver</el-
resolver>
...
</application>
</faces-config>

17.3.4 FacesContextUtils

A custom VariableResolver works well when mapping one's properties to beans

in faces-config.xml, but at times one may need to grab a bean explicitly.
The FacesContextUtils class makes this easy. It is similar
to WebApplicationContextUtils, except that it takes a FacesContextparameter rather
than a ServletContext parameter.

ApplicationContext ctx =
FacesContextUtils.getWebApplicationContext(FacesContext.getCurrentInstance());

17.4 Apache Struts 1.x and 2.x

Struts used to be the de facto web framework for Java applications, mainly

because it was one of the first to be released (June 2001). It has now been
renamed to Struts 1 (as opposed to Struts 2). Many applications still use it. Invented by Craig

627
McClanahan, Struts is an open source project hosted by the Apache Software Foundation. At the time,
it greatly simplified the JSP/Servlet programming paradigm and won over many developers who were
using proprietary frameworks. It simplified the programming model, it was open source (and thus free
as in beer), and it had a large community, which allowed the project to grow and become popular
among Java web developers.

Note
The following section discusses Struts 1 a.k.a. "Struts Classic".

Struts 2 is effectively a different product - a successor of WebWork 2.2 (as discussed

in Section 17.5, “WebWork 2.x”), carrying the Struts brand now. Check out the Struts 2 Spring
Plugin for the built-in Spring integration shipped with Struts 2. In general, Struts 2 is closer to
WebWork 2.2 than to Struts 1 in terms of its Spring integration implications.

To integrate your Struts 1.x application with Spring, you have two options:

 Configure Spring to manage your Actions as beans, using

the ContextLoaderPlugin, and set their dependencies in a Spring context file.
 Subclass Spring's ActionSupport classes and grab your Spring-managed
beans explicitly using a getWebApplicationContext() method.

17.4.1 ContextLoaderPlugin

The ContextLoaderPlugin is a Struts 1.1+ plug-in that loads a Spring context file for
the Struts ActionServlet. This context refers to the
rootWebApplicationContext (loaded by the ContextLoaderListener) as its parent. The
default name of the context file is the name of the mapped servlet, plus -
servlet.xml. If ActionServlet is defined in web.xml as <servlet-name>action</servlet-
name>, the default is /WEB-INF/action-servlet.xml.

To configure this plug-in, add the following XML to the plug-ins section near the
bottom of your struts-config.xml file:

<plug-in className="org.springframework.web.struts.ContextLoaderPlugIn"/>

The location of the context configuration files can be customized using the
'contextConfigLocation' property.

<plug-in className="org.springframework.web.struts.ContextLoaderPlugIn">
<set-property property="contextConfigLocation"
value="/WEB-INF/action-servlet.xml,/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml"/>
</plug-in>

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It is possible to use this plugin to load all your context files, which can be useful
when using testing tools like StrutsTestCase.
StrutsTestCase'sMockStrutsTestCase won't initialize Listeners on startup so putting
all your context files in the plugin is a workaround. (A bug has been filed for this
issue, but has been closed as 'Wont Fix').

After configuring this plug-in in struts-config.xml, you can configure your Action to

be managed by Spring. Spring (1.1.3+) provides two ways to do this:

 Override Struts' default RequestProcessor with

Spring's DelegatingRequestProcessor.
 Use the DelegatingActionProxy class in the type attribute of your <action-
mapping>.

Both of these methods allow you to manage your Actions and their dependencies
in the action-servlet.xml file. The bridge between the Action instruts-
config.xml and action-servlet.xml is built with the action-mapping's "path" and the
bean's "name". If you have the following in your struts-config.xml file:

<action path="/users" .../>

You must define that Action's bean with the "/users" name in action-servlet.xml:

<bean name="/users" .../>

17.4.1.1 DelegatingRequestProcessor

To configure the DelegatingRequestProcessor in your struts-config.xml file, override

the "processorClass" property in the <controller> element. These lines follow the
<action-mapping> element.

<controller>
<set-property property="processorClass"
value="org.springframework.web.struts.DelegatingRequestProcessor"/>
</controller>

After adding this setting, your Action will automatically be looked up in Spring's
context file, no matter what the type. In fact, you don't even need to specify a type.
Both of the following snippets will work:

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<action path="/user" type="com.whatever.struts.UserAction"/>
<action path="/user"/>

If you're using Struts' modules feature, your bean names must contain the module
prefix. For example, an action defined as <action path="/user"/> with module prefix
"admin" requires a bean name with <bean name="/admin/user"/>.

Note

If you are using Tiles in your Struts application, you must configure your <controller> with
theDelegatingTilesRequestProcessor instead.

17.4.1.2 DelegatingActionProxy

If you have a custom RequestProcessor and can't use

the DelegatingRequestProcessor or DelegatingTilesRequestProcessor approaches, you
can use the DelegatingActionProxy as the type in your action-mapping.

<action path="/user" type="org.springframework.web.struts.DelegatingActionProxy"

name="userForm" scope="request" validate="false" parameter="method">
<forward name="list" path="/userList.jsp"/>
<forward name="edit" path="/userForm.jsp"/>
</action>

The bean definition in action-servlet.xml remains the same, whether you use a

custom RequestProcessor or the DelegatingActionProxy.

If you define your Action in a context file, the full feature set of Spring's bean
container will be available for it: dependency injection as well as the option to
instantiate a new Action instance for each request. To activate the latter,
add scope="prototype" to your Action's bean definition.

<bean name="/user" scope="prototype" autowire="byName"

class="org.example.web.UserAction"/>

17.4.2 ActionSupport Classes

As previously mentioned, you can retrieve the WebApplicationContext from

the ServletContext using the WebApplicationContextUtils class. An easier way is to
extend Spring's Action classes for Struts. For example, instead of subclassing
Struts' Action class, you can subclass Spring'sActionSupport class.

630
The ActionSupport class provides additional convenience methods,
like getWebApplicationContext(). Below is an example of how you might use this in
an Action:

public class UserAction extends DispatchActionSupport {

public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping,

ActionForm form,
HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {
if (log.isDebugEnabled()) {
log.debug("entering 'delete' method...");
}
WebApplicationContext ctx = getWebApplicationContext();
UserManager mgr = (UserManager) ctx.getBean("userManager");
// talk to manager for business logic
return mapping.findForward("success");
}
}

Spring includes subclasses for all of the standard Struts Actions - the Spring
versions merely have Support appended to the name:

 ActionSupport,
 DispatchActionSupport,

 LookupDispatchActionSupport and

 MappingDispatchActionSupport.

The recommended strategy is to use the approach that best suits your project.
Subclassing makes your code more readable, and you know exactly how your
dependencies are resolved. In contrast, using the ContextLoaderPlugin allows you to
easily add new dependencies in your context XML file. Either way, Spring provides
some nice options for integrating with Struts.

17.5 WebWork 2.x

From the WebWork homepage:

“ WebWork is a Java web-application development framework. It is built

specifically with developer productivity and code simplicity in mind, providing
robust support for building reusable UI templates, such as form controls, UI
themes, internationalization, dynamic form parameter mapping to JavaBeans,
robust client and server side validation, and much more. ”

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Web work's architecture and concepts are easy to understand, and the framework
also has an extensive tag library as well as nicely decoupled validation.

One of the key enablers in WebWork's technology stack is an IoC container to
manage Webwork Actions, handle the "wiring" of business objects, etc. Prior to
WebWork version 2.2, WebWork used its own proprietary IoC container (and
provided integration points so that one could integrate an IoC container such as
Spring's into the mix). However, as of WebWork version 2.2, the default IoC
container that is used within WebWork is Spring. This is obviously great news if
one is a Spring developer, because it means that one is immediately familiar with
the basics of IoC configuration, idioms, and suchlike within WebWork.

Now in the interests of adhering to the DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) principle, it
would be foolish to document the Spring-WebWork integration in light of the fact
that the WebWork team have already written such a writeup. Please consult
the Spring-WebWork integration page on the WebWork wiki for the full lowdown.

Note that the Spring-WebWork integration code was developed (and continues to
be maintained and improved) by the WebWork developers themselves. So please
refer first to the WebWork site and forums if you are having issues with the
integration. But feel free to post comments and queries regarding the Spring-
WebWork integration on the Spring support forums, too.

17.6 Tapestry 3.x and 4.x

From the Tapestry homepage:

“ Tapestry is an open-source framework for creating dynamic, robust, highly

scalable web applications in Java. Tapestry complements and builds upon the
standard Java Servlet API, and so it works in any servlet container or application
server. ”

While Spring has its own powerful web layer, there are a number of unique
advantages to building an enterprise Java application using a combination of
Tapestry for the web user interface and the Spring container for the lower layers.
This section of the web integration chapter attempts to detail a few best practices
for combining these two frameworks.

A typical layered enterprise Java application built with Tapestry and Spring will
consist of a top user interface (UI) layer built with Tapestry, and a number of lower
layers, all wired together by one or more Spring containers. Tapestry's own
reference documentation contains the following snippet of best practice advice.

632
(Text that the author of this Spring section has added is contained
within [] brackets.)

“ A very succesful design pattern in Tapestry is to keep pages and components
very simple, and delegate as much logic as possible out to HiveMind [or Spring,
or whatever] services. Listener methods should ideally do little more than marshal
together the correct information and pass it over to a service. ”

The key question then is: how does one supply Tapestry pages with collaborating
services? The answer, ideally, is that one would want to dependency inject those
services directly into one's Tapestry pages. In Tapestry, one can effect this
dependency injection by a variety of means. This section is only going to
enumerate the dependency injection means afforded by Spring. The real beauty of
the rest of this Spring-Tapestry integration is that the elegant and flexible design of
Tapestry itself makes doing this dependency injection of Spring-managed beans a
cinch. (Another nice thing is that this Spring-Tapestry integration code was written
- and continues to be maintained - by the Tapestry creator Howard M. Lewis Ship,
so hats off to him for what is really some silky smooth integration).

17.6.1 Injecting Spring-managed beans

Assume we have the following simple Spring container definition (in the ubiquitous
XML format):

<?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:jee="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee
http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee/spring-jee-3.0.xsd">

<beans>
<!-- the DataSource -->
<jee:jndi-lookup id="dataSource" jndi-name="java:DefaultDS"/>

<bean id="hibSessionFactory"
class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalSessionFactoryBean">
<property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>
</bean>

<bean id="transactionManager"
class="org.springframework.transaction.jta.JtaTransactionManager"/>

<bean id="mapper"

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 class="com.whatever.dataaccess.mapper.hibernate.MapperImpl">
<property name="sessionFactory" ref="hibSessionFactory"/>
</bean>

<!-- (transactional) AuthenticationService -->

<bean id="authenticationService"

class="org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="transactionManager" ref="transactionManager"/>
<property name="target">
<bean
class="com.whatever.services.service.user.AuthenticationServiceImpl">
<property name="mapper" ref="mapper"/>
</bean>
</property>
<property name="proxyInterfacesOnly" value="true"/>
<property name="transactionAttributes">
<value>
*=PROPAGATION_REQUIRED
</value>
</property>
</bean>

<!-- (transactional) UserService -->

<bean id="userService"

class="org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="transactionManager" ref="transactionManager"/>
<property name="target">
<bean class="com.whatever.services.service.user.UserServiceImpl">
<property name="mapper" ref="mapper"/>
</bean>
</property>
<property name="proxyInterfacesOnly" value="true"/>
<property name="transactionAttributes">
<value>
*=PROPAGATION_REQUIRED
</value>
</property>
</bean>

</beans>

Inside the Tapestry application, the above bean definitions need to be loaded into
a Spring container, and any relevant Tapestry pages need to be supplied (injected)
with the authenticationService and userService beans, which implement
the AuthenticationService and UserServiceinterfaces, respectively.

At this point, the application context is available to a web application by calling

Spring's static utility
functionWebApplicationContextUtils.getApplicationContext(servletContext), where
servletContext is the standard ServletContext from the Java EE Servlet

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specification. As such, one simple mechanism for a page to get an instance of
the UserService, for example, would be with code such as:

WebApplicationContext appContext =
WebApplicationContextUtils.getApplicationContext(
getRequestCycle().getRequestContext().getServlet().getServletContext());
UserService userService = (UserService) appContext.getBean("userService");
// ... some code which uses UserService

This mechanism does work. Having said that, it can be made a lot less verbose by
encapsulating most of the functionality in a method in the base class for the page
or component. However, in some respects it goes against the IoC principle; ideally
you would like the page to not have to ask the context for a specific bean by name,
and in fact, the page would ideally not know about the context at all.

Luckily, there is a mechanism to allow this. We rely upon the fact that Tapestry already has a
mechanism to declaratively add properties to a page, and it is in fact the preferred approach to manage
all properties on a page in this declarative fashion, so that Tapestry can properly manage their lifecycle
as part of the page and component lifecycle.

Note

This next section is applicable to Tapestry 3.x. If you are using Tapestry version 4.x, please
consult the section entitledSection 17.6.1.4, “Dependency Injecting Spring Beans into Tapestry
pages - Tapestry 4.x style”.

17.6.1.1 Dependency Injecting Spring Beans into Tapestry pages

First we need to make the ApplicationContext available to the Tapestry page or

Component without having to have the ServletContext; this is because at the stage
in the page's/component's lifecycle when we need to access
the ApplicationContext, the ServletContext won't be easily available to the page,
so we can't
use WebApplicationContextUtils.getApplicationContext(servletContext) directly. One
way is by defining a custom version of the Tapestry IEngine which exposes this for
us:

package com.whatever.web.xportal;

// import ...

public class MyEngine extends org.apache.tapestry.engine.BaseEngine {

public static final String APPLICATION_CONTEXT_KEY = "appContext";

635
 /**
* @see
org.apache.tapestry.engine.AbstractEngine#setupForRequest(org.apache.tapestry.requ
est.RequestContext)
*/
protected void setupForRequest(RequestContext context) {
super.setupForRequest(context);

// insert ApplicationContext in global, if not there

Map global = (Map) getGlobal();
ApplicationContext ac = (ApplicationContext)
global.get(APPLICATION_CONTEXT_KEY);
if (ac == null) {
ac = WebApplicationContextUtils.getWebApplicationContext(
context.getServlet().getServletContext()
);
global.put(APPLICATION_CONTEXT_KEY, ac);
}
}
}

This engine class places the Spring Application Context as an attribute called
"appContext" in this Tapestry app's 'Global' object. Make sure to register the fact
that this special IEngine instance should be used for this Tapestry application, with
an entry in the Tapestry application definition file. For example:

file: xportal.application:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE application PUBLIC
"-//Apache Software Foundation//Tapestry Specification 3.0//EN"
"http://jakarta.apache.org/tapestry/dtd/Tapestry_3_0.dtd">
<application
name="Whatever xPortal"
engine-class="com.whatever.web.xportal.MyEngine">
</application>

17.6.1.2 Component definition files

Now in our page or component definition file (*.page or *.jwc), we simply add
property-specification elements to grab the beans we need out of
theApplicationContext, and create page or component properties for them. For
example:

<property-specification name="userService"
type="com.whatever.services.service.user.UserService">
global.appContext.getBean("userService")
</property-specification>

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 <property-specification name="authenticationService"

type="com.whatever.services.service.user.AuthenticationService">
global.appContext.getBean("authenticationService")
</property-specification>

The OGNL expression inside the property-specification specifies the initial value
for the property, as a bean obtained from the context. The entire page definition
might look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE page-specification PUBLIC
"-//Apache Software Foundation//Tapestry Specification 3.0//EN"
"http://jakarta.apache.org/tapestry/dtd/Tapestry_3_0.dtd">

<page-specification class="com.whatever.web.xportal.pages.Login">

<property-specification name="username" type="java.lang.String"/>

<property-specification name="password" type="java.lang.String"/>
<property-specification name="error" type="java.lang.String"/>
<property-specification name="callback"
type="org.apache.tapestry.callback.ICallback" persistent="yes"/>
<property-specification name="userService"
type="com.whatever.services.service.user.UserService">
global.appContext.getBean("userService")
</property-specification>
<property-specification name="authenticationService"

type="com.whatever.services.service.user.AuthenticationService">
global.appContext.getBean("authenticationService")
</property-specification>

<bean name="delegate"
class="com.whatever.web.xportal.PortalValidationDelegate"/>

<bean name="validator" class="org.apache.tapestry.valid.StringValidator"

lifecycle="page">
<set-property name="required" expression="true"/>
<set-property name="clientScriptingEnabled" expression="true"/>
</bean>

<component id="inputUsername" type="ValidField">

<static-binding name="displayName" value="Username"/>
<binding name="value" expression="username"/>
<binding name="validator" expression="beans.validator"/>
</component>

<component id="inputPassword" type="ValidField">

<binding name="value" expression="password"/>
<binding name="validator" expression="beans.validator"/>
<static-binding name="displayName" value="Password"/>
<binding name="hidden" expression="true"/>

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 </component>

</page-specification>

17.6.1.3 Adding abstract accessors

Now in the Java class definition for the page or component itself, all we need to do
is add an abstract getter method for the properties we have defined (in order to be
able to access the properties).

// our UserService implementation; will come from page definition

public abstract UserService getUserService();
// our AuthenticationService implementation; will come from page definition
public abstract AuthenticationService getAuthenticationService();

For the sake of completeness, the entire Java class, for a login page in this
example, might look like this:

package com.whatever.web.xportal.pages;

/**
* Allows the user to login, by providing username and password.
* After successfully logging in, a cookie is placed on the client browser
* that provides the default username for future logins (the cookie
* persists for a week).
*/
public abstract class Login extends BasePage implements ErrorProperty,
PageRenderListener {

/** the key under which the authenticated user object is stored in the visit
as */
public static final String USER_KEY = "user";

/** The name of the cookie that identifies a user **/

private static final String COOKIE_NAME = Login.class.getName() + ".username";
private final static int ONE_WEEK = 7 * 24 * 60 * 60;

public abstract String getUsername();

public abstract void setUsername(String username);

public abstract String getPassword();

public abstract void setPassword(String password);

public abstract ICallback getCallback();

public abstract void setCallback(ICallback value);

public abstract UserService getUserService();

public abstract AuthenticationService getAuthenticationService();

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 protected IValidationDelegate getValidationDelegate() {
return (IValidationDelegate) getBeans().getBean("delegate");
}

protected void setErrorField(String componentId, String message) {

IFormComponent field = (IFormComponent) getComponent(componentId);
IValidationDelegate delegate = getValidationDelegate();
delegate.setFormComponent(field);
delegate.record(new ValidatorException(message));
}

/**
* Attempts to login.
* <p>
* If the user name is not known, or the password is invalid, then an error
* message is displayed.
**/
public void attemptLogin(IRequestCycle cycle) {

String password = getPassword();

// Do a little extra work to clear out the password.

setPassword(null);
IValidationDelegate delegate = getValidationDelegate();

delegate.setFormComponent((IFormComponent) getComponent("inputPassword"));
delegate.recordFieldInputValue(null);

// An error, from a validation field, may already have occurred.

if (delegate.getHasErrors()) {
return;
}

try {
User user = getAuthenticationService().login(getUsername(),
getPassword());
loginUser(user, cycle);
}
catch (FailedLoginException ex) {
this.setError("Login failed: " + ex.getMessage());
return;
}
}

/**
* Sets up the {@link User} as the logged in user, creates
* a cookie for their username (for subsequent logins),
* and redirects to the appropriate page, or
* a specified page).
**/
public void loginUser(User user, IRequestCycle cycle) {

String username = user.getUsername();

// Get the visit object; this will likely force the

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 // creation of the visit object and an HttpSession
Map visit = (Map) getVisit();
visit.put(USER_KEY, user);

// After logging in, go to the MyLibrary page, unless otherwise specified

ICallback callback = getCallback();

if (callback == null) {
cycle.activate("Home");
}
else {
callback.performCallback(cycle);
}

IEngine engine = getEngine();

Cookie cookie = new Cookie(COOKIE_NAME, username);
cookie.setPath(engine.getServletPath());
cookie.setMaxAge(ONE_WEEK);

// Record the user's username in a cookie

cycle.getRequestContext().addCookie(cookie);
engine.forgetPage(getPageName());
}

public void pageBeginRender(PageEvent event) {

if (getUsername() == null) {

setUsername(getRequestCycle().getRequestContext().getCookieValue(COOKIE_NAME));
}
}
}

17.6.1.4 Dependency Injecting Spring Beans into Tapestry pages -

Tapestry 4.x style

Effecting the dependency injection of Spring-managed beans into Tapestry pages

in Tapestry version 4.x is so much simpler. All that is needed is a single add-on
library, and some (small) amount of (essentially boilerplate) configuration. Simply
package and deploy this library with the (any of the) other libraries required by
your web application (typically in WEB-INF/lib).

You will then need to create and expose the Spring container using the method
detailed previously. You can then inject Spring-managed beans into Tapestry very
easily; if we are using Java 5, consider the Login page from above: we simply need
to annotate the appropriate getter methods in order to dependency inject the
Spring-managed userService and authenticationService objects (lots of the class
definition has been elided for clarity).

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package com.whatever.web.xportal.pages;

public abstract class Login extends BasePage implements ErrorProperty,

PageRenderListener {

@InjectObject("spring:userService")
public abstract UserService getUserService();

@InjectObject("spring:authenticationService")
public abstract AuthenticationService getAuthenticationService();

We are almost done. All that remains is the HiveMind configuration that exposes
the Spring container stored in the ServletContext as a HiveMind service; for
example:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<module id="com.javaforge.tapestry.spring" version="0.1.1">

<service-point id="SpringApplicationInitializer"
interface="org.apache.tapestry.services.ApplicationInitializer"
visibility="private">
<invoke-factory>
<construct
class="com.javaforge.tapestry.spring.SpringApplicationInitializer">
<set-object property="beanFactoryHolder"
value="service:hivemind.lib.DefaultSpringBeanFactoryHolder" />
</construct>
</invoke-factory>
</service-point>

<!-- Hook the Spring setup into the overall application initialization. -->
<contribution
configuration-id="tapestry.init.ApplicationInitializers">
<command id="spring-context"
object="service:SpringApplicationInitializer" />
</contribution>

</module>

If you are using Java 5 (and thus have access to annotations), then that really is it.

If you are not using Java 5, then one obviously doesn't annotate one's Tapestry
page classes with annotations; instead, one simply uses good old fashioned XML
to declare the dependency injection; for example, inside the .page or .jwc file for
the Login page (or component):

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<inject property="userService" object="spring:userService"/>
<inject property="authenticationService" object="spring:authenticationService"/>

In this example, we've managed to allow service beans defined in a Spring

container to be provided to the Tapestry page in a declarative fashion. The page
class does not know where the service implementations are coming from, and in
fact it is easy to slip in another implementation, for example, during testing. This
inversion of control is one of the prime goals and benefits of the Spring
Framework, and we have managed to extend it throughout the stack in this
Tapestry application.

17.7 Further Resources

Find below links to further resources about the various web frameworks described
in this chapter.

 The JSF homepage
 The Struts homepage

 The WebWork homepage

 The Tapestry homepage

18. Portlet MVC Framework

18.1 Introduction
JSR-168 The Java Portlet Specification

For more general information about portlet development, please review a whitepaper from Sun
entitled "Introduction to JSR 168", and of course theJSR-168 Specification itself.

In addition to supporting conventional (servlet-based) Web development, Spring

also supports JSR-168 Portlet development. As much as possible, the Portlet MVC
framework is a mirror image of the Web MVC framework, and also uses the same
underlying view abstractions and integration technology. So, be sure to review the
chapters entitled Chapter 15, Web MVC framework and Chapter 16, View
technologiesbefore continuing with this chapter.

Note

Bear in mind that while the concepts of Spring MVC are the same in Spring Portlet MVC, there
are some notable differences created by the unique workflow of JSR-168 portlets.

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The main way in which portlet workflow differs from servlet workflow is that the
request to the portlet can have two distinct phases: the action phase and the
render phase. The action phase is executed only once and is where any 'backend'
changes or actions occur, such as making changes in a database. The render
phase then produces what is displayed to the user each time the display is
refreshed. The critical point here is that for a single overall request, the action
phase is executed only once, but the render phase may be executed multiple
times. This provides (and requires) a clean separation between the activities that
modify the persistent state of your system and the activities that generate what is
displayed to the user.
Spring Web Flow

Spring Web Flow (SWF) aims to be the best solution for the management of web application page flow.

SWF integrates with existing frameworks like Spring MVC, Struts, and JSF, in both servlet and portlet
environments. If you have a business process (or processes) that would benefit from a conversational
model as opposed to a purely request model, then SWF may be the solution.

SWF allows you to capture logical page flows as self-contained modules that are reusable in different
situations, and as such is ideal for building web application modules that guide the user through controlled
navigations that drive business processes.

For more information about SWF, consult the Spring Web Flow website.

The dual phases of portlet requests are one of the real strengths of the JSR-168
specification. For example, dynamic search results can be updated routinely on
the display without the user explicitly rerunning the search. Most other portlet MVC
frameworks attempt to completely hide the two phases from the developer and
make it look as much like traditional servlet development as possible - we think
this approach removes one of the main benefits of using portlets. So, the
separation of the two phases is preserved throughout the Spring Portlet MVC
framework. The primary manifestation of this approach is that where the servlet
version of the MVC classes will have one method that deals with the request, the
portlet version of the MVC classes will have two methods that deal with the
request: one for the action phase and one for the render phase. For example,
where the servlet version of AbstractController has
thehandleRequestInternal(..) method, the portlet version
of AbstractController hashandleActionRequestInternal(..) and handleRenderRequestIn
ternal(..) methods.

The framework is designed around a DispatcherPortlet that dispatches requests to

handlers, with configurable handler mappings and view resolution, just as

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theDispatcherServlet in the web framework does. File upload is also supported in
the same way.

Locale resolution and theme resolution are not supported in Portlet MVC - these
areas are in the purview of the portal/portlet container and are not appropriate at
the Spring level. However, all mechanisms in Spring that depend on the locale
(such as internationalization of messages) will still function properly
because DispatcherPortlet exposes the current locale in the same way
asDispatcherServlet.

18.1.1 Controllers - The C in MVC

The default handler is still a very simple Controller interface, offering just two

methods:
 void handleActionRequest(request,response)
 ModelAndView handleRenderRequest(request,response)

The framework also includes most of the same controller implementation

hierarchy, such as AbstractController, SimpleFormController, and so on. Data
binding, command object usage, model handling, and view resolution are all the
same as in the servlet framework.

18.1.2 Views - The V in MVC

All the view rendering capabilities of the servlet framework are used directly via a
special bridge servlet named ViewRendererServlet. By using this servlet, the portlet
request is converted into a servlet request and the view can be rendered using the
entire normal servlet infrastructure. This means all the existing renderers, such as
JSP, Velocity, etc., can still be used within the portlet.

18.1.3 Web-scoped beans

Spring Portlet MVC supports beans whose lifecycle is scoped to the current HTTP
request or HTTP Session (both normal and global). This is not a specific feature of
Spring Portlet MVC itself, but rather of the WebApplicationContext container(s) that
Spring Portlet MVC uses. These bean scopes are described in detail
in Section 3.5.4, “Request, session, and global session scopes”

18.2 The  DispatcherPortlet

Portlet MVC is a request-driven web MVC framework, designed around a portlet

that dispatches requests to controllers and offers other functionality facilitating the

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development of portlet applications. Spring's DispatcherPortlet however, does
more than just that. It is completely integrated with the
Spring ApplicationContext and allows you to use every other feature Spring has.

Like ordinary portlets, the DispatcherPortlet is declared in the portlet.xml file of

your web application:

<portlet>
<portlet-name>sample</portlet-name>
<portlet-class>org.springframework.web.portlet.DispatcherPortlet</portlet-
class>
<supports>
<mime-type>text/html</mime-type>
<portlet-mode>view</portlet-mode>
</supports>
<portlet-info>
<title>Sample Portlet</title>
</portlet-info>
</portlet>

The DispatcherPortlet now needs to be configured.

In the Portlet MVC framework, each DispatcherPortlet has its

own WebApplicationContext, which inherits all the beans already defined in the
Root WebApplicationContext. These inherited beans can be overridden in the portlet-
specific scope, and new scope-specific beans can be defined local to a given
portlet instance.

The framework will, on initialization of a DispatcherPortlet, look for a file

named [portlet-name]-portlet.xml in the WEB-INF directory of your web application
and create the beans defined there (overriding the definitions of any beans defined
with the same name in the global scope).

The config location used by the DispatcherPortlet can be modified through a portlet

initialization parameter (see below for details).

The Spring DispatcherPortlet has a few special beans it uses, in order to be able to

process requests and render the appropriate views. These beans are included in
the Spring framework and can be configured in the WebApplicationContext, just as
any other bean would be configured. Each of those beans is described in more
detail below. Right now, we'll just mention them, just to let you know they exist and
to enable us to go on talking about the DispatcherPortlet. For most of the beans,
defaults are provided so you don't have to worry about configuring them.

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 Table 18.1. Special beans in the WebApplicationContext

Explanation
(Section 18.5, “Handler mappings”) a list of pre- and post-processors and controllers that will be executed if they match
(s)
certain criteria (for instance a matching portlet mode specified with the controller)
(Section 18.4, “Controllers”) the beans providing the actual functionality (or at least, access to the functionality) as part of
MVC triad
(Section 18.6, “Views and resolving them”) capable of resolving view names to view definitions
er (Section 18.7, “Multipart (file upload) support”) offers functionality to process file uploads from HTML forms
n (Section 18.8, “Handling exceptions”) offers functionality to map exceptions to views or implement other more complex
exception handling code

When a DispatcherPortlet is setup for use and a request comes in for that
specific DispatcherPortlet, it starts processing the request. The list below describes
the complete process a request goes through if handled by a DispatcherPortlet:

1. The locale returned by PortletRequest.getLocale() is bound to the request to

let elements in the process resolve the locale to use when processing the
request (rendering the view, preparing data, etc.).
2. If a multipart resolver is specified and this is an ActionRequest, the request is
inspected for multiparts and if they are found, it is wrapped in
aMultipartActionRequest for further processing by other elements in the
process. (See Section 18.7, “Multipart (file upload) support” for further
information about multipart handling).

3. An appropriate handler is searched for. If a handler is found, the execution

chain associated with the handler (pre-processors, post-processors,
controllers) will be executed in order to prepare a model.

4. If a model is returned, the view is rendered, using the view resolver that has
been configured with the WebApplicationContext. If no model is returned
(which could be due to a pre- or post-processor intercepting the request, for
example, for security reasons), no view is rendered, since the request could
already have been fulfilled.

Exceptions that are thrown during processing of the request get picked up by any
of the handler exception resolvers that are declared in theWebApplicationContext.
Using these exception resolvers you can define custom behavior in case such
exceptions get thrown.

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 You can customize Spring's DispatcherPortlet by adding context parameters in
the portlet.xml file or portlet init-parameters. The possibilities are listed below.

Table 18.2. DispatcherPortlet initialization parameters

Explanation
Class that implements WebApplicationContext, which will be used to instantiate the context used by this portlet. If
parameter isn't specified, the XmlPortletApplicationContext will be used.
String which is passed to the context instance (specified by contextClass) to indicate where context(s) can be found
Location The String is potentially split up into multiple Strings (using a comma as a delimiter) to support multiple contexts (in
case of multiple context locations, for beans that are defined twice, the latest takes precedence).
The namespace of the WebApplicationContext. Defaults to [portlet-name]-portlet.
rl
The URL at which DispatcherPortlet can access an instance of ViewRendererServlet (see Section 18.3, “The
ViewRendererServlet”).

18.3 The  ViewRendererServlet

The rendering process in Portlet MVC is a bit more complex than in Web MVC. In
order to reuse all the view technologies from Spring Web MVC, we must convert
the PortletRequest / PortletResponse to HttpServletRequest / HttpServletResponse and
then call the render method of theView. To do this, DispatcherPortlet uses a special
servlet that exists for just this purpose: the ViewRendererServlet.

In order for DispatcherPortlet rendering to work, you must declare an instance of

the ViewRendererServlet in the web.xml file for your web application as follows:

<servlet>
<servlet-name>ViewRendererServlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.ViewRendererServlet</servlet-
class>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>ViewRendererServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/WEB-INF/servlet/view</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

To perform the actual rendering, DispatcherPortlet does the following:

1. Binds the WebApplicationContext to the request as an attribute under the

same WEB_APPLICATION_CONTEXT_ATTRIBUTE key thatDispatcherServlet uses.
2. Binds the Model and View objects to the request to make them available to
the ViewRendererServlet.

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 3. Constructs a PortletRequestDispatcher and performs an include using
the /WEB- INF/servlet/view URL that is mapped to theViewRendererServlet.

The ViewRendererServlet is then able to call the render method on the View with the

appropriate arguments.

The actual URL for the ViewRendererServlet can be changed

using DispatcherPortlet’s viewRendererUrl configuration parameter.

18.4 Controllers

The controllers in Portlet MVC are very similar to the Web MVC Controllers, and
porting code from one to the other should be simple.

The basis for the Portlet MVC controller architecture is

the org.springframework.web.portlet.mvc.Controller interface, which is listed below.

public interface Controller {

/**
* Process the render request and return a ModelAndView object which the
* DispatcherPortlet will render.
*/
ModelAndView handleRenderRequest(RenderRequest request, RenderResponse
response)
throws Exception;

/**
* Process the action request. There is nothing to return.
*/
void handleActionRequest(ActionRequest request, ActionResponse response)
throws Exception;
}

As you can see, the Portlet Controller interface requires two methods that handle
the two phases of a portlet request: the action request and the render request. The
action phase should be capable of handling an action request, and the render
phase should be capable of handling a render request and returning an
appropriate model and view. While the Controller interface is quite abstract, Spring
Portlet MVC offers several controllers that already contain a lot of the functionality
you might need; most of these are very similar to controllers from Spring Web
MVC. TheController interface just defines the most common functionality required
of every controller: handling an action request, handling a render request, and
returning a model and a view.

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 18.4.1 AbstractController and PortletContentGenerator

Of course, just a Controller interface isn't enough. To provide a basic

infrastructure, all of Spring Portlet MVC's Controllers inherit
fromAbstractController, a class offering access to Spring's ApplicationContext and
control over caching.

Table 18.3. Features offered by the AbstractController

Explanation
n
Indicates whether or not this Controller requires a session to do its work. This feature is offered to all controllers. If a
session is not present when such a controller receives a request, the user is informed using aSessionRequiredExceptio
Use this if you want handling by this controller to be synchronized on the user's session. To be more specific, the extend
ssion controller will override the handleRenderRequestInternal(..) and handleActionRequestInternal(..)methods,
which will be synchronized on the user’s session if you specify this variable.
imized
If you want your controller to actually render the view when the portlet is in a minimized state, set this to true. By defau
this is set to false so that portlets that are in a minimized state don’t display any content.
When you want a controller to override the default cache expiration defined for the portlet, specify a positive integer he
By default it is set to -1, which does not change the default caching. Setting it to 0 will ensure the result is never cached

The requireSession and cacheSeconds properties are declared on

the PortletContentGenerator class, which is the superclass ofAbstractController) but
are included here for completeness.

When using the AbstractController as a baseclass for your controllers (which is not

recommended since there are a lot of other controllers that might already do the
job for you) you only have to override either
the handleActionRequestInternal(ActionRequest, ActionResponse) method or
the handleRenderRequestInternal(RenderRequest, RenderResponse) method (or both),
implement your logic, and return a ModelAndView object (in the case
of handleRenderRequestInternal).

The default implementations of

both handleActionRequestInternal(..) and handleRenderRequestInternal(..) throw
a PortletException. This is consistent with the behavior of GenericPortlet from the
JSR- 168 Specification API. So you only need to override the method that your
controller is intended to handle.

Here is short example consisting of a class and a declaration in the web

application context.

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package samples;

import javax.portlet.RenderRequest;
import javax.portlet.RenderResponse;

import org.springframework.web.portlet.mvc.AbstractController;
import org.springframework.web.portlet.ModelAndView;

public class SampleController extends AbstractController {

public ModelAndView handleRenderRequestInternal(RenderRequest request,

RenderResponse response) {
ModelAndView mav = new ModelAndView("foo");
mav.addObject("message", "Hello World!");
return mav;
}
}

<bean id="sampleController" class="samples.SampleController">

<property name="cacheSeconds" value="120"/>
</bean>

The class above and the declaration in the web application context is all you need
besides setting up a handler mapping (see Section 18.5, “Handler mappings”) to
get this very simple controller working.

18.4.2 Other simple controllers

Although you can extend AbstractController, Spring Portlet MVC provides a

number of concrete implementations which offer functionality that is commonly
used in simple MVC applications.

The ParameterizableViewController is basically the same as the example above,

except for the fact that you can specify the view name that it will return in the web
application context (no need to hard-code the view name).

The PortletModeNameViewController uses the current mode of the portlet as the view

name. So, if your portlet is in View mode (i.e. PortletMode.VIEW) then it uses "view"
as the view name.

18.4.3 Command Controllers

Spring Portlet MVC has the exact same hierarchy of command controllers as
Spring Web MVC. They provide a way to interact with data objects and
dynamically bind parameters from the PortletRequest to the data object specified.
Your data objects don't have to implement a framework-specific interface, so you
can directly manipulate your persistent objects if you desire. Let's examine what

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command controllers are available, to get an overview of what you can do with
them:

 AbstractCommandController - a command controller you can use to create your

own command controller, capable of binding request parameters to a data
object you specify. This class does not offer form functionality, it does
however offer validation features and lets you specify in the controller itself
what to do with the command object that has been filled with the parameters
from the request.
 AbstractFormController - an abstract controller offering form submission
support. Using this controller you can model forms and populate them using
a command object you retrieve in the controller. After a user has filled the
form, AbstractFormController binds the fields, validates, and hands the object
back to the controller to take appropriate action. Supported features are:
invalid form submission (resubmission), validation, and normal form
workflow. You implement methods to determine which views are used for
form presentation and success. Use this controller if you need forms, but
don't want to specify what views you're going to show the user in the
application context.

 SimpleFormController -a concrete AbstractFormController that provides even

more support when creating a form with a corresponding command object.
The SimpleFormController lets you specify a command object, a viewname for
the form, a viewname for the page you want to show the user when form
submission has succeeded, and more.

 AbstractWizardFormController – a concrete AbstractFormController that
provides a wizard-style interface for editing the contents of a command
object across multiple display pages. Supports multiple user actions: finish,
cancel, or page change, all of which are easily specified in request
parameters from the view.

These command controllers are quite powerful, but they do require a detailed
understanding of how they operate in order to use them efficiently. Carefully
review the Javadocs for this entire hierarchy and then look at some sample
implementations before you start using them.

18.4.4 PortletWrappingController

Instead of developing new controllers, it is possible to use existing portlets and

map requests to them from a DispatcherPortlet. Using

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thePortletWrappingController, you can instantiate an existing Portlet as
a Controller as follows:

<bean id="myPortlet"
class="org.springframework.web.portlet.mvc.PortletWrappingController">
<property name="portletClass" value="sample.MyPortlet"/>
<property name="portletName" value="my-portlet"/>
<property name="initParameters">
<value>config=/WEB-INF/my-portlet-config.xml</value>
</property>
</bean>

This can be very valuable since you can then use interceptors to pre-process and
post-process requests going to these portlets. Since JSR-168 does not support
any kind of filter mechanism, this is quite handy. For example, this can be used to
wrap the HibernateOpenSessionInViewInterceptor around a MyFaces JSF Portlet.

18.5 Handler mappings

Using a handler mapping you can map incoming portlet requests to appropriate
handlers. There are some handler mappings you can use out of the box, for
example, the PortletModeHandlerMapping, but let's first examine the general concept
of a HandlerMapping.

Note: We are intentionally using the term “Handler” here instead of

“Controller”. DispatcherPortlet is designed to be used with other ways to process
requests than just Spring Portlet MVC’s own Controllers. A Handler is any Object
that can handle portlet requests. Controllers are an example of Handlers, and they
are of course the default. To use some other framework with DispatcherPortlet, a
corresponding implementation ofHandlerAdapter is all that is needed.

The functionality a basic HandlerMapping provides is the delivering of

a HandlerExecutionChain, which must contain the handler that matches the incoming
request, and may also contain a list of handler interceptors that are applied to the
request. When a request comes in, theDispatcherPortlet will hand it over to the
handler mapping to let it inspect the request and come up with an
appropriate HandlerExecutionChain. Then the DispatcherPortlet will execute the
handler and interceptors in the chain (if any). These concepts are all exactly the
same as in Spring Web MVC.

The concept of configurable handler mappings that can optionally contain

interceptors (executed before or after the actual handler was executed, or both) is
extremely powerful. A lot of supporting functionality can be built into a

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custom HandlerMapping. Think of a custom handler mapping that chooses a handler
not only based on the portlet mode of the request coming in, but also on a specific
state of the session associated with the request.

In Spring Web MVC, handler mappings are commonly based on URLs. Since
there is really no such thing as a URL within a Portlet, we must use other
mechanisms to control mappings. The two most common are the portlet mode and
a request parameter, but anything available to the portlet request can be used in a
custom handler mapping.

The rest of this section describes three of Spring Portlet MVC's most commonly
used handler mappings. They all extend AbstractHandlerMappingand share the
following properties:

 interceptors: The list of interceptors to use. HandlerInterceptors are

discussed in Section 18.5.4, “Adding HandlerInterceptors”.
 defaultHandler: The default handler to use, when this handler mapping does
not result in a matching handler.

 order: Based on the value of the order property (see

the org.springframework.core.Ordered interface), Spring will sort all handler
mappings available in the context and apply the first matching handler.

 lazyInitHandlers:Allows for lazy initialization of singleton handlers (prototype

handlers are always lazily initialized). Default value is false. This property is
directly implemented in the three concrete Handlers.

18.5.1 PortletModeHandlerMapping

This is a simple handler mapping that maps incoming requests based on the
current mode of the portlet (e.g. ‘view’, ‘edit’, ‘help’). An example:

<bean class="org.springframework.web.portlet.handler.PortletModeHandlerMapping">
<property name="portletModeMap">
<map>
<entry key="view" value-ref="viewHandler"/>
<entry key="edit" value-ref="editHandler"/>
<entry key="help" value-ref="helpHandler"/>
</map>
</property>
</bean>

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18.5.2 ParameterHandlerMapping

If we need to navigate around to multiple controllers without changing portlet

mode, the simplest way to do this is with a request parameter that is used as the
key to control the mapping.

ParameterHandlerMapping uses the value of a specific request parameter to control

the mapping. The default name of the parameter is 'action', but can be changed
using the 'parameterName' property.

The bean configuration for this mapping will look something like this:

<bean class="org.springframework.web.portlet.handler.ParameterHandlerMapping”>
<property name="parameterMap">
<map>
<entry key="add" value-ref="addItemHandler"/>
<entry key="edit" value-ref="editItemHandler"/>
<entry key="delete" value-ref="deleteItemHandler"/>
</map>
</property>
</bean>

18.5.3 PortletModeParameterHandlerMapping

The most powerful built-in handler

mapping, PortletModeParameterHandlerMapping combines the capabilities of the two
previous ones to allow different navigation within each portlet mode.

Again the default name of the parameter is "action", but can be changed using
the parameterName property.

By default, the same parameter value may not be used in two different portlet
modes. This is so that if the portal itself changes the portlet mode, the request will
no longer be valid in the mapping. This behavior can be changed by setting
the allowDupParameters property to true. However, this is not recommended.

The bean configuration for this mapping will look something like this:

<bean
class="org.springframework.web.portlet.handler.PortletModeParameterHandlerMapping"
>
<property name="portletModeParameterMap">
<map>
<entry key="view"> <!-- 'view' portlet mode -->
<map>

654
 <entry key="add" value-ref="addItemHandler"/>
<entry key="edit" value-ref="editItemHandler"/>
<entry key="delete" value-ref="deleteItemHandler"/>
</map>
</entry>
<entry key="edit"> <!-- 'edit' portlet mode -->
<map>
<entry key="prefs" value-ref="prefsHandler"/>
<entry key="resetPrefs" value-ref="resetPrefsHandler"/>
</map>
</entry>
</map>
</property>
</bean>

This mapping can be chained ahead of a PortletModeHandlerMapping, which can

then provide defaults for each mode and an overall default as well.

18.5.4 Adding HandlerInterceptors

Spring's handler mapping mechanism has a notion of handler interceptors, which

can be extremely useful when you want to apply specific functionality to certain
requests, for example, checking for a principal. Again Spring Portlet MVC
implements these concepts in the same way as Web MVC.

Interceptors located in the handler mapping must

implement HandlerInterceptor from the org.springframework.web.portlet package.
Just like the servlet version, this interface defines three methods: one that will be
called before the actual handler will be executed (preHandle), one that will be called
after the handler is executed (postHandle), and one that is called after the complete
request has finished (afterCompletion). These three methods should provide
enough flexibility to do all kinds of pre- and post- processing.

The preHandle method returns a boolean value. You can use this method to break
or continue the processing of the execution chain. When this method returns true,
the handler execution chain will continue. When it returns false,
the DispatcherPortlet assumes the interceptor itself has taken care of requests
(and, for example, rendered an appropriate view) and does not continue executing
the other interceptors and the actual handler in the execution chain.

The postHandle method is only called on a RenderRequest.

The preHandle and afterCompletion methods are called on both an ActionRequestand
a RenderRequest. If you need to execute logic in these methods for just one type of
request, be sure to check what kind of request it is before processing it.

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18.5.5 HandlerInterceptorAdapter

As with the servlet package, the portlet package has a concrete implementation
of HandlerInterceptor called HandlerInterceptorAdapter. This class has empty
versions of all the methods so that you can inherit from this class and implement
just one or two methods when that is all you need.

18.5.6 ParameterMappingInterceptor

The portlet package also has a concrete interceptor

named ParameterMappingInterceptor that is meant to be used directly
withParameterHandlerMapping and PortletModeParameterHandlerMapping. This
interceptor will cause the parameter that is being used to control the mapping to be
forwarded from an ActionRequest to the subsequent RenderRequest. This will help
ensure that the RenderRequest is mapped to the same Handler as the ActionRequest.
This is done in the preHandle method of the interceptor, so you can still modify the
parameter value in your handler to change where the RenderRequest will be
mapped.

Be aware that this interceptor is calling setRenderParameter on the ActionResponse,

which means that you cannot call sendRedirect in your handler when using this
interceptor. If you need to do external redirects then you will either need to forward
the mapping parameter manually or write a different interceptor to handle this for
you.

18.6 Views and resolving them

As mentioned previously, Spring Portlet MVC directly reuses all the view
technologies from Spring Web MVC. This includes not only the
variousView implementations themselves, but also
the ViewResolver implementations. For more information, refer to Chapter 16, View
technologies andSection 15.5, “Resolving views” respectively.

A few items on using the existing View and ViewResolver implementations are worth

mentioning:

 Most portals expect the result of rendering a portlet to be an HTML fragment.

So, things like JSP/JSTL, Velocity, FreeMarker, and XSLT all make sense.
But it is unlikely that views that return other document types will make any
sense in a portlet context.
 There is no such thing as an HTTP redirect from within a portlet
(the sendRedirect(..) method of ActionResponse cannot be used to stay within

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 the portal). So, RedirectView and use of the 'redirect:' prefix will not work
correctly from within Portlet MVC.

 It may be possible to use the 'forward:' prefix from within Portlet MVC.

However, remember that since you are in a portlet, you have no idea what
the current URL looks like. This means you cannot use a relative URL to
access other resources in your web application and that you will have to use
an absolute URL.

Also, for JSP development, the new Spring Taglib and the new Spring Form Taglib
both work in portlet views in exactly the same way that they work in servlet views.

18.7 Multipart (file upload) support

Spring Portlet MVC has built-in multipart support to handle file uploads in portlet
applications, just like Web MVC does. The design for the multipart support is done
with pluggable PortletMultipartResolver objects, defined in
the org.springframework.web.portlet.multipart package. Spring provides
a PortletMultipartResolver for use with Commons FileUpload. How uploading files
is supported will be described in the rest of this section.

By default, no multipart handling will be done by Spring Portlet MVC, as some

developers will want to handle multiparts themselves. You will have to enable it
yourself by adding a multipart resolver to the web application's context. After you
have done that, DispatcherPortlet will inspect each request to see if it contains a
multipart. If no multipart is found, the request will continue as expected. However,
if a multipart is found in the request, the PortletMultipartResolver that has been declared
in your context will be used. After that, the multipart attribute in your request will be treated like any
other attribute.

Note

Any configured PortletMultipartResolver bean must have the following id (or name):

"portletMultipartResolver". If you have defined your PortletMultipartResolver with any
other name, then the DispatcherPortlet will not find yourPortletMultipartResolver, and
consequently no multipart support will be in effect.

18.7.1 Using the PortletMultipartResolver

The following example shows how to use the CommonsPortletMultipartResolver:

<bean id="portletMultipartResolver"

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class="org.springframework.web.portlet.multipart.CommonsPortletMultipartResolver">

<!-- one of the properties available; the maximum file size in bytes -->
<property name="maxUploadSize" value="100000"/>
</bean>

Of course you also need to put the appropriate jars in your classpath for the
multipart resolver to work. In the case of theCommonsMultipartResolver, you need to
use commons-fileupload.jar. Be sure to use at least version 1.1 of Commons
FileUpload as previous versions do not support JSR-168 Portlet applications.

Now that you have seen how to set Portlet MVC up to handle multipart requests,
let's talk about how to actually use it. When DispatcherPortletdetects a multipart
request, it activates the resolver that has been declared in your context and hands
over the request. What the resolver then does is wrap the current ActionRequest in
a MultipartActionRequest that has support for multipart file uploads. Using
the MultipartActionRequest you can get information about the multiparts contained
by this request and actually get access to the multipart files themselves in your
controllers.

Note that you can only receive multipart file uploads as part of an ActionRequest,
not as part of a RenderRequest.

18.7.2 Handling a file upload in a form

After the PortletMultipartResolver has finished doing its job, the request will be

processed like any other. To use thePortletMultipartResolver, create a form with
an upload field (see example below), then let Spring bind the file onto your form
(backing object). To actually let the user upload a file, we have to create a
(JSP/HTML) form:

<h1>Please upload a file</h1>

<form method="post" action="<portlet:actionURL/>" enctype="multipart/form-data">
<input type="file" name="file"/>
<input type="submit"/>
</form>

As you can see, we've created a field named “file” that matches the property of the
bean that holds the byte[] array. Furthermore we've added the encoding attribute
(enctype="multipart/form-data"), which is necessary to let the browser know how to
encode the multipart fields (do not forget this!).

658
Just as with any other property that's not automagically convertible to a string or
primitive type, to be able to put binary data in your objects you have to register a
custom editor with the PortletRequestDataBinder. There are a couple of editors
available for handling files and setting the results on an object. There's
a StringMultipartFileEditor capable of converting files to Strings (using a user-
defined character set), and there is aByteArrayMultipartFileEditor which converts
files to byte arrays. They function analogous to the CustomDateEditor.

So, to be able to upload files using a form, declare the resolver, a mapping to a
controller that will process the bean, and the controller itself.

<bean id="portletMultipartResolver"

class="org.springframework.web.portlet.multipart.CommonsPortletMultipartResolver"/
>

<bean class="org.springframework.web.portlet.handler.PortletModeHandlerMapping">
<property name="portletModeMap">
<map>
<entry key="view" value-ref="fileUploadController"/>
</map>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="fileUploadController" class="examples.FileUploadController">

<property name="commandClass" value="examples.FileUploadBean"/>
<property name="formView" value="fileuploadform"/>
<property name="successView" value="confirmation"/>
</bean>

After that, create the controller and the actual class to hold the file property.

public class FileUploadController extends SimpleFormController {

public void onSubmitAction(ActionRequest request, ActionResponse response,

Object command, BindException errors) throws Exception {

// cast the bean

FileUploadBean bean = (FileUploadBean) command;

// let's see if there's content there

byte[] file = bean.getFile();
if (file == null) {
// hmm, that's strange, the user did not upload anything
}

// do something with the file here

}

659
 protected void initBinder(
PortletRequest request, PortletRequestDataBinder binder) throws
Exception {
// to actually be able to convert Multipart instance to byte[]
// we have to register a custom editor
binder.registerCustomEditor(byte[].class, new
ByteArrayMultipartFileEditor());
// now Spring knows how to handle multipart object and convert
}
}

public class FileUploadBean {

private byte[] file;

public void setFile(byte[] file) {

this.file = file;
}

public byte[] getFile() {

return file;
}
}

As you can see, the FileUploadBean has a property of type byte[] that holds the file.

The controller registers a custom editor to let Spring know how to actually convert
the multipart objects the resolver has found to properties specified by the bean. In
this example, nothing is done with the byte[]property of the bean itself, but in
practice you can do whatever you want (save it in a database, mail it to somebody,
etc).

An equivalent example in which a file is bound straight to a String-typed property

on a form backing object might look like this:

public class FileUploadController extends SimpleFormController {

public void onSubmitAction(ActionRequest request, ActionResponse response,

Object command, BindException errors) throws Exception {

// cast the bean

FileUploadBean bean = (FileUploadBean) command;

// let's see if there's content there

String file = bean.getFile();
if (file == null) {
// hmm, that's strange, the user did not upload anything
}

// do something with the file here

}

660
 protected void initBinder(
PortletRequest request, PortletRequestDataBinder binder) throws Exception
{

// to actually be able to convert Multipart instance to a String

// we have to register a custom editor
binder.registerCustomEditor(String.class,
new StringMultipartFileEditor());
// now Spring knows how to handle multipart objects and convert
}
}

public class FileUploadBean {

private String file;

public void setFile(String file) {

this.file = file;
}

public String getFile() {

return file;
}
}

Of course, this last example only makes (logical) sense in the context of uploading
a plain text file (it wouldn't work so well in the case of uploading an image file).

The third (and final) option is where one binds directly to a MultipartFile property
declared on the (form backing) object's class. In this case one does not need to
register any custom property editor because there is no type conversion to be
performed.

public class FileUploadController extends SimpleFormController {

public void onSubmitAction(ActionRequest request, ActionResponse response,

Object command, BindException errors) throws Exception {

// cast the bean

FileUploadBean bean = (FileUploadBean) command;

// let's see if there's content there

MultipartFile file = bean.getFile();
if (file == null) {
// hmm, that's strange, the user did not upload anything
}

// do something with the file here

}
}

661
public class FileUploadBean {

private MultipartFile file;

public void setFile(MultipartFile file) {

this.file = file;
}

public MultipartFile getFile() {

return file;
}
}

18.8 Handling exceptions

Just like Servlet MVC, Portlet MVC provides HandlerExceptionResolvers to ease the

pain of unexpected exceptions that occur while your request is being processed by
a handler that matched the request. Portlet MVC also provides a portlet-specific,
concreteSimpleMappingExceptionResolver that enables you to take the class name of
any exception that might be thrown and map it to a view name.

18.9 Annotation-based controller configuration

Spring 2.5 introduced an annotation-based programming model for MVC

controllers, using annotations such
as @RequestMapping, @RequestParam,@ModelAttribute, etc. This annotation support is
available for both Servlet MVC and Portlet MVC. Controllers implemented in this
style do not have to extend specific base classes or implement specific interfaces.
Furthermore, they do not usually have direct dependencies on Servlet or Portlet
API's, although they can easily get access to Servlet or Portlet facilities if desired.

The following sections document these annotations and how they are most
commonly used in a Portlet environment.

18.9.1 Setting up the dispatcher for annotation support

@RequestMapping willonly be processed if a corresponding  HandlerMapping (for type

level annotations) and/or  HandlerAdapter (for method level annotations) is present
in the dispatcher. This is the case by default in
both DispatcherServlet and DispatcherPortlet.

However, if you are defining custom HandlerMappings or HandlerAdapters, then you

need to make sure that a corresponding

662
customDefaultAnnotationHandlerMapping and/or AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter is
defined as well - provided that you intend to use@RequestMapping.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

<bean
class="org.springframework.web.portlet.mvc.annotation.DefaultAnnotationHandlerMapp
ing"/>

<bean
class="org.springframework.web.portlet.mvc.annotation.AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapt
er"/>

// ... (controller bean definitions) ...

</beans>

Defining
a DefaultAnnotationHandlerMapping and/or AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter explicitly
also makes sense if you would like to customize the mapping strategy, e.g.
specifying a custom WebBindingInitializer (see below).

18.9.2 Defining a controller with @Controller

The @Controller annotation indicates that a particular class serves the role of

a controller. There is no need to extend any controller base class or reference the
Portlet API. You are of course still able to reference Portlet-specific features if you
need to.

The basic purpose of the @Controller annotation is to act as a stereotype for the

annotated class, indicating its role. The dispatcher will scan such annotated
classes for mapped methods, detecting @RequestMapping annotations (see the next
section).

Annotated controller beans may be defined explicitly, using a standard Spring

bean definition in the dispatcher's context. However, the @Controllerstereotype
also allows for autodetection, aligned with Spring 2.5's general support for
detecting component classes in the classpath and auto-registering bean definitions
for them.

663
To enable autodetection of such annotated controllers, you have to add
component scanning to your configuration. This is easily achieved by using
the spring-context schema as shown in the following XML snippet:

<?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:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

<context:component-scan base-
package="org.springframework.samples.petportal.portlet"/>

// ...

</beans>

18.9.3 Mapping requests with @RequestMapping

The @RequestMapping annotation is used to map portlet modes like 'VIEW'/'EDIT' onto an

entire class or a particular handler method. Typically the type-level annotation maps a specific mode
(or mode plus parameter condition) onto a form controller, with additional method-level annotations
'narrowing' the primary mapping for specific portlet request parameters.

Tip
@RequestMapping at the type level may be used for plain implementations of
the Controller interface as well. In this case, the request processing code would follow the
traditional handle(Action|Render)Request signature, while the controller's mapping would be
expressed through an @RequestMapping annotation. This works for pre-built Controller base
classes, such asSimpleFormController, too.

In the following discussion, we'll focus on controllers that are based on annotated handler
methods.

The following is an example of a form controller from the PetPortal sample

application using this annotation:

@Controller
@RequestMapping("EDIT")
@SessionAttributes("site")
public class PetSitesEditController {

664
 private Properties petSites;

public void setPetSites(Properties petSites) {

this.petSites = petSites;
}

@ModelAttribute("petSites")
public Properties getPetSites() {
return this.petSites;
}

@RequestMapping // default (action=list)

public String showPetSites() {
return "petSitesEdit";
}

@RequestMapping(params = "action=add") // render phase

public String showSiteForm(Model model) {
// Used for the initial form as well as for redisplaying with errors.
if (!model.containsAttribute("site")) {
model.addAttribute("site", new PetSite());
}
return "petSitesAdd";
}

@RequestMapping(params = "action=add") // action phase

public void populateSite(
@ModelAttribute("site") PetSite petSite, BindingResult result,
SessionStatus status, ActionResponse response) {

new PetSiteValidator().validate(petSite, result);

if (!result.hasErrors()) {
this.petSites.put(petSite.getName(), petSite.getUrl());
status.setComplete();
response.setRenderParameter("action", "list");
}
}

@RequestMapping(params = "action=delete")
public void removeSite(@RequestParam("site") String site, ActionResponse
response) {
this.petSites.remove(site);
response.setRenderParameter("action", "list");
}
}

18.9.4 Supported handler method arguments

Handler methods which are annotated with @RequestMapping are allowed to have

very flexible signatures. They may have arguments of the following types, in
arbitrary order (except for validation results, which need to follow right after the
corresponding command object, if desired):

665
 Request and/or response objects (Portlet API). You may choose any specific
request/response type, e.g. PortletRequest / ActionRequest /
RenderRequest. An explicitly declared action/render argument is also used
for mapping specific request types onto a handler method (in case of no
other information given that differentiates between action and render
requests).
 Session object (Portlet API): of type PortletSession. An argument of this type
will enforce the presence of a corresponding session. As a consequence,
such an argument will never be null.

 org.springframework.web.context.request.WebRequest or org.springframework.web
.context.request.NativeWebRequest.Allows for generic request parameter
access as well as request/session attribute access, without ties to the native
Servlet/Portlet API.

 java.util.Locale for the current request locale (the portal locale in a Portlet

environment).

 java.io.InputStream / java.io.Reader for
access to the request's content. This
will be the raw InputStream/Reader as exposed by the Portlet API.

 java.io.OutputStream / java.io.Writer for
generating the response's content.
This will be the raw OutputStream/Writer as exposed by the Portlet API.

 @RequestParam annotated
parameters for access to specific Portlet request
parameters. Parameter values will be converted to the declared method
argument type.

 java.util.Map / org.springframework.ui.Model / org.springframework.ui.ModelMap 
for enriching the implicit model that will be exposed to the web view.

 Command/form objects to bind parameters to: as bean properties or fields,

with customizable type conversion, depending on @InitBindermethods and/or
the HandlerAdapter configuration - see the "webBindingInitializer" property
on AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter. Such command objects along with their
validation results will be exposed as model attributes, by default using the
non-qualified command class name in property notation (e.g. "orderAddress"
for type "mypackage.OrderAddress"). Specify a parameter-
level ModelAttribute annotation for declaring a specific model attribute name.

666
  org.springframework.validation.Errors / org.springframework.validation.Bindin
gResult validationresults for a preceding command/form object (the
immediate preceding argument).

 org.springframework.web.bind.support.SessionStatus status
handle for marking
form processing as complete (triggering the cleanup of session attributes
that have been indicated by the @SessionAttributes annotation at the handler
type level).

The following return types are supported for handler methods:

 A ModelAndView object, with the model implicitly enriched with command

objects and the results of @ModelAttribute annotated reference data accessor
methods.
 A Model object, with the view name implicitly determined through
a RequestToViewNameTranslator and the model implicitly enriched with
command objects and the results of @ModelAttribute annotated reference
data accessor methods.

 A Map object for exposing a model, with the view name implicitly determined
through a RequestToViewNameTranslator and the model implicitly enriched with
command objects and the results of @ModelAttribute annotated reference
data accessor methods.

 A View object, with the model implicitly determined through command objects

and @ModelAttribute annotated reference data accessor methods. The
handler method may also programmatically enrich the model by declaring
a Model argument (see above).

 A String value which is interpreted as view name, with the model implicitly

determined through command objects and @ModelAttributeannotated
reference data accessor methods. The handler method may also
programmatically enrich the model by declaring a Modelargument (see
above).

 void if
the method handles the response itself (e.g. by writing the response
content directly).

 Any other return type will be considered a single model attribute to be

exposed to the view, using the attribute name specified
through@ModelAttribute at the method level (or the default attribute name
based on the return type's class name otherwise). The model will be

667
 implicitly enriched with command objects and the results
of @ModelAttribute annotated reference data accessor methods.

18.9.5 Binding request parameters to method parameters with @RequestParam

The @RequestParam annotation is used to bind request parameters to a method

parameter in your controller.

The following code snippet from the PetPortal sample application shows the
usage:

@Controller
@RequestMapping("EDIT")
@SessionAttributes("site")
public class PetSitesEditController {

// ...

public void removeSite(@RequestParam("site") String site, ActionResponse

response) {
this.petSites.remove(site);
response.setRenderParameter("action", "list");
}

// ...
}

Parameters using this annotation are required by default, but you can specify that
a parameter is optional by setting @RequestParam's requiredattribute
to false (e.g., @RequestParam(value="id", required=false)).

18.9.6 Providing a link to data from the model with @ModelAttribute

@ModelAttribute has two usage scenarios in controllers. When placed on a method

parameter, @ModelAttribute is used to map a model attribute to the specific,
annotated method parameter (see the populateSite() method below). This is how
the controller gets a reference to the object holding the data entered in the form. In
addition, the parameter can be declared as the specific type of the form backing
object rather than as a generic java.lang.Object, thus increasing type safety.

@ModelAttribute isalso used at the method level to provide reference data for the

model (see the getPetSites() method below). For this usage the method signature
can contain the same types as documented above for
the @RequestMapping annotation.

668
Note: @ModelAttribute annotated methods will be executed before the
chosen @RequestMapping annotated handler method. They effectively pre-populate
the implicit model with specific attributes, often loaded from a database. Such an
attribute can then already be accessed through@ModelAttribute annotated handler
method parameters in the chosen handler method, potentially with binding and
validation applied to it.

The following code snippet shows these two usages of this annotation:

@Controller
@RequestMapping("EDIT")
@SessionAttributes("site")
public class PetSitesEditController {

// ...

@ModelAttribute("petSites")
public Properties getPetSites() {
return this.petSites;
}

@RequestMapping(params = "action=add") // action phase

public void populateSite(
@ModelAttribute("site") PetSite petSite, BindingResult result,
SessionStatus status, ActionResponse response) {

new PetSiteValidator().validate(petSite, result);

if (!result.hasErrors()) {
this.petSites.put(petSite.getName(), petSite.getUrl());
status.setComplete();
response.setRenderParameter("action", "list");
}
}
}

18.9.7 Specifying attributes to store in a Session with @SessionAttributes

The type-level @SessionAttributes annotation declares session attributes used by a

specific handler. This will typically list the names of model attributes or types of
model attributes which should be transparently stored in the session or some
conversational storage, serving as form-backing beans between subsequent
requests.

The following code snippet shows the usage of this annotation:

@Controller
@RequestMapping("EDIT")

669
@SessionAttributes("site")
public class PetSitesEditController {
// ...
}

18.9.8 Customizing WebDataBinder initialization

To customize request parameter binding with PropertyEditors, etc. via

Spring's WebDataBinder, you can either use @InitBinder-annotated methods within
your controller or externalize your configuration by providing a
custom WebBindingInitializer.

18.9.8.1 Customizing data binding with @InitBinder

Annotating controller methods with @InitBinder allows you to configure web data

binding directly within your controller class. @InitBinder identifies methods which
initialize the WebDataBinder which will be used for populating command and form
object arguments of annotated handler methods.

Such init-binder methods support all arguments that @RequestMapping supports,

except for command/form objects and corresponding validation result objects. Init-
binder methods must not have a return value. Thus, they are usually declared
as void. Typical arguments include WebDataBinderin combination
with WebRequest or java.util.Locale, allowing code to register context-specific
editors.

The following example demonstrates the use of @InitBinder for configuring

a CustomDateEditor for all java.util.Date form properties.

@Controller
public class MyFormController {

@InitBinder
public void initBinder(WebDataBinder binder) {
SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
dateFormat.setLenient(false);
binder.registerCustomEditor(Date.class, new CustomDateEditor(dateFormat,
false));
}

// ...
}

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18.9.8.2 Configuring a custom WebBindingInitializer

To externalize data binding initialization, you can provide a custom implementation

of the WebBindingInitializer interface, which you then enable by supplying a
custom bean configuration for an AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter, thus overriding
the default configuration.

18.10 Portlet application deployment

The process of deploying a Spring Portlet MVC application is no different than

deploying any JSR-168 Portlet application. However, this area is confusing enough
in general that it is worth talking about here briefly.

Generally, the portal/portlet container runs in one webapp in your servlet container
and your portlets run in another webapp in your servlet container. In order for the
portlet container webapp to make calls into your portlet webapp it must make
cross-context calls to a well-known servlet that provides access to the portlet
services defined in your portlet.xml file.

The JSR-168 specification does not specify exactly how this should happen, so
each portlet container has its own mechanism for this, which usually involves
some kind of “deployment process” that makes changes to the portlet webapp
itself and then registers the portlets within the portlet container.

At a minimum, the web.xml file in your portlet webapp is modified to inject the well-

known servlet that the portlet container will call. In some cases a single servlet will
service all portlets in the webapp, in other cases there will be an instance of the
servlet for each portlet.

Some portlet containers will also inject libraries and/or configuration files into the
webapp as well. The portlet container must also make its implementation of the
Portlet JSP Tag Library available to your webapp.

The bottom line is that it is important to understand the deployment needs of your
target portal and make sure they are met (usually by following the automated
deployment process it provides). Be sure to carefully review the documentation
from your portal for this process.

Once you have deployed your portlet, review the resulting web.xml file for sanity.
Some older portals have been known to corrupt the definition of
theViewRendererServlet, thus breaking the rendering of your portlets.

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Part VI. Integration
This part of the reference documentation covers the Spring Framework's
integration with a number of Java EE (and related) technologies.

 Chapter 19, Remoting and web services using Spring

 Chapter 20, Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) integration

 Chapter 21, JMS (Java Message Service)

 Chapter 22, JMX

 Chapter 23, JCA CCI

 Chapter 24, Email

 Chapter 25, Task Execution and Scheduling

 Chapter 26, Dynamic language support

19. Remoting and web services using Spring

19.1 Introduction

Spring features integration classes for remoting support using various

technologies. The remoting support eases the development of remote-enabled
services, implemented by your usual (Spring) POJOs. Currently, Spring supports
the following remoting technologies:

 Remote Method Invocation (RMI). Through the use of

the RmiProxyFactoryBean and the RmiServiceExporter Spring supports both
traditional RMI (with java.rmi.Remote interfaces and java.rmi.RemoteException)
and transparent remoting via RMI invokers (with any Java interface).
 Spring's HTTP invoker. Spring provides a special remoting strategy which
allows for Java serialization via HTTP, supporting any Java interface (just
like the RMI invoker). The corresponding support classes
are HttpInvokerProxyFactoryBean andHttpInvokerServiceExporter.

 Hessian. By using Spring's HessianProxyFactoryBean and

the HessianServiceExporter you can transparently expose your services using
the lightweight binary HTTP-based protocol provided by Caucho.

672
  Burlap. Burlap is Caucho's XML-based alternative to Hessian. Spring
provides support classes such
as BurlapProxyFactoryBean andBurlapServiceExporter.

 JAX-RPC. Spring provides remoting support for web services via JAX-RPC
(J2EE 1.4's web service API).

 JAX-WS. Spring provides remoting support for web services via JAX-WS
(the successor of JAX-RPC, as introduced in Java EE 5 and Java 6).

 JMS. Remoting using JMS as the underlying protocol is supported via

the JmsInvokerServiceExporter and JmsInvokerProxyFactoryBeanclasses.

While discussing the remoting capabilities of Spring, we'll use the following domain
model and corresponding services:

public class Account implements Serializable{

private String name;

public String getName(){

return name;
}

public void setName(String name) {

this.name = name;
}
}
public interface AccountService {

public void insertAccount(Account account);

public List<Account> getAccounts(String name);

}
public interface RemoteAccountService extends Remote {

public void insertAccount(Account account) throws RemoteException;

public List<Account> getAccounts(String name) throws RemoteException;

}
// the implementation doing nothing at the moment
public class AccountServiceImpl implements AccountService {

public void insertAccount(Account acc) {

// do something...
}

public List<Account> getAccounts(String name) {

// do something...
}

673
}

We will start exposing the service to a remote client by using RMI and talk a bit
about the drawbacks of using RMI. We'll then continue to show an example using
Hessian as the protocol.

19.2 Exposing services using RMI

Using Spring's support for RMI, you can transparently expose your services
through the RMI infrastructure. After having this set up, you basically have a
configuration similar to remote EJBs, except for the fact that there is no standard
support for security context propagation or remote transaction propagation. Spring
does provide hooks for such additional invocation context when using the RMI
invoker, so you can for example plug in security frameworks or custom security
credentials here.

19.2.1 Exporting the service using the RmiServiceExporter

Using the RmiServiceExporter, we can expose the interface of our AccountService

object as RMI object. The interface can be accessed by usingRmiProxyFactoryBean,
or via plain RMI in case of a traditional RMI service.
The RmiServiceExporter explicitly supports the exposing of any non-RMI services
via RMI invokers.

Of course, we first have to set up our service in the Spring container:

<bean id="accountService" class="example.AccountServiceImpl">

<!-- any additional properties, maybe a DAO? -->
</bean>

Next we'll have to expose our service using the RmiServiceExporter:

<bean class="org.springframework.remoting.rmi.RmiServiceExporter">
<!-- does not necessarily have to be the same name as the bean to be exported
-->
<property name="serviceName" value="AccountService"/>
<property name="service" ref="accountService"/>
<property name="serviceInterface" value="example.AccountService"/>
<!-- defaults to 1099 -->
<property name="registryPort" value="1199"/>
</bean>

674
As you can see, we're overriding the port for the RMI registry. Often, your
application server also maintains an RMI registry and it is wise to not interfere with
that one. Furthermore, the service name is used to bind the service under. So right
now, the service will be bound at'rmi://HOST:1199/AccountService'. We'll use the URL
later on to link in the service at the client side.

Note

The servicePort property has been omitted (it defaults to 0). This means that an anonymous
port will be used to communicate with the service.

19.2.2 Linking in the service at the client

Our client is a simple object using the AccountService to manage accounts:

public class SimpleObject {

private AccountService accountService;

public void setAccountService(AccountService accountService) {

this.accountService = accountService;
}

// additional methods using the accountService

To link in the service on the client, we'll create a separate Spring container,
containing the simple object and the service linking configuration bits:

<bean class="example.SimpleObject">
<property name="accountService" ref="accountService"/>
</bean>

<bean id="accountService"
class="org.springframework.remoting.rmi.RmiProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="serviceUrl" value="rmi://HOST:1199/AccountService"/>
<property name="serviceInterface" value="example.AccountService"/>
</bean>

That's all we need to do to support the remote account service on the client. Spring
will transparently create an invoker and remotely enable the account service
through the RmiServiceExporter. At the client we're linking it in using
the RmiProxyFactoryBean.

675
19.3 Using Hessian or Burlap to remotely call services via HTTP

Hessian offers a binary HTTP-based remoting protocol. It is developed by Caucho

and more information about Hessian itself can be found athttp://www.caucho.com.

19.3.1 Wiring up the DispatcherServlet for Hessian and co.

Hessian communicates via HTTP and does so using a custom servlet. Using
Spring's DispatcherServlet principles, as known from Spring Web MVC usage, you
can easily wire up such a servlet exposing your services. First we'll have to create
a new servlet in your application (this is an excerpt from 'web.xml'):

<servlet>
<servlet-name>remoting</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-
class>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>remoting</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/remoting/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

You're probably familiar with Spring's DispatcherServlet principles and if so, you

know that now you'll have to create a Spring container configuration resource
named 'remoting-servlet.xml' (after the name of your servlet) in the 'WEB-
INF' directory. The application context will be used in the next section.

Alternatively, consider the use of Spring's simpler HttpRequestHandlerServlet. This

allows you to embed the remote exporter definitions in your root application
context (by default in 'WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml'), with individual servlet
definitions pointing to specific exporter beans. Each servlet name needs to match
the bean name of its target exporter in this case.

19.3.2 Exposing your beans by using the HessianServiceExporter

In the newly created application context called remoting-servlet.xml, we'll create

a HessianServiceExporter exporting your services:

<bean id="accountService" class="example.AccountServiceImpl">

<!-- any additional properties, maybe a DAO? -->
</bean>

676
<bean name="/AccountService"
class="org.springframework.remoting.caucho.HessianServiceExporter">
<property name="service" ref="accountService"/>
<property name="serviceInterface" value="example.AccountService"/>
</bean>

Now we're ready to link in the service at the client. No explicit handler mapping is
specified, mapping request URLs onto services, soBeanNameUrlHandlerMapping will
be used: Hence, the service will be exported at the URL indicated through its bean
name within the containingDispatcherServlet's mapping (as defined
above): 'http://HOST:8080/remoting/AccountService'.

Alternatively, create a HessianServiceExporter in your root application context (e.g.

in 'WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml'):

<bean name="accountExporter"
class="org.springframework.remoting.caucho.HessianServiceExporter">
<property name="service" ref="accountService"/>
<property name="serviceInterface" value="example.AccountService"/>
</bean>

In the latter case, define a corresponding servlet for this exporter in 'web.xml', with
the same end result: The exporter getting mapped to the request
path /remoting/AccountService. Note that the servlet name needs to match the bean
name of the target exporter.

<servlet>
<servlet-name>accountExporter</servlet-name>
<servlet-
class>org.springframework.web.context.support.HttpRequestHandlerServlet</servlet-
class>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>accountExporter</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/remoting/AccountService</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

19.3.3 Linking in the service on the client

Using the HessianProxyFactoryBean we can link in the service at the client. The same
principles apply as with the RMI example. We'll create a separate bean factory or
application context and mention the following beans where the SimpleObject is
using the AccountService to manage accounts:

677
<bean class="example.SimpleObject">
<property name="accountService" ref="accountService"/>
</bean>

<bean id="accountService"
class="org.springframework.remoting.caucho.HessianProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="serviceUrl"
value="http://remotehost:8080/remoting/AccountService"/>
<property name="serviceInterface" value="example.AccountService"/>
</bean>

19.3.4 Using Burlap

We won't discuss Burlap, the XML-based equivalent of Hessian, in detail here,

since it is configured and set up in exactly the same way as the Hessian variant
explained above. Just replace the word Hessian with Burlap and you're all set to go.

19.3.5 Applying HTTP basic authentication to a service exposed through

Hessian or Burlap

One of the advantages of Hessian and Burlap is that we can easily apply HTTP
basic authentication, because both protocols are HTTP-based. Your normal HTTP
server security mechanism can easily be applied through using the web.xml security
features, for example. Usually, you don't use per-user security credentials here,
but rather shared credentials defined at the Hessian/BurlapProxyFactoryBean level
(similar to a JDBC DataSource).

<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.BeanNameUrlHandlerMapping">
<property name="interceptors" ref="authorizationInterceptor"/>
</bean>

<bean id="authorizationInterceptor"

class="org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.UserRoleAuthorizationInterceptor">
<property name="authorizedRoles" value="administrator,operator"/>
</bean>

This is an example where we explicitly mention

the BeanNameUrlHandlerMapping and set an interceptor allowing only administrators and
operators to call the beans mentioned in this application context.

Note

Of course, this example doesn't show a flexible kind of security infrastructure. For more options
as far as security is concerned, have a look at the Spring Security project
at http://static.springsource.org/spring-security/site/.

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19.4 Exposing services using HTTP invokers

As opposed to Burlap and Hessian, which are both lightweight protocols using
their own slim serialization mechanisms, Spring HTTP invokers use the standard
Java serialization mechanism to expose services through HTTP. This has a huge
advantage if your arguments and return types are complex types that cannot be
serialized using the serialization mechanisms Hessian and Burlap use (refer to the
next section for more considerations when choosing a remoting technology).

Under the hood, Spring uses either the standard facilities provided by J2SE to
perform HTTP calls or Commons HttpClient. Use the latter if you need more
advanced and easy-to-use functionality. Refer
to jakarta.apache.org/commons/httpclient for more info.

19.4.1 Exposing the service object

Setting up the HTTP invoker infrastructure for a service object resembles closely
the way you would do the same using Hessian or Burlap. Just as Hessian support
provides the HessianServiceExporter, Spring's HttpInvoker support provides
theorg.springframework.remoting.httpinvoker.HttpInvokerServiceExporter.

To expose the AccountService (mentioned above) within a Spring Web

MVC DispatcherServlet, the following configuration needs to be in place in the
dispatcher's application context:

<bean name="/AccountService"
class="org.springframework.remoting.httpinvoker.HttpInvokerServiceExporter">
<property name="service" ref="accountService"/>
<property name="serviceInterface" value="example.AccountService"/>
</bean>

Such an exporter definition will be exposed through the DispatcherServlet's

standard mapping facilities, as explained in the section on Hessian.

Alternatively, create an HttpInvokerServiceExporter in your root application context

(e.g. in 'WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml'):

<bean name="accountExporter"
class="org.springframework.remoting.httpinvoker.HttpInvokerServiceExporter">
<property name="service" ref="accountService"/>
<property name="serviceInterface" value="example.AccountService"/>
</bean>

679
In addition, define a corresponding servlet for this exporter in 'web.xml', with the
servlet name matching the bean name of the target exporter:

<servlet>
<servlet-name>accountExporter</servlet-name>
<servlet-
class>org.springframework.web.context.support.HttpRequestHandlerServlet</servlet-
class>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>accountExporter</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/remoting/AccountService</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

If you are running outside of a servlet container and are using Sun's Java 6, then
you can use the built-in HTTP server implementation. You can configure
the SimpleHttpServerFactoryBean together with a SimpleHttpInvokerServiceExporter as
is shown in this example:

<bean name="accountExporter"

class="org.springframework.remoting.httpinvoker.SimpleHttpInvokerServiceExporter">
<property name="service" ref="accountService"/>
<property name="serviceInterface" value="example.AccountService"/>
</bean>

<bean id="httpServer"
class="org.springframework.remoting.support.SimpleHttpServerFactoryBean">
<property name="contexts">
<util:map>
<entry key="/remoting/AccountService" value-ref="accountExporter"/>
</util:map>
</property>
<property name="port" value="8080" />
</bean>

19.4.2 Linking in the service at the client

Again, linking in the service from the client much resembles the way you would do
it when using Hessian or Burlap. Using a proxy, Spring will be able to translate
your calls to HTTP POST requests to the URL pointing to the exported service.

<bean id="httpInvokerProxy"
class="org.springframework.remoting.httpinvoker.HttpInvokerProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="serviceUrl"
value="http://remotehost:8080/remoting/AccountService"/>

680
 <property name="serviceInterface" value="example.AccountService"/>
</bean>

As mentioned before, you can choose what HTTP client you want to use. By
default, the HttpInvokerProxy uses the J2SE HTTP functionality, but you can also
use the Commons HttpClient by setting the httpInvokerRequestExecutor property:

<property name="httpInvokerRequestExecutor">
<bean
class="org.springframework.remoting.httpinvoker.CommonsHttpInvokerRequestExecutor"
/>
</property>

19.5 Web services

Spring provides full support for standard Java web services APIs:

 Exposing web services using JAX-RPC

 Accessing web services using JAX-RPC

 Exposing web services using JAX-WS

 Accessing web services using JAX-WS

Note
Why two standard Java web services APIs?

JAX-RPC 1.1 is the standard web service API in J2EE 1.4. As its name indicates, it focuses on on
RPC bindings, which became less and less popular in the past couple of years. As a consequence,
it has been superseded by JAX-WS 2.0 in Java EE 5, being more flexible in terms of bindings but
also being heavily annotation-based. JAX-WS 2.1 is also included in Java 6 (or more specifically,
in Sun's JDK 1.6.0_04 and above; previous Sun JDK 1.6.0 releases included JAX-WS 2.0),
integrated with the JDK's built-in HTTP server.

Spring can work with both standard Java web services APIs. On Java EE 5 / Java 6, the obvious
choice is JAX-WS. On J2EE 1.4 environments that run on Java 5, you might have the option to
plug in a JAX-WS provider; check your Java EE server's documentation.

In addition to stock support for JAX-RPC and JAX-WS in Spring Core, the Spring
portfolio also features Spring Web Services, a solution for contract-first, document-
driven web services - highly recommended for building modern, future-proof web
services.

681
19.5.1 Exposing servlet-based web services using JAX-RPC

Spring provides a convenience base class for JAX-RPC servlet endpoint

implementations - ServletEndpointSupport. To expose ourAccountService we extend
Spring's ServletEndpointSupport class and implement our business logic here,
usually delegating the call to the business layer.

/**
* JAX-RPC compliant RemoteAccountService implementation that simply delegates
* to the AccountService implementation in the root web application context.
*
* This wrapper class is necessary because JAX-RPC requires working with dedicated
* endpoint classes. If an existing service needs to be exported, a wrapper that
* extends ServletEndpointSupport for simple application context access is
* the simplest JAX-RPC compliant way.
*
* This is the class registered with the server-side JAX-RPC implementation.
* In the case of Axis, this happens in "server-config.wsdd" respectively via
* deployment calls. The web service engine manages the lifecycle of instances
* of this class: A Spring application context can just be accessed here.
*/import org.springframework.remoting.jaxrpc.ServletEndpointSupport;

public class AccountServiceEndpoint extends ServletEndpointSupport implements

RemoteAccountService {

private AccountService biz;

protected void onInit() {

this.biz = (AccountService)
getWebApplicationContext().getBean("accountService");
}

public void insertAccount(Account acc) throws RemoteException {

biz.insertAccount(acc);
}

public Account[] getAccounts(String name) throws RemoteException {

return biz.getAccounts(name);
}
}

Our AccountServletEndpoint needs to run in the same web application as the Spring

context to allow for access to Spring's facilities. In case of Axis, copy
the AxisServlet definition into your 'web.xml', and set up the endpoint in 'server-
config.wsdd' (or use the deploy tool). See the sample application JPetStore where
the OrderService is exposed as a web service using Axis.

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19.5.2 Accessing web services using JAX-RPC

Spring provides two factory beans to create JAX-RPC web service proxies,
namely LocalJaxRpcServiceFactoryBean andJaxRpcPortProxyFactoryBean. The former
can only return a JAX-RPC service class for us to work with. The latter is the full-
fledged version that can return a proxy that implements our business service
interface. In this example we use the latter to create a proxy for
the AccountService endpoint we exposed in the previous section. You will see that
Spring has great support for web services requiring little coding efforts - most of
the setup is done in the Spring configuration file as usual:

<bean id="accountWebService"
class="org.springframework.remoting.jaxrpc.JaxRpcPortProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="serviceInterface" value="example.RemoteAccountService"/>
<property name="wsdlDocumentUrl"
value="http://localhost:8080/account/services/accountService?WSDL"/>
<property name="namespaceUri"
value="http://localhost:8080/account/services/accountService"/>
<property name="serviceName" value="AccountService"/>
<property name="portName" value="AccountPort"/>
</bean>

Where serviceInterface is our remote business interface the clients will

use. wsdlDocumentUrl is the URL for the WSDL file. Spring needs this at startup time
to create the JAX-RPC Service. namespaceUri corresponds to the targetNamespace
in the .wsdl file. serviceName corresponds to the service name in the .wsdl
file. portName corresponds to the port name in the .wsdl file.

Accessing the web service is now very easy as we have a bean factory for it that
will expose it as RemoteAccountService interface. We can wire this up in Spring:

<bean id="client" class="example.AccountClientImpl">

...
<property name="service" ref="accountWebService"/>
</bean>

From the client code we can access the web service just as if it was a normal
class, except that it throws RemoteException.

public class AccountClientImpl {

private RemoteAccountService service;

public void setService(RemoteAccountService service) {

683
 this.service = service;
}

public void foo() {

try {
service.insertAccount(...);
}
catch (RemoteException ex) {
// ouch
}
}
}

We can get rid of the checked RemoteException since Spring supports automatic

conversion to its corresponding unchecked RemoteException. This requires that we
provide a non-RMI interface also. Our configuration is now:

<bean id="accountWebService"
class="org.springframework.remoting.jaxrpc.JaxRpcPortProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="serviceInterface" value="example.AccountService"/>
<property name="portInterface" value="example.RemoteAccountService"/>
...
</bean>

Where serviceInterface is changed to our non RMI interface. Our RMI interface is

now defined using the property portInterface. Our client code can now avoid
handling java.rmi.RemoteException:

public class AccountClientImpl {

private AccountService service;

public void setService(AccountService service) {

this.service = service;
}

public void foo() {

service.insertAccount(...);
}
}

Note that you can also drop the "portInterface" part and specify a plain business
interface as "serviceInterface". In this case, JaxRpcPortProxyFactoryBean will
automatically switch to the JAX-RPC "Dynamic Invocation Interface", performing
dynamic invocations without a fixed port stub. The advantage is that you don't
even need to have an RMI-compliant Java port interface around (e.g. in case of a
non-Java target web service); all you need is a matching business interface.

684
Check out JaxRpcPortProxyFactoryBean's javadoc for details on the runtime
implications.

19.5.3 Registering JAX-RPC Bean Mappings

To transfer complex objects over the wire such as Account we must register bean
mappings on the client side.

Note

On the server side using Axis registering bean mappings is usually done in the 'server-
config.wsdd' file.

We will use Axis to register bean mappings on the client side. To do this we need
to register the bean mappings programmatically:

public class AxisPortProxyFactoryBean extends JaxRpcPortProxyFactoryBean {

protected void postProcessJaxRpcService(Service service) {

TypeMappingRegistry registry = service.getTypeMappingRegistry();
TypeMapping mapping = registry.createTypeMapping();
registerBeanMapping(mapping, Account.class, "Account");
registry.register("http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/", mapping);
}

protected void registerBeanMapping(TypeMapping mapping, Class type, String

name) {
QName qName = new
QName("http://localhost:8080/account/services/accountService", name);
mapping.register(type, qName,
new BeanSerializerFactory(type, qName),
new BeanDeserializerFactory(type, qName));
}
}

19.5.4 Registering your own JAX-RPC Handler

In this section we will register our own javax.rpc.xml.handler.Handler to the web

service proxy where we can do custom code before the SOAP message is sent
over the wire. The Handler is a callback interface. There is a convenience base
class provided in jaxrpc.jar, namelyjavax.rpc.xml.handler.GenericHandler that we
will extend:

public class AccountHandler extends GenericHandler {

public QName[] getHeaders() {

685
 return null;
}

public boolean handleRequest(MessageContext context) {

SOAPMessageContext smc = (SOAPMessageContext) context;
SOAPMessage msg = smc.getMessage();
try {
SOAPEnvelope envelope = msg.getSOAPPart().getEnvelope();
SOAPHeader header = envelope.getHeader();
...
}
catch (SOAPException ex) {
throw new JAXRPCException(ex);
}
return true;
}
}

What we need to do now is to register our AccountHandler to JAX-RPC Service so

it would invoke handleRequest(..) before the message is sent over the wire. Spring
has at this time of writing no declarative support for registering handlers, so we
must use the programmatic approach. However Spring has made it very easy for
us to do this as we can override the postProcessJaxRpcService(..) method that is
designed for this:

public class AccountHandlerJaxRpcPortProxyFactoryBean extends

JaxRpcPortProxyFactoryBean {

protected void postProcessJaxRpcService(Service service) {

QName port = new QName(this.getNamespaceUri(), this.getPortName());
List list = service.getHandlerRegistry().getHandlerChain(port);
list.add(new HandlerInfo(AccountHandler.class, null, null));
logger.info("Registered JAX-RPC AccountHandler on port " + port);
}
}

The last thing we must remember to do is to change the Spring configuration to

use our factory bean:

<bean id="accountWebService"
class="example.AccountHandlerJaxRpcPortProxyFactoryBean">
...
</bean>

686
19.5.5 Exposing servlet-based web services using JAX-WS

Spring provides a convenient base class for JAX-WS servlet endpoint

implementations - SpringBeanAutowiringSupport. To expose ourAccountService we
extend Spring's SpringBeanAutowiringSupport class and implement our business
logic here, usually delegating the call to the business layer. We'll simply use Spring
2.5's @Autowired annotation for expressing such dependencies on Spring-managed
beans.

/**
* JAX-WS compliant AccountService implementation that simply delegates
* to the AccountService implementation in the root web application context.
*
* This wrapper class is necessary because JAX-WS requires working with dedicated
* endpoint classes. If an existing service needs to be exported, a wrapper that
* extends SpringBeanAutowiringSupport for simple Spring bean autowiring (through
* the @Autowired annotation) is the simplest JAX-WS compliant way.
*
* This is the class registered with the server-side JAX-WS implementation.
* In the case of a Java EE 5 server, this would simply be defined as a servlet
* in web.xml, with the server detecting that this is a JAX-WS endpoint and
reacting
* accordingly. The servlet name usually needs to match the specified WS service
name.
*
* The web service engine manages the lifecycle of instances of this class.
* Spring bean references will just be wired in here.
*/
import org.springframework.web.context.support.SpringBeanAutowiringSupport;

@WebService(serviceName="AccountService")
public class AccountServiceEndpoint extends SpringBeanAutowiringSupport {

@Autowired
private AccountService biz;

@WebMethod
public void insertAccount(Account acc) {
biz.insertAccount(acc);
}

@WebMethod
public Account[] getAccounts(String name) {
return biz.getAccounts(name);
}
}

Our AccountServletEndpoint needs to run in the same web application as the Spring

context to allow for access to Spring's facilities. This is the case by default in Java

687
EE 5 environments, using the standard contract for JAX-WS servlet endpoint
deployment. See Java EE 5 web service tutorials for details.

19.5.6 Exporting standalone web services using JAX-WS

The built-in JAX-WS provider that comes with Sun's JDK 1.6 supports exposure of
web services using the built-in HTTP server that's included in JDK 1.6 as well.
Spring's SimpleJaxWsServiceExporter detects all @WebService annotated beans in the
Spring application context, exporting them through the default JAX-WS server (the
JDK 1.6 HTTP server).

In this scenario, the endpoint instances are defined and managed as Spring beans
themselves; they will be registered with the JAX-WS engine but their lifecycle will
be up to the Spring application context. This means that Spring functionality like
explicit dependency injection may be applied to the endpoint instances. Of course,
annotation-driven injection through @Autowired will work as well.

<bean class="org.springframework.remoting.jaxws.SimpleJaxWsServiceExporter">
<property name="baseAddress" value="http://localhost:8080/"/>
</bean>

<bean id="accountServiceEndpoint" class="example.AccountServiceEndpoint">

...
</bean>

...

The AccountServiceEndpoint may derive from

Spring's SpringBeanAutowiringSupport but doesn't have to since the endpoint is a
fully Spring-managed bean here. This means that the endpoint implementation
may look like as follows, without any superclass declared - and
Spring's@Autowired configuration annotation still being honored:

@WebService(serviceName="AccountService")
public class AccountServiceEndpoint {

@Autowired
private AccountService biz;

@WebMethod
public void insertAccount(Account acc) {
biz.insertAccount(acc);
}

@WebMethod
public List<Account> getAccounts(String name) {

688
 return biz.getAccounts(name);
}
}

19.5.7 Exporting web services using the JAX-WS RI's Spring support

Sun's JAX-WS RI, developed as part of the GlassFish project, ships Spring
support as part of its JAX-WS Commons project. This allows for defining JAX-WS
endpoints as Spring-managed beans, similar to the standalone mode discussed in
the previous section - but this time in a Servlet environment. Note that this is not
portable in a Java EE 5 environment; it is mainly intended for non-EE
environments such as Tomcat, embedding the JAX-WS RI as part of the web
application.

The difference to the standard style of exporting servlet-based endpoints is that

the lifecycle of the endpoint instances themselves will be managed by Spring here,
and that there will be only one JAX-WS servlet defined in web.xml. With the
standard Java EE 5 style (as illustrated above), you'll have one servlet definition
per service endpoint, with each endpoint typically delegating to Spring beans
(through the use of @Autowired, as shown above).

Check out https://jax-ws-commons.dev.java.net/spring/ for the details on setup and

usage style.

19.5.8 Accessing web services using JAX-WS

Analogous to the JAX-RPC support, Spring provides two factory beans to create
JAX-WS web service proxies,
namelyLocalJaxWsServiceFactoryBean and JaxWsPortProxyFactoryBean. The former can
only return a JAX-WS service class for us to work with. The latter is the full-fledged
version that can return a proxy that implements our business service interface. In
this example we use the latter to create a proxy for the AccountService endpoint
(again):

<bean id="accountWebService"
class="org.springframework.remoting.jaxws.JaxWsPortProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="serviceInterface" value="example.AccountService"/>
<property name="wsdlDocumentUrl"
value="http://localhost:8888/AccountServiceEndpoint?WSDL"/>
<property name="namespaceUri" value="http://example/"/>
<property name="serviceName" value="AccountService"/>
<property name="portName" value="AccountServiceEndpointPort"/>
</bean>

689
Where serviceInterface is our business interface the clients will
use. wsdlDocumentUrl is the URL for the WSDL file. Spring needs this a startup time
to create the JAX-WS Service. namespaceUri corresponds to the targetNamespace
in the .wsdl file. serviceName corresponds to the service name in the .wsdl
file. portName corresponds to the port name in the .wsdl file.

Accessing the web service is now very easy as we have a bean factory for it that
will expose it as AccountService interface. We can wire this up in Spring:

<bean id="client" class="example.AccountClientImpl">

...
<property name="service" ref="accountWebService"/>
</bean>

From the client code we can access the web service just as if it was a normal
class:

public class AccountClientImpl {

private AccountService service;

public void setService(AccountService service) {

this.service = service;
}

public void foo() {

service.insertAccount(...);
}
}

NOTE: The above is slightly simplified in that JAX-WS requires endpoint interfaces

and implementation classes to be annotated with @WebService,@SOAPBinding etc
annotations. This means that you cannot (easily) use plain Java interfaces and
implementation classes as JAX-WS endpoint artifacts; you need to annotate them
accordingly first. Check the JAX-WS documentation for details on those
requirements.

19.6 JMS

It is also possible to expose services transparently using JMS as the underlying

communication protocol. The JMS remoting support in the Spring Framework is
pretty basic - it sends and receives on the same thread and in the same non-
transactional Session, and as such throughput will be very implementation
dependent. Note that these single-threaded and non-transactional constraints

690
apply only to Spring's JMS remoting support. See Chapter 21, JMS (Java
Message Service) for information on Spring's rich support for JMS-
based messaging.

The following interface is used on both the server and the client side.

package com.foo;

public interface CheckingAccountService {

public void cancelAccount(Long accountId);

}

The following simple implementation of the above interface is used on the server-
side.

package com.foo;

public class SimpleCheckingAccountService implements CheckingAccountService {

public void cancelAccount(Long accountId) {

System.out.println("Cancelling account [" + accountId + "]");
}
}

This configuration file contains the JMS-infrastructure beans that are shared on
both the client and server.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

<bean id="connectionFactory"
class="org.apache.activemq.ActiveMQConnectionFactory">
<property name="brokerURL" value="tcp://ep-t43:61616"/>
</bean>

<bean id="queue" class="org.apache.activemq.command.ActiveMQQueue">

<constructor-arg value="mmm"/>
</bean>

</beans>

691
19.6.1 Server-side configuration

On the server, you just need to expose the service object using
the JmsInvokerServiceExporter.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

<bean id="checkingAccountService"
class="org.springframework.jms.remoting.JmsInvokerServiceExporter">
<property name="serviceInterface" value="com.foo.CheckingAccountService"/>
<property name="service">
<bean class="com.foo.SimpleCheckingAccountService"/>
</property>
</bean>

<bean class="org.springframework.jms.listener.SimpleMessageListenerContainer">
<property name="connectionFactory" ref="connectionFactory"/>
<property name="destination" ref="queue"/>
<property name="concurrentConsumers" value="3"/>
<property name="messageListener" ref="checkingAccountService"/>
</bean>

</beans>
package com.foo;

import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;

public class Server {

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

new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(new String[]{"com/foo/server.xml",
"com/foo/jms.xml"});
}
}

19.6.2 Client-side configuration

The client merely needs to create a client-side proxy that will implement the
agreed upon interface (CheckingAccountService). The resulting object created off the
back of the following bean definition can be injected into other client side objects,
and the proxy will take care of forwarding the call to the server-side object via
JMS.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

692
 xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

<bean id="checkingAccountService"
class="org.springframework.jms.remoting.JmsInvokerProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="serviceInterface" value="com.foo.CheckingAccountService"/>
<property name="connectionFactory" ref="connectionFactory"/>
<property name="queue" ref="queue"/>
</bean>

</beans>
package com.foo;

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

public class Client {

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

ApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(
new String[] {"com/foo/client.xml", "com/foo/jms.xml"});
CheckingAccountService service = (CheckingAccountService)
ctx.getBean("checkingAccountService");
service.cancelAccount(new Long(10));
}
}

You may also wish to investigate the support provided by the Lingo project, which
(to quote the homepage blurb) “ ... is a lightweight POJO based remoting and
messaging library based on the Spring Framework's remoting libraries which
extends it to support JMS. ”

19.7 Auto-detection is not implemented for remote interfaces

The main reason why auto-detection of implemented interfaces does not occur for
remote interfaces is to avoid opening too many doors to remote callers. The target
object might implement internal callback interfaces
like InitializingBean or DisposableBean which one would not want to expose to
callers.

Offering a proxy with all interfaces implemented by the target usually does not
matter in the local case. But when exporting a remote service, you should expose
a specific service interface, with specific operations intended for remote usage.
Besides internal callback interfaces, the target might implement multiple business
interfaces, with just one of them intended for remote exposure. For these reasons,
we require such a service interface to be specified.

693
This is a trade-off between configuration convenience and the risk of accidental
exposure of internal methods. Always specifying a service interface is not too
much effort, and puts you on the safe side regarding controlled exposure of
specific methods.

19.8 Considerations when choosing a technology

Each and every technology presented here has its drawbacks. You should
carefully consider your needs, the services you are exposing and the objects you'll
be sending over the wire when choosing a technology.

When using RMI, it's not possible to access the objects through the HTTP
protocol, unless you're tunneling the RMI traffic. RMI is a fairly heavy-weight
protocol in that it supports full-object serialization which is important when using a
complex data model that needs serialization over the wire. However, RMI-JRMP is
tied to Java clients: It is a Java-to-Java remoting solution.

Spring's HTTP invoker is a good choice if you need HTTP-based remoting but also
rely on Java serialization. It shares the basic infrastructure with RMI invokers, just
using HTTP as transport. Note that HTTP invokers are not only limited to Java-to-
Java remoting but also to Spring on both the client and server side. (The latter also
applies to Spring's RMI invoker for non-RMI interfaces.)

Hessian and/or Burlap might provide significant value when operating in a

heterogeneous environment, because they explicitly allow for non-Java clients.
However, non-Java support is still limited. Known issues include the serialization of
Hibernate objects in combination with lazily-initialized collections. If you have such
a data model, consider using RMI or HTTP invokers instead of Hessian.

JMS can be useful for providing clusters of services and allowing the JMS broker
to take care of load balancing, discovery and auto-failover. By default: Java
serialization is used when using JMS remoting but the JMS provider could use a
different mechanism for the wire formatting, such as XStream to allow servers to
be implemented in other technologies.

Last but not least, EJB has an advantage over RMI in that it supports standard
role-based authentication and authorization and remote transaction propagation. It
is possible to get RMI invokers or HTTP invokers to support security context
propagation as well, although this is not provided by core Spring: There are just
appropriate hooks for plugging in third-party or custom solutions here.

694
19.9 Accessing RESTful services on the Client

The RestTemplate is the core class for client-side access to RESTful services. It is

conceptually similar to other template classes in Spring, such
asJdbcTemplate and JmsTemplate and other template classes found in other Spring
portfolio projects. RestTemplate's behavior is customized by providing callback
methods and configuring the HttpMessageConverter used to marshal objects into the
HTTP request body and to unmarshal any response back into an object. As it is
common to use XML as a message format, Spring provides
a MarshallingHttpMessageConverter that uses the Object-to-XML framework that is
part of the org.springframework.oxm package. This gives you a wide range of
choices of XML to Object mapping technologies to choose from.

This section describes how to use the RestTemplate and its

associated HttpMessageConverters.

19.9.1 RestTemplate

Invoking RESTful services in Java is typically done using a helper class such as
Jakarta Commons HttpClient. For common REST operations this approach is too
low level as shown below.

String uri = "http://example.com/hotels/1/bookings";

PostMethod post = new PostMethod(uri);

String request = // create booking request content
post.setRequestEntity(new StringRequestEntity(request));

httpClient.executeMethod(post);

if (HttpStatus.SC_CREATED == post.getStatusCode()) {
Header location = post.getRequestHeader("Location");
if (location != null) {
System.out.println("Created new booking at :" + location.getValue());
}
}

RestTemplate provides higher level methods that correspond to each of the six
main HTTP methods that make invoking many RESTful services a one-liner and
enforce REST best practices.

Table 19.1. Overview of RestTemplate methods

RestTemplate Method

695
delete
getForObject
getForEntity
headForHeaders(String url, String… urlVariables)
optionsForAllow(String url, String… urlVariables)
postForLocation(String url, Object request, String… urlVariables)
postForObject(String url, Object request, Class<T> responseType, String… uriVariables)
put(String url, Object request, String…urlVariables)

The names of RestTemplate methods follow a naming convention, the first part

indicates what HTTP method is being invoked and the second part indicates what
is returned. For example, the method getForObject() will perform a GET, convert
the HTTP response into an object type of your choice and return that object. The
method postForLocation() will do a POST, converting the given object into a HTTP
request and return the response HTTP Location header where the newly created
object can be found. In case of an exception processing the HTTP request, an
exception of the type RestClientException will be thrown; this behavior can be
changed by plugging in another ResponseErrorHandler implementation into
the RestTemplate.

Objects passed to and returned from these methods are converted to and from
HTTP messages by HttpMessageConverter instances. Converters for the main mime
types are registered by default, but you can also write your own converter and
register it via the messageConverters() bean property. The default converter
instances registered with the template
are ByteArrayHttpMessageConverter, StringHttpMessageConverter,FormHttpMessageConver
ter and SourceHttpMessageConverter. You can override these defaults using
the messageConverters() bean property as would be required if using
the MarshallingHttpMessageConverter or MappingJacksonHttpMessageConverter.

Each method takes URI template arguments in two forms, either as

a String variable length argument or a Map<String,String>. For example,

String result =
restTemplate.getForObject("http://example.com/hotels/{hotel}/bookings/{booking}",
String.class,"42", "21");

using variable length arguments and

696
Map<String, String> vars = Collections.singletonMap("hotel", "42");
String result =
restTemplate.getForObject("http://example.com/hotels/{hotel}/rooms/{hotel}",
String.class, vars);

using a Map<String,String>.

To create an instance of RestTemplate you can simply call the default no-arg

constructor. This will use standard Java classes from the java.netpackage as the
underlying implementation to create HTTP requests. This can be overridden by
specifying an implementation ofClientHttpRequestFactory. Spring provides the
implementation CommonsClientHttpRequestFactory that uses the Jakarta
Commons HttpClientto create requests. CommonsClientHttpRequestFactory is
configured using an instance of org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient which can
in turn be configured with credentials information or connection pooling
functionality.

The previous example using Jakarta Commons HttpClient directly rewritten to use

the RestTemplate is shown below

uri = "http://example.com/hotels/{id}/bookings";

RestTemplate template = new RestTemplate();

Booking booking = // create booking object

URI location = template.postForLocation(uri, booking, "1");

The general callback interface is RequestCallback and is called when the execute

method is invoked.

public <T> T execute(String url, HttpMethod method, RequestCallback

requestCallback,
ResponseExtractor<T> responseExtractor,
String... urlVariables)

// also has an overload with urlVariables as a Map<String, String>.

The RequestCallback interface is defined as

public interface RequestCallback {

void doWithRequest(ClientHttpRequest request) throws IOException;

697
}

and allows you to manipulate the request headers and write to the request body.
When using the execute method you do not have to worry about any resource
management, the template will always close the request and handle any errors.
Refer to the API documentation for more information on using the execute method
and the meaning of its other method arguments.

19.9.1.1 Dealing with request and response headers

Besides the methods described above, the RestTemplate also has

the exchange() method, which can be used for arbitrary HTTP method execution
based on the HttpEntity class.

Perhaps most importantly, the exchange() method can be used to add request

headers and read response headers. For example:

HttpHeaders requestHeaders = new HttpHeaders();

requestHeaders.set("MyRequestHeader", "MyValue");
HttpEntity<?> requestEntity = new HttpEntity(requestHeaders);

HttpEntity<String> response =
template.exchange("http://example.com/hotels/{hotel}",
HttpMethod.GET, requestEntity, String.class, "42");

String responseHeader = response.getHeaders().getFirst("MyResponseHeader");

String body = response.getBody();

In the above example, we first prepare a request entity that contains

the MyRequestHeader header. We then retrieve the response, and read
theMyResponseHeader and body.

19.9.2 HTTP Message Conversion

Objects passed to and returned from the

methods getForObject(), postForLocation(), and put() are converted to HTTP
requests and from HTTP responses by HttpMessageConverters.
The HttpMessageConverter interface is shown below to give you a better feel for its
functionality

public interface HttpMessageConverter<T> {

698
 // Indicate whether the given class and media type can be read by this
converter.
boolean canRead(Class<?> clazz, MediaType mediaType);

// Indicate whether the given class and media type can be written by this
converter.
boolean canWrite(Class<?> clazz, MediaType mediaType);

// Return the list of MediaType objects supported by this converter.

List<MediaType> getSupportedMediaTypes();

// Read an object of the given type from the given input message, and
returns it.
T read(Class<T> clazz, HttpInputMessage inputMessage) throws IOException,

HttpMessageNotReadableException;

// Write an given object to the given output message.

void write(T t, HttpOutputMessage outputMessage) throws IOException,

HttpMessageNotWritableException;

Concrete implementations for the main media (mime) types are provided in the
framework and are registered by default with the RestTemplate on the client-side
and with AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter on the server-side.

The implementations of HttpMessageConverters are described in the following

sections. For all converters a default media type is used but can be overridden by
setting the supportedMediaTypes bean property

19.9.2.1 StringHttpMessageConverter

An HttpMessageConverter implementation that can read and write Strings from the

HTTP request and response. By default, this converter supports all text media
types (text/*), and writes with a Content-Type of text/plain.

19.9.2.2 FormHttpMessageConverter

An HttpMessageConverter implementation that can read and write form data from the
HTTP request and response. By default, this converter reads and writes the media
type application/x-www-form-urlencoded. Form data is read from and written into
a MultiValueMap<String, String>.

699
19.9.2.3 ByteArrayMessageConverter

An HttpMessageConverter implementation that can read and write byte arrays from

the HTTP request and response. By default, this converter supports all media
types (*/*), and writes with a Content-Type of application/octet-stream. This can be
overridden by setting thesupportedMediaTypes property, and
overriding getContentType(byte[]).

19.9.2.4 MarshallingHttpMessageConverter

An HttpMessageConverter implementation that can read and write XML using

Spring's Marshaller and Unmarshaller abstractions from
theorg.springframework.oxm package. This converter requires
a Marshaller and Unmarshaller before it can be used. These can be injected via
constructor or bean properties. By default this converter supports (text/xml) and
(application/xml).

19.9.2.5 MappingJacksonHttpMessageConverter

An HttpMessageConverter implementation that can read and write JSON using

Jackson's ObjectMapper. JSON mapping can be customized as needed through the
use of Jackson's provided annotations. When further control is needed, a
custom ObjectMapper can be injected through theObjectMapper property for cases
where custom JSON serializers/deserializers need to be provided for specific
types. By default this converter supports (application/json).

19.9.2.6 SourceHttpMessageConverter

An HttpMessageConverter implementation that can read and

write javax.xml.transform.Source from the HTTP request and response.
OnlyDOMSource, SAXSource, and StreamSource are supported. By default, this converter
supports (text/xml) and (application/xml).

19.9.2.7 BufferedImageHttpMessageConverter

An HttpMessageConverter implementation that can read and

write java.awt.image.BufferedImage from the HTTP request and response. This
converter reads and writes the media type supported by the Java I/O API.

700
20. Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) integration

20.1 Introduction

As a lightweight container, Spring is often considered an EJB replacement. We do

believe that for many if not most applications and use cases, Spring as a
container, combined with its rich supporting functionality in the area of
transactions, ORM and JDBC access, is a better choice than implementing
equivalent functionality via an EJB container and EJBs.

However, it is important to note that using Spring does not prevent you from using
EJBs. In fact, Spring makes it much easier to access EJBs and implement EJBs
and functionality within them. Additionally, using Spring to access services
provided by EJBs allows the implementation of those services to later
transparently be switched between local EJB, remote EJB, or POJO (plain old
Java object) variants, without the client code having to be changed.

In this chapter, we look at how Spring can help you access and implement EJBs.
Spring provides particular value when accessing stateless session beans (SLSBs),
so we'll begin by discussing this.

20.2 Accessing EJBs
20.2.1 Concepts

To invoke a method on a local or remote stateless session bean, client code must
normally perform a JNDI lookup to obtain the (local or remote) EJB Home object,
then use a 'create' method call on that object to obtain the actual (local or remote)
EJB object. One or more methods are then invoked on the EJB.

To avoid repeated low-level code, many EJB applications use the Service Locator
and Business Delegate patterns. These are better than spraying JNDI lookups
throughout client code, but their usual implementations have significant
disadvantages. For example:

 Typically code using EJBs depends on Service Locator or Business

Delegate singletons, making it hard to test.
 In the case of the Service Locator pattern used without a Business Delegate,
application code still ends up having to invoke the create() method on an
EJB home, and deal with the resulting exceptions. Thus it remains tied to the
EJB API and the complexity of the EJB programming model.

701
  Implementing the Business Delegate pattern typically results in significant
code duplication, where we have to write numerous methods that simply call
the same method on the EJB.

The Spring approach is to allow the creation and use of proxy objects, normally
configured inside a Spring container, which act as codeless business delegates.
You do not need to write another Service Locator, another JNDI lookup, or
duplicate methods in a hand-coded Business Delegate unless you are actually
adding real value in such code.

20.2.2 Accessing local SLSBs

Assume that we have a web controller that needs to use a local EJB. We’ll follow
best practice and use the EJB Business Methods Interface pattern, so that the
EJB’s local interface extends a non EJB-specific business methods interface. Let’s
call this business methods interfaceMyComponent.

public interface MyComponent {

...
}

One of the main reasons to use the Business Methods Interface pattern is to
ensure that synchronization between method signatures in local interface and
bean implementation class is automatic. Another reason is that it later makes it
much easier for us to switch to a POJO (plain old Java object) implementation of
the service if it makes sense to do so. Of course we’ll also need to implement the
local home interface and provide an implementation class that
implements SessionBean and the MyComponent business methods interface. Now the
only Java coding we’ll need to do to hook up our web tier controller to the EJB
implementation is to expose a setter method of type MyComponent on the controller.
This will save the reference as an instance variable in the controller:

private MyComponent myComponent;

public void setMyComponent(MyComponent myComponent) {

this.myComponent = myComponent;
}

We can subsequently use this instance variable in any business method in the
controller. Now assuming we are obtaining our controller object out of a Spring
container, we can (in the same context) configure
a LocalStatelessSessionProxyFactoryBean instance, which will be the EJB proxy

702
object. The configuration of the proxy, and setting of the myComponent property of the
controller is done with a configuration entry such as:

<bean id="myComponent"

class="org.springframework.ejb.access.LocalStatelessSessionProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="jndiName" value="ejb/myBean"/>
<property name="businessInterface" value="com.mycom.MyComponent"/>
</bean>

<bean id="myController" class="com.mycom.myController">

<property name="myComponent" ref="myComponent"/>
</bean>

There’s a lot of work happening behind the scenes, courtesy of the Spring AOP
framework, although you aren’t forced to work with AOP concepts to enjoy the
results. The myComponent bean definition creates a proxy for the EJB, which
implements the business method interface. The EJB local home is cached on
startup, so there’s only a single JNDI lookup. Each time the EJB is invoked, the
proxy invokes the classname method on the local EJB and invokes the
corresponding business method on the EJB.

The myController bean definition sets the myComponent property of the controller

class to the EJB proxy.

Alternatively (and preferably in case of many such proxy definitions), consider

using the <jee:local-slsb> configuration element in Spring's "jee" namespace:

<jee:local-slsb id="myComponent" jndi-name="ejb/myBean"

business-interface="com.mycom.MyComponent"/>

<bean id="myController" class="com.mycom.myController">

<property name="myComponent" ref="myComponent"/>
</bean>

This EJB access mechanism delivers huge simplification of application code: the
web tier code (or other EJB client code) has no dependence on the use of EJB. If
we want to replace this EJB reference with a POJO or a mock object or other test
stub, we could simply change the myComponentbean definition without changing a
line of Java code. Additionally, we haven’t had to write a single line of JNDI lookup
or other EJB plumbing code as part of our application.

Benchmarks and experience in real applications indicate that the performance

overhead of this approach (which involves reflective invocation of the target EJB)

703
is minimal, and is typically undetectable in typical use. Remember that we don’t
want to make fine-grained calls to EJBs anyway, as there’s a cost associated with
the EJB infrastructure in the application server.

There is one caveat with regards to the JNDI lookup. In a bean container, this
class is normally best used as a singleton (there simply is no reason to make it a
prototype). However, if that bean container pre-instantiates singletons (as do the
various XML ApplicationContext variants) you may have a problem if the bean
container is loaded before the EJB container loads the target EJB. That is because
the JNDI lookup will be performed in the init() method of this class and then
cached, but the EJB will not have been bound at the target location yet. The
solution is to not pre-instantiate this factory object, but allow it to be created on first
use. In the XML containers, this is controlled via the lazy-init attribute.

Although this will not be of interest to the majority of Spring users, those doing
programmatic AOP work with EJBs may want to look
atLocalSlsbInvokerInterceptor.

20.2.3 Accessing remote SLSBs

Accessing remote EJBs is essentially identical to accessing local EJBs, except

that the SimpleRemoteStatelessSessionProxyFactoryBean or<jee:remote-
slsb> configuration element is used. Of course, with or without Spring, remote
invocation semantics apply; a call to a method on an object in another VM in
another computer does sometimes have to be treated differently in terms of usage
scenarios and failure handling.

Spring's EJB client support adds one more advantage over the non-Spring
approach. Normally it is problematic for EJB client code to be easily switched back
and forth between calling EJBs locally or remotely. This is because the remote
interface methods must declare that they throwRemoteException, and client code
must deal with this, while the local interface methods don't. Client code written for
local EJBs which needs to be moved to remote EJBs typically has to be modified
to add handling for the remote exceptions, and client code written for remote EJBs
which needs to be moved to local EJBs, can either stay the same but do a lot of
unnecessary handling of remote exceptions, or needs to be modified to remove
that code. With the Spring remote EJB proxy, you can instead not declare any
thrown RemoteException in your Business Method Interface and implementing EJB
code, have a remote interface which is identical except that it does
throw RemoteException, and rely on the proxy to dynamically treat the two interfaces
as if they were the same. That is, client code does not have to deal with the
checked RemoteException class. Any actualRemoteException that is thrown during the

704
EJB invocation will be re-thrown as the non-checked RemoteAccessException class,
which is a subclass of RuntimeException. The target service can then be switched at
will between a local EJB or remote EJB (or even plain Java object)
implementation, without the client code knowing or caring. Of course, this is
optional; there is nothing stopping you from declaringRemoteExceptions in your
business interface.

20.2.4 Accessing EJB 2.x SLSBs versus EJB 3 SLSBs

Accessing EJB 2.x Session Beans and EJB 3 Session Beans via Spring is largely
transparent. Spring's EJB accessors, including the <jee:local-
slsb> and <jee:remote-slsb> facilities, transparently adapt to the actual component
at runtime. They handle a home interface if found (EJB 2.x style), or perform
straight component invocations if no home interface is available (EJB 3 style).

Note: For EJB 3 Session Beans, you could effectively use

a JndiObjectFactoryBean / <jee:jndi-lookup> as well, since fully usable component
references are exposed for plain JNDI lookups there. Defining explicit <jee:local-
slsb> / <jee:remote-slsb> lookups simply provides consistent and more explicit EJB
access configuration.

20.3 Using Spring's EJB implementation support classes

20.3.1 EJB 2.x base classes

Spring provides convenience classes to help you implement EJBs. These are
designed to encourage the good practice of putting business logic behind EJBs in
POJOs, leaving EJBs responsible for transaction demarcation and (optionally)
remoting.

To implement a Stateless or Stateful session bean, or a Message Driven bean,

you need only derive your implementation class
fromAbstractStatelessSessionBean, AbstractStatefulSessionBean,
and AbstractMessageDrivenBean/AbstractJmsMessageDrivenBean, respectively.

Consider an example Stateless Session bean which actually delegates the

implementation to a plain java service object. We have the business interface:

public interface MyComponent {

public void myMethod(...);
...
}

705
We also have the plain Java implementation object:

public class MyComponentImpl implements MyComponent {

public String myMethod(...) {
...
}
...
}

And finally the Stateless Session Bean itself:

public class MyFacadeEJB extends AbstractStatelessSessionBean

implements MyFacadeLocal {

private MyComponent myComp;

/**
* Obtain our POJO service object from the BeanFactory/ApplicationContext
* @see
org.springframework.ejb.support.AbstractStatelessSessionBean#onEjbCreate()
*/
protected void onEjbCreate() throws CreateException {
myComp = (MyComponent) getBeanFactory().getBean(
ServicesConstants.CONTEXT_MYCOMP_ID);
}

// for business method, delegate to POJO service impl.

public String myFacadeMethod(...) {
return myComp.myMethod(...);
}
...
}

The Spring EJB support base classes will by default create and load a Spring IoC
container as part of their lifecycle, which is then available to the EJB (for example,
as used in the code above to obtain the POJO service object). The loading is done
via a strategy object which is a subclass of BeanFactoryLocator. The actual
implementation of BeanFactoryLocator used by default
is ContextJndiBeanFactoryLocator, which creates the ApplicationContext from a
resource locations specified as a JNDI environment variable (in the case of the
EJB classes, atjava:comp/env/ejb/BeanFactoryPath). If there is a need to change the
BeanFactory/ApplicationContext loading strategy, the
defaultBeanFactoryLocator implementation used may be overridden by calling
the setBeanFactoryLocator() method, either in setSessionContext(), or in the actual
constructor of the EJB. Please see the Javadocs for more details.

706
As described in the Javadocs, Stateful Session beans expecting to be passivated
and reactivated as part of their lifecycle, and which use a non-serializable
container instance (which is the normal case) will have to manually
call unloadBeanFactory() and loadBeanFactory() fromejbPassivate() and ejbActivate()
, respectively, to unload and reload the BeanFactory on passivation and activation,
since it can not be saved by the EJB container.

The default behavior of the ContextJndiBeanFactoryLocator class is to load

an ApplicationContext for use by an EJB, and is adequate for some situations.
However, it is problematic when the ApplicationContext is loading a number of
beans, or the initialization of those beans is time consuming or memory intensive
(such as a Hibernate SessionFactory initialization, for example), since every EJB
will have their own copy. In this case, the user may want to override the
default ContextJndiBeanFactoryLocator usage and use
another BeanFactoryLocator variant, such as
theContextSingletonBeanFactoryLocator which can load and use a shared container
to be used by multiple EJBs or other clients. Doing this is relatively simple, by
adding code similar to this to the EJB:

/**
* Override default BeanFactoryLocator implementation
* @see javax.ejb.SessionBean#setSessionContext(javax.ejb.SessionContext)
*/
public void setSessionContext(SessionContext sessionContext) {
super.setSessionContext(sessionContext);
setBeanFactoryLocator(ContextSingletonBeanFactoryLocator.getInstance());
setBeanFactoryLocatorKey(ServicesConstants.PRIMARY_CONTEXT_ID);
}

You would then need to create a bean definition file named beanRefContext.xml.

This file defines all bean factories (usually in the form of application contexts) that
may be used in the EJB. In many cases, this file will only contain a single bean
definition such as this (wherebusinessApplicationContext.xml contains the bean
definitions for all business service POJOs):

<beans>
<bean id="businessBeanFactory"
class="org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext">
<constructor-arg value="businessApplicationContext.xml" />
</bean>
</beans>

In the above example, the ServicesConstants.PRIMARY_CONTEXT_ID constant would be

defined as follows:

707
public static final String ServicesConstants.PRIMARY_CONTEXT_ID =
"businessBeanFactory";

Please see the respective Javadocs for

the BeanFactoryLocator and ContextSingletonBeanFactoryLocator classes for more
information on their usage.

20.3.2 EJB 3 injection interceptor

For EJB 3 Session Beans and Message-Driven Beans, Spring provides a

convenient interceptor that resolves Spring 2.5's @Autowired annotation in the EJB
component
class: org.springframework.ejb.interceptor.SpringBeanAutowiringInterceptor. This
interceptor can be applied through an @Interceptors annotation in the EJB
component class, or through an interceptor-binding XML element in the EJB
deployment descriptor.

@Stateless
@Interceptors(SpringBeanAutowiringInterceptor.class)
public class MyFacadeEJB implements MyFacadeLocal {

// automatically injected with a matching Spring bean

@Autowired
private MyComponent myComp;

// for business method, delegate to POJO service impl.

public String myFacadeMethod(...) {
return myComp.myMethod(...);
}
...
}

SpringBeanAutowiringInterceptor by default obtains target beans from

a ContextSingletonBeanFactoryLocator, with the context defined in a bean definition
file named beanRefContext.xml. By default, a single context definition is expected,
which is obtained by type rather than by name. However, if you need to choose
between multiple context definitions, a specific locator key is required. The locator
key (i.e. the name of the context definition in beanRefContext.xml) can be explicitly
specified either through overriding the getBeanFactoryLocatorKey method in a
customSpringBeanAutowiringInterceptor subclass.

Alternatively, consider
overriding SpringBeanAutowiringInterceptor's getBeanFactory method, e.g. obtaining a
shared ApplicationContext from a custom holder class.

708
21. JMS (Java Message Service)

21.1 Introduction

Spring provides a JMS integration framework that simplifies the use of the JMS
API much like Spring's integration does for the JDBC API.

JMS can be roughly divided into two areas of functionality, namely the production
and consumption of messages. The JmsTemplate class is used for message
production and synchronous message reception. For asynchronous reception
similar to Java EE's message-driven bean style, Spring provides a number of
message listener containers that are used to create Message-Driven POJOs
(MDPs).

The package org.springframework.jms.core provides the core functionality for using

JMS. It contains JMS template classes that simplify the use of the JMS by
handling the creation and release of resources, much like the JdbcTemplate does for
JDBC. The design principle common to Spring template classes is to provide
helper methods to perform common operations and for more sophisticated usage,
delegate the essence of the processing task to user implemented callback
interfaces. The JMS template follows the same design. The classes offer various
convenience methods for the sending of messages, consuming a message
synchronously, and exposing the JMS session and message producer to the user.

The package org.springframework.jms.support provides JMSException translation
functionality. The translation converts the checked JMSException hierarchy to a
mirrored hierarchy of unchecked exceptions. If there are any provider specific
subclasses of the checkedjavax.jms.JMSException, this exception is wrapped in the
unchecked UncategorizedJmsException.

The package org.springframework.jms.support.converter provides
a MessageConverter abstraction to convert between Java objects and JMS
messages.

The package org.springframework.jms.support.destination provides various

strategies for managing JMS destinations, such as providing a service locator for
destinations stored in JNDI.

Finally, the package org.springframework.jms.connection provides an

implementation of the ConnectionFactory suitable for use in standalone applications.
It also contains an implementation of Spring's PlatformTransactionManager for JMS
(the cunningly named JmsTransactionManager). This allows for seamless integration

709
of JMS as a transactional resource into Spring's transaction management
mechanisms.

21.2 Using Spring JMS

21.2.1 JmsTemplate

The JmsTemplate class is the central class in the JMS core package. It simplifies the
use of JMS since it handles the creation and release of resources when sending or
synchronously receiving messages.

Code that uses the JmsTemplate only needs to implement callback interfaces giving

them a clearly defined high level contract. The MessageCreatorcallback interface
creates a message given a Session provided by the calling code in JmsTemplate. In
order to allow for more complex usage of the JMS API, the
callback SessionCallback provides the user with the JMS session and the
callback ProducerCallback exposes a Session andMessageProducer pair.

The JMS API exposes two types of send methods, one that takes delivery mode,
priority, and time-to-live as Quality of Service (QOS) parameters and one that
takes no QOS parameters which uses default values. Since there are many send
methods in JmsTemplate, the setting of the QOS parameters have been exposed as
bean properties to avoid duplication in the number of send methods. Similarly, the
timeout value for synchronous receive calls is set using the
property setReceiveTimeout.

Some JMS providers allow the setting of default QOS values administratively
through the configuration of the ConnectionFactory. This has the effect that a call
to MessageProducer's send method send(Destination destination, Message
message) will use different QOS default values than those specified in the JMS
specification. In order to provide consistent management of QOS values,
the JmsTemplate must therefore be specifically enabled to use its own QOS
values by setting the boolean property isExplicitQosEnabled to true.

Note

Instances of the JmsTemplate class are thread-safe once configured. This is important because it

means that you can configure a single instance of a JmsTemplate and then safely inject
this shared reference into multiple collaborators. To be clear, theJmsTemplate is stateful, in that
it maintains a reference to a ConnectionFactory, but this state is not conversational state.

710
21.2.2 Connections

The JmsTemplate requires a reference to a ConnectionFactory.

The ConnectionFactory is part of the JMS specification and serves as the entry point
for working with JMS. It is used by the client application as a factory to create
connections with the JMS provider and encapsulates various configuration
parameters, many of which are vendor specific such as SSL configuration options.

When using JMS inside an EJB, the vendor provides implementations of the JMS
interfaces so that they can participate in declarative transaction management and
perform pooling of connections and sessions. In order to use this implementation,
Java EE containers typically require that you declare a JMS connection factory as
a resource-ref inside the EJB or servlet deployment descriptors. To ensure the use
of these features with theJmsTemplate inside an EJB, the client application should
ensure that it references the managed implementation of the ConnectionFactory.

21.2.2.1 Caching Messaging Resources

The standard API involves creating many intermediate objects. To send a

message the following 'API' walk is performed

ConnectionFactory->Connection->Session->MessageProducer->send

Between the ConnectionFactory and the Send operation there are three
intermediate objects that are created and destroyed. To optimise the resource
usage and increase performance two implementations of IConnectionFactory are
provided.

21.2.2.2 SingleConnectionFactory

Spring provides an implementation of

the ConnectionFactory interface, SingleConnectionFactory, that will return the
same Connection on allcreateConnection() calls and ignore calls to close(). This is
useful for testing and standalone environments so that the same connection can
be used for multiple JmsTemplate calls that may span any number of
transactions. SingleConnectionFactory takes a reference to a
standardConnectionFactory that would typically come from JNDI.

711
21.2.2.3 CachingConnectionFactory

The CachingConnectionFactory extends the functionality

of SingleConnectionFactory and adds the caching of Sessions, MessageProducers,
and MessageConsumers. The initial cache size is set to 1, use the
property SessionCacheSize to increase the number of cached sessions. Note that
the number of actual cached sessions will be more than that number as sessions
are cached based on their acknowledgment mode, so there can be up to 4 cached
session instances when SessionCacheSize is set to one, one for each
AcknowledgementMode. MessageProducers and MessageConsumers are cached
within their owning session and also take into account the unique properties of the
producers and consumers when caching. MessageProducers are cached based
on their destination. MessageConsumers are cached based on a key composed of
the destination, selector, noLocal delivery flag, and the durable subscription name
(if creating durable consumers).

21.2.3 Destination Management

Destinations, like ConnectionFactories, are JMS administered objects that can be

stored and retrieved in JNDI. When configuring a Spring application context you
can use the JNDI factory class JndiObjectFactoryBean / <jee:jndi-lookup> to perform
dependency injection on your object's references to JMS destinations. However,
often this strategy is cumbersome if there are a large number of destinations in the
application or if there are advanced destination management features unique to
the JMS provider. Examples of such advanced destination management would be
the creation of dynamic destinations or support for a hierarchical namespace of
destinations. The JmsTemplate delegates the resolution of a destination name to a
JMS destination object to an implementation of the
interface DestinationResolver. DynamicDestinationResolver is the default
implementation used by JmsTemplate and accommodates resolving dynamic
destinations. A JndiDestinationResolver is also provided that acts as a service
locator for destinations contained in JNDI and optionally falls back to the behavior
contained in DynamicDestinationResolver.

Quite often the destinations used in a JMS application are only known at runtime
and therefore cannot be administratively created when the application is deployed.
This is often because there is shared application logic between interacting system
components that create destinations at runtime according to a well-known naming
convention. Even though the creation of dynamic destinations is not part of the
JMS specification, most vendors have provided this functionality. Dynamic
destinations are created with a name defined by the user which differentiates them

712
from temporary destinations and are often not registered in JNDI. The API used to
create dynamic destinations varies from provider to provider since the properties
associated with the destination are vendor specific. However, a simple
implementation choice that is sometimes made by vendors is to disregard the
warnings in the JMS specification and to use
the TopicSession method createTopic(String topicName) or
the QueueSessionmethod createQueue(String queueName) to create a new destination
with default destination properties. Depending on the vendor
implementation,DynamicDestinationResolver may then also create a physical
destination instead of only resolving one.

The boolean property pubSubDomain is used to configure the JmsTemplate with

knowledge of what JMS domain is being used. By default the value of this property
is false, indicating that the point-to-point domain, Queues, will be used. This
property used by JmsTemplate determines the behavior of dynamic destination
resolution via implementations of the DestinationResolver interface.

You can also configure the JmsTemplate with a default destination via the

property defaultDestination. The default destination will be used with send and
receive operations that do not refer to a specific destination.

21.2.4 Message Listener Containers

One of the most common uses of JMS messages in the EJB world is to drive
message-driven beans (MDBs). Spring offers a solution to create message-driven
POJOs (MDPs) in a way that does not tie a user to an EJB container.
(See Section 21.4.2, “Asynchronous Reception - Message-Driven POJOs” for
detailed coverage of Spring's MDP support.)

A message listener container is used to receive messages from a JMS message

queue and drive the MessageListener that is injected into it. The listener container
is responsible for all threading of message reception and dispatches into the
listener for processing. A message listener container is the intermediary between
an MDP and a messaging provider, and takes care of registering to receive
messages, participating in transactions, resource acquisition and release,
exception conversion and suchlike. This allows you as an application developer to
write the (possibly complex) business logic associated with receiving a message
(and possibly responding to it), and delegates boilerplate JMS infrastructure
concerns to the framework.

There are two standard JMS message listener containers packaged with Spring,
each with its specialised feature set.

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21.2.4.1 SimpleMessageListenerContainer

This message listener container is the simpler of the two standard flavors. It
creates a fixed number of JMS sessions and consumers at startup, registers the
listener using the standard JMS MessageConsumer.setMessageListener() method, and
leaves it up the JMS provider to perform listener callbacks. This variant does not
allow for dynamic adaption to runtime demands or for participation in externally
managed transactions. Compatibility-wise, it stays very close to the spirit of the
standalone JMS specification - but is generally not compatible with Java EE's JMS
restrictions.

21.2.4.2 DefaultMessageListenerContainer

This message listener container is the one used in most cases. In contrast
to SimpleMessageListenerContainer, this container variant does allow for dynamic
adaption to runtime demands and is able to participate in externally managed
transactions. Each received message is registered with an XA transaction when
configured with a JtaTransactionManager; so processing may take advantage of XA
transaction semantics. This listener container strikes a good balance between low
requirements on the JMS provider, advanced functionality such as transaction
participation, and compatibility with Java EE environments.

21.2.5 Transaction management

Spring provides a JmsTransactionManager that manages transactions for a single

JMS ConnectionFactory. This allows JMS applications to leverage the managed
transaction features of Spring as described in Chapter 10, Transaction
Management. The JmsTransactionManagerperforms local resource transactions,
binding a JMS Connection/Session pair from the specified ConnectionFactory to the
thread. JmsTemplateautomatically detects such transactional resources and
operates on them accordingly.

In a Java EE environment, the ConnectionFactory will pool Connections and

Sessions, so those resources are efficiently reused across transactions. In a
standalone environment, using Spring's SingleConnectionFactory will result in a
shared JMS Connection, with each transaction having its own independent Session.
Alternatively, consider the use of a provider-specific pooling adapter such as
ActiveMQ'sPooledConnectionFactory class.

JmsTemplate can also be used with the JtaTransactionManager and an XA-capable

JMS ConnectionFactory for performing distributed transactions. Note that this
requires the use of a JTA transaction manager as well as a properly XA-configured

714
ConnectionFactory! (Check your Java EE server's / JMS provider's
documentation.)

Reusing code across a managed and unmanaged transactional environment can

be confusing when using the JMS API to create a Session from aConnection. This is
because the JMS API has only one factory method to create a Session and it
requires values for the transaction and acknowledgement modes. In a managed
environment, setting these values is the responsibility of the environment's
transactional infrastructure, so these values are ignored by the vendor's wrapper to
the JMS Connection. When using the JmsTemplate in an unmanaged environment
you can specify these values through the use of the
properties sessionTransacted and sessionAcknowledgeMode. When using
aPlatformTransactionManager with JmsTemplate, the template will always be given a
transactional JMS Session.

21.3 Sending a  Message

The JmsTemplate contains many convenience methods to send a message. There

are send methods that specify the destination using a javax.jms.Destination object
and those that specify the destination using a string for use in a JNDI lookup. The
send method that takes no destination argument uses the default destination. Here
is an example that sends a message to a queue using the 1.0.2 implementation.

import javax.jms.ConnectionFactory;
import javax.jms.JMSException;
import javax.jms.Message;
import javax.jms.Queue;
import javax.jms.Session;

import org.springframework.jms.core.MessageCreator;
import org.springframework.jms.core.JmsTemplate;

public class JmsQueueSender {

private JmsTemplate jmsTemplate;

private Queue queue;

public void setConnectionFactory(ConnectionFactory cf) {

this.jmsTemplate = new JmsTemplate(cf);
}

public void setQueue(Queue queue) {

this.queue = queue;
}

public void simpleSend() {

this.jmsTemplate.send(this.queue, new MessageCreator() {

715
 public Message createMessage(Session session) throws JMSException {
return session.createTextMessage("hello queue world");
}
});
}
}

This example uses the MessageCreator callback to create a text message from the

supplied Session object. The JmsTemplate is constructed by passing a reference to
a ConnectionFactory. As an alternative, a zero argument constructor
and connectionFactory is provided and can be used for constructing the instance
in JavaBean style (using a BeanFactory or plain Java code). Alternatively,
consider deriving from Spring'sJmsGatewaySupport convenience base class, which
provides pre-built bean properties for JMS configuration.

The method send(String destinationName, MessageCreator creator) lets you send a

message using the string name of the destination. If these names are registered in
JNDI, you should set the destinationResolver property of the template to an
instance of JndiDestinationResolver.

If you created the JmsTemplate and specified a default destination,

the send(MessageCreator c) sends a message to that destination.

21.3.1 Using Message Converters

In order to facilitate the sending of domain model objects, the JmsTemplate has

various send methods that take a Java object as an argument for a message's
data content. The overloaded
methods convertAndSend() and receiveAndConvert() in JmsTemplate delegate the
conversion process to an instance of the MessageConverter interface. This interface
defines a simple contract to convert between Java objects and JMS messages.
The default implementation SimpleMessageConverter supports conversion
between String and TextMessage, byte[] and BytesMesssage,
andjava.util.Map and MapMessage. By using the converter, you and your application
code can focus on the business object that is being sent or received via JMS and
not be concerned with the details of how it is represented as a JMS message.

The sandbox currently includes a MapMessageConverter which uses reflection to

convert between a JavaBean and a MapMessage. Other popular implementation
choices you might implement yourself are Converters that use an existing XML
marshalling package, such as JAXB, Castor, XMLBeans, or XStream, to create
a TextMessage representing the object.

716
To accommodate the setting of a message's properties, headers, and body that
can not be generically encapsulated inside a converter class,
theMessagePostProcessor interface gives you access to the message after it has
been converted, but before it is sent. The example below demonstrates how to
modify a message header and a property after a java.util.Map is converted to a
message.

public void sendWithConversion() {

Map map = new HashMap();
map.put("Name", "Mark");
map.put("Age", new Integer(47));
jmsTemplate.convertAndSend("testQueue", map, new MessagePostProcessor() {
public Message postProcessMessage(Message message) throws JMSException {
message.setIntProperty("AccountID", 1234);
message.setJMSCorrelationID("123-00001");
return message;
}
});
}

This results in a message of the form:

MapMessage={
Header={
... standard headers ...
CorrelationID={123-00001}
}
Properties={
AccountID={Integer:1234}
}
Fields={
Name={String:Mark}
Age={Integer:47}
}
}

21.3.2 SessionCallback and ProducerCallback

While the send operations cover many common usage scenarios, there are cases
when you want to perform multiple operations on a JMS Sessionor MessageProducer.
The SessionCallback and ProducerCallback expose the
JMS Session and Session / MessageProducer pair respectively. Theexecute() methods
on JmsTemplate execute these callback methods.

717
21.4 Receiving a message
21.4.1 Synchronous Reception

While JMS is typically associated with asynchronous processing, it is possible to

consume messages synchronously. The overloaded receive(..)methods provide
this functionality. During a synchronous receive, the calling thread blocks until a
message becomes available. This can be a dangerous operation since the calling
thread can potentially be blocked indefinitely. The
property receiveTimeout specifies how long the receiver should wait before giving
up waiting for a message.

21.4.2 Asynchronous Reception - Message-Driven POJOs

In a fashion similar to a Message-Driven Bean (MDB) in the EJB world, the

Message-Driven POJO (MDP) acts as a receiver for JMS messages. The one
restriction (but see also below for the discussion of
the MessageListenerAdapter class) on an MDP is that it must implement
thejavax.jms.MessageListener interface. Please also be aware that in the case
where your POJO will be receiving messages on multiple threads, it is important to
ensure that your implementation is thread-safe.

Below is a simple implementation of an MDP:

import javax.jms.JMSException;
import javax.jms.Message;
import javax.jms.MessageListener;
import javax.jms.TextMessage;

public class ExampleListener implements MessageListener {

public void onMessage(Message message) {

if (message instanceof TextMessage) {
try {
System.out.println(((TextMessage) message).getText());
}
catch (JMSException ex) {
throw new RuntimeException(ex);
}
}
else {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Message must be of type
TextMessage");
}
}
}

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Once you've implemented your MessageListener, it's time to create a message
listener container.

Find below an example of how to define and configure one of the message listener
containers that ships with Spring (in this case theDefaultMessageListenerContainer).

<!-- this is the Message Driven POJO (MDP) -->

<bean id="messageListener" class="jmsexample.ExampleListener" />

<!-- and this is the message listener container -->

<bean id="jmsContainer"
class="org.springframework.jms.listener.DefaultMessageListenerContainer">
<property name="connectionFactory" ref="connectionFactory"/>
<property name="destination" ref="destination"/>
<property name="messageListener" ref="messageListener" />
</bean>

Please refer to the Spring Javadoc of the various message listener containers for a
full description of the features supported by each implementation.

21.4.3 The SessionAwareMessageListener interface

The SessionAwareMessageListener interface is a Spring-specific interface that

provides a similar contract to the JMS MessageListener interface, but also provides
the message handling method with access to the JMS Session from which
the Message was received.

package org.springframework.jms.listener;

public interface SessionAwareMessageListener {

void onMessage(Message message, Session session) throws JMSException;

}

You can choose to have your MDPs implement this interface (in preference to the
standard JMS MessageListener interface) if you want your MDPs to be able to
respond to any received messages (using the Session supplied in
the onMessage(Message, Session) method). All of the message listener container
implementations that ship with Spring have support for MDPs that implement
either the MessageListener orSessionAwareMessageListener interface. Classes that
implement the SessionAwareMessageListener come with the caveat that they are then
tied to Spring through the interface. The choice of whether or not to use it is left
entirely up to you as an application developer or architect.

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Please note that the 'onMessage(..)' method of
the SessionAwareMessageListener interface throws JMSException. In contrast to the
standard JMS MessageListener interface, when using
the SessionAwareMessageListener interface, it is the responsibility of the client code to
handle any exceptions thrown.

21.4.4 The MessageListenerAdapter

The MessageListenerAdapter class is the final component in Spring's asynchronous

messaging support: in a nutshell, it allows you to expose almost any class as a
MDP (there are of course some constraints).

Consider the following interface definition. Notice that although the interface
extends neither the MessageListener norSessionAwareMessageListener interfaces, it
can still be used as a MDP via the use of the MessageListenerAdapter class. Notice
also how the various message handling methods are strongly typed according to
the contents of the various Message types that they can receive and handle.

public interface MessageDelegate {

void handleMessage(String message);

void handleMessage(Map message);

void handleMessage(byte[] message);

void handleMessage(Serializable message);

}
public class DefaultMessageDelegate implements MessageDelegate {
// implementation elided for clarity...
}

In particular, note how the above implementation of the MessageDelegate interface

(the above DefaultMessageDelegate class) has no JMS dependencies at all. It truly is
a POJO that we will make into an MDP via the following configuration.

<!-- this is the Message Driven POJO (MDP) -->

<bean id="messageListener"
class="org.springframework.jms.listener.adapter.MessageListenerAdapter">
<constructor-arg>
<bean class="jmsexample.DefaultMessageDelegate"/>
</constructor-arg>
</bean>

<!-- and this is the message listener container... -->

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<bean id="jmsContainer"
class="org.springframework.jms.listener.DefaultMessageListenerContainer">
<property name="connectionFactory" ref="connectionFactory"/>
<property name="destination" ref="destination"/>
<property name="messageListener" ref="messageListener" />
</bean>

Below is an example of another MDP that can only handle the receiving of
JMS TextMessage messages. Notice how the message handling method is actually
called 'receive' (the name of the message handling method in
a MessageListenerAdapter defaults to 'handleMessage'), but it is configurable (as you
will see below). Notice also how the 'receive(..)' method is strongly typed to
receive and respond only to JMS TextMessagemessages.

public interface TextMessageDelegate {

void receive(TextMessage message);

}
public class DefaultTextMessageDelegate implements TextMessageDelegate {
// implementation elided for clarity...
}

The configuration of the attendant MessageListenerAdapter would look like this:

<bean id="messageListener"
class="org.springframework.jms.listener.adapter.MessageListenerAdapter">
<constructor-arg>
<bean class="jmsexample.DefaultTextMessageDelegate"/>
</constructor-arg>
<property name="defaultListenerMethod" value="receive"/>
<!-- we don't want automatic message context extraction -->
<property name="messageConverter">
<null/>
</property>
</bean>

Please note that if the above 'messageListener' receives a JMS Message of a type

other than TextMessage, an IllegalStateException will be thrown (and subsequently
swallowed). Another of the capabilities of the MessageListenerAdapter class is the
ability to automatically send back a response Message if a handler method returns a
non-void value. Consider the interface and class:

public interface ResponsiveTextMessageDelegate {

// notice the return type...

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 String receive(TextMessage message);
}
public class DefaultResponsiveTextMessageDelegate implements
ResponsiveTextMessageDelegate {
// implementation elided for clarity...
}

If the above DefaultResponsiveTextMessageDelegate is used in conjunction with

a MessageListenerAdapter then any non-null value that is returned from the
execution of the 'receive(..)' method will (in the default configuration) be
converted into a TextMessage. The resulting TextMessage will then be sent to
the Destination (if one exists) defined in the JMS Reply-To property of the
original Message, or the default Destination set on theMessageListenerAdapter (if one
has been configured); if no Destination is found then
an InvalidDestinationException will be thrown (and please note that this
exception will not be swallowed and will propagate up the call stack).

21.4.5 Processing messages within transactions

Invoking a message listener within a transaction only requires reconfiguration of

the listener container.

Local resource transactions can simply be activated through

the sessionTransacted flag on the listener container definition. Each message
listener invocation will then operate within an active JMS transaction, with
message reception rolled back in case of listener execution failure. Sending a
response message (via SessionAwareMessageListener) will be part of the same local
transaction, but any other resource operations (such as database access) will
operate independently. This usually requires duplicate message detection in the
listener implementation, covering the case where database processing has
committed but message processing failed to commit.

<bean id="jmsContainer"
class="org.springframework.jms.listener.DefaultMessageListenerContainer">
<property name="connectionFactory" ref="connectionFactory"/>
<property name="destination" ref="destination"/>
<property name="messageListener" ref="messageListener"/>
<property name="sessionTransacted" value="true"/>
</bean>

For participating in an externally managed transaction, you will need to configure a

transaction manager and use a listener container which supports externally
managed transactions: typically DefaultMessageListenerContainer.

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To configure a message listener container for XA transaction participation, you'll
want to configure a JtaTransactionManager (which, by default, delegates to the Java
EE server's transaction subsystem). Note that the underlying JMS
ConnectionFactory needs to be XA-capable and properly registered with your JTA
transaction coordinator! (Check your Java EE server's configuration of JNDI
resources.) This allows message reception as well as e.g. database access to be
part of the same transaction (with unified commit semantics, at the expense of XA
transaction log overhead).

<bean id="transactionManager"
class="org.springframework.transaction.jta.JtaTransactionManager"/>

Then you just need to add it to our earlier container configuration. The container
will take care of the rest.

<bean id="jmsContainer"
class="org.springframework.jms.listener.DefaultMessageListenerContainer">
<property name="connectionFactory" ref="connectionFactory"/>
<property name="destination" ref="destination"/>
<property name="messageListener" ref="messageListener"/>
<property name="transactionManager" ref="transactionManager"/>
</bean>

21.5 Support for JCA Message Endpoints

Beginning with version 2.5, Spring also provides support for a JCA-
based MessageListener container. The JmsMessageEndpointManager will attempt to
automatically determine the ActivationSpec class name from the
provider's ResourceAdapter class name. Therefore, it is typically possible to just
provide Spring's generic JmsActivationSpecConfig as shown in the following
example.

<bean class="org.springframework.jms.listener.endpoint.JmsMessageEndpointManager">
<property name="resourceAdapter" ref="resourceAdapter"/>
<property name="activationSpecConfig">
<bean
class="org.springframework.jms.listener.endpoint.JmsActivationSpecConfig">
<property name="destinationName" value="myQueue"/>
</bean>
</property>
<property name="messageListener" ref="myMessageListener"/>
</bean>

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Alternatively, you may set up a JmsMessageEndpointManager with a
given ActivationSpec object. The ActivationSpec object may also come from a JNDI
lookup (using <jee:jndi-lookup>).

<bean class="org.springframework.jms.listener.endpoint.JmsMessageEndpointManager">
<property name="resourceAdapter" ref="resourceAdapter"/>
<property name="activationSpec">
<bean class="org.apache.activemq.ra.ActiveMQActivationSpec">
<property name="destination" value="myQueue"/>
<property name="destinationType" value="javax.jms.Queue"/>
</bean>
</property>
<property name="messageListener" ref="myMessageListener"/>
</bean>

Using Spring's ResourceAdapterFactoryBean, the target ResourceAdapter may be

configured locally as depicted in the following example.

<bean id="resourceAdapter"
class="org.springframework.jca.support.ResourceAdapterFactoryBean">
<property name="resourceAdapter">
<bean class="org.apache.activemq.ra.ActiveMQResourceAdapter">
<property name="serverUrl" value="tcp://localhost:61616"/>
</bean>
</property>
<property name="workManager">
<bean class="org.springframework.jca.work.SimpleTaskWorkManager"/>
</property>
</bean>

The specified WorkManager may also point to an environment-specific thread pool -

typically through SimpleTaskWorkManager's"asyncTaskExecutor" property. Consider
defining a shared thread pool for all your ResourceAdapter instances if you happen
to use multiple adapters.

In some environments (e.g. WebLogic 9 or above), the

entire ResourceAdapter object may be obtained from JNDI instead (using <jee:jndi-
lookup>). The Spring-based message listeners can then interact with the server-
hosted ResourceAdapter, also using the server's built-inWorkManager.

Please consult the JavaDoc for JmsMessageEndpointManager, JmsActivationSpecConfig,

and ResourceAdapterFactoryBean for more details.

Spring also provides a generic JCA message endpoint manager which is not tied
to JMS:org.springframework.jca.endpoint.GenericMessageEndpointManager. This

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component allows for using any message listener type (e.g. a CCI
MessageListener) and any provider-specific ActivationSpec object. Check out your
JCA provider's documentation to find out about the actual capabilities of your
connector, and consult GenericMessageEndpointManager's JavaDoc for the Spring-
specific configuration details.

Note

JCA-based message endpoint management is very analogous to EJB 2.1 Message-Driven Beans;
it uses the same underlying resource provider contract. Like with EJB 2.1 MDBs, any message
listener interface supported by your JCA provider can be used in the Spring context as well.
Spring nevertheless provides explicit 'convenience' support for JMS, simply because JMS is the
most common endpoint API used with the JCA endpoint management contract.

21.6 JMS Namespace Support

Spring 2.5 introduces an XML namespace for simplifying JMS configuration. To

use the JMS namespace elements you will need to reference the JMS schema:

<?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:jms="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jms"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/jms
http://www.springframework.org/schema/jms/spring-jms-3.0.xsd">

<!-- <bean/> definitions here -->

</beans>

The namespace consists of two top-level elements: <listener-

container/> and <jca-listener-container/> both of which may contain one or
more <listener/> child elements. Here is an example of a basic configuration for
two listeners.

<jms:listener-container>

<jms:listener destination="queue.orders" ref="orderService"

method="placeOrder"/>

<jms:listener destination="queue.confirmations" ref="confirmationLogger"

method="log"/>

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 </jms:listener-container>

The example above is equivalent to creating two distinct listener container bean
definitions and two distinct MessageListenerAdapter bean definitions as
demonstrated in Section 21.4.4, “The MessageListenerAdapter”. In addition to the
attributes shown above, the listener element may contain several optional ones.
The following table describes all available attributes:

Table 21.1. Attributes of the JMS <listener> element

Description

A bean name for the hosting listener container. If not specified, a bean name will be automatically generated.
ired)
The destination name for this listener, resolved through the DestinationResolver strategy.

The bean name of the handler object.

The name of the handler method to invoke. If the ref points to a MessageListene

Spring SessionAwareMessageListener, this attribute may be omitted.

The name of the default response destination to send response messages to. This will be applied in case of a request mes
tion that does not carry a "JMSReplyTo" field. The type of this destination will be determined by the listener-contai
"destination-type" attribute. Note: This only applies to a listener method with a return value, for which each result object
be converted into a response message.

The name of the durable subscription, if any.

An optional message selector for this listener.

The <listener-container/> element also accepts several optional attributes. This

allows for customization of the various strategies (for
example,taskExecutor and destinationResolver) as well as basic JMS settings and
resource references. Using these attributes, it is possible to define highly-
customized listener containers while still benefiting from the convenience of the
namespace.

<jms:listener-container connection-factory="myConnectionFactory"
task-executor="myTaskExecutor"
destination-resolver="myDestinationResolver"
transaction-manager="myTransactionManager"

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 concurrency="10">

<jms:listener destination="queue.orders" ref="orderService"

method="placeOrder"/>

<jms:listener destination="queue.confirmations" ref="confirmationLogger"

method="log"/>

</jms:listener-container>

The following table describes all available attributes. Consult the class-level
Javadoc of the AbstractMessageListenerContainer and its concrete subclasses for
more details on the individual properties. The Javadoc also provides a discussion
of transaction choices and message redelivery scenarios.

Table 21.2. Attributes of the JMS <listener-container> element

Description

The type of this listener container. Available options are: default, simple, default102, or simple102 (the default v
is'default').

A reference to the JMS ConnectionFactory bean (the default bean name is 'connectionFactory').

A reference to the Spring TaskExecutor for the JMS listener invokers.

A reference to the DestinationResolver strategy for resolving JMS Destinations.

A reference to the MessageConverter strategy for converting JMS Messages to listener method arguments. Defaul
aSimpleMessageConverter.

The JMS destination type for this listener: queue, topic or durableTopic. The default is queue.

The JMS client id for this listener container. Needs to be specified when using durable subscriptions.

The cache level for JMS resources: none, connection, session, consumer or auto. By default (auto), the cache level
effectively be "consumer", unless an external transaction manager has been specified - in which case the effective default
be none (assuming Java EE-style transaction management where the given ConnectionFactory is an XA-aware pool).

The native JMS acknowledge mode: auto, client, dups-ok or transacted. A value of transacted activates a loc

transacted Session. As an alternative, specify the transaction-manager attribute described below. Default is auto.

A reference to an external PlatformTransactionManager (typically an XA-based transaction coordinator,

Spring'sJtaTransactionManager). If not specified, native acknowledging will be used (see "acknowledge" attribute).

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 Description

The number of concurrent sessions/consumers to start for each listener. Can either be a simple number indicating the maxim
number (e.g. "5") or a range indicating the lower as well as the upper limit (e.g. "3-5"). Note that a specified minimum is just a
and might be ignored at runtime. Default is 1; keep concurrency limited to 1 in case of a topic listener or if queue orderin
important; consider raising it for general queues.

The maximum number of messages to load into a single session. Note that raising this number might lead to starvation of concur
consumers!

Configuring a JCA-based listener container with the "jms" schema support is very
similar.

<jms:jca-listener-container resource-adapter="myResourceAdapter"
destination-resolver="myDestinationResolver"
transaction-manager="myTransactionManager"
concurrency="10">

<jms:listener destination="queue.orders" ref="myMessageListener"/>

</jms:jca-listener-container>

The available configuration options for the JCA variant are described in the
following table:

Table 21.3. Attributes of the JMS <jca-listener-container/> element

Description

A reference to the JCA ResourceAdapter bean (the default bean name is 'resourceAdapter').

A reference to the JmsActivationSpecFactory. The default is to autodetect the JMS provider and its ActivationSpecc
(see DefaultJmsActivationSpecFactory)

A reference to the DestinationResolver strategy for resolving JMS Destinations.

A reference to the MessageConverter strategy for converting JMS Messages to listener method arguments. Defau
aSimpleMessageConverter.

The JMS destination type for this listener: queue, topic or durableTopic. The default is queue.

The JMS client id for this listener container. Needs to be specified when using durable subscriptions.

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 Description

The native JMS acknowledge mode: auto, client, dups-ok or transacted. A value of transacted activates a loc

transacted Session. As an alternative, specify the transaction-manager attribute described below. Default is auto.

A reference to a Spring JtaTransactionManager or a javax.transaction.TransactionManager for kicking off an

transaction for each incoming message. If not specified, native acknowledging will be used (see the "acknowledge" attribute).

The number of concurrent sessions/consumers to start for each listener. Can either be a simple number indicating the maxim
number (e.g. "5") or a range indicating the lower as well as the upper limit (e.g. "3-5"). Note that a specified minimum is just a
and will typically be ignored at runtime when using a JCA listener container. Default is 1.

The maximum number of messages to load into a single session. Note that raising this number might lead to starvatio
concurrent consumers!

22. JMX

22.1 Introduction

The JMX support in Spring provides you with the features to easily and
transparently integrate your Spring application into a JMX infrastructure.
JMX?

This chapter is not an introduction to JMX... it doesn't try to explain the motivations of why one might want
to use JMX (or indeed what the letters JMX actually stand for). If you are new to JMX, check
outSection 22.8, “Further Resources” at the end of this chapter.

Specifically, Spring's JMX support provides four core features:

 The automatic registration of any Spring bean as a JMX MBean

 A flexible mechanism for controlling the management interface of your beans

 The declarative exposure of MBeans over remote, JSR-160 connectors

 The simple proxying of both local and remote MBean resources

These features are designed to work without coupling your application

components to either Spring or JMX interfaces and classes. Indeed, for the most
part your application classes need not be aware of either Spring or JMX in order to
take advantage of the Spring JMX features.

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22.2 Exporting your beans to JMX

The core class in Spring's JMX framework is the MBeanExporter. This class is

responsible for taking your Spring beans and registering them with a
JMX MBeanServer. For example, consider the following class:

package org.springframework.jmx;

public class JmxTestBean implements IJmxTestBean {

private String name;

private int age;
private boolean isSuperman;

public int getAge() {

return age;
}

public void setAge(int age) {

this.age = age;
}

public void setName(String name) {

this.name = name;
}

public String getName() {

return name;
}

public int add(int x, int y) {

return x + y;
}

public void dontExposeMe() {

throw new RuntimeException();
}
}

To expose the properties and methods of this bean as attributes and operations of
an MBean you simply configure an instance of theMBeanExporter class in your
configuration file and pass in the bean as shown below:

<beans>

<!-- this bean must not be lazily initialized if the exporting is to happen -->
<bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter" lazy-
init="false">
<property name="beans">
<map>

730
 <entry key="bean:name=testBean1" value-ref="testBean"/>
</map>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="testBean" class="org.springframework.jmx.JmxTestBean">

<property name="name" value="TEST"/>
<property name="age" value="100"/>
</bean>

</beans>

The pertinent bean definition from the above configuration snippet is

the exporter bean. The beans property tells the MBeanExporter exactly which of your
beans must be exported to the JMX MBeanServer. In the default configuration, the
key of each entry in the beans Map is used as theObjectName for the bean referenced
by the corresponding entry value. This behavior can be changed as described
in Section 22.4, “Controlling the ObjectNames for your beans”.

With this configuration the testBean bean is exposed as an MBean under

the ObjectName bean:name=testBean1. By default, all public properties of the bean are
exposed as attributes and all public methods (bar those inherited from
the Object class) are exposed as operations.

22.2.1 Creating an MBeanServer

The above configuration assumes that the application is running in an environment

that has one (and only one) MBeanServer already running. In this case, Spring will
attempt to locate the running MBeanServer and register your beans with that server
(if any). This behavior is useful when your application is running inside a container
such as Tomcat or IBM WebSphere that has its own MBeanServer.

However, this approach is of no use in a standalone environment, or when running

inside a container that does not provide an MBeanServer. To address this you can
create an MBeanServer instance declaratively by adding an instance of
theorg.springframework.jmx.support.MBeanServerFactoryBean class to your
configuration. You can also ensure that a specific MBeanServer is used by setting the
value of the MBeanExporter's server property to the MBeanServer value returned by
an MBeanServerFactoryBean; for example:

<beans>

<bean id="mbeanServer"
class="org.springframework.jmx.support.MBeanServerFactoryBean"/>

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 <!--
this bean needs to be eagerly pre-instantiated in order for the exporting to
occur;
this means that it must not be marked as lazily initialized
-->
<bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter">
<property name="beans">
<map>
<entry key="bean:name=testBean1" value-ref="testBean"/>
</map>
</property>
<property name="server" ref="mbeanServer"/>
</bean>

<bean id="testBean" class="org.springframework.jmx.JmxTestBean">

<property name="name" value="TEST"/>
<property name="age" value="100"/>
</bean>

</beans>

Here an instance of MBeanServer is created by the MBeanServerFactoryBean and is

supplied to the MBeanExporter via the server property. When you supply your
own MBeanServer instance, the MBeanExporter will not attempt to locate a
running MBeanServer and will use the suppliedMBeanServer instance. For this to work
correctly, you must (of course) have a JMX implementation on your classpath.

22.2.2 Reusing an existing MBeanServer

If no server is specified, the MBeanExporter tries to automatically detect a

running MBeanServer. This works in most environment where only
oneMBeanServer instance is used, however when multiple instances exist, the
exporter might pick the wrong server. In such cases, one should use
theMBeanServer agentId to indicate which instance to be used:

<beans>
<bean id="mbeanServer"
class="org.springframework.jmx.support.MBeanServerFactoryBean">
<!-- indicate to first look for a server -->
<property name="locateExistingServerIfPossible" value="true"/>
<!-- search for the MBeanServer instance with the given agentId -->
<property name="agentId" value="<MBeanServer instance agentId>"/>
</bean>

<bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter">

<property name="server" ref="mbeanServer"/>
...
</bean>

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</beans>

For platforms/cases where the existing MBeanServer has a dynamic (or

unknown) agentId which is retrieved through lookup methods, one should
use factory-method:

<beans>
<bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter">
<property name="server">
<!-- Custom MBeanServerLocator -->
<bean class="platform.package.MBeanServerLocator" factory-
method="locateMBeanServer"/>
</property>

<!-- other beans here -->

</bean>
</beans>

22.2.3 Lazy-initialized MBeans

If you configure a bean with the MBeanExporter that is also configured for lazy

initialization, then the MBeanExporter will not break this contract and will avoid
instantiating the bean. Instead, it will register a proxy with the MBeanServer and will
defer obtaining the bean from the container until the first invocation on the proxy
occurs.

22.2.4 Automatic registration of MBeans

Any beans that are exported through the MBeanExporter and are already valid
MBeans are registered as-is with the MBeanServer without further intervention from
Spring. MBeans can be automatically detected by the MBeanExporter by setting
the autodetect property to true:

<bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter">

<property name="autodetect" value="true"/>
</bean>

<bean name="spring:mbean=true"
class="org.springframework.jmx.export.TestDynamicMBean"/>

Here, the bean called spring:mbean=true is already a valid JMX MBean and will be
automatically registered by Spring. By default, beans that are autodetected for
JMX registration have their bean name used as the ObjectName. This behavior can

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 be overridden as detailed in Section 22.4, “Controlling the ObjectNames for your
beans”.

22.2.5 Controlling the registration behavior

Consider the scenario where a Spring MBeanExporter attempts to register

an MBean with an MBeanServer using the ObjectName'bean:name=testBean1'. If
an MBean instance has already been registered under that same ObjectName, the
default behavior is to fail (and throw anInstanceAlreadyExistsException).

It is possible to control the behavior of exactly what happens when an MBean is

registered with an MBeanServer. Spring's JMX support allows for three different
registration behaviors to control the registration behavior when the registration
process finds that an MBean has already been registered under the same ObjectName;
these registration behaviors are summarized on the following table:

Table 22.1. Registration Behaviors

ion behavior Explanation

This is the default registration behavior. If an MBean instance has already been registered under
FAIL_ON_EXISTING same ObjectName, the MBean that is being registered will not be registered
anInstanceAlreadyExistsException will be thrown. The existing MBean is unaffected.
If an MBean instance has already been registered under the same ObjectName, the MBean that is being regist
will not be registered. The existing MBean is unaffected, and no Exception will be thrown.
IGNORE_EXISTING
This is useful in settings where multiple applications want to share a common MBean in a sharedMBeanServ

If an MBean instance has already been registered under the same ObjectName, the existing MBean that
REPLACE_EXISTING previously registered will be unregistered and the new MBean will be registered in its place
new MBean effectively replaces the previous instance).

The above values are defined as constants on the MBeanRegistrationSupport class

(the MBeanExporter class derives from this superclass). If you want to change the
default registration behavior, you simply need to set the value of
the registrationBehaviorName property on yourMBeanExporter definition to one of
those values.

The following example illustrates how to effect a change from the default
registration behavior to the REGISTRATION_REPLACE_EXISTING behavior:

734
<beans>

<bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter">

<property name="beans">
<map>
<entry key="bean:name=testBean1" value-ref="testBean"/>
</map>
</property>
<property name="registrationBehaviorName"
value="REGISTRATION_REPLACE_EXISTING"/>
</bean>

<bean id="testBean" class="org.springframework.jmx.JmxTestBean">

<property name="name" value="TEST"/>
<property name="age" value="100"/>
</bean>

</beans>

22.3 Controlling the management interface of your beans

In the previous example, you had little control over the management interface of
your bean; all of the public properties and methods of each exported bean was
exposed as JMX attributes and operations respectively. To exercise finer-grained
control over exactly which properties and methods of your exported beans are
actually exposed as JMX attributes and operations, Spring JMX provides a
comprehensive and extensible mechanism for controlling the management
interfaces of your beans.

22.3.1 The MBeanInfoAssembler Interface

Behind the scenes, the MBeanExporter delegates to an implementation of

the org.springframework.jmx.export.assembler.MBeanInfoAssemblerinterface which is
responsible for defining the management interface of each bean that is being
exposed. The default
implementation,org.springframework.jmx.export.assembler.SimpleReflectiveMBeanInfo
Assembler, simply defines a management interface that exposes all public
properties and methods (as you saw in the previous examples). Spring provides
two additional implementations of the MBeanInfoAssemblerinterface that allow you to
control the generated management interface using either source-level metadata or
any arbitrary interface.

22.3.2 Using Source-Level Metadata (JDK 5.0 annotations)

Using the MetadataMBeanInfoAssembler you can define the management interfaces

for your beans using source level metadata. The reading of metadata is

735
encapsulated by
the org.springframework.jmx.export.metadata.JmxAttributeSource interface. Spring
JMX provides a default implementation which uses JDK 5.0 annotations,
namely org.springframework.jmx.export.annotation.AnnotationJmxAttributeSource.
TheMetadataMBeanInfoAssembler must be configured with an implementation instance
of the JmxAttributeSource interface for it to function correctly (there is no default).

To mark a bean for export to JMX, you should annotate the bean class with
the ManagedResource annotation. Each method you wish to expose as an operation
must be marked with the ManagedOperation annotation and each property you wish
to expose must be marked with the ManagedAttribute annotation. When marking
properties you can omit either the annotation of the getter or the setter to create a
write-only or read-only attribute respectively.

The example below shows the annotated version of the JmxTestBean class that you
saw earlier:

package org.springframework.jmx;

import org.springframework.jmx.export.annotation.ManagedResource;
import org.springframework.jmx.export.annotation.ManagedOperation;
import org.springframework.jmx.export.annotation.ManagedAttribute;

@ManagedResource(objectName="bean:name=testBean4", description="My Managed Bean",

log=true,
logFile="jmx.log", currencyTimeLimit=15, persistPolicy="OnUpdate",
persistPeriod=200,
persistLocation="foo", persistName="bar")
public class AnnotationTestBean implements IJmxTestBean {

private String name;

private int age;

@ManagedAttribute(description="The Age Attribute", currencyTimeLimit=15)

public int getAge() {
return age;
}

public void setAge(int age) {

this.age = age;
}

@ManagedAttribute(description="The Name Attribute",

currencyTimeLimit=20,
defaultValue="bar",
persistPolicy="OnUpdate")
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}

736
 @ManagedAttribute(defaultValue="foo", persistPeriod=300)
public String getName() {
return name;
}

@ManagedOperation(description="Add two numbers")

@ManagedOperationParameters({
@ManagedOperationParameter(name = "x", description = "The first number"),
@ManagedOperationParameter(name = "y", description = "The second number")})
public int add(int x, int y) {
return x + y;
}

public void dontExposeMe() {

throw new RuntimeException();
}
}

Here you can see that the JmxTestBean class is marked with

the ManagedResource annotation and that this ManagedResource annotation is
configured with a set of properties. These properties can be used to configure
various aspects of the MBean that is generated by the MBeanExporter, and are
explained in greater detail later in section entitled Section 22.3.3, “Source-Level
Metadata Types”.

You will also notice that both the age and name properties are annotated with
the ManagedAttribute annotation, but in the case of the age property, only the getter
is marked. This will cause both of these properties to be included in the
management interface as attributes, but the age attribute will be read-only.

Finally, you will notice that the add(int, int) method is marked with

the ManagedOperation attribute whereas the dontExposeMe() method is not. This will
cause the management interface to contain only one operation, add(int, int),
when using the MetadataMBeanInfoAssembler.

The configuration below shows how you configure the MBeanExporter to use

the MetadataMBeanInfoAssembler:

<beans>
<bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter">
<property name="assembler" ref="assembler"/>
<property name="namingStrategy" ref="namingStrategy"/>
<property name="autodetect" value="true"/>
</bean>

<bean id="jmxAttributeSource"

737
 class="org.springframework.jmx.export.annotation.AnnotationJmxAttributeSource"/>

<!-- will create management interface using annotation metadata -->

<bean id="assembler"

class="org.springframework.jmx.export.assembler.MetadataMBeanInfoAssembler">
<property name="attributeSource" ref="jmxAttributeSource"/>
</bean>

<!-- will pick up the ObjectName from the annotation -->

<bean id="namingStrategy"
class="org.springframework.jmx.export.naming.MetadataNamingStrategy">
<property name="attributeSource" ref="jmxAttributeSource"/>
</bean>

<bean id="testBean" class="org.springframework.jmx.AnnotationTestBean">

<property name="name" value="TEST"/>
<property name="age" value="100"/>
</bean>
</beans>

Here you can see that an MetadataMBeanInfoAssembler bean has been configured

with an instance of the AnnotationJmxAttributeSource class and passed to
the MBeanExporter through the assembler property. This is all that is required to take
advantage of metadata-driven management interfaces for your Spring-exposed
MBeans.

22.3.3 Source-Level Metadata Types

The following source level metadata types are available for use in Spring JMX:

Table 22.2. Source-Level Metadata Types

Purpose Annotation Annotation Type

es of a Class as JMX @ManagedResource Class
ces
as a JMX operation @ManagedOperation Method
setter as one half of a JMX @ManagedAttribute
Method (only getters and
setters)
ons for operation parameters @ManagedOperationParameter and@ManagedOperationParameters Method

The following configuration parameters are available for use on these source-level
metadata types:

738
 Table 22.3. Source-Level Metadata Parameters

Description Applies to
Used
by MetadataNamingStrategy to ManagedResource
determine theObjectName of a
managed resource
Sets the friendly description of the
ManagedResource, ManagedAttribute,ManagedOperation, ManagedOperationParam
resource, attribute or operation
Sets the value of
t the currencyTimeLimit descriptor ManagedResource, ManagedAttribute
field
Sets the value of ManagedAttribute
the defaultValue descriptor field
Sets the value of the log descriptor ManagedResource
field
Sets the value of ManagedResource
the logFile descriptor field
Sets the value of ManagedResource
the persistPolicy descriptor field
Sets the value of ManagedResource
the persistPeriod descriptor field
Sets the value of
the persistLocation descriptor ManagedResource
field
Sets the value of ManagedResource
the persistName descriptor field
Sets the display name of an ManagedOperationParameter
operation parameter
Sets the index of an operation ManagedOperationParameter
parameter

22.3.4 The AutodetectCapableMBeanInfoAssembler interface

To simplify configuration even further, Spring introduces

the AutodetectCapableMBeanInfoAssembler interface which extends
theMBeanInfoAssembler interface to add support for autodetection of MBean
resources. If you configure the MBeanExporter with an instance
ofAutodetectCapableMBeanInfoAssembler then it is allowed to "vote" on the inclusion of
beans for exposure to JMX.

739
Out of the box, the only implementation of the AutodetectCapableMBeanInfo interface
is the MetadataMBeanInfoAssembler which will vote to include any bean which is
marked with the ManagedResource attribute. The default approach in this case is to
use the bean name as the ObjectName which results in a configuration like this:

<beans>

<bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter">

<!-- notice how no 'beans' are explicitly configured here -->
<property name="autodetect" value="true"/>
<property name="assembler" ref="assembler"/>
</bean>

<bean id="testBean" class="org.springframework.jmx.JmxTestBean">

<property name="name" value="TEST"/>
<property name="age" value="100"/>
</bean>

<bean id="assembler"
class="org.springframework.jmx.export.assembler.MetadataMBeanInfoAssembler">
<property name="attributeSource">
<bean
class="org.springframework.jmx.export.annotation.AnnotationJmxAttributeSource"/>
</property>
</bean>

</beans>

Notice that in this configuration no beans are passed to the MBeanExporter;

however, the JmxTestBean will still be registered since it is marked with
the ManagedResource attribute and the MetadataMBeanInfoAssembler detects this and
votes to include it. The only problem with this approach is that the name of
the JmxTestBean now has business meaning. You can address this issue by
changing the default behavior for ObjectName creation as defined in Section 22.4,
“Controlling the ObjectNames for your beans”.

22.3.5 Defining management interfaces using Java interfaces

In addition to the MetadataMBeanInfoAssembler, Spring also includes

the InterfaceBasedMBeanInfoAssembler which allows you to constrain the methods
and properties that are exposed based on the set of methods defined in a
collection of interfaces.

Although the standard mechanism for exposing MBeans is to use interfaces and a
simple naming scheme, theInterfaceBasedMBeanInfoAssembler extends this
functionality by removing the need for naming conventions, allowing you to use

740
more than one interface and removing the need for your beans to implement the
MBean interfaces.

Consider this interface that is used to define a management interface for

the JmxTestBean class that you saw earlier:

public interface IJmxTestBean {

public int add(int x, int y);

public long myOperation();

public int getAge();

public void setAge(int age);

public void setName(String name);

public String getName();

}

This interface defines the methods and properties that will be exposed as
operations and attributes on the JMX MBean. The code below shows how to
configure Spring JMX to use this interface as the definition for the management
interface:

<beans>

<bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter">

<property name="beans">
<map>
<entry key="bean:name=testBean5" value-ref="testBean"/>
</map>
</property>
<property name="assembler">
<bean
class="org.springframework.jmx.export.assembler.InterfaceBasedMBeanInfoAssembler">
<property name="managedInterfaces">
<value>org.springframework.jmx.IJmxTestBean</value>
</property>
</bean>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="testBean" class="org.springframework.jmx.JmxTestBean">

<property name="name" value="TEST"/>
<property name="age" value="100"/>
</bean>

</beans>

741
Here you can see that the InterfaceBasedMBeanInfoAssembler is configured to use
the IJmxTestBean interface when constructing the management interface for any
bean. It is important to understand that beans processed by
the InterfaceBasedMBeanInfoAssembler are not required to implement the interface
used to generate the JMX management interface.

In the case above, the IJmxTestBean interface is used to construct all management

interfaces for all beans. In many cases this is not the desired behavior and you
may want to use different interfaces for different beans. In this case, you can
pass InterfaceBasedMBeanInfoAssembler aProperties instance via
the interfaceMappings property, where the key of each entry is the bean name and
the value of each entry is a comma-separated list of interface names to use for
that bean.

If no management interface is specified through either

the managedInterfaces or interfaceMappings properties, then
theInterfaceBasedMBeanInfoAssembler will reflect on the bean and use all of the
interfaces implemented by that bean to create the management interface.

22.3.6 Using MethodNameBasedMBeanInfoAssembler

The MethodNameBasedMBeanInfoAssembler allows you to specify a list of method names

that will be exposed to JMX as attributes and operations. The code below shows a
sample configuration for this:

<bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter">

<property name="beans">
<map>
<entry key="bean:name=testBean5" value-ref="testBean"/>
</map>
</property>
<property name="assembler">
<bean
class="org.springframework.jmx.export.assembler.MethodNameBasedMBeanInfoAssembler"
>
<property name="managedMethods">
<value>add,myOperation,getName,setName,getAge</value>
</property>
</bean>
</property>
</bean>

Here you can see that the methods add and myOperation will be exposed as JMX

operations and getName(), setName(String) and getAge() will be exposed as the
appropriate half of a JMX attribute. In the code above, the method mappings apply

742
to beans that are exposed to JMX. To control method exposure on a bean-by-bean
basis, use the methodMappings property of MethodNameMBeanInfoAssembler to map bean
names to lists of method names.

22.4 Controlling the  ObjectNames for your beans

Behind the scenes, the MBeanExporter delegates to an implementation of

the ObjectNamingStrategy to obtain ObjectNames for each of the beans it is registering.
The default implementation, KeyNamingStrategy, will, by default, use the key of
the beans Map as the ObjectName. In addition, theKeyNamingStrategy can map the key of
the beans Map to an entry in a Properties file (or files) to resolve the ObjectName. In
addition to theKeyNamingStrategy, Spring provides two
additional ObjectNamingStrategy implementations: the IdentityNamingStrategy that
builds anObjectName based on the JVM identity of the bean and
the MetadataNamingStrategy that uses source level metadata to obtain the ObjectName.

22.4.1 Reading ObjectNames from Properties

You can configure your own KeyNamingStrategy instance and configure it to

read ObjectNames from a Properties instance rather than use bean key.
The KeyNamingStrategy will attempt to locate an entry in the Properties with a key
corresponding to the bean key. If no entry is found or if the Properties instance
is null then the bean key itself is used.

The code below shows a sample configuration for the KeyNamingStrategy:

<beans>

<bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter">

<property name="beans">
<map>
<entry key="testBean" value-ref="testBean"/>
</map>
</property>
<property name="namingStrategy" ref="namingStrategy"/>
</bean>

<bean id="testBean" class="org.springframework.jmx.JmxTestBean">

<property name="name" value="TEST"/>
<property name="age" value="100"/>
</bean>

<bean id="namingStrategy"
class="org.springframework.jmx.export.naming.KeyNamingStrategy">
<property name="mappings">
<props>

743
 <prop key="testBean">bean:name=testBean1</prop>
</props>
</property>
<property name="mappingLocations">
<value>names1.properties,names2.properties</value>
</property>
</bean

</beans>

Here an instance of KeyNamingStrategy is configured with a Properties instance that

is merged from the Properties instance defined by the mapping property and the
properties files located in the paths defined by the mappings property. In this
configuration, the testBean bean will be given
the ObjectName bean:name=testBean1 since this is the entry in the Properties instance
that has a key corresponding to the bean key.

If no entry in the Properties instance can be found then the bean key name is used
as the ObjectName.

22.4.2 Using the MetadataNamingStrategy

The MetadataNamingStrategy uses the objectName property of
the ManagedResource attribute on each bean to create the ObjectName. The code
below shows the configuration for the MetadataNamingStrategy:

<beans>

<bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter">

<property name="beans">
<map>
<entry key="testBean" value-ref="testBean"/>
</map>
</property>
<property name="namingStrategy" ref="namingStrategy"/>
</bean>

<bean id="testBean" class="org.springframework.jmx.JmxTestBean">

<property name="name" value="TEST"/>
<property name="age" value="100"/>
</bean>

<bean id="namingStrategy"
class="org.springframework.jmx.export.naming.MetadataNamingStrategy">
<property name="attributeSource" ref="attributeSource"/>
</bean>

<bean id="attributeSource"

744
class="org.springframework.jmx.export.metadata.AttributesJmxAttributeSource"/>

</beans>

If no objectName has been provided for the ManagedResource attribute, then

an ObjectName will be created with the following format: [fully-qualified-package-
name]:type=[short-classname],name=[bean-name]. For example, the
generated ObjectName for the following bean would
be:com.foo:type=MyClass,name=myBean.

<bean id="myBean" class="com.foo.MyClass"/>

22.4.3 The <context:mbean-export/> element

If you are using at least Java 5, then a convenience subclass of MBeanExporter is

available: AnnotationMBeanExporter. When defining an instance of this subclass,
the namingStrategy, assembler, and attributeSource configuration is no longer
needed, since it will always use standard Java annotation-based metadata
(autodetection is always enabled as well). In fact, an even simpler syntax is
supported by Spring's 'context' namespace.. Rather than defining
an MBeanExporter bean, just provide this single element:

<context:mbean-export/>

You can provide a reference to a particular MBean server if necessary, and

the defaultDomain attribute (a property of AnnotationMBeanExporter) accepts an
alternate value for the generated MBean ObjectNames' domains. This would be used
in place of the fully qualified package name as described in the previous section
on MetadataNamingStrategy.

<context:mbean-export server="myMBeanServer" default-domain="myDomain"/>

.
Note

Do not use interface-based AOP proxies in combination with autodetection of JMX annotations
in your bean classes. Interface-based proxies 'hide' the target class, which also hides the JMX
managed resource annotations. Hence, use target-class proxies in that case: through setting the
'proxy-target-class' flag on <aop:config/>, <tx:annotation-driven/>, etc. Otherwise, your
JMX beans might be silently ignored at startup...

745
22.5 JSR-160 Connectors

For remote access, Spring JMX module offers two FactoryBean implementations

inside the org.springframework.jmx.support package for creating both server- and
client-side connectors.

22.5.1 Server-side Connectors

To have Spring JMX create, start and expose a JSR-160 JMXConnectorServer use

the following configuration:

<bean id="serverConnector"
class="org.springframework.jmx.support.ConnectorServerFactoryBean"/>

By default ConnectorServerFactoryBean creates a JMXConnectorServer bound
to "service:jmx:jmxmp://localhost:9875". The serverConnectorbean thus exposes the
local MBeanServer to clients through the JMXMP protocol on localhost, port 9875.
Note that the JMXMP protocol is marked as optional by the JSR 160 specification:
currently, the main open-source JMX implementation, MX4J, and the one provided
with J2SE 5.0 do notsupport JMXMP.

To specify another URL and register the JMXConnectorServer itself with

the MBeanServer use the serviceUrl and ObjectName properties respectively:

<bean id="serverConnector"
class="org.springframework.jmx.support.ConnectorServerFactoryBean">
<property name="objectName" value="connector:name=rmi"/>
<property name="serviceUrl"

value="service:jmx:rmi://localhost/jndi/rmi://localhost:1099/myconnector"/>
</bean>

If the ObjectName property is set Spring will automatically register your connector

with the MBeanServer under that ObjectName. The example below shows the full set of
parameters which you can pass to the ConnectorServerFactoryBean when creating a
JMXConnector:

<bean id="serverConnector"
class="org.springframework.jmx.support.ConnectorServerFactoryBean">
<property name="objectName" value="connector:name=iiop"/>
<property name="serviceUrl"

value="service:jmx:iiop://localhost/jndi/iiop://localhost:900/myconnector"/>

746
 <property name="threaded" value="true"/>
<property name="daemon" value="true"/>
<property name="environment">
<map>
<entry key="someKey" value="someValue"/>
</map>
</property>
</bean>

Note that when using a RMI-based connector you need the lookup service
(tnameserv or rmiregistry) to be started in order for the name registration to
complete. If you are using Spring to export remote services for you via RMI, then
Spring will already have constructed an RMI registry. If not, you can easily start a
registry using the following snippet of configuration:

<bean id="registry"
class="org.springframework.remoting.rmi.RmiRegistryFactoryBean">
<property name="port" value="1099"/>
</bean>

22.5.2 Client-side Connectors

To create an MBeanServerConnection to a remote JSR-160 enabled MBeanServer use

the MBeanServerConnectionFactoryBean as shown below:

<bean id="clientConnector"
class="org.springframework.jmx.support.MBeanServerConnectionFactoryBean">
<property name="serviceUrl" value="service:jmx:rmi://localhost:9875"/>
</bean>

22.5.3 JMX over Burlap/Hessian/SOAP

JSR-160 permits extensions to the way in which communication is done between

the client and the server. The examples above are using the mandatory RMI-
based implementation required by the JSR-160 specification (IIOP and JRMP) and
the (optional) JMXMP. By using other providers or JMX implementations (such
as MX4J) you can take advantage of protocols like SOAP, Hessian, Burlap over
simple HTTP or SSL and others:

<bean id="serverConnector"
class="org.springframework.jmx.support.ConnectorServerFactoryBean">
<property name="objectName" value="connector:name=burlap"/>
<property name="serviceUrl" value="service:jmx:burlap://localhost:9874"/>
</bean>

747
In the case of the above example, MX4J 3.0.0 was used; see the official MX4J
documentation for more information.

22.6 Accessing MBeans via Proxies

Spring JMX allows you to create proxies that re-route calls to MBeans registered in
a local or remote MBeanServer. These proxies provide you with a standard Java
interface through which you can interact with your MBeans. The code below shows
how to configure a proxy for an MBean running in a local MBeanServer:

<bean id="proxy" class="org.springframework.jmx.access.MBeanProxyFactoryBean">

<property name="objectName" value="bean:name=testBean"/>
<property name="proxyInterface" value="org.springframework.jmx.IJmxTestBean"/>
</bean>

Here you can see that a proxy is created for the MBean registered under
the ObjectName: bean:name=testBean. The set of interfaces that the proxy will
implement is controlled by the proxyInterfaces property and the rules for mapping
methods and properties on these interfaces to operations and attributes on the
MBean are the same rules used by the InterfaceBasedMBeanInfoAssembler.

The MBeanProxyFactoryBean can create a proxy to any MBean that is accessible via

an MBeanServerConnection. By default, the local MBeanServeris located and used, but
you can override this and provide an MBeanServerConnection pointing to a
remote MBeanServer to cater for proxies pointing to remote MBeans:

<bean id="clientConnector"
class="org.springframework.jmx.support.MBeanServerConnectionFactoryBean">
<property name="serviceUrl" value="service:jmx:rmi://remotehost:9875"/>
</bean>

<bean id="proxy" class="org.springframework.jmx.access.MBeanProxyFactoryBean">

<property name="objectName" value="bean:name=testBean"/>
<property name="proxyInterface" value="org.springframework.jmx.IJmxTestBean"/>
<property name="server" ref="clientConnector"/>
</bean>

Here you can see that we create an MBeanServerConnection pointing to a remote

machine using the MBeanServerConnectionFactoryBean. ThisMBeanServerConnection is
then passed to the MBeanProxyFactoryBean via the server property. The proxy that is
created will forward all invocations to the MBeanServer via this MBeanServerConnection.

748
22.7 Notifications

Spring's JMX offering includes comprehensive support for JMX notifications.

22.7.1 Registering Listeners for Notifications

Spring's JMX support makes it very easy to register any number

of NotificationListeners with any number of MBeans (this includes MBeans
exported by Spring's MBeanExporter and MBeans registered via some other
mechanism). By way of an example, consider the scenario where one would like to
be informed (via a Notification) each and every time an attribute of a target
MBean changes.

package com.example;

import javax.management.AttributeChangeNotification;
import javax.management.Notification;
import javax.management.NotificationFilter;
import javax.management.NotificationListener;

public class ConsoleLoggingNotificationListener

implements NotificationListener, NotificationFilter {

public void handleNotification(Notification notification, Object handback) {

System.out.println(notification);
System.out.println(handback);
}

public boolean isNotificationEnabled(Notification notification) {

return
AttributeChangeNotification.class.isAssignableFrom(notification.getClass());
}
}
<beans>

<bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter">

<property name="beans">
<map>
<entry key="bean:name=testBean1" value-ref="testBean"/>
</map>
</property>
<property name="notificationListenerMappings">
<map>
<entry key="bean:name=testBean1">
<bean class="com.example.ConsoleLoggingNotificationListener"/>
</entry>
</map>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="testBean" class="org.springframework.jmx.JmxTestBean">

749
 <property name="name" value="TEST"/>
<property name="age" value="100"/>
</bean>

</beans>

With the above configuration in place, every time a JMX Notification is broadcast

from the target MBean (bean:name=testBean1),
theConsoleLoggingNotificationListener bean that was registered as a listener via
the notificationListenerMappings property will be notified.
TheConsoleLoggingNotificationListener bean can then take whatever action it
deems appropriate in response to the Notification.

You can also use straight bean names as the link between exported beans and
listeners:

<beans>

<bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter">

<property name="beans">
<map>
<entry key="bean:name=testBean1" value-ref="testBean"/>
</map>
</property>
<property name="notificationListenerMappings">
<map>
<entry key="testBean">
<bean class="com.example.ConsoleLoggingNotificationListener"/>
</entry>
</map>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="testBean" class="org.springframework.jmx.JmxTestBean">

<property name="name" value="TEST"/>
<property name="age" value="100"/>
</bean>

</beans>

If one wants to register a single NotificationListener instance for all of the beans

that the enclosing MBeanExporter is exporting, one can use the special
wildcard '*' (sans quotes) as the key for an entry in
the notificationListenerMappings property map; for example:

<property name="notificationListenerMappings">
<map>

750
 <entry key="*">
<bean class="com.example.ConsoleLoggingNotificationListener"/>
</entry>
</map>
</property>

If one needs to do the inverse (that is, register a number of distinct listeners
against an MBean), then one has to use the notificationListeners list property
instead (and in preference to the notificationListenerMappings property). This time,
instead of configuring simply aNotificationListener for a single MBean, one
configures NotificationListenerBean instances...
a NotificationListenerBean encapsulates aNotificationListener and
the ObjectName (or ObjectNames) that it is to be registered against in an MBeanServer.
The NotificationListenerBeanalso encapsulates a number of other properties such
as a NotificationFilter and an arbitrary handback object that can be used in
advanced JMX notification scenarios.

The configuration when using NotificationListenerBean instances is not wildly

different to what was presented previously:

<beans>

<bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter">

<property name="beans">
<map>
<entry key="bean:name=testBean1" value-ref="testBean"/>
</map>
</property>
<property name="notificationListeners">
<list>
<bean class="org.springframework.jmx.export.NotificationListenerBean">
<constructor-arg>
<bean class="com.example.ConsoleLoggingNotificationListener"/>
</constructor-arg>
<property name="mappedObjectNames">
<list>
<value>bean:name=testBean1</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>
</list>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="testBean" class="org.springframework.jmx.JmxTestBean">

<property name="name" value="TEST"/>
<property name="age" value="100"/>
</bean>

751
</beans>

The above example is equivalent to the first notification example. Lets assume
then that we want to be given a handback object every time a Notification is
raised, and that additionally we want to filter out extraneous Notifications by
supplying a NotificationFilter. (For a full discussion of just what a handback
object is, and indeed what a NotificationFilter is, please do consult that section of
the JMX specification (1.2) entitled 'The JMX Notification Model'.)

<beans>

<bean id="exporter" class="org.springframework.jmx.export.MBeanExporter">

<property name="beans">
<map>
<entry key="bean:name=testBean1" value-ref="testBean1"/>
<entry key="bean:name=testBean2" value-ref="testBean2"/>
</map>
</property>
<property name="notificationListeners">
<list>
<bean class="org.springframework.jmx.export.NotificationListenerBean">
<constructor-arg ref="customerNotificationListener"/>
<property name="mappedObjectNames">
<list>
<!-- handles notifications from two distinct MBeans -->
<value>bean:name=testBean1</value>
<value>bean:name=testBean2</value>
</list>
</property>
<property name="handback">
<bean class="java.lang.String">
<constructor-arg value="This could be anything..."/>
</bean>
</property>
<property name="notificationFilter"
ref="customerNotificationListener"/>
</bean>
</list>
</property>
</bean>

<!-- implements both the NotificationListener and NotificationFilter interfaces

-->
<bean id="customerNotificationListener"
class="com.example.ConsoleLoggingNotificationListener"/>

<bean id="testBean1" class="org.springframework.jmx.JmxTestBean">

<property name="name" value="TEST"/>
<property name="age" value="100"/>
</bean>

752
 <bean id="testBean2" class="org.springframework.jmx.JmxTestBean">
<property name="name" value="ANOTHER TEST"/>
<property name="age" value="200"/>
</bean>

</beans>

22.7.2 Publishing Notifications

Spring provides support not just for registering to receive Notifications, but also for
publishing Notifications.

Note

Please note that this section is really only relevant to Spring managed beans that have been
exposed as MBeans via anMBeanExporter; any existing, user-defined MBeans should use the
standard JMX APIs for notification publication.

The key interface in Spring's JMX notification publication support is

the NotificationPublisher interface (defined in
theorg.springframework.jmx.export.notification package). Any bean that is going to
be exported as an MBean via an MBeanExporter instance can implement the
related NotificationPublisherAware interface to gain access to
a NotificationPublisher instance. TheNotificationPublisherAware interface simply
supplies an instance of a NotificationPublisher to the implementing bean via a
simple setter method, which the bean can then use to publish Notifications.

As stated in the Javadoc for the NotificationPublisher class, managed beans that

are publishing events via the NotificationPublishermechanism are not responsible
for the state management of any notification listeners and the like ... Spring's JMX
support will take care of handling all the JMX infrastructure issues. All one need do
as an application developer is implement the NotificationPublisherAware interface
and start publishing events using the supplied NotificationPublisher instance. Note
that the NotificationPublisher will be set after the managed bean has been
registered with an MBeanServer.

Using a NotificationPublisher instance is quite straightforward... one simply

creates a JMX Notification instance (or an instance of an
appropriate Notification subclass), populates the notification with the data
pertinent to the event that is to be published, and one then invokes
thesendNotification(Notification) on the NotificationPublisher instance, passing in
the Notification.

753
Find below a simple example... in this scenario, exported instances of
the JmxTestBean are going to publish a NotificationEvent every time theadd(int,
int) operation is invoked.

package org.springframework.jmx;

import org.springframework.jmx.export.notification.NotificationPublisherAware;
import org.springframework.jmx.export.notification.NotificationPublisher;
import javax.management.Notification;

public class JmxTestBean implements IJmxTestBean, NotificationPublisherAware {

private String name;

private int age;
private boolean isSuperman;
private NotificationPublisher publisher;

// other getters and setters omitted for clarity

public int add(int x, int y) {

int answer = x + y;
this.publisher.sendNotification(new Notification("add", this, 0));
return answer;
}

public void dontExposeMe() {

throw new RuntimeException();
}

public void setNotificationPublisher(NotificationPublisher

notificationPublisher) {
this.publisher = notificationPublisher;
}
}

The NotificationPublisher interface and the machinery to get it all working is one of

the nicer features of Spring's JMX support. It does however come with the price
tag of coupling your classes to both Spring and JMX; as always, the advice here is
to be pragmatic... if you need the functionality offered by
the NotificationPublisher and you can accept the coupling to both Spring and JMX,
then do so.

22.8 Further Resources

This section contains links to further resources about JMX.

 The JMX homepage at Sun

 The JMX specification (JSR-000003)

754
  The JMX Remote API specification (JSR-000160)

 The MX4J homepage (an Open Source implementation of various JMX

specs)

 Getting Started with JMX - an introductory article from Sun.

23. JCA CCI

23.1 Introduction

Java EE provides a specification to standardize access to enterprise information

systems (EIS): the JCA (J2EE Connector Architecture). This specification is
divided into several different parts:

 SPI (Service provider interfaces) that the connector provider must

implement. These interfaces constitute a resource adapter which can be
deployed on a Java EE application server. In such a scenario, the server
manages connection pooling, transaction and security (managed mode).
The application server is also responsible for managing the configuration,
which is held outside the client application. A connector can be used without
an application server as well; in this case, the application must configure it
directly (non-managed mode).
 CCI (Common Client Interface) that an application can use to interact with
the connector and thus communicate with an EIS. An API for local
transaction demarcation is provided as well.

The aim of the Spring CCI support is to provide classes to access a CCI connector in typical Spring
style, leveraging the Spring Framework's general resource and transaction management facilities.

Note

The client side of connectors doesn't alway use CCI. Some connectors expose their own APIs,
only providing JCA resource adapter to use the system contracts of a Java EE container
(connection pooling, global transactions, security). Spring does not offer special support for such
connector-specific APIs.

23.2 Configuring CCI
23.2.1 Connector configuration

The base resource to use JCA CCI is the ConnectionFactory interface. The

connector used must provide an implementation of this interface.

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To use your connector, you can deploy it on your application server and fetch
the ConnectionFactory from the server's JNDI environment (managed mode). The
connector must be packaged as a RAR file (resource adapter archive) and contain
a ra.xml file to describe its deployment characteristics. The actual name of the
resource is specified when you deploy it. To access it within Spring, simply use
Spring'sJndiObjectFactoryBean / <jee:jndi-lookup> fetch the factory by its JNDI
name.

Another way to use a connector is to embed it in your application (non-managed

mode), not using an application server to deploy and configure it. Spring offers the
possibility to configure a connector as a bean, through a
provided FactoryBean (LocalConnectionFactoryBean). In this manner, you only need
the connector library in the classpath (no RAR file and no ra.xml descriptor
needed). The library must be extracted from the connector's RAR file, if necessary.

Once you have got access to your ConnectionFactory instance, you can inject it

into your components. These components can either be coded against the plain
CCI API or leverage Spring's support classes for CCI access (e.g. CciTemplate).

Note

When you use a connector in non-managed mode, you can't use global transactions because the
resource is never enlisted / delisted in the current global transaction of the current thread. The
resource is simply not aware of any global Java EE transactions that might be running.

23.2.2 ConnectionFactory configuration in Spring

In order to make connections to the EIS, you need to obtain

a ConnectionFactory from the application server if you are in a managed mode, or
directly from Spring if you are in a non-managed mode.

In a managed mode, you access a ConnectionFactory from JNDI; its properties will

be configured in the application server.

<jee:jndi-lookup id="eciConnectionFactory" jndi-name="eis/cicseci"/>

In non-managed mode, you must configure the ConnectionFactory you want to use

in the configuration of Spring as a JavaBean. TheLocalConnectionFactoryBean class
offers this setup style, passing in the ManagedConnectionFactory implementation of
your connector, exposing the application-level CCI ConnectionFactory.

756
<bean id="eciManagedConnectionFactory"
class="com.ibm.connector2.cics.ECIManagedConnectionFactory">
<property name="serverName" value="TXSERIES"/>
<property name="connectionURL" value="tcp://localhost/"/>
<property name="portNumber" value="2006"/>
</bean>

<bean id="eciConnectionFactory"
class="org.springframework.jca.support.LocalConnectionFactoryBean">
<property name="managedConnectionFactory" ref="eciManagedConnectionFactory"/>
</bean>

Note

You can't directly instantiate a specific ConnectionFactory. You need to go through the

corresponding implementation of theManagedConnectionFactory interface for your connector.
This interface is part of the JCA SPI specification.

23.2.3 Configuring CCI connections

JCA CCI allow the developer to configure the connections to the EIS using
the ConnectionSpec implementation of your connector. In order to configure its
properties, you need to wrap the target connection factory with a dedicated
adapter, ConnectionSpecConnectionFactoryAdapter. So, the
dedicated ConnectionSpec can be configured with the property connectionSpec (as an
inner bean).

This property is not mandatory because the CCI ConnectionFactory interface

defines two different methods to obtain a CCI connection. Some of
the ConnectionSpec properties can often be configured in the application server (in
managed mode) or on the corresponding
localManagedConnectionFactory implementation.

public interface ConnectionFactory implements Serializable, Referenceable {

...
Connection getConnection() throws ResourceException;
Connection getConnection(ConnectionSpec connectionSpec) throws
ResourceException;
...
}

Spring provides a ConnectionSpecConnectionFactoryAdapter that allows for specifying

a ConnectionSpec instance to use for all operations on a given factory. If the
adapter's connectionSpec property is specified, the adapter uses
the getConnection variant without argument, else the one with
the ConnectionSpec argument.

757
<bean id="managedConnectionFactory"
class="com.sun.connector.cciblackbox.CciLocalTxManagedConnectionFactory">
<property name="connectionURL" value="jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://localhost:9001"/>
<property name="driverName" value="org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver"/>
</bean>

<bean id="targetConnectionFactory"
class="org.springframework.jca.support.LocalConnectionFactoryBean">
<property name="managedConnectionFactory" ref="managedConnectionFactory"/>
</bean>

<bean id="connectionFactory"

class="org.springframework.jca.cci.connection.ConnectionSpecConnectionFactoryAdapt
er">
<property name="targetConnectionFactory" ref="targetConnectionFactory"/>
<property name="connectionSpec">
<bean class="com.sun.connector.cciblackbox.CciConnectionSpec">
<property name="user" value="sa"/>
<property name="password" value=""/>
</bean>
</property>
</bean>

23.2.4 Using a single CCI connection

If you want to use a single CCI connection, Spring provides a

further ConnectionFactory adapter to manage this.
The SingleConnectionFactoryadapter class will open a single connection lazily and
close it when this bean is destroyed at application shutdown. This class will
expose specialConnection proxies that behave accordingly, all sharing the same
underlying physical connection.

<bean id="eciManagedConnectionFactory"
class="com.ibm.connector2.cics.ECIManagedConnectionFactory">
<property name="serverName" value="TEST"/>
<property name="connectionURL" value="tcp://localhost/"/>
<property name="portNumber" value="2006"/>
</bean>

<bean id="targetEciConnectionFactory"
class="org.springframework.jca.support.LocalConnectionFactoryBean">
<property name="managedConnectionFactory" ref="eciManagedConnectionFactory"/>
</bean>

<bean id="eciConnectionFactory"
class="org.springframework.jca.cci.connection.SingleConnectionFactory">
<property name="targetConnectionFactory" ref="targetEciConnectionFactory"/>
</bean>

Note

758
 This ConnectionFactory adapter cannot directly be configured with a ConnectionSpec. Use an
intermediaryConnectionSpecConnectionFactoryAdapter that
the SingleConnectionFactory talks to if you require a single connection for a
specific ConnectionSpec.

23.3 Using Spring's CCI access support

23.3.1 Record conversion

One of the aims of the JCA CCI support is to provide convenient facilities for
manipulating CCI records. The developer can specify the strategy to create
records and extract datas from records, for use with Spring's CciTemplate. The
following interfaces will configure the strategy to use input and output records if
you don't want to work with records directly in your application.

In order to create an input Record, the developer can use a dedicated

implementation of the RecordCreator interface.

public interface RecordCreator {

Record createRecord(RecordFactory recordFactory) throws ResourceException,

DataAccessException;
}

As you can see, the createRecord(..) method receives a RecordFactory instance as

parameter, which corresponds to the RecordFactory of theConnectionFactory used.
This reference can be used to create IndexedRecord or MappedRecord instances. The
following sample shows how to use the RecordCreator interface and
indexed/mapped records.

public class MyRecordCreator implements RecordCreator {

public Record createRecord(RecordFactory recordFactory) throws ResourceException

{
IndexedRecord input = recordFactory.createIndexedRecord("input");
input.add(new Integer(id));
return input;
}
}

759
An output Record can be used to receive data back from the EIS. Hence, a specific
implementation of the RecordExtractor interface can be passed to
Spring's CciTemplate for extracting data from the output Record.

public interface RecordExtractor {

Object extractData(Record record) throws ResourceException, SQLException,

DataAccessException;
}

The following sample shows how to use the RecordExtractor interface.

public class MyRecordExtractor implements RecordExtractor {

public Object extractData(Record record) throws ResourceException {

CommAreaRecord commAreaRecord = (CommAreaRecord) record;
String str = new String(commAreaRecord.toByteArray());
String field1 = string.substring(0,6);
String field2 = string.substring(6,1);
return new OutputObject(Long.parseLong(field1), field2);
}
}

23.3.2 The CciTemplate

The CciTemplate is the central class of the core CCI support package

(org.springframework.jca.cci.core). It simplifies the use of CCI since it handles the
creation and release of resources. This helps to avoid common errors like
forgetting to always close the connection. It cares for the lifecycle of connection
and interaction objects, letting application code focus on generating input records
from application data and extracting application data from output records.

The JCA CCI specification defines two distinct methods to call operations on an
EIS. The CCI Interaction interface provides two execute method signatures:

public interface javax.resource.cci.Interaction {

...
boolean execute(InteractionSpec spec, Record input, Record output) throws
ResourceException;

Record execute(InteractionSpec spec, Record input) throws ResourceException;

...
}

760
Depending on the template method called, CciTemplate will know
which execute method to call on the interaction. In any case, a correctly
initializedInteractionSpec instance is mandatory.

CciTemplate.execute(..) can be used in two ways:

 With direct Record arguments. In this case, you simply need to pass the CCI
input record in, and the returned object be the corresponding CCI output
record.
 With application objects, using record mapping. In this case, you need to
provide corresponding RecordCreator and RecordExtractorinstances.

With the first approach, the following methods of the template will be used. These
methods directly correspond to those on the Interactioninterface.

public class CciTemplate implements CciOperations {

public Record execute(InteractionSpec spec, Record inputRecord)

throws DataAccessException { ... }

public void execute(InteractionSpec spec, Record inputRecord, Record

outputRecord)
throws DataAccessException { ... }

With the second approach, we need to specify the record creation and record
extraction strategies as arguments. The interfaces used are those describe in the
previous section on record conversion. The corresponding CciTemplate methods
are the following:

public class CciTemplate implements CciOperations {

public Record execute(InteractionSpec spec, RecordCreator inputCreator)

throws DataAccessException { ... }

public Object execute(InteractionSpec spec, Record inputRecord, RecordExtractor

outputExtractor)
throws DataAccessException { ... }

public Object execute(InteractionSpec spec, RecordCreator creator,

RecordExtractor extractor)
throws DataAccessException { ... }

761
Unless the outputRecordCreator property is set on the template (see the following
section), every method will call the corresponding executemethod of the
CCI Interaction with two parameters: InteractionSpec and input Record, receiving an
output Record as return value.

CciTemplate also provides methods to create IndexRecord and MappedRecord outside

a RecordCreator implementation, through
itscreateIndexRecord(..) and createMappedRecord(..) methods. This can be used
within DAO implementations to create Record instances to pass into
corresponding CciTemplate.execute(..) methods.

public class CciTemplate implements CciOperations {

public IndexedRecord createIndexedRecord(String name) throws DataAccessException

{ ... }

public MappedRecord createMappedRecord(String name) throws DataAccessException {

... }

23.3.3 DAO support

Spring's CCI support provides a abstract class for DAOs, supporting injection of
a ConnectionFactory or a CciTemplate instances. The name of the class
is CciDaoSupport: It provides
simple setConnectionFactory and setCciTemplate methods. Internally, this class will
create a CciTemplateinstance for a passed-in ConnectionFactory, exposing it to
concrete data access implementations in subclasses.

public abstract class CciDaoSupport {

public void setConnectionFactory(ConnectionFactory connectionFactory) { ... }

public ConnectionFactory getConnectionFactory() { ... }

public void setCciTemplate(CciTemplate cciTemplate) { ... }

public CciTemplate getCciTemplate() { ... }

23.3.4 Automatic output record generation

If the connector used only supports the Interaction.execute(..) method with input

and output records as parameters (that is, it requires the desired output record to
be passed in instead of returning an appropriate output record), you can set

762
 the outputRecordCreator property of theCciTemplate to automatically generate an
output record to be filled by the JCA connector when the response is received.
This record will be then returned to the caller of the template.

This property simply holds an implementation of the RecordCreator interface, used

for that purpose. The RecordCreator interface has already been discussed
in Section 23.3.1, “Record conversion”. The outputRecordCreator property must be
directly specified on the CciTemplate. This could be done in the application code like
so:

cciTemplate.setOutputRecordCreator(new EciOutputRecordCreator());

Or (recommended) in the Spring configuration, if the CciTemplate is configured as a

dedicated bean instance:

<bean id="eciOutputRecordCreator" class="eci.EciOutputRecordCreator"/>

<bean id="cciTemplate" class="org.springframework.jca.cci.core.CciTemplate">

<property name="connectionFactory" ref="eciConnectionFactory"/>
<property name="outputRecordCreator" ref="eciOutputRecordCreator"/>
</bean>

Note

As the CciTemplate class is thread-safe, it will usually be configured as a shared instance.

23.3.5 Summary

The following table summarizes the mechanisms of the CciTemplate class and the

corresponding methods called on the CCI Interactioninterface:

Table 23.1. Usage of Interaction execute methods

CciTemplate outputRecordCreator execute method called on the CCI

Template method signature
property Interaction
execute(InteractionSpec, Record) not set Record execute(InteractionSpec, Record
boolean execute(InteractionSpec, Recor
execute(InteractionSpec, Record) set
Record)
te(InteractionSpec, Record, Record) not set void execute(InteractionSpec, Record, Rec
te(InteractionSpec, Record, Record) set void execute(InteractionSpec, Record, Rec
ute(InteractionSpec, RecordCreator) not set Record execute(InteractionSpec, Record
ute(InteractionSpec, RecordCreator) set void execute(InteractionSpec, Record, Rec
execute(InteractionSpec, Record, not set Record execute(InteractionSpec, Record

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 CciTemplate outputRecordCreator execute method called on the CCI
Template method signature
property Interaction
RecordExtractor)
execute(InteractionSpec, Record,
set void execute(InteractionSpec, Record, Rec
RecordExtractor)
cute(InteractionSpec, RecordCreator,
not set Record execute(InteractionSpec, Record
RecordExtractor)
cute(InteractionSpec, RecordCreator,
set void execute(InteractionSpec, Record, Rec
RecordExtractor)

23.3.6 Using a CCI Connection and Interaction directly

CciTemplate also offers the possibility to work directly with CCI connections and
interactions, in the same manner as JdbcTemplate andJmsTemplate. This is useful
when you want to perform multiple operations on a CCI connection or interaction,
for example.

The interface ConnectionCallback provides a CCI Connection as argument, in order to

perform custom operations on it, plus the CCI ConnectionFactory which
the Connection was created with. The latter can be useful for example to get an
associated RecordFactory instance and create indexed/mapped records, for
example.

public interface ConnectionCallback {

Object doInConnection(Connection connection, ConnectionFactory

connectionFactory)
throws ResourceException, SQLException, DataAccessException;
}

The interface InteractionCallback provides the CCI Interaction, in order to perform

custom operations on it, plus the corresponding CCIConnectionFactory.

public interface InteractionCallback {

Object doInInteraction(Interaction interaction, ConnectionFactory

connectionFactory)
throws ResourceException, SQLException, DataAccessException;
}

Note

764
 InteractionSpec objects can either be shared across multiple template calls or newly created
inside every callback method. This is completely up to the DAO implementation.

23.3.7 Example for CciTemplate usage

In this section, the usage of the CciTemplate will be shown to acces to a CICS with

ECI mode, with the IBM CICS ECI connector.

Firstly, some initializations on the CCI InteractionSpec must be done to specify

which CICS program to access and how to interact with it.

ECIInteractionSpec interactionSpec = new ECIInteractionSpec();

interactionSpec.setFunctionName("MYPROG");
interactionSpec.setInteractionVerb(ECIInteractionSpec.SYNC_SEND_RECEIVE);

Then the program can use CCI via Spring's template and specify mappings
between custom objects and CCI Records.

public class MyDaoImpl extends CciDaoSupport implements MyDao {

public OutputObject getData(InputObject input) {

ECIInteractionSpec interactionSpec = ...;

OutputObject output = (ObjectOutput) getCciTemplate().execute(interactionSpec,

new RecordCreator() {
public Record createRecord(RecordFactory recordFactory) throws
ResourceException {
return new CommAreaRecord(input.toString().getBytes());
}
},
new RecordExtractor() {
public Object extractData(Record record) throws ResourceException {
CommAreaRecord commAreaRecord = (CommAreaRecord)record;
String str = new String(commAreaRecord.toByteArray());
String field1 = string.substring(0,6);
String field2 = string.substring(6,1);
return new OutputObject(Long.parseLong(field1), field2);
}
});

return output;
}
}

As discussed previously, callbacks can be used to work directly on CCI

connections or interactions.

765
public class MyDaoImpl extends CciDaoSupport implements MyDao {

public OutputObject getData(InputObject input) {

ObjectOutput output = (ObjectOutput) getCciTemplate().execute(
new ConnectionCallback() {
public Object doInConnection(Connection connection, ConnectionFactory
factory)
throws ResourceException {

// do something...
}
});
}
return output;
}
}

Note

With a ConnectionCallback, the Connection used will be managed and closed by

the CciTemplate, but any interactions created on the connection must be managed by the
callback implementation.

For a more specific callback, you can implement an InteractionCallback. The

passed-in Interaction will be managed and closed by theCciTemplate in this case.

public class MyDaoImpl extends CciDaoSupport implements MyDao {

public String getData(String input) {

ECIInteractionSpec interactionSpec = ...;

String output = (String) getCciTemplate().execute(interactionSpec,

new InteractionCallback() {
public Object doInInteraction(Interaction interaction, ConnectionFactory
factory)
throws ResourceException {
Record input = new CommAreaRecord(inputString.getBytes());
Record output = new CommAreaRecord();
interaction.execute(holder.getInteractionSpec(), input, output);
return new String(output.toByteArray());
}
});

return output;
}
}

For the examples above, the corresponding configuration of the involved Spring
beans could look like this in non-managed mode:

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<bean id="managedConnectionFactory"
class="com.ibm.connector2.cics.ECIManagedConnectionFactory">
<property name="serverName" value="TXSERIES"/>
<property name="connectionURL" value="local:"/>
<property name="userName" value="CICSUSER"/>
<property name="password" value="CICS"/>
</bean>

<bean id="connectionFactory"
class="org.springframework.jca.support.LocalConnectionFactoryBean">
<property name="managedConnectionFactory" ref="managedConnectionFactory"/>
</bean>

<bean id="component" class="mypackage.MyDaoImpl">

<property name="connectionFactory" ref="connectionFactory"/>
</bean>

In managed mode (that is, in a Java EE environment), the configuration could look
as follows:

<jee:jndi-lookup id="connectionFactory" jndi-name="eis/cicseci"/>

<bean id="component" class="MyDaoImpl">

<property name="connectionFactory" ref="connectionFactory"/>
</bean>

23.4 Modeling CCI access as operation objects

The org.springframework.jca.cci.object package contains support classes that

allow you to access the EIS in a different style: through reusable operation objects,
analogous to Spring's JDBC operation objects (see JDBC chapter). This will
usually encapsulate the CCI API: an application-level input object will be passed to
the operation object, so it can construct the input record and then convert the
received record data to an application-level output object and return it.

Note: This approach is internally based on the CciTemplate class and

the RecordCreator / RecordExtractor interfaces, reusing the machinery of Spring's
core CCI support.

23.4.1 MappingRecordOperation

MappingRecordOperation essentially performs the same work as CciTemplate, but

represents a specific, pre-configured operation as an object. It provides two
template methods to specify how to convert an input object to a input record, and
how to convert an output record to an output object (record mapping):

767
  createInputRecord(..) to specify how to convert an input object to an
input Record
 extractOutputData(..) to specify how to extract an output object from an
output Record

Here are the signatures of these methods:

public abstract class MappingRecordOperation extends EisOperation {

...
protected abstract Record createInputRecord(RecordFactory recordFactory, Object
inputObject)
throws ResourceException, DataAccessException { ... }

protected abstract Object extractOutputData(Record outputRecord)

throws ResourceException, SQLException, DataAccessException { ... }
...
}

Thereafter, in order to execute an EIS operation, you need to use a single execute
method, passing in an application-level input object and receiving an application-
level output object as result:

public abstract class MappingRecordOperation extends EisOperation {

...
public Object execute(Object inputObject) throws DataAccessException {
...
}

As you can see, contrary to the CciTemplate class, this execute(..) method does not

have an InteractionSpec as argument. Instead, theInteractionSpec is global to the
operation. The following constructor must be used to instantiate an operation
object with a specificInteractionSpec:

InteractionSpec spec = ...;

MyMappingRecordOperation eisOperation = new
MyMappingRecordOperation(getConnectionFactory(), spec);
...

23.4.2 MappingCommAreaOperation

Some connectors use records based on a COMMAREA which represents an array

of bytes containing parameters to send to the EIS and data returned by it. Spring
provides a special operation class for working directly on COMMAREA rather than
on records. TheMappingCommAreaOperation class extends

768
 the MappingRecordOperation class to provide such special COMMAREA support. It
implicitly uses theCommAreaRecord class as input and output record type, and
provides two new methods to convert an input object into an input COMMAREA
and the output COMMAREA into an output object.

public abstract class MappingCommAreaOperation extends MappingRecordOperation {

...
protected abstract byte[] objectToBytes(Object inObject)
throws IOException, DataAccessException;

protected abstract Object bytesToObject(byte[] bytes)

throws IOException, DataAccessException;
...
}

23.4.3 Automatic output record generation

As every MappingRecordOperation subclass is based on CciTemplate internally, the

same way to automatically generate output records as withCciTemplate is available.
Every operation object provides a
corresponding setOutputRecordCreator(..) method. For further information,
seeSection 23.3.4, “Automatic output record generation”.

23.4.4 Summary

The operation object approach uses records in the same manner as

the CciTemplate class.

Table 23.2. Usage of Interaction execute methods

rdOperation method execute method called on the

MappingRecordOperation outputRecordCreatorproperty
ignature CCIInteraction
execute(Object) not set Record execute(InteractionSpec, Reco
boolean execute(InteractionSpec, Reco
execute(Object) set
Record)

23.4.5 Example for MappingRecordOperation usage

In this section, the usage of the MappingRecordOperation will be shown to access a

database with the Blackbox CCI connector.

Note

769
 The original version of this connector is provided by the Java EE SDK (version 1.3), available
from Sun.

Firstly, some initializations on the CCI InteractionSpec must be done to specify

which SQL request to execute. In this sample, we directly define the way to
convert the parameters of the request to a CCI record and the way to convert the
CCI result record to an instance of the Person class.

public class PersonMappingOperation extends MappingRecordOperation {

public PersonMappingOperation(ConnectionFactory connectionFactory) {

setConnectionFactory(connectionFactory);
CciInteractionSpec interactionSpec = new CciConnectionSpec();
interactionSpec.setSql("select * from person where person_id=?");
setInteractionSpec(interactionSpec);
}

protected Record createInputRecord(RecordFactory recordFactory, Object

inputObject)
throws ResourceException {
Integer id = (Integer) inputObject;
IndexedRecord input = recordFactory.createIndexedRecord("input");
input.add(new Integer(id));
return input;
}

protected Object extractOutputData(Record outputRecord)

throws ResourceException, SQLException {
ResultSet rs = (ResultSet) outputRecord;
Person person = null;
if (rs.next()) {
Person person = new Person();
person.setId(rs.getInt("person_id"));
person.setLastName(rs.getString("person_last_name"));
person.setFirstName(rs.getString("person_first_name"));
}
return person;
}
}

Then the application can execute the operation object, with the person identifier as
argument. Note that operation object could be set up as shared instance, as it is
thread-safe.

public class MyDaoImpl extends CciDaoSupport implements MyDao {

public Person getPerson(int id) {

770
 PersonMappingOperation query = new
PersonMappingOperation(getConnectionFactory());
Person person = (Person) query.execute(new Integer(id));
return person;
}
}

The corresponding configuration of Spring beans could look as follows in non-

managed mode:

<bean id="managedConnectionFactory"
class="com.sun.connector.cciblackbox.CciLocalTxManagedConnectionFactory">
<property name="connectionURL" value="jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://localhost:9001"/>
<property name="driverName" value="org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver"/>
</bean>

<bean id="targetConnectionFactory"
class="org.springframework.jca.support.LocalConnectionFactoryBean">
<property name="managedConnectionFactory" ref="managedConnectionFactory"/>
</bean>

<bean id="connectionFactory"

class="org.springframework.jca.cci.connection.ConnectionSpecConnectionFactoryAdapt
er">
<property name="targetConnectionFactory" ref="targetConnectionFactory"/>
<property name="connectionSpec">
<bean class="com.sun.connector.cciblackbox.CciConnectionSpec">
<property name="user" value="sa"/>
<property name="password" value=""/>
</bean>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="component" class="MyDaoImpl">

<property name="connectionFactory" ref="connectionFactory"/>
</bean>

In managed mode (that is, in a Java EE environment), the configuration could look
as follows:

<jee:jndi-lookup id="targetConnectionFactory" jndi-name="eis/blackbox"/>

<bean id="connectionFactory"

class="org.springframework.jca.cci.connection.ConnectionSpecConnectionFactoryAdapt
er">
<property name="targetConnectionFactory" ref="targetConnectionFactory"/>
<property name="connectionSpec">
<bean class="com.sun.connector.cciblackbox.CciConnectionSpec">

771
 <property name="user" value="sa"/>
<property name="password" value=""/>
</bean>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="component" class="MyDaoImpl">

<property name="connectionFactory" ref="connectionFactory"/>
</bean>

23.4.6 Example for MappingCommAreaOperation usage

In this section, the usage of the MappingCommAreaOperation will be shown: accessing

a CICS with ECI mode with the IBM CICS ECI connector.

Firstly, the CCI InteractionSpec needs to be initialized to specify which CICS

program to access and how to interact with it.

public abstract class EciMappingOperation extends MappingCommAreaOperation {

public EciMappingOperation(ConnectionFactory connectionFactory, String

programName) {
setConnectionFactory(connectionFactory);
ECIInteractionSpec interactionSpec = new ECIInteractionSpec(),
interactionSpec.setFunctionName(programName);
interactionSpec.setInteractionVerb(ECIInteractionSpec.SYNC_SEND_RECEIVE);
interactionSpec.setCommareaLength(30);
setInteractionSpec(interactionSpec);
setOutputRecordCreator(new EciOutputRecordCreator());
}

private static class EciOutputRecordCreator implements RecordCreator {

public Record createRecord(RecordFactory recordFactory) throws
ResourceException {
return new CommAreaRecord();
}
}
}

The abstract EciMappingOperation class can then be subclassed to specify

mappings between custom objects and Records.

public class MyDaoImpl extends CciDaoSupport implements MyDao {

public OutputObject getData(Integer id) {

EciMappingOperation query = new EciMappingOperation(getConnectionFactory(),
"MYPROG") {
protected abstract byte[] objectToBytes(Object inObject) throws IOException
{

772
 Integer id = (Integer) inObject;
return String.valueOf(id);
}
protected abstract Object bytesToObject(byte[] bytes) throws IOException;
String str = new String(bytes);
String field1 = str.substring(0,6);
String field2 = str.substring(6,1);
String field3 = str.substring(7,1);
return new OutputObject(field1, field2, field3);
}
});

return (OutputObject) query.execute(new Integer(id));

}
}

The corresponding configuration of Spring beans could look as follows in non-

managed mode:

<bean id="managedConnectionFactory"
class="com.ibm.connector2.cics.ECIManagedConnectionFactory">
<property name="serverName" value="TXSERIES"/>
<property name="connectionURL" value="local:"/>
<property name="userName" value="CICSUSER"/>
<property name="password" value="CICS"/>
</bean>

<bean id="connectionFactory"
class="org.springframework.jca.support.LocalConnectionFactoryBean">
<property name="managedConnectionFactory" ref="managedConnectionFactory"/>
</bean>

<bean id="component" class="MyDaoImpl">

<property name="connectionFactory" ref="connectionFactory"/>
</bean>

In managed mode (that is, in a Java EE environment), the configuration could look
as follows:

<jee:jndi-lookup id="connectionFactory" jndi-name="eis/cicseci"/>

<bean id="component" class="MyDaoImpl">

<property name="connectionFactory" ref="connectionFactory"/>
</bean>

773
23.5 Transactions

JCA specifies several levels of transaction support for resource adapters. The kind
of transactions that your resource adapter supports is specified in its ra.xml file.
There are essentially three options: none (for example with CICS EPI connector),
local transactions (for example with a CICS ECI connector), global transactions
(for example with an IMS connector).

<connector>

<resourceadapter>

<!-- <transaction-support>NoTransaction</transaction-support> -->

<!-- <transaction-support>LocalTransaction</transaction-support> -->
<transaction-support>XATransaction</transaction-support>

<resourceadapter>

<connector>

For global transactions, you can use Spring's generic transaction infrastructure to
demarcate transactions, with JtaTransactionManager as backend (delegating to the
Java EE server's distributed transaction coordinator underneath).

For local transactions on a single CCI ConnectionFactory, Spring provides a specific

transaction management strategy for CCI, analogous to
theDataSourceTransactionManager for JDBC. The CCI API defines a local transaction
object and corresponding local transaction demarcation methods.
Spring's CciLocalTransactionManager executes such local CCI transactions, fully
compliant with Spring's genericPlatformTransactionManager abstraction.

<jee:jndi-lookup id="eciConnectionFactory" jndi-name="eis/cicseci"/>

<bean id="eciTransactionManager"
class="org.springframework.jca.cci.connection.CciLocalTransactionManager">
<property name="connectionFactory" ref="eciConnectionFactory"/>
</bean>

Both transaction strategies can be used with any of Spring's transaction

demarcation facilities, be it declarative or programmatic. This is a consequence of
Spring's generic PlatformTransactionManager abstraction, which decouples
transaction demarcation from the actual execution strategy. Simply switch
between JtaTransactionManager and CciLocalTransactionManager as needed, keeping
your transaction demarcation as-is.

774
For more information on Spring's transaction facilities, see the chapter
entitled Chapter 10, Transaction Management.

24. Email

24.1 Introduction
Library dependencies

The following additional jars to be on the classpath of your application in order to be able to use the Spring
Framework's email library.

 The JavaMail mail.jar library
 The JAF activation.jar library

All of these libraries are freely available on the web.

The Spring Framework provides a helpful utility library for sending email that
shields the user from the specifics of the underlying mailing system and is
responsible for low level resource handling on behalf of the client.

The org.springframework.mail package is the root level package for the Spring

Framework's email support. The central interface for sending emails is
the MailSenderinterface; a simple value object encapsulating the properties of a
simple mail such asfrom and to (plus many others) is the SimpleMailMessage class.
This package also contains a hierarchy of checked exceptions which provide a
higher level of abstraction over the lower level mail system exceptions with the root
exception beingMailException. Please refer to the JavaDocs for more information
on the rich mail exception hierarchy.

The org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSender interface adds
specializedJavaMail features such as MIME message support to
the MailSender interface (from which it inherits). JavaMailSender also provides a
callback interface for preparation of JavaMail MIME messages,
called org.springframework.mail.javamail.MimeMessagePreparator

24.2 Usage

Let's assume there is a business interface called OrderManager:

public interface OrderManager {

void placeOrder(Order order);

}

775
Let us also assume that there is a requirement stating that an email message with
an order number needs to be generated and sent to a customer placing the
relevant order.

24.2.1 Basic MailSender and SimpleMailMessage usage
import org.springframework.mail.MailException;
import org.springframework.mail.MailSender;
import org.springframework.mail.SimpleMailMessage;

public class SimpleOrderManager implements OrderManager {

private MailSender mailSender;

private SimpleMailMessage templateMessage;

public void setMailSender(MailSender mailSender) {

this.mailSender = mailSender;
}

public void setTemplateMessage(SimpleMailMessage templateMessage) {

this.templateMessage = templateMessage;
}

public void placeOrder(Order order) {

// Do the business calculations...

// Call the collaborators to persist the order...

// Create a thread safe "copy" of the template message and customize it

SimpleMailMessage msg = new SimpleMailMessage(this.templateMessage);
msg.setTo(order.getCustomer().getEmailAddress());
msg.setText(
"Dear " + order.getCustomer().getFirstName()
+ order.getCustomer().getLastName()
+ ", thank you for placing order. Your order number is "
+ order.getOrderNumber());
try{
this.mailSender.send(msg);
}
catch(MailException ex) {
// simply log it and go on...
System.err.println(ex.getMessage());
}
}
}

Find below the bean definitions for the above code:

<bean id="mailSender"
class="org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSenderImpl">
<property name="host" value="mail.mycompany.com"/>

776
</bean>

<!-- this is a template message that we can pre-load with default state -->
<bean id="templateMessage" class="org.springframework.mail.SimpleMailMessage">
<property name="from" value="customerservice@mycompany.com"/>
<property name="subject" value="Your order"/>
</bean>

<bean id="orderManager"
class="com.mycompany.businessapp.support.SimpleOrderManager">
<property name="mailSender" ref="mailSender"/>
<property name="templateMessage" ref="templateMessage"/>
</bean>

24.2.2 Using the JavaMailSender and the MimeMessagePreparator

Here is another implementation of OrderManager using

the MimeMessagePreparator callback interface. Please note in this case that
the mailSenderproperty is of type JavaMailSender so that we are able to use the
JavaMail MimeMessage class:

import javax.mail.Message;
import javax.mail.MessagingException;
import javax.mail.internet.InternetAddress;
import javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage;

import javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage;
import org.springframework.mail.MailException;
import org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSender;
import org.springframework.mail.javamail.MimeMessagePreparator;

public class SimpleOrderManager implements OrderManager {

private JavaMailSender mailSender;

public void setMailSender(JavaMailSender mailSender) {

this.mailSender = mailSender;
}

public void placeOrder(final Order order) {

// Do the business calculations...

// Call the collaborators to persist the order...

MimeMessagePreparator preparator = new MimeMessagePreparator() {

public void prepare(MimeMessage mimeMessage) throws Exception {

mimeMessage.setRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO,

777
 new
InternetAddress(order.getCustomer().getEmailAddress()));
mimeMessage.setFrom(new InternetAddress("mail@mycompany.com"));
mimeMessage.setText(
"Dear " + order.getCustomer().getFirstName() + " "
+ order.getCustomer().getLastName()
+ ", thank you for placing order. Your order number is "
+ order.getOrderNumber());
}
};
try {
this.mailSender.send(preparator);
}
catch (MailException ex) {
// simply log it and go on...
System.err.println(ex.getMessage());
}
}
}

Note

The mail code is a crosscutting concern and could well be a candidate for refactoring into
a custom Spring AOP aspect, which then could be executed at appropriate joinpoints on
the OrderManager target.

The Spring Framework's mail support ships with the standard JavaMail
implementation. Please refer to the relevant JavaDocs for more information.

24.3 Using the JavaMail  MimeMessageHelper

A class that comes in pretty handy when dealing with JavaMail messages is
the org.springframework.mail.javamail.MimeMessageHelper class, which shields you
from having to use the verbose JavaMail API. Using the MimeMessageHelper it is
pretty easy to create a MimeMessage:

// of course you would use DI in any real-world cases

JavaMailSenderImpl sender = new JavaMailSenderImpl();
sender.setHost("mail.host.com");

MimeMessage message = sender.createMimeMessage();

MimeMessageHelper helper = new MimeMessageHelper(message);
helper.setTo("test@host.com");
helper.setText("Thank you for ordering!");

sender.send(message);

778
24.3.1 Sending attachments and inline resources

Multipart email messages allow for both attachments and inline resources.
Examples of inline resources would be images or a stylesheet you want to use in
your message, but that you don't want displayed as an attachment.

24.3.1.1 Attachments

The following example shows you how to use the MimeMessageHelper to send an

email along with a single JPEG image attachment.

JavaMailSenderImpl sender = new JavaMailSenderImpl();

sender.setHost("mail.host.com");

MimeMessage message = sender.createMimeMessage();

// use the true flag to indicate you need a multipart message

MimeMessageHelper helper = new MimeMessageHelper(message, true);
helper.setTo("test@host.com");

helper.setText("Check out this image!");

// let's attach the infamous windows Sample file (this time copied to c:/)
FileSystemResource file = new FileSystemResource(new File("c:/Sample.jpg"));
helper.addAttachment("CoolImage.jpg", file);

sender.send(message);

24.3.1.2 Inline resources

The following example shows you how to use the MimeMessageHelper to send an

email along with an inline image.

JavaMailSenderImpl sender = new JavaMailSenderImpl();

sender.setHost("mail.host.com");

MimeMessage message = sender.createMimeMessage();

// use the true flag to indicate you need a multipart message

MimeMessageHelper helper = new MimeMessageHelper(message, true);
helper.setTo("test@host.com");

// use the true flag to indicate the text included is HTML

helper.setText("<html><body><img src='cid:identifier1234'></body></html>", true);

// let's include the infamous windows Sample file (this time copied to c:/)
FileSystemResource res = new FileSystemResource(new File("c:/Sample.jpg"));
helper.addInline("identifier1234", res);

779
sender.send(message);

Warning

Inline resources are added to the mime message using the specified Content-
ID (identifier1234 in the above example). The order in which you are adding the text and the
resource are very important. Be sure to first add the text and after that the resources. If you are
doing it the other way around, it won't work!

24.3.2 Creating email content using a templating library

The code in the previous examples explicitly created the content of the email
message, using methods calls such as message.setText(..). This is fine for simple
cases, and it is okay in the context of the aforementioned examples, where the
intent was to show you the very basics of the API.

In your typical enterprise application though, you are not going to create the
content of your emails using the above approach for a number of reasons.

 Creating HTML-based email content in Java code is tedious and error prone
 There is no clear separation between display logic and business logic

 Changing the display structure of the email content requires writing Java
code, recompiling, redeploying...

Typically the approach taken to address these issues is to use a template library
such as FreeMarker or Velocity to define the display structure of email content.
This leaves your code tasked only with creating the data that is to be rendered in
the email template and sending the email. It is definitely a best practice for when
the content of your emails becomes even moderately complex, and with the Spring
Framework's support classes for FreeMarker and Velocity becomes quite easy to
do. Find below an example of using the Velocity template library to create email
content.

24.3.2.1 A Velocity-based example

To use Velocity to create your email template(s), you will need to have the Velocity
libraries available on your classpath. You will also need to create one or more
Velocity templates for the email content that your application needs. Find below
the Velocity template that this example will be using. As you can see it is HTML-
based, and since it is plain text it can be created using your favorite HTML or text
editor.

780
# in the com/foo/package
<html>
<body>
<h3>Hi ${user.userName}, welcome to the Chipping Sodbury On-the-Hill message
boards!</h3>

<div>
Your email address is <a href="mailto:${user.emailAddress}">$
{user.emailAddress}</a>.
</div>
</body>

</html>

Find below some simple code and Spring XML configuration that makes use of the
above Velocity template to create email content and send email(s).

package com.foo;

import org.apache.velocity.app.VelocityEngine;
import org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSender;
import org.springframework.mail.javamail.MimeMessageHelper;
import org.springframework.mail.javamail.MimeMessagePreparator;
import org.springframework.ui.velocity.VelocityEngineUtils;

import javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

public class SimpleRegistrationService implements RegistrationService {

private JavaMailSender mailSender;

private VelocityEngine velocityEngine;

public void setMailSender(JavaMailSender mailSender) {

this.mailSender = mailSender;
}

public void setVelocityEngine(VelocityEngine velocityEngine) {

this.velocityEngine = velocityEngine;
}

public void register(User user) {

// Do the registration logic...

sendConfirmationEmail(user);
}

private void sendConfirmationEmail(final User user) {

MimeMessagePreparator preparator = new MimeMessagePreparator() {
public void prepare(MimeMessage mimeMessage) throws Exception {
MimeMessageHelper message = new MimeMessageHelper(mimeMessage);

781
 message.setTo(user.getEmailAddress());
message.setFrom("webmaster@csonth.gov.uk"); // could be
parameterized...
Map model = new HashMap();
model.put("user", user);
String text = VelocityEngineUtils.mergeTemplateIntoString(
velocityEngine, "com/dns/registration-confirmation.vm", model);
message.setText(text, true);
}
};
this.mailSender.send(preparator);
}
}
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

<bean id="mailSender"
class="org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSenderImpl">
<property name="host" value="mail.csonth.gov.uk"/>
</bean>

<bean id="registrationService" class="com.foo.SimpleRegistrationService">

<property name="mailSender" ref="mailSender"/>
<property name="velocityEngine" ref="velocityEngine"/>
</bean>

<bean id="velocityEngine"
class="org.springframework.ui.velocity.VelocityEngineFactoryBean">
<property name="velocityProperties">
<value>
resource.loader=class

class.resource.loader.class=org.apache.velocity.runtime.resource.loader.ClasspathR
esourceLoader
</value>
</property>
</bean>

</beans>

25. Task Execution and Scheduling

25.1 Introduction

The Spring Framework provides abstractions for asynchronous execution and

scheduling of tasks with the TaskExecutor and TaskSchedulerinterfaces, respectively.
Spring also features implementations of those interfaces that support thread pools
or delegation to CommonJ within an application server environment. Ultimately the

782
use of these implementations behind the common interfaces abstracts away the
differences between Java SE 5, Java SE 6 and Java EE environments.

Spring also features integration classes for supporting scheduling with the Timer,
part of the JDK since 1.3, and the Quartz Scheduler
(http://www.opensymphony.com/quartz/). Both of those schedulers are set up
using a FactoryBean with optional references to Timer or Triggerinstances,
respectively. Furthermore, a convenience class for both the Quartz Scheduler and
the Timer is available that allows you to invoke a method of an existing target
object (analogous to the normal MethodInvokingFactoryBean operation).

25.2 The Spring  TaskExecutor abstraction

Spring 2.0 introduces a new abstraction for dealing with executors. Executors are
the Java 5 name for the concept of thread pools. The "executor" naming is due to
the fact that there is no guarantee that the underlying implementation is actually a
pool; an executor may be single-threaded or even synchronous. Spring's
abstraction hides implementation details between Java SE 1.4, Java SE 5 and
Java EE environments.

Spring's TaskExecutor interface is identical to
the java.util.concurrent.Executor interface. In fact, its primary reason for existence
is to abstract away the need for Java 5 when using thread pools. The interface has
a single method execute(Runnable task) that accepts a task for execution based on
the semantics and configuration of the thread pool.

The TaskExecutor was originally created to give other Spring components an

abstraction for thread pooling where needed. Components such as
the ApplicationEventMulticaster, JMS's AbstractMessageListenerContainer, and
Quartz integration all use the TaskExecutor abstraction to pool threads. However, if
your beans need thread pooling behavior, it is possible to use this abstraction for
your own needs.

25.2.1 TaskExecutor types

There are a number of pre-built implementations of TaskExecutor included with the

Spring distribution. In all likelihood, you shouldn't ever need to implement your
own.
 SimpleAsyncTaskExecutor

783
 This implementation does not reuse any threads, rather it starts up a new
thread for each invocation. However, it does support a concurrency limit
which will block any invocations that are over the limit until a slot has been
freed up. If you're looking for true pooling, keep scrolling further down the
page.
 SyncTaskExecutor

This implementation doesn't execute invocations asynchronously. Instead,

each invocation takes place in the calling thread. It is primarily used in
situations where multithreading isn't necessary such as simple test cases.
 ConcurrentTaskExecutor

This implementation is a wrapper for a Java 5 java.util.concurrent.Executor.

There is an alternative, ThreadPoolTaskExecutor, that exposes
the Executor configuration parameters as bean properties. It is rare to need
to use the ConcurrentTaskExecutor but if theThreadPoolTaskExecutor isn't robust
enough for your needs, the ConcurrentTaskExecutor is an alternative.

 SimpleThreadPoolTaskExecutor

This implementation is actually a subclass of Quartz's SimpleThreadPool which

listens to Spring's lifecycle callbacks. This is typically used when you have a
thread pool that may need to be shared by both Quartz and non-Quartz
components.
 ThreadPoolTaskExecutor

It is not possible to use any backport or alternate versions of

the java.util.concurrent package with this implementation. Both Doug Lea's and Dawid
Kurzyniec's implementations use different package structures which will prevent them from
working correctly.

This implementation can only be used in a Java 5 environment but is also

the most commonly used one in that environment. It exposes bean
properties for configuring ajava.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor and
wraps it in a TaskExecutor. If you need something advanced such as
a ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor, it is recommended that you use
a ConcurrentTaskExecutor instead.

 TimerTaskExecutor

784
 This implementation uses a single TimerTask as its backing implementation.
It's different from the SyncTaskExecutor in that the method invocations are
executed in a separate thread, although they are synchronous in that thread.
 WorkManagerTaskExecutor

CommonJ is a set of specifications jointly developed between BEA and IBM. These specifications
are not Java EE standards, but are standard across BEA's and IBM's Application Server
implementations.

This implementation uses the CommonJ WorkManager as its backing

implementation and is the central convenience class for setting up a
CommonJ WorkManager reference in a Spring context. Similar to
theSimpleThreadPoolTaskExecutor, this class implements the WorkManager
interface and therefore can be used directly as a WorkManager as well.

25.2.2 Using a TaskExecutor

Spring's TaskExecutor implementations are used as simple JavaBeans. In the

example below, we define a bean that uses the ThreadPoolTaskExecutor to
asynchronously print out a set of messages.

import org.springframework.core.task.TaskExecutor;

public class TaskExecutorExample {

private class MessagePrinterTask implements Runnable {

private String message;

public MessagePrinterTask(String message) {

this.message = message;
}

public void run() {

System.out.println(message);
}

private TaskExecutor taskExecutor;

public TaskExecutorExample(TaskExecutor taskExecutor) {

this.taskExecutor = taskExecutor;
}

public void printMessages() {

for(int i = 0; i < 25; i++) {
taskExecutor.execute(new MessagePrinterTask("Message" + i));

785
 }
}
}

As you can see, rather than retrieving a thread from the pool and executing
yourself, you add your Runnable to the queue and the TaskExecutoruses its internal
rules to decide when the task gets executed.

To configure the rules that the TaskExecutor will use, simple bean properties have
been exposed.

<bean id="taskExecutor"
class="org.springframework.scheduling.concurrent.ThreadPoolTaskExecutor">
<property name="corePoolSize" value="5" />
<property name="maxPoolSize" value="10" />
<property name="queueCapacity" value="25" />
</bean>

<bean id="taskExecutorExample" class="TaskExecutorExample">

<constructor-arg ref="taskExecutor" />
</bean>

25.3 The Spring  TaskScheduler abstraction

In addition to the TaskExecutor abstraction, Spring 3.0 introduces

a TaskScheduler with a variety of methods for scheduling tasks to run at some point
in the future.

public interface TaskScheduler {

ScheduledFuture schedule(Runnable task, Trigger trigger);

ScheduledFuture schedule(Runnable task, Date startTime);

ScheduledFuture scheduleAtFixedRate(Runnable task, Date startTime, long

period);

ScheduledFuture scheduleAtFixedRate(Runnable task, long period);

ScheduledFuture scheduleWithFixedDelay(Runnable task, Date startTime, long

delay);

ScheduledFuture scheduleWithFixedDelay(Runnable task, long delay);

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The simplest method is the one named 'schedule' that takes
a Runnable and Date only. That will cause the task to run once after the specified
time. All of the other methods are capable of scheduling tasks to run repeatedly.
The fixed-rate and fixed-delay methods are for simple, periodic execution, but the
method that accepts a Trigger is much more flexible.

25.3.1 The Trigger interface

The Trigger interface is essentially inspired by JSR-236, which, as of Spring 3.0,

has not yet been officially implemented. The basic idea of theTrigger is that
execution times may be determined based on past execution outcomes or even
arbitrary conditions. If these determinations do take into account the outcome of
the preceding execution, that information is available within a TriggerContext.
The Trigger interface itself is quite simple:

public interface Trigger {

Date nextExecutionTime(TriggerContext triggerContext);

As you can see, the TriggerContext is the most important part. It encapsulates all of
the relevant data, and is open for extension in the future if necessary.
The TriggerContext is an interface (a SimpleTriggerContext implementation is used
by default). Here you can see what methods are available
for Trigger implementations.

public interface TriggerContext {

Date lastScheduledExecutionTime();

Date lastActualExecutionTime();

Date lastCompletionTime();

25.3.2 Trigger implementations

Spring provides two implementations of the Trigger interface. The most interesting

one is the CronTrigger. It enables the scheduling of tasks based on cron
expressions. For example the following task is being scheduled to run 15 minutes
past each hour but only during the 9-to-5 "business hours" on weekdays.

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scheduler.schedule(task, new CronTrigger("* 15 9-17 * * MON-FRI"));

The other out-of-the-box implementation is a PeriodicTrigger that accepts a fixed

period, an optional initial delay value, and a boolean to indicate whether the period
should be interpreted as a fixed-rate or a fixed-delay. Since
the TaskScheduler interface already defines methods for scheduling tasks at a fixed-
rate or with a fixed-delay, those methods should be used directly whenever
possible. The value of the PeriodicTriggerimplementation is that it can be used
within components that rely on the Trigger abstraction. For example, it may be
convenient to allow periodic triggers, cron-based triggers, and even custom trigger
implementations to be used interchangeably. Such a component could take
advantage of dependency injection so that such Triggers could be configured
externally.

25.3.3 TaskScheduler implementations

As with Spring's TaskExecutor abstraction, the primary benefit of the TaskScheduler is

that code relying on scheduling behavior need not be coupled to a particular
scheduler implementation. The flexibility this provides is particularly relevant when
running within Application Server environments where threads should not be
created directly by the application itself. For such cases, Spring provides
a TimerManagerTaskSchedulerthat delegates to a CommonJ TimerManager instance,
typically configured with a JNDI-lookup.

A simpler alternative, the ThreadPoolTaskScheduler, can be used whenever external

thread management is not a requirement. Internally, it delegates to
a ScheduledExecutorService instance. ThreadPoolTaskScheduler actually implements
Spring's TaskExecutor interface as well, so that a single instance can be used for
asynchronous execution as soon as possible as well as scheduled, and potentially
recurring, executions.

25.4 The Task Namespace

Beginning with Spring 3.0, there is an XML namespace for

configuring TaskExecutor and TaskScheduler instances. It also provides a convenient
way to configure tasks to be scheduled with a trigger.

25.4.1 The 'scheduler' element

The following element will create a ThreadPoolTaskScheduler instance with the

specified thread pool size.

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<task:scheduler id="scheduler" pool-size="10"/>

The value provided for the 'id' attribute will be used as the prefix for thread names
within the pool. The 'scheduler' element is relatively straightforward. If you do not
provide a 'pool-size' attribute, the default thread pool will only have a single thread.
There are no other configuration options for the scheduler.

25.4.2 The 'executor' element

The following will create a ThreadPoolTaskExecutor instance:

<task:executor id="executor" pool-size="10"/>

As with the scheduler above, the value provided for the 'id' attribute will be used as
the prefix for thread names within the pool. As far as the pool size is concerned,
the 'executor' element supports more configuration options than the 'scheduler'
element. For one thing, the thread pool for aThreadPoolTaskExecutor is itself more
configurable. Rather than just a single size, an executor's thread pool may have
different values for the coreand the max size. If a single value is provided then the
executor will have a fixed-size thread pool (the core and max sizes are the same).
However, the 'executor' element's 'pool-size' attribute also accepts a range in the
form of "min-max".

<task:executor id="executorWithPoolSizeRange"
pool-size="5-25"
queue-capacity="100"/>

As you can see from that configuration, a 'queue-capacity' value has also been
provided. The configuration of the thread pool should also be considered in light of
the executor's queue capacity. For the full description of the relationship between
pool size and queue capacity, consult the documentation for ThreadPoolExecutor.
The main idea is that when a task is submitted, the executor will first try to use a
free thread if the number of active threads is currently less than the core size. If
the core size has been reached, then the task will be added to the queue as long
as its capacity has not yet been reached. Only then, if the queue's
capacity has been reached, will the executor create a new thread beyond the core
size. If the max size has also been reached, then the executor will reject the task.

By default, the queue is unbounded, but this is rarely the desired configuration,
because it can lead to OutOfMemoryErrors if enough tasks are added to that queue

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while all pool threads are busy. Furthermore, if the queue is unbounded, then the
max size has no effect at all. Since the executor will always try the queue before
creating a new thread beyond the core size, a queue must have a finite capacity
for the thread pool to grow beyond the core size (this is why a fixed size pool is the
only sensible case when using an unbounded queue).

In a moment, we will review the effects of the keep-alive setting which adds yet
another factor to consider when providing a pool size configuration. First, let's
consider the case, as mentioned above, when a task is rejected. By default, when
a task is rejected, a thread pool executor will throw aTaskRejectedException.
However, the rejection policy is actually configurable. The exception is thrown
when using the default rejection policy which is the AbortPolicy implementation.
For applications where some tasks can be skipped under heavy load, either
the DiscardPolicy orDiscardOldestPolicy may be configured instead. Another option
that works well for applications that need to throttle the submitted tasks under
heavy load is the CallerRunsPolicy. Instead of throwing an exception or discarding
tasks, that policy will simply force the thread that is calling the submit method to
run the task itself. The idea is that such a caller will be busy while running that task
and not able to submit other tasks immediately. Therefore it provides a simple way
to throttle the incoming load while maintaining the limits of the thread pool and
queue. Typically this allows the executor to "catch up" on the tasks it is handling
and thereby frees up some capacity on the queue, in the pool, or both. Any of
these options can be chosen from an enumeration of values available for the
'rejection-policy' attribute on the 'executor' element.

<task:executor id="executorWithCallerRunsPolicy"
pool-size="5-25"
queue-capacity="100"
rejection-policy="CALLER_RUNS"/>

25.4.3 The 'scheduled-tasks' element

The most powerful feature of Spring's task namespace is the support for
configuring tasks to be scheduled within a Spring Application Context. This follows
an approach similar to other "method-invokers" in Spring, such as that provided by
the JMS namespace for configuring Message-driven POJOs. Basically a "ref"
attribute can point to any Spring-managed object, and the "method" attribute
provides the name of a method to be invoked on that object. Here is a simple
example.

<task:scheduled-tasks scheduler="myScheduler">

790
 <task:scheduled ref="someObject" method="someMethod" fixed-delay="5000"/>
</task:scheduled-tasks>

<task:scheduler id="myScheduler" pool-size="10"/>

As you can see, the scheduler is referenced by the outer element, and each
individual task includes the configuration of its trigger metadata. In the preceding
example, that metadata defines a periodic trigger with a fixed delay. It could also
be configured with a "fixed-rate", or for more control, a "cron" attribute could be
provided instead. Here's an example featuring these other options.

<task:scheduled-tasks scheduler="myScheduler">
<task:scheduled ref="someObject" method="someMethod" fixed-rate="5000"/>
<task:scheduled ref="anotherObject" method="anotherMethod" cron="*/5 * * * *
MON-FRI"/>
</task:scheduled-tasks>

<task:scheduler id="myScheduler" pool-size="10"/>

25.5 Annotation Support for Scheduling and Asynchronous Execution

Spring 3.0 also adds annotation support for both task scheduling and
asynchronous method execution.

25.5.1 The @Scheduled Annotation

The @Scheduled annotation can be added to a method along with trigger

metadata. For example, the following method would be invoked every 5 seconds
with a fixed delay, meaning that the period will be measured from the completion
time of each preceding invocation.

@Scheduled(fixedDelay=5000)
public void doSomething() {
// something that should execute periodically
}

If a fixed rate execution is desired, simply change the property name specified
within the annotation. The following would be executed every 5 seconds measured
between the successive start times of each invocation.

@Scheduled(fixedRate=5000)
public void doSomething() {
// something that should execute periodically

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}

If simple periodic scheduling is not expressive enough, then a cron expression

may be provided. For example, the following will only execute on weekdays.

@Scheduled(cron="*/5 * * * * MON-FRI")
public void doSomething() {
// something that should execute on weekdays only
}

Notice that the methods to be scheduled must have void returns and must not expect any arguments. If
the method needs to interact with other objects from the Application Context, then those would
typically have been provided through dependency injection.

Note

Make sure that you are not initializing multiple instances of the same @Scheduled annotation
class at runtime, unless you do want to schedule callbacks to each such instance. Related to this,
make sure that you do not use @Configurable on bean classes which are annotated with
@Scheduled and registered as regular Spring beans with the container: You would get double
initialization otherwise, once through the container and once through the @Configurable aspect,
with the consequence of each @Scheduled method being invoked twice.

25.5.2 The @Async Annotation

The @Async annotation can be provided on a method so that invocation of that

method will occur asynchronously. In other words, the caller will return immediately
upon invocation and the actual execution of the method will occur in a task that
has been submitted to a Spring TaskExecutor. In the simplest case, the annotation
may be applied to a void-returning method.

@Async
void doSomething() {
// this will be executed asynchronously
}

Unlike the methods annotated with the @Scheduled annotation, these methods can

expect arguments, because they will be invoked in the "normal" way by callers at
runtime rather than from a scheduled task being managed by the container. For
example, the following is a legitimate application of the @Async annotation.

@Async

792
void doSomething(String s) {
// this will be executed asynchronously
}

Even methods that return a value can be invoked asynchronously. However, such
methods are required to have a Future typed return value. This still provides the
benefit of asynchronous execution so that the caller can perform other tasks prior
to calling get() on that Future.

@Async
Future<String> returnSomething(int i) {
// this will be executed asynchronously
}

@Async can not be used in conjunction with lifecycle callbacks such

as @PostConstruct. To asynchonously initialize Spring beans you currently have to
use a separate initializing Spring bean that invokes the @Async annotated method
on the target then.

public class SampleBeanImpl implements SampleBean {

@Async
void doSomething() { … }
}

public class SampleBeanInititalizer {

private final SampleBean bean;

public SampleBeanInitializer(SampleBean bean) {

this.bean = bean;
}

@PostConstruct
public void initialize() {
bean.doSomething();
}
}

25.5.3 The <annotation-driven> Element

To enable both @Scheduled and @Async annotations, simply include the

'annotation-driven' element from the task namespace in your configuration.

793
<task:annotation-driven executor="myExecutor" scheduler="myScheduler"/>

<task:executor id="myExecutor" pool-size="5"/>

<task:scheduler id="myScheduler" pool-size="10"/>}

Notice that an executor reference is provided for handling those tasks that
correspond to methods with the @Async annotation, and the scheduler reference
is provided for managing those methods annotated with @Scheduled.

25.6 Using the OpenSymphony Quartz Scheduler

Quartz uses Trigger, Job and JobDetail objects to realize scheduling of all kinds of

jobs. For the basic concepts behind Quartz, have a look
athttp://www.opensymphony.com/quartz. For convenience purposes, Spring offers
a couple of classes that simplify the usage of Quartz within Spring-based
applications.

25.6.1 Using the JobDetailBean

JobDetail objectscontain all information needed to run a job. The Spring

Framework provides a JobDetailBean that makes the JobDetail more of an actual
JavaBean with sensible defaults. Let's have a look at an example:

<bean name="exampleJob"
class="org.springframework.scheduling.quartz.JobDetailBean">
<property name="jobClass" value="example.ExampleJob" />
<property name="jobDataAsMap">
<map>
<entry key="timeout" value="5" />
</map>
</property>
</bean>

The job detail bean has all information it needs to run the job ( ExampleJob). The
timeout is specified in the job data map. The job data map is available through
the JobExecutionContext (passed to you at execution time), but
the JobDetailBean also maps the properties from the job data map to properties of
the actual job. So in this case, if the ExampleJob contains a property named timeout,
the JobDetailBean will automatically apply it:

package example;

794
public class ExampleJob extends QuartzJobBean {

private int timeout;

/**
* Setter called after the ExampleJob is instantiated
* with the value from the JobDetailBean (5)
*/
public void setTimeout(int timeout) {
this.timeout = timeout;
}

protected void executeInternal(JobExecutionContext ctx) throws

JobExecutionException {
// do the actual work
}
}

All additional settings from the job detail bean are of course available to you as
well.

Note: Using the  name and  group properties, you can modify the name and the
group of the job, respectively. By default, the name of the job matches the bean
name of the job detail bean (in the example above, this is  exampleJob).

25.6.2 Using the MethodInvokingJobDetailFactoryBean

Often you just need to invoke a method on a specific object. Using

the MethodInvokingJobDetailFactoryBean you can do exactly this:

<bean id="jobDetail"
class="org.springframework.scheduling.quartz.MethodInvokingJobDetailFactoryBean">
<property name="targetObject" ref="exampleBusinessObject" />
<property name="targetMethod" value="doIt" />
</bean>

The above example will result in the doIt method being called on

the exampleBusinessObject method (see below):

public class ExampleBusinessObject {

// properties and collaborators

public void doIt() {

// do the actual work
}
}

795
<bean id="exampleBusinessObject" class="examples.ExampleBusinessObject"/>

Using the MethodInvokingJobDetailFactoryBean, you don't need to create one-line

jobs that just invoke a method, and you only need to create the actual business
object and wire up the detail object.

By default, Quartz Jobs are stateless, resulting in the possibility of jobs interfering
with each other. If you specify two triggers for the same JobDetail, it might be
possible that before the first job has finished, the second one will start.
If JobDetail classes implement the Statefulinterface, this won't happen. The
second job will not start before the first one has finished. To make jobs resulting
from theMethodInvokingJobDetailFactoryBean non-concurrent, set the concurrent flag
to false.

<bean id="jobDetail"
class="org.springframework.scheduling.quartz.MethodInvokingJobDetailFactoryBean">
<property name="targetObject" ref="exampleBusinessObject" />
<property name="targetMethod" value="doIt" />
<property name="concurrent" value="false" />
</bean>

Note

By default, jobs will run in a concurrent fashion.

25.6.3 Wiring up jobs using triggers and the SchedulerFactoryBean

We've created job details and jobs. We've also reviewed the convenience bean
that allows you to invoke a method on a specific object. Of course, we still need to
schedule the jobs themselves. This is done using triggers and
a SchedulerFactoryBean. Several triggers are available within Quartz. Spring offers
two subclassed triggers with convenient
defaults: CronTriggerBean and SimpleTriggerBean.

Triggers need to be scheduled. Spring offers a SchedulerFactoryBean that exposes

triggers to be set as properties. SchedulerFactoryBeanschedules the actual jobs with
those triggers.

Find below a couple of examples:

<bean id="simpleTrigger"
class="org.springframework.scheduling.quartz.SimpleTriggerBean">
<!-- see the example of method invoking job above -->

796
 <property name="jobDetail" ref="jobDetail" />
<!-- 10 seconds -->
<property name="startDelay" value="10000" />
<!-- repeat every 50 seconds -->
<property name="repeatInterval" value="50000" />
</bean>

<bean id="cronTrigger"
class="org.springframework.scheduling.quartz.CronTriggerBean">
<property name="jobDetail" ref="exampleJob" />
<!-- run every morning at 6 AM -->
<property name="cronExpression" value="0 0 6 * * ?" />
</bean>

Now we've set up two triggers, one running every 50 seconds with a starting delay
of 10 seconds and one every morning at 6 AM. To finalize everything, we need to
set up the SchedulerFactoryBean:

<bean class="org.springframework.scheduling.quartz.SchedulerFactoryBean">
<property name="triggers">
<list>
<ref bean="cronTrigger" />
<ref bean="simpleTrigger" />
</list>
</property>
</bean>

More properties are available for the SchedulerFactoryBean for you to set, such as

the calendars used by the job details, properties to customize Quartz with, etc.
Have a look at the SchedulerFactoryBean Javadoc for more information.

25.7 Using JDK Timer support

The other way to schedule jobs in Spring is to use JDK Timer objects. You can
create custom timers or use the timer that invokes methods. Wiring timers is done
using the TimerFactoryBean.

25.7.1 Creating custom timers

Using the TimerTask you can create customer timer tasks, similar to Quartz jobs:

public class CheckEmailAddresses extends TimerTask {

private List emailAddresses;

public void setEmailAddresses(List emailAddresses) {

797
 this.emailAddresses = emailAddresses;
}

public void run() {

// iterate over all email addresses and archive them
}
}

Wiring it up is simple:

<bean id="checkEmail" class="examples.CheckEmailAddress">

<property name="emailAddresses">
<list>
<value>test@springframework.org</value>
<value>foo@bar.com</value>
<value>john@doe.net</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="scheduledTask"
class="org.springframework.scheduling.timer.ScheduledTimerTask">
<!-- wait 10 seconds before starting repeated execution -->
<property name="delay" value="10000" />
<!-- run every 50 seconds -->
<property name="period" value="50000" />
<property name="timerTask" ref="checkEmail" />
</bean>

Note that letting the task only run once can be done by changing
the  period property to 0 (or a negative value).

25.7.2 Using the MethodInvokingTimerTaskFactoryBean

Similar to the Quartz support, the Timer support also features a component that

allows you to periodically invoke a method:

<bean id="doIt"
class="org.springframework.scheduling.timer.MethodInvokingTimerTaskFactoryBean">
<property name="targetObject" ref="exampleBusinessObject" />
<property name="targetMethod" value="doIt" />
</bean>

The above example will result in the doIt method being called on

the exampleBusinessObject (see below):

798
public class BusinessObject {

// properties and collaborators

public void doIt() {

// do the actual work
}
}

Changing the timerTask reference of the ScheduledTimerTask example to the

bean doIt will result in the doIt method being executed on a fixed schedule.

25.7.3 Wrapping up: setting up the tasks using the TimerFactoryBean

The TimerFactoryBean is similar to the Quartz SchedulerFactoryBean in that it serves

the same purpose: setting up the actual scheduling. TheTimerFactoryBean sets up
an actual Timer and schedules the tasks it has references to. You can specify
whether or not daemon threads should be used.

<bean id="timerFactory"
class="org.springframework.scheduling.timer.TimerFactoryBean">
<property name="scheduledTimerTasks">
<list>
<!-- see the example above -->
<ref bean="scheduledTask" />
</list>
</property>
</bean>

26. Dynamic language support

26.1 Introduction
Why only these languages?

The supported languages were chosen because a) the languages have a lot of traction in the Java
enterprise community, b) no requests were made for other languages within the Spring 2.0 development
timeframe, and c) the Spring developers were most familiar with them.

There is nothing stopping the inclusion of further languages though. If you want to see support for < insert
your favourite dynamic language here>, you can always raise an issue on Spring's JIRA page (or
implement such support yourself).

Spring 2.0 introduces comprehensive support for using classes and objects that
have been defined using a dynamic language (such as JRuby) with Spring. This
support allows you to write any number of classes in a supported dynamic

799
language, and have the Spring container transparently instantiate, configure and
dependency inject the resulting objects.

The dynamic languages currently supported are:

 JRuby 0.9 / 1.0

 Groovy 1.0 / 1.5

 BeanShell 2.0

Fully working examples of where this dynamic language support can be

immediately useful are described in Section 26.4, “Scenarios”.

Note: Only the specific versions as listed above are supported in Spring 2.5. In
particular, JRuby 1.1 (which introduced many incompatible API changes)
is not supported at this point of time.

26.2 A first example

This bulk of this chapter is concerned with describing the dynamic language support in detail. Before
diving into all of the ins and outs of the dynamic language support, let's look at a quick example of a
bean defined in a dynamic language. The dynamic language for this first bean is Groovy (the basis of
this example was taken from the Spring test suite, so if you want to see equivalent examples in any of
the other supported languages, take a look at the source code).

Find below the Messenger interface that the Groovy bean is going to be implementing, and note that
this interface is defined in plain Java. Dependent objects that are injected with a reference to the
Messenger won't know that the underlying implementation is a Groovy script.

package org.springframework.scripting;

public interface Messenger {

String getMessage();
}
Here is the definition of a class that has a dependency on the Messenger interface.

package org.springframework.scripting;

public class DefaultBookingService implements BookingService {

private Messenger messenger;

public void setMessenger(Messenger messenger) {

this.messenger = messenger;

800
 }

public void processBooking() {

// use the injected Messenger object...
}
}
Here is an implementation of the Messenger interface in Groovy.

// from the file 'Messenger.groovy'

package org.springframework.scripting.groovy;

// import the Messenger interface (written in Java) that is to be implemented

import org.springframework.scripting.Messenger

// define the implementation in Groovy

class GroovyMessenger implements Messenger {

String message
}
Finally, here are the bean definitions that will effect the injection of the Groovy-defined Messenger
implementation into an instance of the DefaultBookingService class.

Note
To use the custom dynamic language tags to define dynamic-language-backed beans, you need to have
the XML Schema preamble at the top of your Spring XML configuration file. You also need to be
using a Spring ApplicationContext implementation as your IoC container. Using the dynamic-
language-backed beans with a plain BeanFactory implementation is supported, but you have to
manage the plumbing of the Spring internals to do so.

For more information on schema-based configuration, see Appendix C, XML Schema-based

configuration.

<?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-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang/spring-
lang-3.0.xsd">

<!-- this is the bean definition for the Groovy-backed Messenger implementation -->
<lang:groovy id="messenger" script-source="classpath:Messenger.groovy">
<lang:property name="message" value="I Can Do The Frug" />
</lang:groovy>

801
 <!-- an otherwise normal bean that will be injected by the Groovy-backed Messenger -->
<bean id="bookingService" class="x.y.DefaultBookingService">
<property name="messenger" ref="messenger" />
</bean>

</beans>
The bookingService bean (a DefaultBookingService) can now use its private messenger member
variable as normal because the Messenger instance that was injected into it is a Messenger instance.
There is nothing special going on here, just plain Java and plain Groovy.

Hopefully the above XML snippet is self-explanatory, but don't worry unduly if it isn't. Keep reading
for the in-depth detail on the whys and wherefores of the above configuration.

26.3 Defining beans that are backed by dynamic languages

This section describes exactly how you define Spring managed beans in any of the supported dynamic
languages.

Please note that this chapter does not attempt to explain the syntax and idioms of the supported
dynamic languages. For example, if you want to use Groovy to write certain of the classes in your
application, then the assumption is that you already know Groovy. If you need further details about the
dynamic languages themselves, please consult Section 26.6, “Further Resources” at the end of this
chapter.

26.3.1 Common concepts

The steps involved in using dynamic-language-backed beans are as follows:

Write the test for the dynamic language source code (naturally)

Then write the dynamic language source code itself :)

Define your dynamic-language-backed beans using the appropriate <lang:language/> element in the
XML configuration (you can of course define such beans programmatically using the Spring API -
although you will have to consult the source code for directions on how to do this as this type of
advanced configuration is not covered in this chapter). Note this is an iterative step. You will need at
least one bean definition per dynamic language source file (although the same dynamic language
source file can of course be referenced by multiple bean definitions).

The first two steps (testing and writing your dynamic language source files) are beyond the scope of
this chapter. Refer to the language specification and / or reference manual for your chosen dynamic
language and crack on with developing your dynamic language source files. You will first want to read
the rest of this chapter though, as Spring's dynamic language support does make some (small)
assumptions about the contents of your dynamic language source files.

802
26.3.1.1 The <lang:language/> element

XML Schema

All of the configuration examples in this chapter make use of the new XML Schema support that was
added in Spring 2.0.

It is possible to forego the use of XML Schema and stick with the old-style DTD based validation of
your Spring XML files, but then you lose out on the convenience offered by the <lang:language/>
element. See the Spring test suite for examples of the older style configuration that doesn't require
XML Schema-based validation (it is quite verbose and doesn't hide any of the underlying Spring
implementation from you).

The final step involves defining dynamic-language-backed bean definitions, one for each bean that
you want to configure (this is no different from normal JavaBean configuration). However, instead of
specifying the fully qualified classname of the class that is to be instantiated and configured by the
container, you use the <lang:language/> element to define the dynamic language-backed bean.

Each of the supported languages has a corresponding <lang:language/> element:

<lang:jruby/> (JRuby)

<lang:groovy/> (Groovy)

<lang:bsh/> (BeanShell)

The exact attributes and child elements that are available for configuration depends on exactly which
language the bean has been defined in (the language-specific sections below provide the full lowdown
on this).

26.3.1.2 Refreshable beans

One of the (if not the) most compelling value adds of the dynamic language support in Spring is the
'refreshable bean' feature.

A refreshable bean is a dynamic-language-backed bean that with a small amount of configuration, a

dynamic-language-backed bean can monitor changes in its underlying source file resource, and then
reload itself when the dynamic language source file is changed (for example when a developer edits
and saves changes to the file on the filesystem).

This allows a developer to deploy any number of dynamic language source files as part of an
application, configure the Spring container to create beans backed by dynamic language source files
(using the mechanisms described in this chapter), and then later, as requirements change or some other
external factor comes into play, simply edit a dynamic language source file and have any change they
make reflected in the bean that is backed by the changed dynamic language source file. There is no
need to shut down a running application (or redeploy in the case of a web application). The dynamic-

803
language-backed bean so amended will pick up the new state and logic from the changed dynamic
language source file.

Note
Please note that this feature is off by default.

Let's take a look at an example to see just how easy it is to start using refreshable beans. To turn on the
refreshable beans feature, you simply have to specify exactly one additional attribute on the
<lang:language/> element of your bean definition. So if we stick with the example from earlier in this
chapter, here's what we would change in the Spring XML configuration to effect refreshable beans:

<beans>

<!-- this bean is now 'refreshable' due to the presence of the 'refresh-check-delay' attribute -->
<lang:groovy id="messenger"
refresh-check-delay="5000" <!-- switches refreshing on with 5 seconds between checks -->
script-source="classpath:Messenger.groovy">
<lang:property name="message" value="I Can Do The Frug" />
</lang:groovy>

<bean id="bookingService" class="x.y.DefaultBookingService">

<property name="messenger" ref="messenger" />
</bean>

</beans>
That really is all you have to do. The 'refresh-check-delay' attribute defined on the 'messenger' bean
definition is the number of milliseconds after which the bean will be refreshed with any changes made
to the underlying dynamic language source file. You can turn off the refresh behavior by assigning a
negative value to the 'refresh-check-delay' attribute. Remember that, by default, the refresh behavior is
disabled. If you don't want the refresh behavior, then simply don't define the attribute.

If we then run the following application we can exercise the refreshable feature; please do excuse the
'jumping-through-hoops-to-pause-the-execution' shenanigans in this next slice of code. The
System.in.read() call is only there so that the execution of the program pauses while I (the author) go
off and edit the underlying dynamic language source file so that the refresh will trigger on the
dynamic-language-backed bean when the program resumes execution.

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("beans.xml");

804
 Messenger messenger = (Messenger) ctx.getBean("messenger");
System.out.println(messenger.getMessage());
// pause execution while I go off and make changes to the source file...
System.in.read();
System.out.println(messenger.getMessage());
}
}
Let's assume then, for the purposes of this example, that all calls to the getMessage() method of
Messenger implementations have to be changed such that the message is surrounded by quotes. Below
are the changes that I (the author) make to the Messenger.groovy source file when the execution of the
program is paused.

package org.springframework.scripting

class GroovyMessenger implements Messenger {

private String message = "Bingo"

public String getMessage() {

// change the implementation to surround the message in quotes
return "'" + this.message + "'"
}

public void setMessage(String message) {

this.message = message
}
}
When the program executes, the output before the input pause will be I Can Do The Frug. After the
change to the source file is made and saved, and the program resumes execution, the result of calling
the getMessage() method on the dynamic-language-backed Messenger implementation will be 'I Can
Do The Frug' (notice the inclusion of the additional quotes).

It is important to understand that changes to a script will not trigger a refresh if the changes occur
within the window of the 'refresh-check-delay' value. It is equally important to understand that
changes to the script are not actually 'picked up' until a method is called on the dynamic-language-
backed bean. It is only when a method is called on a dynamic-language-backed bean that it checks to
see if its underlying script source has changed. Any exceptions relating to refreshing the script (such as
encountering a compilation error, or finding that the script file has been deleted) will result in a fatal
exception being propagated to the calling code.

The refreshable bean behavior described above does not apply to dynamic language source files
defined using the <lang:inline-script/> element notation (see Section 26.3.1.3, “Inline dynamic
language source files”). Additionally, it only applies to beans where changes to the underlying source
file can actually be detected; for example, by code that checks the last modified date of a dynamic
language source file that exists on the filesystem.

805
26.3.1.3 Inline dynamic language source files

The dynamic language support can also cater for dynamic language source files that are embedded
directly in Spring bean definitions. More specifically, the <lang:inline-script/> element allows you to
define dynamic language source immediately inside a Spring configuration file. An example will
perhaps make the inline script feature crystal clear:

<lang:groovy id="messenger">
<lang:inline-script>
package org.springframework.scripting.groovy;

import org.springframework.scripting.Messenger

class GroovyMessenger implements Messenger {

String message
}
</lang:inline-script>
<lang:property name="message" value="I Can Do The Frug" />
</lang:groovy>
If we put to one side the issues surrounding whether it is good practice to define dynamic language
source inside a Spring configuration file, the <lang:inline-script/> element can be useful in some
scenarios. For instance, we might want to quickly add a Spring Validator implementation to a Spring
MVC Controller. This is but a moment's work using inline source. (See Section 26.4.2, “Scripted
Validators” for such an example.)

Find below an example of defining the source for a JRuby-based bean directly in a Spring XML
configuration file using the inline: notation. (Notice the use of the &lt; characters to denote a '<'
character. In such a case surrounding the inline source in a <![CDATA[]]> region might be better.)

<lang:jruby id="messenger" script-interfaces="org.springframework.scripting.Messenger">

<lang:inline-script>
require 'java'

include_class 'org.springframework.scripting.Messenger'

class RubyMessenger &lt; Messenger

def setMessage(message)
@@message = message
end

def getMessage
@@message
end

806
end
</lang:inline-script>
<lang:property name="message" value="Hello World!" />
</lang:jruby>
26.3.1.4 Understanding Constructor Injection in the context of dynamic-language-backed beans

There is one very important thing to be aware of with regard to Spring's dynamic language support.
Namely, it is not (currently) possible to supply constructor arguments to dynamic-language-backed
beans (and hence constructor-injection is not available for dynamic-language-backed beans). In the
interests of making this special handling of constructors and properties 100% clear, the following
mixture of code and configuration will not work.

// from the file 'Messenger.groovy'

package org.springframework.scripting.groovy;

import org.springframework.scripting.Messenger

class GroovyMessenger implements Messenger {

GroovyMessenger() {}

// this constructor is not available for Constructor Injection

GroovyMessenger(String message) {
this.message = message;
}

String message

String anotherMessage
}
<lang:groovy id="badMessenger"
script-source="classpath:Messenger.groovy">

<!-- this next constructor argument will *not* be injected into the GroovyMessenger -->
<!-- in fact, this isn't even allowed according to the schema -->
<constructor-arg value="This will *not* work" />

<!-- only property values are injected into the dynamic-language-backed object -->
<lang:property name="anotherMessage" value="Passed straight through to the dynamic-language-
backed object" />

</lang>
In practice this limitation is not as significant as it first appears since setter injection is the injection
style favored by the overwhelming majority of developers anyway (let's leave the discussion as to
whether that is a good thing to another day).

807
26.3.2 JRuby beans

The JRuby library dependencies

The JRuby scripting support in Spring requires the following libraries to be on the classpath of your
application. (The versions listed just happen to be the versions that the Spring team used in the
development of the JRuby scripting support; you may well be able to use another version of a specific
library.)

jruby.jar

cglib-nodep-2.1_3.jar

From the JRuby homepage...

“ JRuby is an 100% pure-Java implementation of the Ruby programming language. ”

In keeping with the Spring philosophy of offering choice, Spring's dynamic language support also
supports beans defined in the JRuby language. The JRuby language is based on the quite intuitive
Ruby language, and has support for inline regular expressions, blocks (closures), and a whole host of
other features that do make solutions for some domain problems a whole lot easier to develop.

The implementation of the JRuby dynamic language support in Spring is interesting in that what
happens is this: Spring creates a JDK dynamic proxy implementing all of the interfaces that are
specified in the 'script-interfaces' attribute value of the <lang:ruby> element (this is why you must
supply at least one interface in the value of the attribute, and (accordingly) program to interfaces when
using JRuby-backed beans).

Let us look at a fully working example of using a JRuby-based bean. Here is the JRuby
implementation of the Messenger interface that was defined earlier in this chapter (for your
convenience it is repeated below).

package org.springframework.scripting;

public interface Messenger {

String getMessage();
}
require 'java'

class RubyMessenger
include org.springframework.scripting.Messenger

def setMessage(message)
@@message = message
end

808
 def getMessage
@@message
end
end

# this last line is not essential (but see below)

RubyMessenger.new
And here is the Spring XML that defines an instance of the RubyMessenger JRuby bean.

<lang:jruby id="messageService"
script-interfaces="org.springframework.scripting.Messenger"
script-source="classpath:RubyMessenger.rb">

<lang:property name="message" value="Hello World!" />

</lang:jruby>
Take note of the last line of that JRuby source ('RubyMessenger.new'). When using JRuby in the
context of Spring's dynamic language support, you are encouraged to instantiate and return a new
instance of the JRuby class that you want to use as a dynamic-language-backed bean as the result of
the execution of your JRuby source. You can achieve this by simply instantiating a new instance of
your JRuby class on the last line of the source file like so:

require 'java'

include_class 'org.springframework.scripting.Messenger'

# class definition same as above...

# instantiate and return a new instance of the RubyMessenger class

RubyMessenger.new
If you forget to do this, it is not the end of the world; this will however result in Spring having to trawl
(reflectively) through the type representation of your JRuby class looking for a class to instantiate. In
the grand scheme of things this will be so fast that you'll never notice it, but it is something that can be
avoided by simply having a line such as the one above as the last line of your JRuby script. If you
don't supply such a line, or if Spring cannot find a JRuby class in your script to instantiate then an
opaque ScriptCompilationException will be thrown immediately after the source is executed by the
JRuby interpreter. The key text that identifies this as the root cause of an exception can be found
immediately below (so if your Spring container throws the following exception when creating your
dynamic-language-backed bean and the following text is there in the corresponding stacktrace, this
will hopefully allow you to identify and then easily rectify the issue):

org.springframework.scripting.ScriptCompilationException: Compilation of JRuby script returned ''

To rectify this, simply instantiate a new instance of whichever class you want to expose as a JRuby-
dynamic-language-backed bean (as shown above). Please also note that you can actually define as
many classes and objects as you want in your JRuby script; what is important is that the source file as
a whole must return an object (for Spring to configure).

809
See Section 26.4, “Scenarios” for some scenarios where you might want to use JRuby-based beans.

26.3.3 Groovy beans

The Groovy library dependencies

The Groovy scripting support in Spring requires the following libraries to be on the classpath of your
application.

groovy-1.5.5.jar

asm-2.2.2.jar

antlr-2.7.6.jar

From the Groovy homepage...

“ Groovy is an agile dynamic language for the Java 2 Platform that has many of the features that
people like so much in languages like Python, Ruby and Smalltalk, making them available to Java
developers using a Java-like syntax. ”
If you have read this chapter straight from the top, you will already have seen an example of a
Groovy-dynamic-language-backed bean. Let's look at another example (again using an example from
the Spring test suite).

package org.springframework.scripting;

public interface Calculator {

int add(int x, int y);

}
Here is an implementation of the Calculator interface in Groovy.

// from the file 'calculator.groovy'

package org.springframework.scripting.groovy

class GroovyCalculator implements Calculator {

int add(int x, int y) {

x+y
}
}
<-- from the file 'beans.xml' -->
<beans>
<lang:groovy id="calculator" script-source="classpath:calculator.groovy"/>
</beans>

810
Lastly, here is a small application to exercise the above configuration.

package org.springframework.scripting;

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

public class Main {

public static void Main(String[] args) {

ApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("beans.xml");
Calculator calc = (Calculator) ctx.getBean("calculator");
System.out.println(calc.add(2, 8));
}
}
The resulting output from running the above program will be (unsurprisingly) 10. (Exciting example,
huh? Remember that the intent is to illustrate the concept. Please consult the dynamic language
showcase project for a more complex example, or indeed Section 26.4, “Scenarios” later in this
chapter).

It is important that you do not define more than one class per Groovy source file. While this is
perfectly legal in Groovy, it is (arguably) a bad practice: in the interests of a consistent approach, you
should (in the opinion of this author) respect the standard Java conventions of one (public) class per
source file.

26.3.3.1 Customising Groovy objects via a callback

The GroovyObjectCustomizer interface is a callback that allows you to hook additional creation logic
into the process of creating a Groovy-backed bean. For example, implementations of this interface
could invoke any required initialization method(s), or set some default property values, or specify a
custom MetaClass.

public interface GroovyObjectCustomizer {

void customize(GroovyObject goo);

}
The Spring Framework will instantiate an instance of your Groovy-backed bean, and will then pass the
created GroovyObject to the specified GroovyObjectCustomizer if one has been defined. You can do
whatever you like with the supplied GroovyObject reference: it is expected that the setting of a custom
MetaClass is what most folks will want to do with this callback, and you can see an example of doing
that below.

public final class SimpleMethodTracingCustomizer implements GroovyObjectCustomizer {

public void customize(GroovyObject goo) {

DelegatingMetaClass metaClass = new DelegatingMetaClass(goo.getMetaClass()) {

811
 public Object invokeMethod(Object object, String methodName, Object[] arguments) {
System.out.println("Invoking '" + methodName + "'.");
return super.invokeMethod(object, methodName, arguments);
}
};
metaClass.initialize();
goo.setMetaClass(metaClass);
}
}
A full discussion of meta-programming in Groovy is beyond the scope of the Spring reference manual.
Consult the relevant section of the Groovy reference manual, or do a search online: there are plenty of
articles concerning this topic. Actually making use of a GroovyObjectCustomizer is easy if you are
using the Spring 2.0 namespace support.

<!-- define the GroovyObjectCustomizer just like any other bean -->
<bean id="tracingCustomizer" class="example.SimpleMethodTracingCustomizer" />

<!-- ... and plug it into the desired Groovy bean via the 'customizer-ref' attribute -->
<lang:groovy id="calculator"
script-source="classpath:org/springframework/scripting/groovy/Calculator.groovy"
customizer-ref="tracingCustomizer" />
If you are not using the Spring 2.0 namespace support, you can still use the GroovyObjectCustomizer
functionality.

<bean id="calculator" class="org.springframework.scripting.groovy.GroovyScriptFactory">

<constructor-arg value="classpath:org/springframework/scripting/groovy/Calculator.groovy"/>
<!-- define the GroovyObjectCustomizer (as an inner bean) -->
<constructor-arg>
<bean id="tracingCustomizer" class="example.SimpleMethodTracingCustomizer" />
</constructor-arg>
</bean>

<bean class="org.springframework.scripting.support.ScriptFactoryPostProcessor"/>
26.3.4 BeanShell beans

The BeanShell library dependencies

The BeanShell scripting support in Spring requires the following libraries to be on the classpath of
your application.

bsh-2.0b4.jar

cglib-nodep-2.1_3.jar

812
All of these libraries are available in the Spring-with-dependencies distribution of Spring (in addition
to also being freely available on the web).

From the BeanShell homepage...

“ BeanShell is a small, free, embeddable Java source interpreter with dynamic language features,
written in Java. BeanShell dynamically executes standard Java syntax and extends it with common
scripting conveniences such as loose types, commands, and method closures like those in Perl and
JavaScript. ”
In contrast to Groovy, BeanShell-backed bean definitions require some (small) additional
configuration. The implementation of the BeanShell dynamic language support in Spring is interesting
in that what happens is this: Spring creates a JDK dynamic proxy implementing all of the interfaces
that are specified in the 'script-interfaces' attribute value of the <lang:bsh> element (this is why you
must supply at least one interface in the value of the attribute, and (accordingly) program to interfaces
when using BeanShell-backed beans). This means that every method call on a BeanShell-backed
object is going through the JDK dynamic proxy invocation mechanism.

Let's look at a fully working example of using a BeanShell-based bean that implements the Messenger
interface that was defined earlier in this chapter (repeated below for your convenience).

package org.springframework.scripting;

public interface Messenger {

String getMessage();
}
Here is the BeanShell 'implementation' (the term is used loosely here) of the Messenger interface.

String message;

String getMessage() {
return message;
}

void setMessage(String aMessage) {

message = aMessage;
}
And here is the Spring XML that defines an 'instance' of the above 'class' (again, the term is used very
loosely here).

<lang:bsh id="messageService" script-source="classpath:BshMessenger.bsh"

script-interfaces="org.springframework.scripting.Messenger">

<lang:property name="message" value="Hello World!" />

</lang:bsh>

813
See Section 26.4, “Scenarios” for some scenarios where you might want to use BeanShell-based
beans.

26.4 Scenarios

The possible scenarios where defining Spring managed beans in a scripting language would be
beneficial are, of course, many and varied. This section describes two possible use cases for the
dynamic language support in Spring.

26.4.1 Scripted Spring MVC Controllers

One group of classes that may benefit from using dynamic-language-backed beans is that of Spring
MVC controllers. In pure Spring MVC applications, the navigational flow through a web application
is to a large extent determined by code encapsulated within your Spring MVC controllers. As the
navigational flow and other presentation layer logic of a web application needs to be updated to
respond to support issues or changing business requirements, it may well be easier to effect any such
required changes by editing one or more dynamic language source files and seeing those changes
being immediately reflected in the state of a running application.

Remember that in the lightweight architectural model espoused by projects such as Spring, you are
typically aiming to have a really thin presentation layer, with all the meaty business logic of an
application being contained in the domain and service layer classes. Developing Spring MVC
controllers as dynamic-language-backed beans allows you to change presentation layer logic by
simply editing and saving text files; any changes to such dynamic language source files will
(depending on the configuration) automatically be reflected in the beans that are backed by dynamic
language source files.

Note
In order to effect this automatic 'pickup' of any changes to dynamic-language-backed beans, you will
have had to enable the 'refreshable beans' functionality. See Section 26.3.1.2, “Refreshable beans” for
a full treatment of this feature.

Find below an example of an org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.Controller implemented using the

Groovy dynamic language.

// from the file '/WEB-INF/groovy/FortuneController.groovy'

package org.springframework.showcase.fortune.web

import org.springframework.showcase.fortune.service.FortuneService
import org.springframework.showcase.fortune.domain.Fortune
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView
import org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.Controller

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse

814
class FortuneController implements Controller {

@Property FortuneService fortuneService

ModelAndView handleRequest(
HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse httpServletResponse) {

return new ModelAndView("tell", "fortune", this.fortuneService.tellFortune())

}
}
<lang:groovy id="fortune"
refresh-check-delay="3000"
script-source="/WEB-INF/groovy/FortuneController.groovy">
<lang:property name="fortuneService" ref="fortuneService"/>
</lang:groovy>
26.4.2 Scripted Validators

Another area of application development with Spring that may benefit from the flexibility afforded by
dynamic-language-backed beans is that of validation. It may be easier to express complex validation
logic using a loosely typed dynamic language (that may also have support for inline regular
expressions) as opposed to regular Java.

Again, developing validators as dynamic-language-backed beans allows you to change validation logic
by simply editing and saving a simple text file; any such changes will (depending on the
configuration) automatically be reflected in the execution of a running application and would not
require the restart of an application.

Note
Please note that in order to effect the automatic 'pickup' of any changes to dynamic-language-backed
beans, you will have had to enable the 'refreshable beans' feature. See Section 26.3.1.2, “Refreshable
beans” for a full and detailed treatment of this feature.

Find below an example of a Spring org.springframework.validation.Validator implemented using the

Groovy dynamic language. (See Section 5.2, “Validation using Spring's Validator interface” for a
discussion of the Validator interface.)

import org.springframework.validation.Validator
import org.springframework.validation.Errors
import org.springframework.beans.TestBean

class TestBeanValidator implements Validator {

boolean supports(Class clazz) {

return TestBean.class.isAssignableFrom(clazz)
}

815
 void validate(Object bean, Errors errors) {
if(bean.name?.trim()?.size() > 0) {
return
}
errors.reject("whitespace", "Cannot be composed wholly of whitespace.")
}
}
26.5 Bits and bobs

This last section contains some bits and bobs related to the dynamic language support.

26.5.1 AOP - advising scripted beans

It is possible to use the Spring AOP framework to advise scripted beans. The Spring AOP framework
actually is unaware that a bean that is being advised might be a scripted bean, so all of the AOP use
cases and functionality that you may be using or aim to use will work with scripted beans. There is just
one (small) thing that you need to be aware of when advising scripted beans... you cannot use class-
based proxies, you must use interface-based proxies.

You are of course not just limited to advising scripted beans... you can also write aspects themselves in
a supported dynamic language and use such beans to advise other Spring beans. This really would be
an advanced use of the dynamic language support though.

26.5.2 Scoping

In case it is not immediately obvious, scripted beans can of course be scoped just like any other bean.
The scope attribute on the various <lang:language/> elements allows you to control the scope of the
underlying scripted bean, just as it does with a regular bean. (The default scope is singleton, just as it
is with 'regular' beans.)

Find below an example of using the scope attribute to define a Groovy bean scoped as a prototype.

<?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-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang/spring-
lang-3.0.xsd">

<lang:groovy id="messenger" script-source="classpath:Messenger.groovy" scope="prototype">

<lang:property name="message" value="I Can Do The RoboCop" />
</lang:groovy>

816
 <bean id="bookingService" class="x.y.DefaultBookingService">
<property name="messenger" ref="messenger" />
</bean>

</beans>
See Section 3.5, “Bean scopes” in Chapter 3, The IoC container for a fuller discussion of the scoping
support in the Spring Framework.

26.6 Further Resources

Find below links to further resources about the various dynamic languages described in this chapter.

The JRuby homepage

The Groovy homepage

The BeanShell homepage

Some of the more active members of the Spring community have also added support for a number of
additional dynamic languages above and beyond the ones covered in this chapter. While it is possible
that such third party contributions may be added to the list of languages supported by the main Spring
distribution, your best bet for seeing if your favourite scripting language is supported is the Spring
Modules project.

Part VII. Appendices

Appendix A. Classic Spring Usage

This appendix discusses some classic Spring usage patterns as a reference for developers maintaining
legacy Spring applications. These usage patterns no longer reflect the recommended way of using
these features and the current recommended usage is covered in the respective sections of the
reference manual.

A.1 Classic ORM usage

This section documents the classic usage patterns that you might encounter in a legacy Spring
application. For the currently recommended usage patterns, please refer to the Chapter 13, Object
Relational Mapping (ORM) Data Access chapter.

A.1.1 Hibernate

For the currently recommended usage patterns for Hibernate see Section 13.3, “Hibernate”

A.1.1.1 The HibernateTemplate

817
The basic programming model for templating looks as follows, for methods that can be part of any
custom data access object or business service. There are no restrictions on the implementation of the
surrounding object at all, it just needs to provide a Hibernate SessionFactory. It can get the latter from
anywhere, but preferably as bean reference from a Spring IoC container - via a simple
setSessionFactory(..) bean property setter. The following snippets show a DAO definition in a Spring
container, referencing the above defined SessionFactory, and an example for a DAO method
implementation.

<beans>

<bean id="myProductDao" class="product.ProductDaoImpl">

<property name="sessionFactory" ref="mySessionFactory"/>
</bean>

</beans>
public class ProductDaoImpl implements ProductDao {

private HibernateTemplate hibernateTemplate;

public void setSessionFactory(SessionFactory sessionFactory) {

this.hibernateTemplate = new HibernateTemplate(sessionFactory);
}

public Collection loadProductsByCategory(String category) throws DataAccessException {

return this.hibernateTemplate.find("from test.Product product where product.category=?",
category);
}
}
The HibernateTemplate class provides many methods that mirror the methods exposed on the
Hibernate Session interface, in addition to a number of convenience methods such as the one shown
above. If you need access to the Session to invoke methods that are not exposed on the
HibernateTemplate, you can always drop down to a callback-based approach like so.

public class ProductDaoImpl implements ProductDao {

private HibernateTemplate hibernateTemplate;

public void setSessionFactory(SessionFactory sessionFactory) {

this.hibernateTemplate = new HibernateTemplate(sessionFactory);
}

public Collection loadProductsByCategory(final String category) throws DataAccessException {

return this.hibernateTemplate.execute(new HibernateCallback() {

public Object doInHibernate(Session session) {

Criteria criteria = session.createCriteria(Product.class);

818
 criteria.add(Expression.eq("category", category));
criteria.setMaxResults(6);
return criteria.list();
}
};
}
}
A callback implementation effectively can be used for any Hibernate data access. HibernateTemplate
will ensure that Session instances are properly opened and closed, and automatically participate in
transactions. The template instances are thread-safe and reusable, they can thus be kept as instance
variables of the surrounding class. For simple single step actions like a single find, load,
saveOrUpdate, or delete call, HibernateTemplate offers alternative convenience methods that can
replace such one line callback implementations. Furthermore, Spring provides a convenient
HibernateDaoSupport base class that provides a setSessionFactory(..) method for receiving a
SessionFactory, and getSessionFactory() and getHibernateTemplate()for use by subclasses. In
combination, this allows for very simple DAO implementations for typical requirements:

public class ProductDaoImpl extends HibernateDaoSupport implements ProductDao {

public Collection loadProductsByCategory(String category) throws DataAccessException {

return this.getHibernateTemplate().find(
"from test.Product product where product.category=?", category);
}
}
A.1.1.2 Implementing Spring-based DAOs without callbacks

As alternative to using Spring's HibernateTemplate to implement DAOs, data access code can also be
written in a more traditional fashion, without wrapping the Hibernate access code in a callback, while
still respecting and participating in Spring's generic DataAccessException hierarchy. The
HibernateDaoSupport base class offers methods to access the current transactional Session and to
convert exceptions in such a scenario; similar methods are also available as static helpers on the
SessionFactoryUtils class. Note that such code will usually pass 'false' as the value of the
getSession(..) methods 'allowCreate' argument, to enforce running within a transaction (which avoids
the need to close the returned Session, as its lifecycle is managed by the transaction).

public class HibernateProductDao extends HibernateDaoSupport implements ProductDao {

public Collection loadProductsByCategory(String category) throws DataAccessException,

MyException {
Session session = getSession(false);
try {
Query query = session.createQuery("from test.Product product where product.category=?");
query.setString(0, category);
List result = query.list();
if (result == null) {
throw new MyException("No search results.");

819
 }
return result;
}
catch (HibernateException ex) {
throw convertHibernateAccessException(ex);
}
}
}
The advantage of such direct Hibernate access code is that it allows any checked application exception
to be thrown within the data access code; contrast this to the HibernateTemplate class which is
restricted to throwing only unchecked exceptions within the callback. Note that you can often defer the
corresponding checks and the throwing of application exceptions to after the callback, which still
allows working with HibernateTemplate. In general, the HibernateTemplate class' convenience
methods are simpler and more convenient for many scenarios.

A.1.2 JDO

For the currently recommended usage patterns for JDO see Section 13.4, “JDO”

A.1.2.1 JdoTemplate and JdoDaoSupport

Each JDO-based DAO will then receive the PersistenceManagerFactory through dependency injection.
Such a DAO could be coded against plain JDO API, working with the given
PersistenceManagerFactory, but will usually rather be used with the Spring Framework's JdoTemplate:

<beans>

<bean id="myProductDao" class="product.ProductDaoImpl">

<property name="persistenceManagerFactory" ref="myPmf"/>
</bean>

</beans>
public class ProductDaoImpl implements ProductDao {

private JdoTemplate jdoTemplate;

public void setPersistenceManagerFactory(PersistenceManagerFactory pmf) {

this.jdoTemplate = new JdoTemplate(pmf);
}

public Collection loadProductsByCategory(final String category) throws DataAccessException {

return (Collection) this.jdoTemplate.execute(new JdoCallback() {
public Object doInJdo(PersistenceManager pm) throws JDOException {
Query query = pm.newQuery(Product.class, "category = pCategory");
query.declareParameters("String pCategory");
List result = query.execute(category);

820
 // do some further stuff with the result list
return result;
}
});
}
}
A callback implementation can effectively be used for any JDO data access. JdoTemplate will ensure
that PersistenceManagers are properly opened and closed, and automatically participate in
transactions. The template instances are thread-safe and reusable, they can thus be kept as instance
variables of the surrounding class. For simple single-step actions such as a single find, load,
makePersistent, or delete call, JdoTemplate offers alternative convenience methods that can replace
such one line callback implementations. Furthermore, Spring provides a convenient JdoDaoSupport
base class that provides a setPersistenceManagerFactory(..) method for receiving a
PersistenceManagerFactory, and getPersistenceManagerFactory() and getJdoTemplate() for use by
subclasses. In combination, this allows for very simple DAO implementations for typical
requirements:

public class ProductDaoImpl extends JdoDaoSupport implements ProductDao {

public Collection loadProductsByCategory(String category) throws DataAccessException {

return getJdoTemplate().find(
Product.class, "category = pCategory", "String category", new Object[] {category});
}
}
As alternative to working with Spring's JdoTemplate, you can also code Spring-based DAOs at the
JDO API level, explicitly opening and closing a PersistenceManager. As elaborated in the
corresponding Hibernate section, the main advantage of this approach is that your data access code is
able to throw checked exceptions. JdoDaoSupport offers a variety of support methods for this
scenario, for fetching and releasing a transactional PersistenceManager as well as for converting
exceptions.

A.1.3 JPA

For the currently recommended usage patterns for JPA see Section 13.5, “JPA”

A.1.3.1 JpaTemplate and JpaDaoSupport

Each JPA-based DAO will then receive a EntityManagerFactory via dependency injection. Such a
DAO can be coded against plain JPA and work with the given EntityManagerFactory or through
Spring's JpaTemplate:

<beans>

<bean id="myProductDao" class="product.ProductDaoImpl">

<property name="entityManagerFactory" ref="myEmf"/>
</bean>

821
</beans>
public class JpaProductDao implements ProductDao {

private JpaTemplate jpaTemplate;

public void setEntityManagerFactory(EntityManagerFactory emf) {

this.jpaTemplate = new JpaTemplate(emf);
}

public Collection loadProductsByCategory(final String category) throws DataAccessException {

return (Collection) this.jpaTemplate.execute(new JpaCallback() {
public Object doInJpa(EntityManager em) throws PersistenceException {
Query query = em.createQuery("from Product as p where p.category = :category");
query.setParameter("category", category);
List result = query.getResultList();
// do some further processing with the result list
return result;
}
});
}
}
The JpaCallback implementation allows any type of JPA data access. The JpaTemplate will ensure
that EntityManagers are properly opened and closed and automatically participate in transactions.
Moreover, the JpaTemplate properly handles exceptions, making sure resources are cleaned up and the
appropriate transactions rolled back. The template instances are thread-safe and reusable and they can
be kept as instance variable of the enclosing class. Note that JpaTemplate offers single-step actions
such as find, load, merge, etc along with alternative convenience methods that can replace one line
callback implementations.

Furthermore, Spring provides a convenient JpaDaoSupport base class that provides the
get/setEntityManagerFactory and getJpaTemplate() to be used by subclasses:

public class ProductDaoImpl extends JpaDaoSupport implements ProductDao {

public Collection loadProductsByCategory(String category) throws DataAccessException {

Map<String, String> params = new HashMap<String, String>();
params.put("category", category);
return getJpaTemplate().findByNamedParams("from Product as p where p.category = :category",
params);
}
}
Besides working with Spring's JpaTemplate, one can also code Spring-based DAOs against the JPA,
doing one's own explicit EntityManager handling. As also elaborated in the corresponding Hibernate
section, the main advantage of this approach is that your data access code is able to throw checked

822
exceptions. JpaDaoSupport offers a variety of support methods for this scenario, for retrieving and
releasing a transaction EntityManager, as well as for converting exceptions.

JpaTemplate mainly exists as a sibling of JdoTemplate and HibernateTemplate, offering the same style
for people used to it.

A.2 Classic Spring MVC

...

A.3 JMS Usage

One of the benefits of Spring's JMS support is to shield the user from differences between the JMS
1.0.2 and 1.1 APIs. (For a description of the differences between the two APIs see sidebar on Domain
Unification). Since it is now common to encounter only the JMS 1.1 API the use of classes that are
based on the JMS 1.0.2 API has been deprecated in Spring 3.0. This section describes Spring JMS
support for the JMS 1.0.2 deprecated classes.

Domain Unification

There are two major releases of the JMS specification, 1.0.2 and 1.1.

JMS 1.0.2 defined two types of messaging domains, point-to-point (Queues) and publish/subscribe
(Topics). The 1.0.2 API reflected these two messaging domains by providing a parallel class hierarchy
for each domain. As a result, a client application became domain specific in its use of the JMS API.
JMS 1.1 introduced the concept of domain unification that minimized both the functional differences
and client API differences between the two domains. As an example of a functional difference that
was removed, if you use a JMS 1.1 provider you can transactionally consume a message from one
domain and produce a message on the other using the same Session.

Note
The JMS 1.1 specification was released in April 2002 and incorporated as part of J2EE 1.4 in
November 2003. As a result, common J2EE 1.3 application servers which are still in widespread use
(such as BEA WebLogic 8.1 and IBM WebSphere 5.1) are based on JMS 1.0.2.

A.3.1 JmsTemplate

Located in the package org.springframework.jms.core the class JmsTemplate102 provides all of the
features of the JmsTemplate described the JMS chapter, but is based on the JMS 1.0.2 API instead of
the JMS 1.1 API. As a consequence, if you are using JmsTemplate102 you need to set the boolean
property pubSubDomain to configure the JmsTemplate with knowledge of what JMS domain is being
used. By default the value of this property is false, indicating that the point-to-point domain, Queues,
will be used.

A.3.2 Asynchronous Message Reception

823
MessageListenerAdapter's are used in conjunction with Spring's message listener containers to support
asynchronous message reception by exposing almost any class as a Message-driven POJO. If you are
using the JMS 1.0.2 API, you will want to use the 1.0.2 specific classes such as
MessageListenerAdapter102, SimpleMessageListenerContainer102, and
DefaultMessageListenerContainer102. These classes provide the same functionality as the JMS 1.1
based counterparts but rely only on the JMS 1.0.2 API.

A.3.3 Connections

The ConnectionFactory interface is part of the JMS specification and serves as the entry point for
working with JMS. Spring provides an implementation of the ConnectionFactory interface,
SingleConnectionFactory102, based on the JMS 1.0.2 API that will return the same Connection on all
createConnection() calls and ignore calls to close(). You will need to set the boolean property
pubSubDomain to indicate which messaging domain is used as SingleConnectionFactory102 will
always explicitly differentiate between a javax.jms.QueueConnection and a
javax.jmsTopicConnection.

A.3.4 Transaction Management

In a JMS 1.0.2 environment the class JmsTransactionManager102 provides support for managing JMS
transactions for a single Connection Factory. Please refer to the reference documentation on JMS
Transaction Management for more information on this functionality.

Appendix B. Classic Spring AOP Usage

In this appendix we discuss the lower-level Spring AOP APIs and the AOP support used in Spring 1.2
applications. For new applications, we recommend the use of the Spring 2.0 AOP support described in
the AOP chapter, but when working with existing applications, or when reading books and articles,
you may come across Spring 1.2 style examples. Spring 2.0 is fully backwards compatible with Spring
1.2 and everything described in this appendix is fully supported in Spring 2.0.

B.1 Pointcut API in Spring

Let's look at how Spring handles the crucial pointcut concept.

B.1.1 Concepts

Spring's pointcut model enables pointcut reuse independent of advice types. It's possible to target
different advice using the same pointcut.

The org.springframework.aop.Pointcut interface is the central interface, used to target advices to

particular classes and methods. The complete interface is shown below:

public interface Pointcut {

ClassFilter getClassFilter();

824
 MethodMatcher getMethodMatcher();

}
Splitting the Pointcut interface into two parts allows reuse of class and method matching parts, and
fine-grained composition operations (such as performing a "union" with another method matcher).

The ClassFilter interface is used to restrict the pointcut to a given set of target classes. If the matches()
method always returns true, all target classes will be matched:

public interface ClassFilter {

boolean matches(Class clazz);

}
The MethodMatcher interface is normally more important. The complete interface is shown below:

public interface MethodMatcher {

boolean matches(Method m, Class targetClass);

boolean isRuntime();

boolean matches(Method m, Class targetClass, Object[] args);

}
The matches(Method, Class) method is used to test whether this pointcut will ever match a given
method on a target class. This evaluation can be performed when an AOP proxy is created, to avoid
the need for a test on every method invocation. If the 2-argument matches method returns true for a
given method, and the isRuntime() method for the MethodMatcher returns true, the 3-argument
matches method will be invoked on every method invocation. This enables a pointcut to look at the
arguments passed to the method invocation immediately before the target advice is to execute.

Most MethodMatchers are static, meaning that their isRuntime() method returns false. In this case, the
3-argument matches method will never be invoked.

Tip
If possible, try to make pointcuts static, allowing the AOP framework to cache the results of pointcut
evaluation when an AOP proxy is created.

B.1.2 Operations on pointcuts

Spring supports operations on pointcuts: notably, union and intersection.

Union means the methods that either pointcut matches.

Intersection means the methods that both pointcuts match.

825
Union is usually more useful.

Pointcuts can be composed using the static methods in the org.springframework.aop.support.Pointcuts

class, or using the ComposablePointcut class in the same package. However, using AspectJ pointcut
expressions is usually a simpler approach.

B.1.3 AspectJ expression pointcuts

Since 2.0, the most important type of pointcut used by Spring is

org.springframework.aop.aspectj.AspectJExpressionPointcut. This is a pointcut that uses an AspectJ
supplied library to parse an AspectJ pointcut expression string.

See the previous chapter for a discussion of supported AspectJ pointcut primitives.

B.1.4 Convenience pointcut implementations

Spring provides several convenient pointcut implementations. Some can be used out of the box; others
are intended to be subclassed in application-specific pointcuts.

B.1.4.1 Static pointcuts

Static pointcuts are based on method and target class, and cannot take into account the method's
arguments. Static pointcuts are sufficient - and best - for most usages. It's possible for Spring to
evaluate a static pointcut only once, when a method is first invoked: after that, there is no need to
evaluate the pointcut again with each method invocation.

Let's consider some static pointcut implementations included with Spring.

Regular expression pointcuts

One obvious way to specify static pointcuts is regular expressions. Several AOP frameworks besides
Spring make this possible. org.springframework.aop.support.Perl5RegexpMethodPointcut is a generic
regular expression pointcut, using Perl 5 regular expression syntax. The Perl5RegexpMethodPointcut
class depends on Jakarta ORO for regular expression matching. Spring also provides the
JdkRegexpMethodPointcut class that uses the regular expression support in JDK 1.4+.

Using the Perl5RegexpMethodPointcut class, you can provide a list of pattern Strings. If any of these
is a match, the pointcut will evaluate to true. (So the result is effectively the union of these pointcuts.)

The usage is shown below:

<bean id="settersAndAbsquatulatePointcut"
class="org.springframework.aop.support.Perl5RegexpMethodPointcut">
<property name="patterns">
<list>
<value>.*set.*</value>

826
 <value>.*absquatulate</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>
Spring provides a convenience class, RegexpMethodPointcutAdvisor, that allows us to also reference
an Advice (remember that an Advice can be an interceptor, before advice, throws advice etc.). Behind
the scenes, Spring will use a JdkRegexpMethodPointcut. Using RegexpMethodPointcutAdvisor
simplifies wiring, as the one bean encapsulates both pointcut and advice, as shown below:

<bean id="settersAndAbsquatulateAdvisor"
class="org.springframework.aop.support.RegexpMethodPointcutAdvisor">
<property name="advice">
<ref local="beanNameOfAopAllianceInterceptor"/>
</property>
<property name="patterns">
<list>
<value>.*set.*</value>
<value>.*absquatulate</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>
RegexpMethodPointcutAdvisor can be used with any Advice type.

Attribute-driven pointcuts

An important type of static pointcut is a metadata-driven pointcut. This uses the values of metadata
attributes: typically, source-level metadata.

B.1.4.2 Dynamic pointcuts

Dynamic pointcuts are costlier to evaluate than static pointcuts. They take into account method
arguments, as well as static information. This means that they must be evaluated with every method
invocation; the result cannot be cached, as arguments will vary.

The main example is the control flow pointcut.

Control flow pointcuts

Spring control flow pointcuts are conceptually similar to AspectJ cflow pointcuts, although less
powerful. (There is currently no way to specify that a pointcut executes below a join point matched by
another pointcut.) A control flow pointcut matches the current call stack. For example, it might fire if
the join point was invoked by a method in the com.mycompany.web package, or by the SomeCaller
class. Control flow pointcuts are specified using the
org.springframework.aop.support.ControlFlowPointcut class.

827
 Note
Control flow pointcuts are significantly more expensive to evaluate at runtime than even other
dynamic pointcuts. In Java 1.4, the cost is about 5 times that of other dynamic pointcuts.

B.1.5 Pointcut superclasses

Spring provides useful pointcut superclasses to help you to implement your own pointcuts.

Because static pointcuts are most useful, you'll probably subclass StaticMethodMatcherPointcut, as
shown below. This requires implementing just one abstract method (although it's possible to override
other methods to customize behavior):

class TestStaticPointcut extends StaticMethodMatcherPointcut {

public boolean matches(Method m, Class targetClass) {

// return true if custom criteria match
}
}
There are also superclasses for dynamic pointcuts.

You can use custom pointcuts with any advice type in Spring 1.0 RC2 and above.

B.1.6 Custom pointcuts

Because pointcuts in Spring AOP are Java classes, rather than language features (as in AspectJ) it's
possible to declare custom pointcuts, whether static or dynamic. Custom pointcuts in Spring can be
arbitrarily complex. However, using the AspectJ pointcut expression language is recommended if
possible.

Note
Later versions of Spring may offer support for "semantic pointcuts" as offered by JAC: for example,
"all methods that change instance variables in the target object."

B.2 Advice API in Spring

Let's now look at how Spring AOP handles advice.

B.2.1 Advice lifecycles

Each advice is a Spring bean. An advice instance can be shared across all advised objects, or unique to
each advised object. This corresponds to per-class or per-instance advice.

Per-class advice is used most often. It is appropriate for generic advice such as transaction advisors.
These do not depend on the state of the proxied object or add new state; they merely act on the method
and arguments.

828
Per-instance advice is appropriate for introductions, to support mixins. In this case, the advice adds
state to the proxied object.

It's possible to use a mix of shared and per-instance advice in the same AOP proxy.

B.2.2 Advice types in Spring

Spring provides several advice types out of the box, and is extensible to support arbitrary advice types.
Let us look at the basic concepts and standard advice types.

B.2.2.1 Interception around advice

The most fundamental advice type in Spring is interception around advice.

Spring is compliant with the AOP Alliance interface for around advice using method interception.
MethodInterceptors implementing around advice should implement the following interface:

public interface MethodInterceptor extends Interceptor {

Object invoke(MethodInvocation invocation) throws Throwable;

}
The MethodInvocation argument to the invoke() method exposes the method being invoked; the target
join point; the AOP proxy; and the arguments to the method. The invoke() method should return the
invocation's result: the return value of the join point.

A simple MethodInterceptor implementation looks as follows:

public class DebugInterceptor implements MethodInterceptor {

public Object invoke(MethodInvocation invocation) throws Throwable {

System.out.println("Before: invocation=[" + invocation + "]");
Object rval = invocation.proceed();
System.out.println("Invocation returned");
return rval;
}
}
Note the call to the MethodInvocation's proceed() method. This proceeds down the interceptor chain
towards the join point. Most interceptors will invoke this method, and return its return value. However,
a MethodInterceptor, like any around advice, can return a different value or throw an exception rather
than invoke the proceed method. However, you don't want to do this without good reason!

Note
MethodInterceptors offer interoperability with other AOP Alliance-compliant AOP implementations.
The other advice types discussed in the remainder of this section implement common AOP concepts,
but in a Spring-specific way. While there is an advantage in using the most specific advice type, stick
with MethodInterceptor around advice if you are likely to want to run the aspect in another AOP

829
framework. Note that pointcuts are not currently interoperable between frameworks, and the AOP
Alliance does not currently define pointcut interfaces.

B.2.2.2 Before advice

A simpler advice type is a before advice. This does not need a MethodInvocation object, since it will
only be called before entering the method.

The main advantage of a before advice is that there is no need to invoke the proceed() method, and
therefore no possibility of inadvertently failing to proceed down the interceptor chain.

The MethodBeforeAdvice interface is shown below. (Spring's API design would allow for field before
advice, although the usual objects apply to field interception and it's unlikely that Spring will ever
implement it).

public interface MethodBeforeAdvice extends BeforeAdvice {

void before(Method m, Object[] args, Object target) throws Throwable;

}
Note the return type is void. Before advice can insert custom behavior before the join point executes,
but cannot change the return value. If a before advice throws an exception, this will abort further
execution of the interceptor chain. The exception will propagate back up the interceptor chain. If it is
unchecked, or on the signature of the invoked method, it will be passed directly to the client; otherwise
it will be wrapped in an unchecked exception by the AOP proxy.

An example of a before advice in Spring, which counts all method invocations:

public class CountingBeforeAdvice implements MethodBeforeAdvice {

private int count;

public void before(Method m, Object[] args, Object target) throws Throwable {

++count;
}

public int getCount() {

return count;
}
}
Tip
Before advice can be used with any pointcut.

B.2.2.3 Throws advice

Throws advice is invoked after the return of the join point if the join point threw an exception. Spring
offers typed throws advice. Note that this means that the org.springframework.aop.ThrowsAdvice

830
interface does not contain any methods: It is a tag interface identifying that the given object
implements one or more typed throws advice methods. These should be in the form of:

afterThrowing([Method, args, target], subclassOfThrowable)

Only the last argument is required. The method signatures may have either one or four arguments,
depending on whether the advice method is interested in the method and arguments. The following
classes are examples of throws advice.

The advice below is invoked if a RemoteException is thrown (including subclasses):

public class RemoteThrowsAdvice implements ThrowsAdvice {

public void afterThrowing(RemoteException ex) throws Throwable {

// Do something with remote exception
}
}
The following advice is invoked if a ServletException is thrown. Unlike the above advice, it declares 4
arguments, so that it has access to the invoked method, method arguments and target object:

public class ServletThrowsAdviceWithArguments implements ThrowsAdvice {

public void afterThrowing(Method m, Object[] args, Object target, ServletException ex) {

// Do something with all arguments
}
}
The final example illustrates how these two methods could be used in a single class, which handles
both RemoteException and ServletException. Any number of throws advice methods can be combined
in a single class.

public static class CombinedThrowsAdvice implements ThrowsAdvice {

public void afterThrowing(RemoteException ex) throws Throwable {

// Do something with remote exception
}

public void afterThrowing(Method m, Object[] args, Object target, ServletException ex) {

// Do something with all arguments
}
}
Note: If a throws-advice method throws an exception itself, it will override the original exception (i.e.
change the exception thrown to the user). The overriding exception will typically be a
RuntimeException; this is compatible with any method signature. However, if a throws-advice method
throws a checked exception, it will have to match the declared exceptions of the target method and is
hence to some degree coupled to specific target method signatures. Do not throw an undeclared
checked exception that is incompatible with the target method's signature!

831
 Tip
Throws advice can be used with any pointcut.

B.2.2.4 After Returning advice

An after returning advice in Spring must implement the

org.springframework.aop.AfterReturningAdvice interface, shown below:

public interface AfterReturningAdvice extends Advice {

void afterReturning(Object returnValue, Method m, Object[] args, Object target)

throws Throwable;
}
An after returning advice has access to the return value (which it cannot modify), invoked method,
methods arguments and target.

The following after returning advice counts all successful method invocations that have not thrown
exceptions:

public class CountingAfterReturningAdvice implements AfterReturningAdvice {

private int count;

public void afterReturning(Object returnValue, Method m, Object[] args, Object target)

throws Throwable {
++count;
}

public int getCount() {

return count;
}
}
This advice doesn't change the execution path. If it throws an exception, this will be thrown up the
interceptor chain instead of the return value.

Tip
After returning advice can be used with any pointcut.

B.2.2.5 Introduction advice

Spring treats introduction advice as a special kind of interception advice.

Introduction requires an IntroductionAdvisor, and an IntroductionInterceptor, implementing the

following interface:

public interface IntroductionInterceptor extends MethodInterceptor {

832
 boolean implementsInterface(Class intf);
}
The invoke() method inherited from the AOP Alliance MethodInterceptor interface must implement
the introduction: that is, if the invoked method is on an introduced interface, the introduction
interceptor is responsible for handling the method call - it cannot invoke proceed().

Introduction advice cannot be used with any pointcut, as it applies only at class, rather than method,
level. You can only use introduction advice with the IntroductionAdvisor, which has the following
methods:

public interface IntroductionAdvisor extends Advisor, IntroductionInfo {

ClassFilter getClassFilter();

void validateInterfaces() throws IllegalArgumentException;

}

public interface IntroductionInfo {

Class[] getInterfaces();
}
There is no MethodMatcher, and hence no Pointcut, associated with introduction advice. Only class
filtering is logical.

The getInterfaces() method returns the interfaces introduced by this advisor.

The validateInterfaces() method is used internally to see whether or not the introduced interfaces can
be implemented by the configured IntroductionInterceptor .
Let's look at a simple example from the Spring test suite. Let's suppose we want to introduce the
following interface to one or more objects:

public interface Lockable {

void lock();
void unlock();
boolean locked();
}
This illustrates a mixin. We want to be able to cast advised objects to Lockable, whatever their type,
and call lock and unlock methods. If we call the lock() method, we want all setter methods to throw a
LockedException. Thus we can add an aspect that provides the ability to make objects immutable,
without them having any knowledge of it: a good example of AOP.

Firstly, we'll need an IntroductionInterceptor that does the heavy lifting. In this case, we extend the
org.springframework.aop.support.DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor convenience class. We could
implement IntroductionInterceptor directly, but using DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor is best for
most cases.

833
The DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor is designed to delegate an introduction to an actual
implementation of the introduced interface(s), concealing the use of interception to do so. The delegate
can be set to any object using a constructor argument; the default delegate (when the no-arg
constructor is used) is this. Thus in the example below, the delegate is the LockMixin subclass of
DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor. Given a delegate (by default itself), a
DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor instance looks for all interfaces implemented by the delegate (other
than IntroductionInterceptor), and will support introductions against any of them. It's possible for
subclasses such as LockMixin to call the suppressInterface(Class intf) method to suppress interfaces
that should not be exposed. However, no matter how many interfaces an IntroductionInterceptor is
prepared to support, the IntroductionAdvisor used will control which interfaces are actually exposed.
An introduced interface will conceal any implementation of the same interface by the target.

Thus LockMixin subclasses DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor and implements Lockable itself. The

superclass automatically picks up that Lockable can be supported for introduction, so we don't need to
specify that. We could introduce any number of interfaces in this way.

Note the use of the locked instance variable. This effectively adds additional state to that held in the
target object.

public class LockMixin extends DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor

implements Lockable {

private boolean locked;

public void lock() {

this.locked = true;
}

public void unlock() {

this.locked = false;
}

public boolean locked() {

return this.locked;
}

public Object invoke(MethodInvocation invocation) throws Throwable {

if (locked() && invocation.getMethod().getName().indexOf("set") == 0)
throw new LockedException();
return super.invoke(invocation);
}

}
Often it isn't necessary to override the invoke() method: the DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor
implementation - which calls the delegate method if the method is introduced, otherwise proceeds

834
towards the join point - is usually sufficient. In the present case, we need to add a check: no setter
method can be invoked if in locked mode.

The introduction advisor required is simple. All it needs to do is hold a distinct LockMixin instance,
and specify the introduced interfaces - in this case, just Lockable. A more complex example might
take a reference to the introduction interceptor (which would be defined as a prototype): in this case,
there's no configuration relevant for a LockMixin, so we simply create it using new.

public class LockMixinAdvisor extends DefaultIntroductionAdvisor {

public LockMixinAdvisor() {
super(new LockMixin(), Lockable.class);
}
}
We can apply this advisor very simply: it requires no configuration. (However, it is necessary: It's
impossible to use an IntroductionInterceptor without an IntroductionAdvisor.) As usual with
introductions, the advisor must be per-instance, as it is stateful. We need a different instance of
LockMixinAdvisor, and hence LockMixin, for each advised object. The advisor comprises part of the
advised object's state.

We can apply this advisor programmatically, using the Advised.addAdvisor() method, or (the
recommended way) in XML configuration, like any other advisor. All proxy creation choices
discussed below, including "auto proxy creators," correctly handle introductions and stateful mixins.

B.3 Advisor API in Spring

In Spring, an Advisor is an aspect that contains just a single advice object associated with a pointcut
expression.

Apart from the special case of introductions, any advisor can be used with any advice.
org.springframework.aop.support.DefaultPointcutAdvisor is the most commonly used advisor class.
For example, it can be used with a MethodInterceptor, BeforeAdvice or ThrowsAdvice.

It is possible to mix advisor and advice types in Spring in the same AOP proxy. For example, you
could use a interception around advice, throws advice and before advice in one proxy configuration:
Spring will automatically create the necessary interceptor chain.

B.4 Using the ProxyFactoryBean to create AOP proxies

If you're using the Spring IoC container (an ApplicationContext or BeanFactory) for your business
objects - and you should be! - you will want to use one of Spring's AOP FactoryBeans. (Remember
that a factory bean introduces a layer of indirection, enabling it to create objects of a different type.)

Note
The Spring 2.0 AOP support also uses factory beans under the covers.

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The basic way to create an AOP proxy in Spring is to use the
org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactoryBean. This gives complete control over the
pointcuts and advice that will apply, and their ordering. However, there are simpler options that are
preferable if you don't need such control.

B.4.1 Basics

The ProxyFactoryBean, like other Spring FactoryBean implementations, introduces a level of

indirection. If you define a ProxyFactoryBean with name foo, what objects referencing foo see is not
the ProxyFactoryBean instance itself, but an object created by the ProxyFactoryBean's implementation
of the getObject() method. This method will create an AOP proxy wrapping a target object.

One of the most important benefits of using a ProxyFactoryBean or another IoC-aware class to create
AOP proxies, is that it means that advices and pointcuts can also be managed by IoC. This is a
powerful feature, enabling certain approaches that are hard to achieve with other AOP frameworks.
For example, an advice may itself reference application objects (besides the target, which should be
available in any AOP framework), benefiting from all the pluggability provided by Dependency
Injection.

B.4.2 JavaBean properties

In common with most FactoryBean implementations provided with Spring, the ProxyFactoryBean
class is itself a JavaBean. Its properties are used to:

Specify the target you want to proxy.

Specify whether to use CGLIB (see below and also Section 8.5.3, “JDK- and CGLIB-based proxies”).

Some key properties are inherited from org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyConfig (the

superclass for all AOP proxy factories in Spring). These key properties include:

proxyTargetClass: true if the target class is to be proxied, rather than the target class' interfaces. If this
property value is set to true, then CGLIB proxies will be created (but see also below Section 8.5.3,
“JDK- and CGLIB-based proxies”).

optimize: controls whether or not aggressive optimizations are applied to proxies created via CGLIB.
One should not blithely use this setting unless one fully understands how the relevant AOP proxy
handles optimization. This is currently used only for CGLIB proxies; it has no effect with JDK
dynamic proxies.

frozen: if a proxy configuration is frozen, then changes to the configuration are no longer allowed.
This is useful both as a slight optimization and for those cases when you don't want callers to be able
to manipulate the proxy (via the Advised interface) after the proxy has been created. The default value
of this property is false, so changes such as adding additional advice are allowed.

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exposeProxy: determines whether or not the current proxy should be exposed in a ThreadLocal so that
it can be accessed by the target. If a target needs to obtain the proxy and the exposeProxy property is
set to true, the target can use the AopContext.currentProxy() method.

aopProxyFactory: the implementation of AopProxyFactory to use. Offers a way of customizing

whether to use dynamic proxies, CGLIB or any other proxy strategy. The default implementation will
choose dynamic proxies or CGLIB appropriately. There should be no need to use this property; it is
intended to allow the addition of new proxy types in Spring 1.1.

Other properties specific to ProxyFactoryBean include:

proxyInterfaces: array of String interface names. If this isn't supplied, a CGLIB proxy for the target
class will be used (but see also below Section 8.5.3, “JDK- and CGLIB-based proxies”).

interceptorNames: String array of Advisor, interceptor or other advice names to apply. Ordering is
significant, on a first come-first served basis. That is to say that the first interceptor in the list will be
the first to be able to intercept the invocation.

The names are bean names in the current factory, including bean names from ancestor factories. You
can't mention bean references here since doing so would result in the ProxyFactoryBean ignoring the
singleton setting of the advice.

You can append an interceptor name with an asterisk (*). This will result in the application of all
advisor beans with names starting with the part before the asterisk to be applied. An example of using
this feature can be found in Section 8.5.6, “Using 'global' advisors”.

singleton: whether or not the factory should return a single object, no matter how often the getObject()
method is called. Several FactoryBean implementations offer such a method. The default value is true.
If you want to use stateful advice - for example, for stateful mixins - use prototype advices along with
a singleton value of false.

B.4.3 JDK- and CGLIB-based proxies

This section serves as the definitive documentation on how the ProxyFactoryBean chooses to create
one of either a JDK- and CGLIB-based proxy for a particular target object (that is to be proxied).

Note
The behavior of the ProxyFactoryBean with regard to creating JDK- or CGLIB-based proxies changed
between versions 1.2.x and 2.0 of Spring. The ProxyFactoryBean now exhibits similar semantics with
regard to auto-detecting interfaces as those of the TransactionProxyFactoryBean class.

If the class of a target object that is to be proxied (hereafter simply referred to as the target class)
doesn't implement any interfaces, then a CGLIB-based proxy will be created. This is the easiest
scenario, because JDK proxies are interface based, and no interfaces means JDK proxying isn't even
possible. One simply plugs in the target bean, and specifies the list of interceptors via the
interceptorNames property. Note that a CGLIB-based proxy will be created even if the

837
proxyTargetClass property of the ProxyFactoryBean has been set to false. (Obviously this makes no
sense, and is best removed from the bean definition because it is at best redundant, and at worst
confusing.)

If the target class implements one (or more) interfaces, then the type of proxy that is created depends
on the configuration of the ProxyFactoryBean.

If the proxyTargetClass property of the ProxyFactoryBean has been set to true, then a CGLIB-based
proxy will be created. This makes sense, and is in keeping with the principle of least surprise. Even if
the proxyInterfaces property of the ProxyFactoryBean has been set to one or more fully qualified
interface names, the fact that the proxyTargetClass property is set to true will cause CGLIB-based
proxying to be in effect.

If the proxyInterfaces property of the ProxyFactoryBean has been set to one or more fully qualified
interface names, then a JDK-based proxy will be created. The created proxy will implement all of the
interfaces that were specified in the proxyInterfaces property; if the target class happens to implement
a whole lot more interfaces than those specified in the proxyInterfaces property, that is all well and
good but those additional interfaces will not be implemented by the returned proxy.

If the proxyInterfaces property of the ProxyFactoryBean has not been set, but the target class does
implement one (or more) interfaces, then the ProxyFactoryBean will auto-detect the fact that the target
class does actually implement at least one interface, and a JDK-based proxy will be created. The
interfaces that are actually proxied will be all of the interfaces that the target class implements; in
effect, this is the same as simply supplying a list of each and every interface that the target class
implements to the proxyInterfaces property. However, it is significantly less work, and less prone to
typos.

B.4.4 Proxying interfaces

Let's look at a simple example of ProxyFactoryBean in action. This example involves:

A target bean that will be proxied. This is the "personTarget" bean definition in the example below.

An Advisor and an Interceptor used to provide advice.

An AOP proxy bean definition specifying the target object (the personTarget bean) and the interfaces
to proxy, along with the advices to apply.

<bean id="personTarget" class="com.mycompany.PersonImpl">

<property name="name"><value>Tony</value></property>
<property name="age"><value>51</value></property>
</bean>

<bean id="myAdvisor" class="com.mycompany.MyAdvisor">

<property name="someProperty"><value>Custom string property value</value></property>
</bean>

838
<bean id="debugInterceptor" class="org.springframework.aop.interceptor.DebugInterceptor">
</bean>

<bean id="person"
class="org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="proxyInterfaces"><value>com.mycompany.Person</value></property>

<property name="target"><ref local="personTarget"/></property>

<property name="interceptorNames">
<list>
<value>myAdvisor</value>
<value>debugInterceptor</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>
Note that the interceptorNames property takes a list of String: the bean names of the interceptor or
advisors in the current factory. Advisors, interceptors, before, after returning and throws advice objects
can be used. The ordering of advisors is significant.

Note
You might be wondering why the list doesn't hold bean references. The reason for this is that if the
ProxyFactoryBean's singleton property is set to false, it must be able to return independent proxy
instances. If any of the advisors is itself a prototype, an independent instance would need to be
returned, so it's necessary to be able to obtain an instance of the prototype from the factory; holding a
reference isn't sufficient.

The "person" bean definition above can be used in place of a Person implementation, as follows:

Person person = (Person) factory.getBean("person");

Other beans in the same IoC context can express a strongly typed dependency on it, as with an
ordinary Java object:

<bean id="personUser" class="com.mycompany.PersonUser">

<property name="person"><ref local="person" /></property>
</bean>
The PersonUser class in this example would expose a property of type Person. As far as it's concerned,
the AOP proxy can be used transparently in place of a "real" person implementation. However, its
class would be a dynamic proxy class. It would be possible to cast it to the Advised interface
(discussed below).

It's possible to conceal the distinction between target and proxy using an anonymous inner bean, as
follows. Only the ProxyFactoryBean definition is different; the advice is included only for
completeness:

<bean id="myAdvisor" class="com.mycompany.MyAdvisor">

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 <property name="someProperty"><value>Custom string property value</value></property>
</bean>

<bean id="debugInterceptor" class="org.springframework.aop.interceptor.DebugInterceptor"/>

<bean id="person" class="org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactoryBean">

<property name="proxyInterfaces"><value>com.mycompany.Person</value></property>
<!-- Use inner bean, not local reference to target -->
<property name="target">
<bean class="com.mycompany.PersonImpl">
<property name="name"><value>Tony</value></property>
<property name="age"><value>51</value></property>
</bean>
</property>
<property name="interceptorNames">
<list>
<value>myAdvisor</value>
<value>debugInterceptor</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>
This has the advantage that there's only one object of type Person: useful if we want to prevent users of
the application context from obtaining a reference to the un-advised object, or need to avoid any
ambiguity with Spring IoC autowiring. There's also arguably an advantage in that the
ProxyFactoryBean definition is self-contained. However, there are times when being able to obtain the
un-advised target from the factory might actually be an advantage: for example, in certain test
scenarios.

B.4.5 Proxying classes

What if you need to proxy a class, rather than one or more interfaces?

Imagine that in our example above, there was no Person interface: we needed to advise a class called
Person that didn't implement any business interface. In this case, you can configure Spring to use
CGLIB proxying, rather than dynamic proxies. Simply set the proxyTargetClass property on the
ProxyFactoryBean above to true. While it's best to program to interfaces, rather than classes, the
ability to advise classes that don't implement interfaces can be useful when working with legacy code.
(In general, Spring isn't prescriptive. While it makes it easy to apply good practices, it avoids forcing a
particular approach.)

If you want to, you can force the use of CGLIB in any case, even if you do have interfaces.

CGLIB proxying works by generating a subclass of the target class at runtime. Spring configures this
generated subclass to delegate method calls to the original target: the subclass is used to implement the
Decorator pattern, weaving in the advice.

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CGLIB proxying should generally be transparent to users. However, there are some issues to consider:

Final methods can't be advised, as they can't be overridden.

You'll need the CGLIB 2 binaries on your classpath; dynamic proxies are available with the JDK.

There's little performance difference between CGLIB proxying and dynamic proxies. As of Spring 1.0,
dynamic proxies are slightly faster. However, this may change in the future. Performance should not
be a decisive consideration in this case.

B.4.6 Using 'global' advisors

By appending an asterisk to an interceptor name, all advisors with bean names matching the part
before the asterisk, will be added to the advisor chain. This can come in handy if you need to add a
standard set of 'global' advisors:

<bean id="proxy" class="org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactoryBean">

<property name="target" ref="service"/>
<property name="interceptorNames">
<list>
<value>global*</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="global_debug" class="org.springframework.aop.interceptor.DebugInterceptor"/>

<bean id="global_performance"
class="org.springframework.aop.interceptor.PerformanceMonitorInterceptor"/>
B.5 Concise proxy definitions

Especially when defining transactional proxies, you may end up with many similar proxy definitions.
The use of parent and child bean definitions, along with inner bean definitions, can result in much
cleaner and more concise proxy definitions.

First a parent, template, bean definition is created for the proxy:

<bean id="txProxyTemplate" abstract="true"

class="org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="transactionManager" ref="transactionManager"/>
<property name="transactionAttributes">
<props>
<prop key="*">PROPAGATION_REQUIRED</prop>
</props>
</property>
</bean>

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This will never be instantiated itself, so may actually be incomplete. Then each proxy which needs to
be created is just a child bean definition, which wraps the target of the proxy as an inner bean
definition, since the target will never be used on its own anyway.

<bean id="myService" parent="txProxyTemplate">

<property name="target">
<bean class="org.springframework.samples.MyServiceImpl">
</bean>
</property>
</bean>
It is of course possible to override properties from the parent template, such as in this case, the
transaction propagation settings:

<bean id="mySpecialService" parent="txProxyTemplate">

<property name="target">
<bean class="org.springframework.samples.MySpecialServiceImpl">
</bean>
</property>
<property name="transactionAttributes">
<props>
<prop key="get*">PROPAGATION_REQUIRED,readOnly</prop>
<prop key="find*">PROPAGATION_REQUIRED,readOnly</prop>
<prop key="load*">PROPAGATION_REQUIRED,readOnly</prop>
<prop key="store*">PROPAGATION_REQUIRED</prop>
</props>
</property>
</bean>
Note that in the example above, we have explicitly marked the parent bean definition as abstract by
using the abstract attribute, as described previously, so that it may not actually ever be instantiated.
Application contexts (but not simple bean factories) will by default pre-instantiate all singletons. It is
therefore important (at least for singleton beans) that if you have a (parent) bean definition which you
intend to use only as a template, and this definition specifies a class, you must make sure to set the
abstract attribute to true, otherwise the application context will actually try to pre-instantiate it.

B.6 Creating AOP proxies programmatically with the ProxyFactory

It's easy to create AOP proxies programmatically using Spring. This enables you to use Spring AOP
without dependency on Spring IoC.

The following listing shows creation of a proxy for a target object, with one interceptor and one
advisor. The interfaces implemented by the target object will automatically be proxied:

ProxyFactory factory = new ProxyFactory(myBusinessInterfaceImpl);

factory.addInterceptor(myMethodInterceptor);
factory.addAdvisor(myAdvisor);
MyBusinessInterface tb = (MyBusinessInterface) factory.getProxy();

842
The first step is to construct an object of type org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactory. You
can create this with a target object, as in the above example, or specify the interfaces to be proxied in
an alternate constructor.

You can add interceptors or advisors, and manipulate them for the life of the ProxyFactory. If you add
an IntroductionInterceptionAroundAdvisor you can cause the proxy to implement additional
interfaces.

There are also convenience methods on ProxyFactory (inherited from AdvisedSupport) which allow
you to add other advice types such as before and throws advice. AdvisedSupport is the superclass of
both ProxyFactory and ProxyFactoryBean.

Tip
Integrating AOP proxy creation with the IoC framework is best practice in most applications. We
recommend that you externalize configuration from Java code with AOP, as in general.

B.7 Manipulating advised objects

However you create AOP proxies, you can manipulate them using the
org.springframework.aop.framework.Advised interface. Any AOP proxy can be cast to this interface,
whichever other interfaces it implements. This interface includes the following methods:

Advisor[] getAdvisors();

void addAdvice(Advice advice) throws AopConfigException;

void addAdvice(int pos, Advice advice)

throws AopConfigException;

void addAdvisor(Advisor advisor) throws AopConfigException;

void addAdvisor(int pos, Advisor advisor) throws AopConfigException;

int indexOf(Advisor advisor);

boolean removeAdvisor(Advisor advisor) throws AopConfigException;

void removeAdvisor(int index) throws AopConfigException;

boolean replaceAdvisor(Advisor a, Advisor b) throws AopConfigException;

boolean isFrozen();
The getAdvisors() method will return an Advisor for every advisor, interceptor or other advice type
that has been added to the factory. If you added an Advisor, the returned advisor at this index will be
the object that you added. If you added an interceptor or other advice type, Spring will have wrapped
this in an advisor with a pointcut that always returns true. Thus if you added a MethodInterceptor, the

843
advisor returned for this index will be an DefaultPointcutAdvisor returning your MethodInterceptor
and a pointcut that matches all classes and methods.

The addAdvisor() methods can be used to add any Advisor. Usually the advisor holding pointcut and
advice will be the generic DefaultPointcutAdvisor, which can be used with any advice or pointcut (but
not for introductions).

By default, it's possible to add or remove advisors or interceptors even once a proxy has been created.
The only restriction is that it's impossible to add or remove an introduction advisor, as existing proxies
from the factory will not show the interface change. (You can obtain a new proxy from the factory to
avoid this problem.)

A simple example of casting an AOP proxy to the Advised interface and examining and manipulating
its advice:

Advised advised = (Advised) myObject;

Advisor[] advisors = advised.getAdvisors();
int oldAdvisorCount = advisors.length;
System.out.println(oldAdvisorCount + " advisors");

// Add an advice like an interceptor without a pointcut

// Will match all proxied methods
// Can use for interceptors, before, after returning or throws advice
advised.addAdvice(new DebugInterceptor());

// Add selective advice using a pointcut

advised.addAdvisor(new DefaultPointcutAdvisor(mySpecialPointcut, myAdvice));

assertEquals("Added two advisors",

oldAdvisorCount + 2, advised.getAdvisors().length);
Note
It's questionable whether it's advisable (no pun intended) to modify advice on a business object in
production, although there are no doubt legitimate usage cases. However, it can be very useful in
development: for example, in tests. I have sometimes found it very useful to be able to add test code in
the form of an interceptor or other advice, getting inside a method invocation I want to test. (For
example, the advice can get inside a transaction created for that method: for example, to run SQL to
check that a database was correctly updated, before marking the transaction for roll back.)

Depending on how you created the proxy, you can usually set a frozen flag, in which case the Advised
isFrozen() method will return true, and any attempts to modify advice through addition or removal will
result in an AopConfigException. The ability to freeze the state of an advised object is useful in some
cases, for example, to prevent calling code removing a security interceptor. It may also be used in
Spring 1.1 to allow aggressive optimization if runtime advice modification is known not to be
required.

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B.8 Using the "autoproxy" facility

So far we've considered explicit creation of AOP proxies using a ProxyFactoryBean or similar factory
bean.

Spring also allows us to use "autoproxy" bean definitions, which can automatically proxy selected
bean definitions. This is built on Spring "bean post processor" infrastructure, which enables
modification of any bean definition as the container loads.

In this model, you set up some special bean definitions in your XML bean definition file to configure
the auto proxy infrastructure. This allows you just to declare the targets eligible for autoproxying: you
don't need to use ProxyFactoryBean.

There are two ways to do this:

Using an autoproxy creator that refers to specific beans in the current context.

A special case of autoproxy creation that deserves to be considered separately; autoproxy creation
driven by source-level metadata attributes.

B.8.1 Autoproxy bean definitions

The org.springframework.aop.framework.autoproxy package provides the following standard

autoproxy creators.

B.8.1.1 BeanNameAutoProxyCreator

The BeanNameAutoProxyCreator class is a BeanPostProcessor that automatically creates AOP

proxies for beans with names matching literal values or wildcards.

<bean class="org.springframework.aop.framework.autoproxy.BeanNameAutoProxyCreator">
<property name="beanNames"><value>jdk*,onlyJdk</value></property>
<property name="interceptorNames">
<list>
<value>myInterceptor</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>
As with ProxyFactoryBean, there is an interceptorNames property rather than a list of interceptors, to
allow correct behavior for prototype advisors. Named "interceptors" can be advisors or any advice
type.

As with auto proxying in general, the main point of using BeanNameAutoProxyCreator is to apply the
same configuration consistently to multiple objects, with minimal volume of configuration. It is a
popular choice for applying declarative transactions to multiple objects.

845
Bean definitions whose names match, such as "jdkMyBean" and "onlyJdk" in the above example, are
plain old bean definitions with the target class. An AOP proxy will be created automatically by the
BeanNameAutoProxyCreator. The same advice will be applied to all matching beans. Note that if
advisors are used (rather than the interceptor in the above example), the pointcuts may apply
differently to different beans.

B.8.1.2 DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator

A more general and extremely powerful auto proxy creator is DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator. This
will automagically apply eligible advisors in the current context, without the need to include specific
bean names in the autoproxy advisor's bean definition. It offers the same merit of consistent
configuration and avoidance of duplication as BeanNameAutoProxyCreator.

Using this mechanism involves:

Specifying a DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator bean definition.

Specifying any number of Advisors in the same or related contexts. Note that these must be Advisors,
not just interceptors or other advices. This is necessary because there must be a pointcut to evaluate, to
check the eligibility of each advice to candidate bean definitions.

The DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator will automatically evaluate the pointcut contained in each

advisor, to see what (if any) advice it should apply to each business object (such as "businessObject1"
and "businessObject2" in the example).

This means that any number of advisors can be applied automatically to each business object. If no
pointcut in any of the advisors matches any method in a business object, the object will not be proxied.
As bean definitions are added for new business objects, they will automatically be proxied if
necessary.

Autoproxying in general has the advantage of making it impossible for callers or dependencies to
obtain an un-advised object. Calling getBean("businessObject1") on this ApplicationContext will
return an AOP proxy, not the target business object. (The "inner bean" idiom shown earlier also offers
this benefit.)

<bean class="org.springframework.aop.framework.autoproxy.DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator"/>

<bean class="org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionAttributeSourceAdvisor">
<property name="transactionInterceptor" ref="transactionInterceptor"/>
</bean>

<bean id="customAdvisor" class="com.mycompany.MyAdvisor"/>

<bean id="businessObject1" class="com.mycompany.BusinessObject1">

<!-- Properties omitted -->
</bean>

846
<bean id="businessObject2" class="com.mycompany.BusinessObject2"/>
The DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator is very useful if you want to apply the same advice consistently
to many business objects. Once the infrastructure definitions are in place, you can simply add new
business objects without including specific proxy configuration. You can also drop in additional
aspects very easily - for example, tracing or performance monitoring aspects - with minimal change to
configuration.

The DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator offers support for filtering (using a naming convention so that
only certain advisors are evaluated, allowing use of multiple, differently configured,
AdvisorAutoProxyCreators in the same factory) and ordering. Advisors can implement the
org.springframework.core.Ordered interface to ensure correct ordering if this is an issue. The
TransactionAttributeSourceAdvisor used in the above example has a configurable order value; the
default setting is unordered.

B.8.1.3 AbstractAdvisorAutoProxyCreator

This is the superclass of DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator. You can create your own autoproxy
creators by subclassing this class, in the unlikely event that advisor definitions offer insufficient
customization to the behavior of the framework DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator.

B.8.2 Using metadata-driven auto-proxying

A particularly important type of autoproxying is driven by metadata. This produces a similar

programming model to .NET ServicedComponents. Instead of using XML deployment descriptors as
in EJB, configuration for transaction management and other enterprise services is held in source-level
attributes.

In this case, you use the DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator, in combination with Advisors that
understand metadata attributes. The metadata specifics are held in the pointcut part of the candidate
advisors, rather than in the autoproxy creation class itself.

This is really a special case of the DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator, but deserves consideration on its
own. (The metadata-aware code is in the pointcuts contained in the advisors, not the AOP framework
itself.)

The /attributes directory of the JPetStore sample application shows the use of attribute-driven
autoproxying. In this case, there's no need to use the TransactionProxyFactoryBean. Simply defining
transactional attributes on business objects is sufficient, because of the use of metadata-aware
pointcuts. The bean definitions include the following code, in /WEB-INF/declarativeServices.xml.
Note that this is generic, and can be used outside the JPetStore:

<bean class="org.springframework.aop.framework.autoproxy.DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator"/>

<bean class="org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionAttributeSourceAdvisor">

847
 <property name="transactionInterceptor" ref="transactionInterceptor"/>
</bean>

<bean id="transactionInterceptor"
class="org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionInterceptor">
<property name="transactionManager" ref="transactionManager"/>
<property name="transactionAttributeSource">
<bean class="org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.AttributesTransactionAttributeSource">
<property name="attributes" ref="attributes"/>
</bean>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="attributes" class="org.springframework.metadata.commons.CommonsAttributes"/>

The DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator bean definition (the name is not significant, hence it can even
be omitted) will pick up all eligible pointcuts in the current application context. In this case, the
"transactionAdvisor" bean definition, of type TransactionAttributeSourceAdvisor, will apply to classes
or methods carrying a transaction attribute. The TransactionAttributeSourceAdvisor depends on a
TransactionInterceptor, via constructor dependency. The example resolves this via autowiring. The
AttributesTransactionAttributeSource depends on an implementation of the
org.springframework.metadata.Attributes interface. In this fragment, the "attributes" bean satisfies
this, using the Jakarta Commons Attributes API to obtain attribute information. (The application code
must have been compiled using the Commons Attributes compilation task.)

The /annotation directory of the JPetStore sample application contains an analogous example for auto-
proxying driven by JDK 1.5+ annotations. The following configuration enables automatic detection of
Spring's Transactional annotation, leading to implicit proxies for beans containing that annotation:

<bean class="org.springframework.aop.framework.autoproxy.DefaultAdvisorAutoProxyCreator"/>

<bean class="org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionAttributeSourceAdvisor">
<property name="transactionInterceptor" ref="transactionInterceptor"/>
</bean>

<bean id="transactionInterceptor"
class="org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionInterceptor">
<property name="transactionManager" ref="transactionManager"/>
<property name="transactionAttributeSource">
<bean
class="org.springframework.transaction.annotation.AnnotationTransactionAttributeSource"/>
</property>
</bean>
The TransactionInterceptor defined here depends on a PlatformTransactionManager definition, which
is not included in this generic file (although it could be) because it will be specific to the application's
transaction requirements (typically JTA, as in this example, or Hibernate, JDO or JDBC):

848
<bean id="transactionManager"
class="org.springframework.transaction.jta.JtaTransactionManager"/>
Tip
If you require only declarative transaction management, using these generic XML definitions will
result in Spring automatically proxying all classes or methods with transaction attributes. You won't
need to work directly with AOP, and the programming model is similar to that of .NET
ServicedComponents.

This mechanism is extensible. It's possible to do autoproxying based on custom attributes. You need
to:

Define your custom attribute.

Specify an Advisor with the necessary advice, including a pointcut that is triggered by the presence of
the custom attribute on a class or method. You may be able to use an existing advice, merely
implementing a static pointcut that picks up the custom attribute.

It's possible for such advisors to be unique to each advised class (for example, mixins): they simply
need to be defined as prototype, rather than singleton, bean definitions. For example, the LockMixin
introduction interceptor from the Spring test suite, shown above, could be used in conjunction with an
attribute-driven pointcut to target a mixin, as shown here. We use the generic DefaultPointcutAdvisor,
configured using JavaBean properties:

<bean id="lockMixin" class="org.springframework.aop.LockMixin"

scope="prototype"/>

<bean id="lockableAdvisor" class="org.springframework.aop.support.DefaultPointcutAdvisor"

scope="prototype">
<property name="pointcut" ref="myAttributeAwarePointcut"/>
<property name="advice" ref="lockMixin"/>
</bean>

<bean id="anyBean" class="anyclass" ...

If the attribute aware pointcut matches any methods in the anyBean or other bean definitions, the
mixin will be applied. Note that both lockMixin and lockableAdvisor definitions are prototypes. The
myAttributeAwarePointcut pointcut can be a singleton definition, as it doesn't hold state for individual
advised objects.

B.9 Using TargetSources

Spring offers the concept of a TargetSource, expressed in the org.springframework.aop.TargetSource

interface. This interface is responsible for returning the "target object" implementing the join point.
The TargetSource implementation is asked for a target instance each time the AOP proxy handles a
method invocation.

849
Developers using Spring AOP don't normally need to work directly with TargetSources, but this
provides a powerful means of supporting pooling, hot swappable and other sophisticated targets. For
example, a pooling TargetSource can return a different target instance for each invocation, using a
pool to manage instances.

If you do not specify a TargetSource, a default implementation is used that wraps a local object. The
same target is returned for each invocation (as you would expect).

Let's look at the standard target sources provided with Spring, and how you can use them.

Tip
When using a custom target source, your target will usually need to be a prototype rather than a
singleton bean definition. This allows Spring to create a new target instance when required.

B.9.1 Hot swappable target sources

The org.springframework.aop.target.HotSwappableTargetSource exists to allow the target of an AOP

proxy to be switched while allowing callers to keep their references to it.

Changing the target source's target takes effect immediately. The HotSwappableTargetSource is
threadsafe.

You can change the target via the swap() method on HotSwappableTargetSource as follows:

HotSwappableTargetSource swapper =
(HotSwappableTargetSource) beanFactory.getBean("swapper");
Object oldTarget = swapper.swap(newTarget);
The XML definitions required look as follows:

<bean id="initialTarget" class="mycompany.OldTarget"/>

<bean id="swapper" class="org.springframework.aop.target.HotSwappableTargetSource">

<constructor-arg ref="initialTarget"/>
</bean>

<bean id="swappable" class="org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactoryBean">

<property name="targetSource" ref="swapper"/>
</bean>
The above swap() call changes the target of the swappable bean. Clients who hold a reference to that
bean will be unaware of the change, but will immediately start hitting the new target.

Although this example doesn't add any advice - and it's not necessary to add advice to use a
TargetSource - of course any TargetSource can be used in conjunction with arbitrary advice.

B.9.2 Pooling target sources

850
Using a pooling target source provides a similar programming model to stateless session EJBs, in
which a pool of identical instances is maintained, with method invocations going to free objects in the
pool.

A crucial difference between Spring pooling and SLSB pooling is that Spring pooling can be applied
to any POJO. As with Spring in general, this service can be applied in a non-invasive way.

Spring provides out-of-the-box support for Jakarta Commons Pool 1.3, which provides a fairly
efficient pooling implementation. You'll need the commons-pool Jar on your application's classpath to
use this feature. It's also possible to subclass
org.springframework.aop.target.AbstractPoolingTargetSource to support any other pooling API.

Sample configuration is shown below:

<bean id="businessObjectTarget" class="com.mycompany.MyBusinessObject"

scope="prototype">
... properties omitted
</bean>

<bean id="poolTargetSource" class="org.springframework.aop.target.CommonsPoolTargetSource">

<property name="targetBeanName" value="businessObjectTarget"/>
<property name="maxSize" value="25"/>
</bean>

<bean id="businessObject" class="org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactoryBean">

<property name="targetSource" ref="poolTargetSource"/>
<property name="interceptorNames" value="myInterceptor"/>
</bean>
Note that the target object - "businessObjectTarget" in the example - must be a prototype. This allows
the PoolingTargetSource implementation to create new instances of the target to grow the pool as
necessary. See the havadoc for AbstractPoolingTargetSource and the concrete subclass you wish to
use for information about its properties: "maxSize" is the most basic, and always guaranteed to be
present.

In this case, "myInterceptor" is the name of an interceptor that would need to be defined in the same
IoC context. However, it isn't necessary to specify interceptors to use pooling. If you want only
pooling, and no other advice, don't set the interceptorNames property at all.

It's possible to configure Spring so as to be able to cast any pooled object to the
org.springframework.aop.target.PoolingConfig interface, which exposes information about the
configuration and current size of the pool through an introduction. You'll need to define an advisor
like this:

<bean id="poolConfigAdvisor"
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.MethodInvokingFactoryBean">
<property name="targetObject" ref="poolTargetSource"/>

851
 <property name="targetMethod" value="getPoolingConfigMixin"/>
</bean>
This advisor is obtained by calling a convenience method on the AbstractPoolingTargetSource class,
hence the use of MethodInvokingFactoryBean. This advisor's name ("poolConfigAdvisor" here) must
be in the list of interceptors names in the ProxyFactoryBean exposing the pooled object.

The cast will look as follows:

PoolingConfig conf = (PoolingConfig) beanFactory.getBean("businessObject");

System.out.println("Max pool size is " + conf.getMaxSize());
Note
Pooling stateless service objects is not usually necessary. We don't believe it should be the default
choice, as most stateless objects are naturally thread safe, and instance pooling is problematic if
resources are cached.

Simpler pooling is available using autoproxying. It's possible to set the TargetSources used by any
autoproxy creator.

B.9.3 Prototype target sources

Setting up a "prototype" target source is similar to a pooling TargetSource. In this case, a new instance
of the target will be created on every method invocation. Although the cost of creating a new object
isn't high in a modern JVM, the cost of wiring up the new object (satisfying its IoC dependencies) may
be more expensive. Thus you shouldn't use this approach without very good reason.

To do this, you could modify the poolTargetSource definition shown above as follows. (I've also
changed the name, for clarity.)

<bean id="prototypeTargetSource" class="org.springframework.aop.target.PrototypeTargetSource">

<property name="targetBeanName" ref="businessObjectTarget"/>
</bean>
There's only one property: the name of the target bean. Inheritance is used in the TargetSource
implementations to ensure consistent naming. As with the pooling target source, the target bean must
be a prototype bean definition.

B.9.4 ThreadLocal target sources

ThreadLocal target sources are useful if you need an object to be created for each incoming request
(per thread that is). The concept of a ThreadLocal provide a JDK-wide facility to transparently store
resource alongside a thread. Setting up a ThreadLocalTargetSource is pretty much the same as was
explained for the other types of target source:

<bean id="threadlocalTargetSource"
class="org.springframework.aop.target.ThreadLocalTargetSource">
<property name="targetBeanName" value="businessObjectTarget"/>
</bean>

852
 Note
ThreadLocals come with serious issues (potentially resulting in memory leaks) when incorrectly using
them in a multi-threaded and multi-classloader environments. One should always consider wrapping a
threadlocal in some other class and never directly use the ThreadLocal itself (except of course in the
wrapper class). Also, one should always remember to correctly set and unset (where the latter simply
involved a call to ThreadLocal.set(null)) the resource local to the thread. Unsetting should be done in
any case since not unsetting it might result in problematic behavior. Spring's ThreadLocal support
does this for you and should always be considered in favor of using ThreadLocals without other proper
handling code.

B.10 Defining new Advice types

Spring AOP is designed to be extensible. While the interception implementation strategy is presently
used internally, it is possible to support arbitrary advice types in addition to the out-of-the-box
interception around advice, before, throws advice and after returning advice.

The org.springframework.aop.framework.adapter package is an SPI package allowing support for new

custom advice types to be added without changing the core framework. The only constraint on a
custom Advice type is that it must implement the org.aopalliance.aop.Advice tag interface.

Please refer to the org.springframework.aop.framework.adapter package's Javadocs for further

information.

B.11 Further resources

Please refer to the Spring sample applications for further examples of Spring AOP:

The JPetStore's default configuration illustrates the use of the TransactionProxyFactoryBean for
declarative transaction management.

The /attributes directory of the JPetStore illustrates the use of attribute-driven declarative transaction
management.

Appendix C. XML Schema-based configuration

C.1 Introduction

This appendix details the XML Schema-based configuration introduced in Spring 2.0 and enhanced
and extended in Spring 2.5 and 3.0.

DTD support?

Authoring Spring configuration files using the older DTD style is still fully supported.

Nothing will break if you forego the use of the new XML Schema-based approach to authoring Spring
XML configuration files. All that you lose out on is the opportunity to have more succinct and clearer

853
configuration. Regardless of whether the XML configuration is DTD- or Schema-based, in the end it
all boils down to the same object model in the container (namely one or more BeanDefinition
instances).

The central motivation for moving to XML Schema based configuration files was to make Spring
XML configuration easier. The 'classic' <bean/>-based approach is good, but its generic-nature comes
with a price in terms of configuration overhead.

From the Spring IoC containers point-of-view, everything is a bean. That's great news for the Spring
IoC container, because if everything is a bean then everything can be treated in the exact same fashion.
The same, however, is not true from a developer's point-of-view. The objects defined in a Spring XML
configuration file are not all generic, vanilla beans. Usually, each bean requires some degree of
specific configuration.

Spring 2.0's new XML Schema-based configuration addresses this issue. The <bean/> element is still
present, and if you wanted to, you could continue to write the exact same style of Spring XML
configuration using only <bean/> elements. The new XML Schema-based configuration does,
however, make Spring XML configuration files substantially clearer to read. In addition, it allows you
to express the intent of a bean definition.

The key thing to remember is that the new custom tags work best for infrastructure or integration
beans: for example, AOP, collections, transactions, integration with 3rd-party frameworks such as
Mule, etc., while the existing bean tags are best suited to application-specific beans, such as DAOs,
service layer objects, validators, etc.

The examples included below will hopefully convince you that the inclusion of XML Schema support
in Spring 2.0 was a good idea. The reception in the community has been encouraging; also, please note
the fact that this new configuration mechanism is totally customisable and extensible. This means you
can write your own domain-specific configuration tags that would better represent your application's
domain; the process involved in doing so is covered in the appendix entitled Appendix D, Extensible
XML authoring.

C.2 XML Schema-based configuration

C.2.1 Referencing the schemas

To switch over from the DTD-style to the new XML Schema-style, you need to make the following
change.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE beans PUBLIC "-//SPRING//DTD BEAN 2.0//EN"
"http://www.springframework.org/dtd/spring-beans-2.0.dtd">

<beans>

<!-- <bean/> definitions here -->

854
</beans>
The equivalent file in the XML Schema-style would be...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

<!-- <bean/> definitions here -->

</beans>
Note
The 'xsi:schemaLocation' fragment is not actually required, but can be included to reference a local
copy of a schema (which can be useful during development).

The above Spring XML configuration fragment is boilerplate that you can copy and paste (!) and then
plug <bean/> definitions into like you have always done. However, the entire point of switching over
is to take advantage of the new Spring 2.0 XML tags since they make configuration easier. The section
entitled Section C.2.2, “The util schema” demonstrates how you can start immediately by using some
of the more common utility tags.

The rest of this chapter is devoted to showing examples of the new Spring XML Schema based
configuration, with at least one example for every new tag. The format follows a before and after style,
with a before snippet of XML showing the old (but still 100% legal and supported) style, followed
immediately by an after example showing the equivalent in the new XML Schema-based style.

C.2.2 The util schema

First up is coverage of the util tags. As the name implies, the util tags deal with common, utility
configuration issues, such as configuring collections, referencing constants, and suchlike.

To use the tags in the util schema, you need to have the following preamble at the top of your Spring
XML configuration file; the bold text in the snippet below references the correct schema so that the
tags in the util namespace are available to you.

<?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:util="http://www.springframework.org/schema/util"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd

855
http://www.springframework.org/schema/util http://www.springframework.org/schema/util/spring-
util-3.0.xsd">

<!-- <bean/> definitions here -->

</beans>
C.2.2.1 <util:constant/>

Before...

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

<property name="isolation">
<bean id="java.sql.Connection.TRANSACTION_SERIALIZABLE"
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.FieldRetrievingFactoryBean" />
</property>
</bean>
The above configuration uses a Spring FactoryBean implementation, the FieldRetrievingFactoryBean,
to set the value of the 'isolation' property on a bean to the value of the
'java.sql.Connection.TRANSACTION_SERIALIZABLE' constant. This is all well and good, but it is
a tad verbose and (unneccessarily) exposes Spring's internal plumbing to the end user.

The following XML Schema-based version is more concise and clearly expresses the developer's
intent ('inject this constant value'), and it just reads better.

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

<property name="isolation">
<util:constant static-field="java.sql.Connection.TRANSACTION_SERIALIZABLE"/>
</property>
</bean>
Setting a bean property or constructor arg from a field value

FieldRetrievingFactoryBean is a FactoryBean which retrieves a static or non-static field value. It is

typically used for retrieving public static final constants, which may then be used to set a property
value or constructor arg for another bean.

Find below an example which shows how a static field is exposed, by using the staticField property:

<bean id="myField"
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.FieldRetrievingFactoryBean">
<property name="staticField" value="java.sql.Connection.TRANSACTION_SERIALIZABLE"/>
</bean>
There is also a convenience usage form where the static field is specified as the bean name:

<bean id="java.sql.Connection.TRANSACTION_SERIALIZABLE"
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.FieldRetrievingFactoryBean"/>

856
This does mean that there is no longer any choice in what the bean id is (so any other bean that refers
to it will also have to use this longer name), but this form is very concise to define, and very
convenient to use as an inner bean since the id doesn't have to be specified for the bean reference:

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

<property name="isolation">
<bean id="java.sql.Connection.TRANSACTION_SERIALIZABLE"
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.FieldRetrievingFactoryBean" />
</property>
</bean>
It is also possible to access a non-static (instance) field of another bean, as described in the API
documentation for the FieldRetrievingFactoryBean class.

Injecting enum values into beans as either property or constructor arguments is very easy to do in
Spring, in that you don't actually have to do anything or know anything about the Spring internals (or
even about classes such as the FieldRetrievingFactoryBean). Let's look at an example to see how easy
injecting an enum value is; consider this JDK 5 enum:

package javax.persistence;

public enum PersistenceContextType {

TRANSACTION,
EXTENDED

}
Now consider a setter of type PersistenceContextType:

package example;

public class Client {

private PersistenceContextType persistenceContextType;

public void setPersistenceContextType(PersistenceContextType type) {

this.persistenceContextType = type;
}
}
.. and the corresponding bean definition:

<bean class="example.Client">
<property name="persistenceContextType" value="TRANSACTION" />
</bean>
This works for classic type-safe emulated enums (on JDK 1.4 and JDK 1.3) as well; Spring will
automatically attempt to match the string property value to a constant on the enum class.

857
C.2.2.2 <util:property-path/>

Before...

<!-- target bean to be referenced by name -->

<bean id="testBean" class="org.springframework.beans.TestBean" scope="prototype">
<property name="age" value="10"/>
<property name="spouse">
<bean class="org.springframework.beans.TestBean">
<property name="age" value="11"/>
</bean>
</property>
</bean>

<!-- will result in 10, which is the value of property 'age' of bean 'testBean' -->
<bean id="testBean.age"
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPathFactoryBean"/>
The above configuration uses a Spring FactoryBean implementation, the PropertyPathFactoryBean, to
create a bean (of type int) called 'testBean.age' that has a value equal to the 'age' property of the
'testBean' bean.

After...

<!-- target bean to be referenced by name -->

<bean id="testBean" class="org.springframework.beans.TestBean" scope="prototype">
<property name="age" value="10"/>
<property name="spouse">
<bean class="org.springframework.beans.TestBean">
<property name="age" value="11"/>
</bean>
</property>
</bean>

<!-- will result in 10, which is the value of property 'age' of bean 'testBean' -->
<util:property-path id="name" path="testBean.age"/>
The value of the 'path' attribute of the <property-path/> tag follows the form 'beanName.beanProperty'.

Using <util:property-path/> to set a bean property or constructor-argument

PropertyPathFactoryBean is a FactoryBean that evaluates a property path on a given target object. The
target object can be specified directly or via a bean name. This value may then be used in another bean
definition as a property value or constructor argument.

Here's an example where a path is used against another bean, by name:

// target bean to be referenced by name

858
<bean id="person" class="org.springframework.beans.TestBean" scope="prototype">
<property name="age" value="10"/>
<property name="spouse">
<bean class="org.springframework.beans.TestBean">
<property name="age" value="11"/>
</bean>
</property>
</bean>

// will result in 11, which is the value of property 'spouse.age' of bean 'person'
<bean id="theAge"
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPathFactoryBean">
<property name="targetBeanName" value="person"/>
<property name="propertyPath" value="spouse.age"/>
</bean>
In this example, a path is evaluated against an inner bean:

<!-- will result in 12, which is the value of property 'age' of the inner bean -->
<bean id="theAge"
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPathFactoryBean">
<property name="targetObject">
<bean class="org.springframework.beans.TestBean">
<property name="age" value="12"/>
</bean>
</property>
<property name="propertyPath" value="age"/>
</bean>
There is also a shortcut form, where the bean name is the property path.

<!-- will result in 10, which is the value of property 'age' of bean 'person' -->
<bean id="person.age"
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPathFactoryBean"/>
This form does mean that there is no choice in the name of the bean. Any reference to it will also have
to use the same id, which is the path. Of course, if used as an inner bean, there is no need to refer to it
at all:

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

<property name="age">
<bean id="person.age"
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPathFactoryBean"/>
</property>
</bean>
The result type may be specifically set in the actual definition. This is not necessary for most use
cases, but can be of use for some. Please see the Javadocs for more info on this feature.

C.2.2.3 <util:properties/>

859
Before...

<!-- creates a java.util.Properties instance with values loaded from the supplied location -->
<bean id="jdbcConfiguration"
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertiesFactoryBean">
<property name="location" value="classpath:com/foo/jdbc-production.properties"/>
</bean>
The above configuration uses a Spring FactoryBean implementation, the PropertiesFactoryBean, to
instantiate a java.util.Properties instance with values loaded from the supplied Resource location).

After...

<!-- creates a java.util.Properties instance with values loaded from the supplied location -->
<util:properties id="jdbcConfiguration" location="classpath:com/foo/jdbc-production.properties"/>
C.2.2.4 <util:list/>

Before...

<!-- creates a java.util.List instance with values loaded from the supplied 'sourceList' -->
<bean id="emails" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.ListFactoryBean">
<property name="sourceList">
<list>
<value>pechorin@hero.org</value>
<value>raskolnikov@slums.org</value>
<value>stavrogin@gov.org</value>
<value>porfiry@gov.org</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>
The above configuration uses a Spring FactoryBean implementation, the ListFactoryBean, to create a
java.util.List instance initialized with values taken from the supplied 'sourceList'.

After...

<!-- creates a java.util.List instance with the supplied values -->

<util:list id="emails">
<value>pechorin@hero.org</value>
<value>raskolnikov@slums.org</value>
<value>stavrogin@gov.org</value>
<value>porfiry@gov.org</value>
</util:list>
You can also explicitly control the exact type of List that will be instantiated and populated via the use
of the 'list-class' attribute on the <util:list/> element. For example, if we really need a
java.util.LinkedList to be instantiated, we could use the following configuration:

860
<util:list id="emails" list-class="java.util.LinkedList">
<value>jackshaftoe@vagabond.org</value>
<value>eliza@thinkingmanscrumpet.org</value>
<value>vanhoek@pirate.org</value>
<value>d'Arcachon@nemesis.org</value>
</util:list>
If no 'list-class' attribute is supplied, a List implementation will be chosen by the container.

C.2.2.5 <util:map/>

Before...

<!-- creates a java.util.Map instance with values loaded from the supplied 'sourceMap' -->
<bean id="emails" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.MapFactoryBean">
<property name="sourceMap">
<map>
<entry key="pechorin" value="pechorin@hero.org"/>
<entry key="raskolnikov" value="raskolnikov@slums.org"/>
<entry key="stavrogin" value="stavrogin@gov.org"/>
<entry key="porfiry" value="porfiry@gov.org"/>
</map>
</property>
</bean>
The above configuration uses a Spring FactoryBean implementation, the MapFactoryBean, to create a
java.util.Map instance initialized with key-value pairs taken from the supplied 'sourceMap'.

After...

<!-- creates a java.util.Map instance with the supplied key-value pairs -->
<util:map id="emails">
<entry key="pechorin" value="pechorin@hero.org"/>
<entry key="raskolnikov" value="raskolnikov@slums.org"/>
<entry key="stavrogin" value="stavrogin@gov.org"/>
<entry key="porfiry" value="porfiry@gov.org"/>
</util:map>
You can also explicitly control the exact type of Map that will be instantiated and populated via the
use of the 'map-class' attribute on the <util:map/> element. For example, if we really need a
java.util.TreeMap to be instantiated, we could use the following configuration:

<util:map id="emails" map-class="java.util.TreeMap">

<entry key="pechorin" value="pechorin@hero.org"/>
<entry key="raskolnikov" value="raskolnikov@slums.org"/>
<entry key="stavrogin" value="stavrogin@gov.org"/>
<entry key="porfiry" value="porfiry@gov.org"/>
</util:map>
If no 'map-class' attribute is supplied, a Map implementation will be chosen by the container.

861
C.2.2.6 <util:set/>

Before...

<!-- creates a java.util.Set instance with values loaded from the supplied 'sourceSet' -->
<bean id="emails" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.SetFactoryBean">
<property name="sourceSet">
<set>
<value>pechorin@hero.org</value>
<value>raskolnikov@slums.org</value>
<value>stavrogin@gov.org</value>
<value>porfiry@gov.org</value>
</set>
</property>
</bean>
The above configuration uses a Spring FactoryBean implementation, the SetFactoryBean, to create a
java.util.Set instance initialized with values taken from the supplied 'sourceSet'.

After...

<!-- creates a java.util.Set instance with the supplied values -->

<util:set id="emails">
<value>pechorin@hero.org</value>
<value>raskolnikov@slums.org</value>
<value>stavrogin@gov.org</value>
<value>porfiry@gov.org</value>
</util:set>
You can also explicitly control the exact type of Set that will be instantiated and populated via the use
of the 'set-class' attribute on the <util:set/> element. For example, if we really need a java.util.TreeSet
to be instantiated, we could use the following configuration:

<util:set id="emails" set-class="java.util.TreeSet">

<value>pechorin@hero.org</value>
<value>raskolnikov@slums.org</value>
<value>stavrogin@gov.org</value>
<value>porfiry@gov.org</value>
</util:set>
If no 'set-class' attribute is supplied, a Set implementation will be chosen by the container.

C.2.3 The jee schema

The jee tags deal with Java EE (Java Enterprise Edition)-related configuration issues, such as looking
up a JNDI object and defining EJB references.

862
To use the tags in the jee schema, you need to have the following preamble at the top of your Spring
XML configuration file; the bold text in the following snippet references the correct schema so that the
tags in the jee namespace are available to you.

<?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:jee="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee/spring-jee-
3.0.xsd">

<!-- <bean/> definitions here -->

</beans>
C.2.3.1 <jee:jndi-lookup/> (simple)

Before...

<bean id="dataSource" class="org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectFactoryBean">

<property name="jndiName" value="jdbc/MyDataSource"/>
</bean>

<bean id="userDao" class="com.foo.JdbcUserDao">

<!-- Spring will do the cast automatically (as usual) -->
<property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>
</bean>
After...

<jee:jndi-lookup id="dataSource" jndi-name="jdbc/MyDataSource"/>

<bean id="userDao" class="com.foo.JdbcUserDao">

<!-- Spring will do the cast automatically (as usual) -->
<property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>
</bean>
C.2.3.2 <jee:jndi-lookup/> (with single JNDI environment setting)

Before...

<bean id="simple" class="org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectFactoryBean">

<property name="jndiName" value="jdbc/MyDataSource"/>
<property name="jndiEnvironment">
<props>
<prop key="foo">bar</prop>

863
 </props>
</property>
</bean>
After...

<jee:jndi-lookup id="simple" jndi-name="jdbc/MyDataSource">

<jee:environment>foo=bar</jee:environment>
</jee:jndi-lookup>
C.2.3.3 <jee:jndi-lookup/> (with multiple JNDI environment settings)

Before...

<bean id="simple" class="org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectFactoryBean">

<property name="jndiName" value="jdbc/MyDataSource"/>
<property name="jndiEnvironment">
<props>
<prop key="foo">bar</prop>
<prop key="ping">pong</prop>
</props>
</property>
</bean>
After...

<jee:jndi-lookup id="simple" jndi-name="jdbc/MyDataSource">

<!-- newline-separated, key-value pairs for the environment (standard Properties format) -->
<jee:environment>
foo=bar
ping=pong
</jee:environment>
</jee:jndi-lookup>
C.2.3.4 <jee:jndi-lookup/> (complex)

Before...

<bean id="simple" class="org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectFactoryBean">

<property name="jndiName" value="jdbc/MyDataSource"/>
<property name="cache" value="true"/>
<property name="resourceRef" value="true"/>
<property name="lookupOnStartup" value="false"/>
<property name="expectedType" value="com.myapp.DefaultFoo"/>
<property name="proxyInterface" value="com.myapp.Foo"/>
</bean>
After...

<jee:jndi-lookup id="simple"
jndi-name="jdbc/MyDataSource"

864
 cache="true"
resource-ref="true"
lookup-on-startup="false"
expected-type="com.myapp.DefaultFoo"
proxy-interface="com.myapp.Foo"/>
C.2.3.5 <jee:local-slsb/> (simple)

The <jee:local-slsb/> tag configures a reference to an EJB Stateless SessionBean.

Before...

<bean id="simple"
class="org.springframework.ejb.access.LocalStatelessSessionProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="jndiName" value="ejb/RentalServiceBean"/>
<property name="businessInterface" value="com.foo.service.RentalService"/>
</bean>
After...

<jee:local-slsb id="simpleSlsb" jndi-name="ejb/RentalServiceBean"

business-interface="com.foo.service.RentalService"/>
C.2.3.6 <jee:local-slsb/> (complex)

<bean id="complexLocalEjb"
class="org.springframework.ejb.access.LocalStatelessSessionProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="jndiName" value="ejb/RentalServiceBean"/>
<property name="businessInterface" value="com.foo.service.RentalService"/>
<property name="cacheHome" value="true"/>
<property name="lookupHomeOnStartup" value="true"/>
<property name="resourceRef" value="true"/>
</bean>
After...

<jee:local-slsb id="complexLocalEjb"
jndi-name="ejb/RentalServiceBean"
business-interface="com.foo.service.RentalService"
cache-home="true"
lookup-home-on-startup="true"
resource-ref="true">
C.2.3.7 <jee:remote-slsb/>

The <jee:remote-slsb/> tag configures a reference to a remote EJB Stateless SessionBean.

Before...

<bean id="complexRemoteEjb"
class="org.springframework.ejb.access.SimpleRemoteStatelessSessionProxyFactoryBean">

865
 <property name="jndiName" value="ejb/MyRemoteBean"/>
<property name="businessInterface" value="com.foo.service.RentalService"/>
<property name="cacheHome" value="true"/>
<property name="lookupHomeOnStartup" value="true"/>
<property name="resourceRef" value="true"/>
<property name="homeInterface" value="com.foo.service.RentalService"/>
<property name="refreshHomeOnConnectFailure" value="true"/>
</bean>
After...

<jee:remote-slsb id="complexRemoteEjb"
jndi-name="ejb/MyRemoteBean"
business-interface="com.foo.service.RentalService"
cache-home="true"
lookup-home-on-startup="true"
resource-ref="true"
home-interface="com.foo.service.RentalService"
refresh-home-on-connect-failure="true">
C.2.4 The lang schema

The lang tags deal with exposing objects that have been written in a dynamic language such as JRuby
or Groovy as beans in the Spring container.

These tags (and the dynamic language support) are comprehensively covered in the chapter entitled
Chapter 26, Dynamic language support. Please do consult that chapter for full details on this support
and the lang tags themselves.

In the interest of completeness, to use the tags in the lang schema, you need to have the following
preamble at the top of your Spring XML configuration file; the bold text in the following snippet
references the correct schema so that the tags in the lang namespace are available to you.

<?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-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang/spring-
lang-3.0.xsd">

<!-- <bean/> definitions here -->

</beans>
C.2.5 The jms schema

866
The jms tags deal with configuring JMS-related beans such as Spring's MessageListenerContainers.
These tags are detailed in the section of the JMS chapter entitled Section 21.6, “JMS Namespace
Support”. Please do consult that chapter for full details on this support and the jms tags themselves.

In the interest of completeness, to use the tags in the jms schema, you need to have the following
preamble at the top of your Spring XML configuration file; the bold text in the following snippet
references the correct schema so that the tags in the jms namespace are available to you.

<?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:jms="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jms"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/jms http://www.springframework.org/schema/jms/spring-
jms-3.0.xsd">

<!-- <bean/> definitions here -->

</beans>
C.2.6 The tx (transaction) schema

The tx tags deal with configuring all of those beans in Spring's comprehensive support for
transactions. These tags are covered in the chapter entitled Chapter 10, Transaction Management.

Tip
You are strongly encouraged to look at the 'spring-tx-3.0.xsd' file that ships with the Spring
distribution. This file is (of course), the XML Schema for Spring's transaction configuration, and
covers all of the various tags in the tx namespace, including attribute defaults and suchlike. This file is
documented inline, and thus the information is not repeated here in the interests of adhering to the
DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) principle.

In the interest of completeness, to use the tags in the tx schema, you need to have the following
preamble at the top of your Spring XML configuration file; the bold text in the following snippet
references the correct schema so that the tags in the tx namespace are available to you.

<?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"
xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd

867
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-
3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-
aop-3.0.xsd">

<!-- <bean/> definitions here -->

</beans>
Note
Often when using the tags in the tx namespace you will also be using the tags from the aop namespace
(since the declarative transaction support in Spring is implemented using AOP). The above XML
snippet contains the relevant lines needed to reference the aop schema so that the tags in the aop
namespace are available to you.

C.2.7 The aop schema

The aop tags deal with configuring all things AOP in Spring: this includes Spring's own proxy-based
AOP framework and Spring's integration with the AspectJ AOP framework. These tags are
comprehensively covered in the chapter entitled Chapter 7, Aspect Oriented Programming with
Spring.

In the interest of completeness, to use the tags in the aop schema, you need to have the following
preamble at the top of your Spring XML configuration file; the bold text in the following snippet
references the correct schema so that the tags in the aop namespace are available to you.

<?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-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-
aop-3.0.xsd">

<!-- <bean/> definitions here -->

</beans>
C.2.8 The context schema

The context tags deal with ApplicationContext configuration that relates to plumbing - that is, not
usually beans that are important to an end-user but rather beans that do a lot of grunt work in Spring,
such as BeanfactoryPostProcessors. The following snippet references the correct schema so that the
tags in the context namespace are available to you.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

868
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

<!-- <bean/> definitions here -->

</beans>
Note
The context schema was only introduced in Spring 2.5.

C.2.8.1 <property-placeholder/>

This element activates the replacement of ${...} placeholders, resolved against the specified properties
file (as a Spring resource location). This element is a convenience mechanism that sets up a
PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer for you; if you need more control over the
PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer, just define one yourself explicitly.

C.2.8.2 <annotation-config/>

Activates the Spring infrastructure for various annotations to be detected in bean classes: Spring's
@Required and @Autowired, as well as JSR 250's @PostConstruct, @PreDestroy and @Resource (if
available), and JPA's @PersistenceContext and @PersistenceUnit (if available). Alternatively, you can
choose to activate the individual BeanPostProcessors for those annotations explictly.

Note
This element does not activate processing of Spring's @Transactional annotation. Use the
<tx:annotation-driven/> element for that purpose.

C.2.8.3 <component-scan/>

This element is detailed in Section 3.9, “Annotation-based container configuration”.

C.2.8.4 <load-time-weaver/>

This element is detailed in Section 7.8.4, “Load-time weaving with AspectJ in the Spring Framework”.

C.2.8.5 <spring-configured/>

This element is detailed in Section 7.8.1, “Using AspectJ to dependency inject domain objects with
Spring”.

869
C.2.8.6 <mbean-export/>

This element is detailed in Section 22.4.3, “The <context:mbean-export/> element”.

C.2.9 The tool schema

The tool tags are for use when you want to add tooling-specific metadata to your custom configuration
elements. This metadata can then be consumed by tools that are aware of this metadata, and the tools
can then do pretty much whatever they want with it (validation, etc.).

The tool tags are not documented in this release of Spring as they are currently undergoing review. If
you are a third party tool vendor and you would like to contribute to this review process, then do mail
the Spring mailing list. The currently supported tool tags can be found in the file 'spring-tool-3.0.xsd'
in the 'src/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml' directory of the Spring source distribution.

C.2.10 The beans schema

Last but not least we have the tags in the beans schema. These are the same tags that have been in
Spring since the very dawn of the framework. Examples of the various tags in the beans schema are
not shown here because they are quite comprehensively covered in Section 3.4.2, “Dependencies and
configuration in detail” (and indeed in that entire chapter).

One thing that is new to the beans tags themselves in Spring 2.0 is the idea of arbitrary bean metadata.
In Spring 2.0 it is now possible to add zero or more key / value pairs to <bean/> XML definitions.
What, if anything, is done with this extra metadata is totally up to your own custom logic (and so is
typically only of use if you are writing your own custom tags as described in the appendix entitled
Appendix D, Extensible XML authoring).

Find below an example of the <meta/> tag in the context of a surrounding <bean/> (please note that
without any logic to interpret it the metadata is effectively useless as-is).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

<bean id="foo" class="x.y.Foo">

<meta key="cacheName" value="foo"/>
<property name="name" value="Rick"/>
</bean>

</beans>
In the case of the above example, you would assume that there is some logic that will consume the
bean definition and set up some caching infrastructure using the supplied metadata.

870
Appendix D. Extensible XML authoring

D.1 Introduction

Since version 2.0, Spring has featured a mechanism for schema-based extensions to the basic Spring
XML format for defining and configuring beans. This section is devoted to detailing how you would
go about writing your own custom XML bean definition parsers and integrating such parsers into the
Spring IoC container.

To facilitate the authoring of configuration files using a schema-aware XML editor, Spring's
extensible XML configuration mechanism is based on XML Schema. If you are not familiar with
Spring's current XML configuration extensions that come with the standard Spring distribution, please
first read the appendix entitled Appendix C, XML Schema-based configuration.

Creating new XML configuration extensions can be done by following these (relatively) simple steps:

Authoring an XML schema to describe your custom element(s).

Coding a custom NamespaceHandler implementation (this is an easy step, don't worry).

Coding one or more BeanDefinitionParser implementations (this is where the real work is done).

Registering the above artifacts with Spring (this too is an easy step).

What follows is a description of each of these steps. For the example, we will create an XML
extension (a custom XML element) that allows us to configure objects of the type SimpleDateFormat
(from the java.text package) in an easy manner. When we are done, we will be able to define bean
definitions of type SimpleDateFormat like this:

<myns:dateformat id="dateFormat"
pattern="yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm"
lenient="true"/>
(Don't worry about the fact that this example is very simple; much more detailed examples follow
afterwards. The intent in this first simple example is to walk you through the basic steps involved.)

D.2 Authoring the schema

Creating an XML configuration extension for use with Spring's IoC container starts with authoring an
XML Schema to describe the extension. What follows is the schema we'll use to configure
SimpleDateFormat objects.

<!-- myns.xsd (inside package org/springframework/samples/xml) -->

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<xsd:schema xmlns="http://www.mycompany.com/schema/myns"

871
 xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
targetNamespace="http://www.mycompany.com/schema/myns"
elementFormDefault="qualified"
attributeFormDefault="unqualified">

<xsd:import namespace="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"/>

<xsd:element name="dateformat">
<xsd:complexType>
<xsd:complexContent>
<xsd:extension base="beans:identifiedType">
<xsd:attribute name="lenient" type="xsd:boolean"/>
<xsd:attribute name="pattern" type="xsd:string" use="required"/>
</xsd:extension>
</xsd:complexContent>
</xsd:complexType>
</xsd:element>

</xsd:schema>
(The emphasized line contains an extension base for all tags that will be identifiable (meaning they
have an id attribute that will be used as the bean identifier in the container). We are able to use this
attribute because we imported the Spring-provided 'beans' namespace.)

The above schema will be used to configure SimpleDateFormat objects, directly in an XML
application context file using the <myns:dateformat/> element.

<myns:dateformat id="dateFormat"
pattern="yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm"
lenient="true"/>
Note that after we've created the infrastructure classes, the above snippet of XML will essentially be
exactly the same as the following XML snippet. In other words, we're just creating a bean in the
container, identified by the name 'dateFormat' of type SimpleDateFormat, with a couple of properties
set.

<bean id="dateFormat" class="java.text.SimpleDateFormat">

<constructor-arg value="yyyy-HH-dd HH:mm"/>
<property name="lenient" value="true"/>
</bean>
Note
The schema-based approach to creating configuration format allows for tight integration with an IDE
that has a schema-aware XML editor. Using a properly authored schema, you can use autocompletion
to have a user choose between several configuration options defined in the enumeration.

D.3 Coding a NamespaceHandler

872
In addition to the schema, we need a NamespaceHandler that will parse all elements of this specific
namespace Spring encounters while parsing configuration files. The NamespaceHandler should in our
case take care of the parsing of the myns:dateformat element.

The NamespaceHandler interface is pretty simple in that it features just three methods:

init() - allows for initialization of the NamespaceHandler and will be called by Spring before the
handler is used

BeanDefinition parse(Element, ParserContext) - called when Spring encounters a top-level element

(not nested inside a bean definition or a different namespace). This method can register bean
definitions itself and/or return a bean definition.

BeanDefinitionHolder decorate(Node, BeanDefinitionHolder, ParserContext) - called when Spring

encounters an attribute or nested element of a different namespace. The decoration of one or more
bean definitions is used for example with the out-of-the-box scopes Spring 2.0 supports. We'll
start by highlighting a simple example, without using decoration, after which we will show
decoration in a somewhat more advanced example.

Although it is perfectly possible to code your own NamespaceHandler for the entire namespace (and
hence provide code that parses each and every element in the namespace), it is often the case that each
top-level XML element in a Spring XML configuration file results in a single bean definition (as in
our case, where a single <myns:dateformat/> element results in a single SimpleDateFormat bean
definition). Spring features a number of convenience classes that support this scenario. In this
example, we'll make use the NamespaceHandlerSupport class:

package org.springframework.samples.xml;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.NamespaceHandlerSupport;

public class MyNamespaceHandler extends NamespaceHandlerSupport {

public void init() {

registerBeanDefinitionParser("dateformat", new SimpleDateFormatBeanDefinitionParser());
}
}
The observant reader will notice that there isn't actually a whole lot of parsing logic in this class.
Indeed... the NamespaceHandlerSupport class has a built in notion of delegation. It supports the
registration of any number of BeanDefinitionParser instances, to which it will delegate to when it
needs to parse an element in its namespace. This clean separation of concerns allows a
NamespaceHandler to handle the orchestration of the parsing of all of the custom elements in its
namespace, while delegating to BeanDefinitionParsers to do the grunt work of the XML parsing; this
means that each BeanDefinitionParser will contain just the logic for parsing a single custom element,
as we can see in the next step

D.4 Coding a BeanDefinitionParser

873
A BeanDefinitionParser will be used if the NamespaceHandler encounters an XML element of the
type that has been mapped to the specific bean definition parser (which is 'dateformat' in this case). In
other words, the BeanDefinitionParser is responsible for parsing one distinct top-level XML element
defined in the schema. In the parser, we'll have access to the XML element (and thus its subelements
too) so that we can parse our custom XML content, as can be seen in the following example:

package org.springframework.samples.xml;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionBuilder;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.AbstractSingleBeanDefinitionParser;
import org.springframework.util.StringUtils;
import org.w3c.dom.Element;

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;

public class SimpleDateFormatBeanDefinitionParser extends AbstractSingleBeanDefinitionParser {

protected Class getBeanClass(Element element) {

return SimpleDateFormat.class;
}

protected void doParse(Element element, BeanDefinitionBuilder bean) {

// this will never be null since the schema explicitly requires that a value be supplied
String pattern = element.getAttribute("pattern");
bean.addConstructorArg(pattern);

// this however is an optional property

String lenient = element.getAttribute("lenient");
if (StringUtils.hasText(lenient)) {
bean.addPropertyValue("lenient", Boolean.valueOf(lenient));
}
}
}

We use the Spring-provided AbstractSingleBeanDefinitionParser to handle a lot of the basic grunt

work of creating a single BeanDefinition.

We supply the AbstractSingleBeanDefinitionParser superclass with the type that our single
BeanDefinition will represent.

874
In this simple case, this is all that we need to do. The creation of our single BeanDefinition is handled
by the AbstractSingleBeanDefinitionParser superclass, as is the extraction and setting of the bean
definition's unique identifier.

D.5 Registering the handler and the schema

The coding is finished! All that remains to be done is to somehow make the Spring XML parsing
infrastructure aware of our custom element; we do this by registering our custom namespaceHandler
and custom XSD file in two special purpose properties files. These properties files are both placed in a
'META-INF' directory in your application, and can, for example, be distributed alongside your binary
classes in a JAR file. The Spring XML parsing infrastructurewill automatically pick up your new
extension by consuming these special properties files, the formats of which are detailed below.

D.5.1 'META-INF/spring.handlers'

The properties file called 'spring.handlers' contains a mapping of XML Schema URIs to namespace
handler classes. So for our example, we need to write the following:

http\://www.mycompany.com/schema/myns=org.springframework.samples.xml.MyNamespaceHandle
r
(The ':' character is a valid delimiter in the Java properties format, and so the ':' character in the URI
needs to be escaped with a backslash.)

The first part (the key) of the key-value pair is the URI associated with your custom namespace
extension, and needs to match exactly the value of the 'targetNamespace' attribute as specified in your
custom XSD schema.

D.5.2 'META-INF/spring.schemas'

The properties file called 'spring.schemas' contains a mapping of XML Schema locations (referred to
along with the schema declaration in XML files that use the schema as part of the 'xsi:schemaLocation'
attribute) to classpath resources. This file is needed to prevent Spring from absolutely having to use a
default EntityResolver that requires Internet access to retrieve the schema file. If you specify the
mapping in this properties file, Spring will search for the schema on the classpath (in this case
'myns.xsd' in the 'org.springframework.samples.xml' package):

http\://www.mycompany.com/schema/myns/myns.xsd=org/springframework/samples/xml/myns.xsd
The upshot of this is that you are encouraged to deploy your XSD file(s) right alongside the
NamespaceHandler and BeanDefinitionParser classes on the classpath.

D.6 Using a custom extension in your Spring XML configuration

Using a custom extension that you yourself have implemented is no different from using one of the
'custom' extensions that Spring provides straight out of the box. Find below an example of using the
custom <dateformat/> element developed in the previous steps in a Spring XML configuration file.

875
<?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:myns="http://www.mycompany.com/schema/myns"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.mycompany.com/schema/myns http://www.mycompany.com/schema/myns/myns.xsd">

<!-- as a top-level bean -->

<myns:dateformat id="defaultDateFormat" pattern="yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm" lenient="true"/>

<bean id="jobDetailTemplate" abstract="true">

<property name="dateFormat">
<!-- as an inner bean -->
<myns:dateformat pattern="HH:mm MM-dd-yyyy"/>
</property>
</bean>

</beans>
D.7 Meatier examples

Find below some much meatier examples of custom XML extensions.

D.7.1 Nesting custom tags within custom tags

This example illustrates how you might go about writing the various artifacts required to satisfy a
target of the following configuration:

<?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:foo="http://www.foo.com/schema/component"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.foo.com/schema/component http://www.foo.com/schema/component/component.xsd">

<foo:component id="bionic-family" name="Bionic-1">

<foo:component name="Mother-1">
<foo:component name="Karate-1"/>
<foo:component name="Sport-1"/>
</foo:component>
<foo:component name="Rock-1"/>
</foo:component>

876
</beans>
The above configuration actually nests custom extensions within each other. The class that is actually
configured by the above <foo:component/> element is the Component class (shown directly below).
Notice how the Component class does not expose a setter method for the 'components' property; this
makes it hard (or rather impossible) to configure a bean definition for the Component class using setter
injection.

package com.foo;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class Component {

private String name;

private List<Component> components = new ArrayList<Component> ();

// mmm, there is no setter method for the 'components'

public void addComponent(Component component) {
this.components.add(component);
}

public List<Component> getComponents() {

return components;
}

public String getName() {

return name;
}

public void setName(String name) {

this.name = name;
}
}
The typical solution to this issue is to create a custom FactoryBean that exposes a setter property for
the 'components' property.

package com.foo;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.FactoryBean;

import java.util.List;

public class ComponentFactoryBean implements FactoryBean<Component> {

private Component parent;

877
 private List<Component> children;

public void setParent(Component parent) {

this.parent = parent;
}

public void setChildren(List<Component> children) {

this.children = children;
}

public Component getObject() throws Exception {

if (this.children != null && this.children.size() > 0) {
for (Component child : children) {
this.parent.addComponent(child);
}
}
return this.parent;
}

public Class<Component> getObjectType() {

return Component.class;
}

public boolean isSingleton() {

return true;
}
}
This is all very well, and does work nicely, but exposes a lot of Spring plumbing to the end user. What
we are going to do is write a custom extension that hides away all of this Spring plumbing. If we stick
to the steps described previously, we'll start off by creating the XSD schema to define the structure of
our custom tag.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>

<xsd:schema xmlns="http://www.foo.com/schema/component"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
targetNamespace="http://www.foo.com/schema/component"
elementFormDefault="qualified"
attributeFormDefault="unqualified">

<xsd:element name="component">
<xsd:complexType>
<xsd:choice minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">
<xsd:element ref="component"/>
</xsd:choice>
<xsd:attribute name="id" type="xsd:ID"/>

878
 <xsd:attribute name="name" use="required" type="xsd:string"/>
</xsd:complexType>
</xsd:element>

</xsd:schema>
We'll then create a custom NamespaceHandler.

package com.foo;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.NamespaceHandlerSupport;

public class ComponentNamespaceHandler extends NamespaceHandlerSupport {

public void init() {

registerBeanDefinitionParser("component", new ComponentBeanDefinitionParser());
}
}
Next up is the custom BeanDefinitionParser. Remember that what we are creating is a BeanDefinition
describing a ComponentFactoryBean.

package com.foo;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.config.BeanDefinition;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinition;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionBuilder;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ManagedList;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.AbstractBeanDefinitionParser;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.ParserContext;
import org.springframework.util.xml.DomUtils;
import org.w3c.dom.Element;

import java.util.List;

public class ComponentBeanDefinitionParser extends AbstractBeanDefinitionParser {

protected AbstractBeanDefinition parseInternal(Element element, ParserContext parserContext) {

return parseComponentElement(element);
}

private static AbstractBeanDefinition parseComponentElement(Element element) {

BeanDefinitionBuilder factory =
BeanDefinitionBuilder.rootBeanDefinition(ComponentFactoryBean.class);
factory.addPropertyValue("parent", parseComponent(element));

List<Element> childElements = DomUtils.getChildElementsByTagName(element, "component");

if (childElements != null && childElements.size() > 0) {

879
 parseChildComponents(childElements, factory);
}

return factory.getBeanDefinition();
}

private static BeanDefinition parseComponent(Element element) {

BeanDefinitionBuilder component =
BeanDefinitionBuilder.rootBeanDefinition(Component.class);
component.addPropertyValue("name", element.getAttribute("name"));
return component.getBeanDefinition();
}

private static void parseChildComponents(List<Element> childElements, BeanDefinitionBuilder

factory) {
ManagedList<BeanDefinition> children = new
ManagedList<BeanDefinition>(childElements.size());

for (Element element : childElements) {

children.add(parseComponentElement(element));
}

factory.addPropertyValue("children", children);
}
}
Lastly, the various artifacts need to be registered with the Spring XML infrastructure.

# in 'META-INF/spring.handlers'
http\://www.foo.com/schema/component=com.foo.ComponentNamespaceHandler
# in 'META-INF/spring.schemas'
http\://www.foo.com/schema/component/component.xsd=com/foo/component.xsd
D.7.2 Custom attributes on 'normal' elements

Writing your own custom parser and the associated artifacts isn't hard, but sometimes it is not the right
thing to do. Consider the scenario where you need to add metadata to already existing bean definitions.
In this case you certainly don't want to have to go off and write your own entire custom extension;
rather you just want to add an additional attribute to the existing bean definition element.

By way of another example, let's say that the service class that you are defining a bean definition for a
service object that will (unknown to it) be accessing a clustered JCache, and you want to ensure that
the named JCache instance is eagerly started within the surrounding cluster:

<bean id="checkingAccountService" class="com.foo.DefaultCheckingAccountService"

jcache:cache-name="checking.account">
<!-- other dependencies here... -->
</bean>

880
What we are going to do here is create another BeanDefinition when the 'jcache:cache-name' attribute
is parsed; this BeanDefinition will then initialize the named JCache for us. We will also modify the
existing BeanDefinition for the 'checkingAccountService' so that it will have a dependency on this
new JCache-initializing BeanDefinition.

package com.foo;

public class JCacheInitializer {

private String name;

public JCacheInitializer(String name) {

this.name = name;
}

public void initialize() {

// lots of JCache API calls to initialize the named cache...
}
}
Now onto the custom extension. Firstly, the authoring of the XSD schema describing the custom
attribute (quite easy in this case).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>

<xsd:schema xmlns="http://www.foo.com/schema/jcache"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
targetNamespace="http://www.foo.com/schema/jcache"
elementFormDefault="qualified">

<xsd:attribute name="cache-name" type="xsd:string"/>

</xsd:schema>
Next, the associated NamespaceHandler.

package com.foo;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.NamespaceHandlerSupport;

public class JCacheNamespaceHandler extends NamespaceHandlerSupport {

public void init() {

super.registerBeanDefinitionDecoratorForAttribute("cache-name",
new JCacheInitializingBeanDefinitionDecorator());
}
}

881
Next, the parser. Note that in this case, because we are going to be parsing an XML attribute, we write
a BeanDefinitionDecorator rather than a BeanDefinitionParser.

package com.foo;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.config.BeanDefinitionHolder;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinition;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionBuilder;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.BeanDefinitionDecorator;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.ParserContext;
import org.w3c.dom.Attr;
import org.w3c.dom.Node;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;

public class JCacheInitializingBeanDefinitionDecorator implements BeanDefinitionDecorator {

private static final String[] EMPTY_STRING_ARRAY = new String[0];

public BeanDefinitionHolder decorate(

Node source, BeanDefinitionHolder holder, ParserContext ctx) {
String initializerBeanName = registerJCacheInitializer(source, ctx);
createDependencyOnJCacheInitializer(holder, initializerBeanName);
return holder;
}

private void createDependencyOnJCacheInitializer(BeanDefinitionHolder holder, String

initializerBeanName) {
AbstractBeanDefinition definition = ((AbstractBeanDefinition) holder.getBeanDefinition());
String[] dependsOn = definition.getDependsOn();
if (dependsOn == null) {
dependsOn = new String[]{initializerBeanName};
} else {
List dependencies = new ArrayList(Arrays.asList(dependsOn));
dependencies.add(initializerBeanName);
dependsOn = (String[]) dependencies.toArray(EMPTY_STRING_ARRAY);
}
definition.setDependsOn(dependsOn);
}

private String registerJCacheInitializer(Node source, ParserContext ctx) {

String cacheName = ((Attr) source).getValue();
String beanName = cacheName + "-initializer";
if (!ctx.getRegistry().containsBeanDefinition(beanName)) {

882
 BeanDefinitionBuilder initializer =
BeanDefinitionBuilder.rootBeanDefinition(JCacheInitializer.class);
initializer.addConstructorArg(cacheName);
ctx.getRegistry().registerBeanDefinition(beanName, initializer.getBeanDefinition());
}
return beanName;
}
}
Lastly, the various artifacts need to be registered with the Spring XML infrastructure.

# in 'META-INF/spring.handlers'
http\://www.foo.com/schema/jcache=com.foo.JCacheNamespaceHandler
# in 'META-INF/spring.schemas'
http\://www.foo.com/schema/jcache/jcache.xsd=com/foo/jcache.xsd
D.8 Further Resources

Find below links to further resources concerning XML Schema and the extensible XML support
described in this chapter.

The XML Schema Part 1: Structures Second Edition

The XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes Second Edition

Appendix E. spring-beans-2.0.dtd

<!--
Spring XML Beans DTD, version 2.0
Authors: Rod Johnson, Juergen Hoeller, Alef Arendsen, Colin Sampaleanu, Rob Harrop

This defines a simple and consistent way of creating a namespace

of JavaBeans objects, managed by a Spring BeanFactory, read by
XmlBeanDefinitionReader (with DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader).

This document type is used by most Spring functionality, including

web application contexts, which are based on bean factories.

Each "bean" element in this document defines a JavaBean.

Typically the bean class is specified, along with JavaBean properties
and/or constructor arguments.

A bean instance can be a "singleton" (shared instance) or a "prototype"

(independent instance). Further scopes can be provided by extended
bean factories, for example in a web environment.

References among beans are supported, that is, setting a JavaBean property
or a constructor argument to refer to another bean in the same factory

883
 (or an ancestor factory).

As alternative to bean references, "inner bean definitions" can be used.

Singleton flags of such inner bean definitions are effectively ignored:
Inner beans are typically anonymous prototypes.

There is also support for lists, sets, maps, and java.util.Properties

as bean property types or constructor argument types.

For simple purposes, this DTD is sufficient. As of Spring 2.0,

XSD-based bean definitions are supported as more powerful alternative.

XML documents that conform to this DTD should declare the following doctype:

<!DOCTYPE beans PUBLIC "-//SPRING//DTD BEAN 2.0//EN"

"http://www.springframework.org/dtd/spring-beans-2.0.dtd">
-->

<!--
The document root. A document can contain bean definitions only,
imports only, or a mixture of both (typically with imports first).
-->
<!ELEMENT beans (
description?,
(import | alias | bean)*
)>

<!--
Default values for all bean definitions. Can be overridden at
the "bean" level. See those attribute definitions for details.
-->
<!ATTLIST beans default-lazy-init (true | false) "false">
<!ATTLIST beans default-autowire (no | byName | byType | constructor | autodetect) "no">
<!ATTLIST beans default-dependency-check (none | objects | simple | all) "none">
<!ATTLIST beans default-init-method CDATA #IMPLIED>
<!ATTLIST beans default-destroy-method CDATA #IMPLIED>
<!ATTLIST beans default-merge (true | false) "false">

<!--
Element containing informative text describing the purpose of the enclosing
element. Always optional.
Used primarily for user documentation of XML bean definition documents.
-->
<!ELEMENT description (#PCDATA)>

884
<!--
Specifies an XML bean definition resource to import.
-->
<!ELEMENT import EMPTY>

<!--
The relative resource location of the XML bean definition file to import,
for example "myImport.xml" or "includes/myImport.xml" or "../myImport.xml".
-->
<!ATTLIST import resource CDATA #REQUIRED>

<!--
Defines an alias for a bean, which can reside in a different definition file.
-->
<!ELEMENT alias EMPTY>

<!--
The name of the bean to define an alias for.
-->
<!ATTLIST alias name CDATA #REQUIRED>

<!--
The alias name to define for the bean.
-->
<!ATTLIST alias alias CDATA #REQUIRED>

<!--
Allows for arbitrary metadata to be attached to a bean definition.
-->
<!ELEMENT meta EMPTY>

<!--
Specifies the key name of the metadata parameter being defined.
-->
<!ATTLIST meta key CDATA #REQUIRED>

<!--
Specifies the value of the metadata parameter being defined as a String.
-->
<!ATTLIST meta value CDATA #REQUIRED>

<!--
Defines a single (usually named) bean.

885
 A bean definition may contain nested tags for constructor arguments,
property values, lookup methods, and replaced methods. Mixing constructor
injection and setter injection on the same bean is explicitly supported.
-->
<!ELEMENT bean (
description?,
(meta | constructor-arg | property | lookup-method | replaced-method)*
)>

<!--
Beans can be identified by an id, to enable reference checking.

There are constraints on a valid XML id: if you want to reference your bean
in Java code using a name that's illegal as an XML id, use the optional
"name" attribute. If neither is given, the bean class name is used as id
(with an appended counter like "#2" if there is already a bean with that name).
-->
<!ATTLIST bean id ID #IMPLIED>

<!--
Optional. Can be used to create one or more aliases illegal in an id.
Multiple aliases can be separated by any number of spaces, commas, or
semi-colons (or indeed any mixture of the three).
-->
<!ATTLIST bean name CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
Each bean definition must specify the fully qualified name of the class,
except if it pure serves as parent for child bean definitions.
-->
<!ATTLIST bean class CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
Optionally specify a parent bean definition.

Will use the bean class of the parent if none specified, but can
also override it. In the latter case, the child bean class must be
compatible with the parent, i.e. accept the parent's property values
and constructor argument values, if any.

A child bean definition will inherit constructor argument values,

property values and method overrides from the parent, with the option
to add new values. If init method, destroy method, factory bean and/or factory
method are specified, they will override the corresponding parent settings.

The remaining settings will always be taken from the child definition:

886
 depends on, autowire mode, dependency check, scope, lazy init.
-->
<!ATTLIST bean parent CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
The scope of this bean: typically "singleton" (one shared instance,
which will be returned by all calls to getBean() with the id),
or "prototype" (independent instance resulting from each call to
getBean(). Default is "singleton".

Singletons are most commonly used, and are ideal for multi-threaded
service objects. Further scopes, such as "request" or "session",
might be supported by extended bean factories (for example, in a
web environment).

Note: This attribute will not be inherited by child bean definitions.

Hence, it needs to be specified per concrete bean definition.

Inner bean definitions inherit the singleton status of their containing

bean definition, unless explicitly specified: The inner bean will be a
singleton if the containing bean is a singleton, and a prototype if
the containing bean has any other scope.
-->
<!ATTLIST bean scope CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
Is this bean "abstract", i.e. not meant to be instantiated itself but
rather just serving as parent for concrete child bean definitions.
Default is "false". Specify "true" to tell the bean factory to not try to
instantiate that particular bean in any case.

Note: This attribute will not be inherited by child bean definitions.

Hence, it needs to be specified per abstract bean definition.
-->
<!ATTLIST bean abstract (true | false) #IMPLIED>

<!--
If this bean should be lazily initialized.
If false, it will get instantiated on startup by bean factories
that perform eager initialization of singletons.

Note: This attribute will not be inherited by child bean definitions.

Hence, it needs to be specified per concrete bean definition.
-->
<!ATTLIST bean lazy-init (true | false | default) "default">

887
<!--
Indicates whether or not this bean should be considered when looking
for candidates to satisfy another beans autowiring requirements.
-->
<!ATTLIST bean autowire-candidate (true | false) #IMPLIED>

<!--
Optional attribute controlling whether to "autowire" bean properties.
This is an automagical process in which bean references don't need to be coded
explicitly in the XML bean definition file, but Spring works out dependencies.

There are 5 modes:

1. "no"
The traditional Spring default. No automagical wiring. Bean references
must be defined in the XML file via the <ref> element. We recommend this
in most cases as it makes documentation more explicit.

2. "byName"
Autowiring by property name. If a bean of class Cat exposes a dog property,
Spring will try to set this to the value of the bean "dog" in the current factory.
If there is no matching bean by name, nothing special happens;
use dependency-check="objects" to raise an error in that case.

3. "byType"
Autowiring if there is exactly one bean of the property type in the bean factory.
If there is more than one, a fatal error is raised, and you can't use byType
autowiring for that bean. If there is none, nothing special happens;
use dependency-check="objects" to raise an error in that case.

4. "constructor"
Analogous to "byType" for constructor arguments. If there isn't exactly one bean
of the constructor argument type in the bean factory, a fatal error is raised.

5. "autodetect"
Chooses "constructor" or "byType" through introspection of the bean class.
If a default no-arg constructor is found, "byType" gets applied.

The latter two are similar to PicoContainer and make bean factories simple to
configure for small namespaces, but doesn't work as well as standard Spring
behaviour for bigger applications.

Note that explicit dependencies, i.e. "property" and "constructor-arg" elements,

always override autowiring. Autowire behavior can be combined with dependency
checking, which will be performed after all autowiring has been completed.

888
 Note: This attribute will not be inherited by child bean definitions.
Hence, it needs to be specified per concrete bean definition.
-->
<!ATTLIST bean autowire (no | byName | byType | constructor | autodetect | default) "default">

<!--
Optional attribute controlling whether to check whether all this
beans dependencies, expressed in its properties, are satisfied.
Default is no dependency checking.

"simple" type dependency checking includes primitives and String;

"objects" includes collaborators (other beans in the factory);
"all" includes both types of dependency checking.

Note: This attribute will not be inherited by child bean definitions.

Hence, it needs to be specified per concrete bean definition.
-->
<!ATTLIST bean dependency-check (none | objects | simple | all | default) "default">

<!--
The names of the beans that this bean depends on being initialized.
The bean factory will guarantee that these beans get initialized before.

Note that dependencies are normally expressed through bean properties or

constructor arguments. This property should just be necessary for other kinds
of dependencies like statics (*ugh*) or database preparation on startup.

Note: This attribute will not be inherited by child bean definitions.

Hence, it needs to be specified per concrete bean definition.
-->
<!ATTLIST bean depends-on CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
Optional attribute for the name of the custom initialization method
to invoke after setting bean properties. The method must have no arguments,
but may throw any exception.
-->
<!ATTLIST bean init-method CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
Optional attribute for the name of the custom destroy method to invoke
on bean factory shutdown. The method must have no arguments,
but may throw any exception.

Note: Only invoked on beans whose lifecycle is under full control

of the factory - which is always the case for singletons, but not

889
 guaranteed for any other scope.
-->
<!ATTLIST bean destroy-method CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
Optional attribute specifying the name of a factory method to use to
create this object. Use constructor-arg elements to specify arguments
to the factory method, if it takes arguments. Autowiring does not apply
to factory methods.

If the "class" attribute is present, the factory method will be a static

method on the class specified by the "class" attribute on this bean
definition. Often this will be the same class as that of the constructed
object - for example, when the factory method is used as an alternative
to a constructor. However, it may be on a different class. In that case,
the created object will *not* be of the class specified in the "class"
attribute. This is analogous to FactoryBean behavior.

If the "factory-bean" attribute is present, the "class" attribute is not

used, and the factory method will be an instance method on the object
returned from a getBean call with the specified bean name. The factory
bean may be defined as a singleton or a prototype.

The factory method can have any number of arguments. Autowiring is not
supported. Use indexed constructor-arg elements in conjunction with the
factory-method attribute.

Setter Injection can be used in conjunction with a factory method.

Method Injection cannot, as the factory method returns an instance,
which will be used when the container creates the bean.
-->
<!ATTLIST bean factory-method CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
Alternative to class attribute for factory-method usage.
If this is specified, no class attribute should be used.
This should be set to the name of a bean in the current or
ancestor factories that contains the relevant factory method.
This allows the factory itself to be configured using Dependency
Injection, and an instance (rather than static) method to be used.
-->
<!ATTLIST bean factory-bean CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
Bean definitions can specify zero or more constructor arguments.
This is an alternative to "autowire constructor".

890
 Arguments correspond to either a specific index of the constructor argument
list or are supposed to be matched generically by type.

Note: A single generic argument value will just be used once, rather than
potentially matched multiple times (as of Spring 1.1).

constructor-arg elements are also used in conjunction with the factory-method

element to construct beans using static or instance factory methods.
-->
<!ELEMENT constructor-arg (
description?,
(bean | ref | idref | value | null | list | set | map | props)?
)>

<!--
The constructor-arg tag can have an optional index attribute,
to specify the exact index in the constructor argument list. Only needed
to avoid ambiguities, e.g. in case of 2 arguments of the same type.
-->
<!ATTLIST constructor-arg index CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
The constructor-arg tag can have an optional type attribute,
to specify the exact type of the constructor argument. Only needed
to avoid ambiguities, e.g. in case of 2 single argument constructors
that can both be converted from a String.
-->
<!ATTLIST constructor-arg type CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
A short-cut alternative to a child element "ref bean=".
-->
<!ATTLIST constructor-arg ref CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
A short-cut alternative to a child element "value".
-->
<!ATTLIST constructor-arg value CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
Bean definitions can have zero or more properties.
Property elements correspond to JavaBean setter methods exposed
by the bean classes. Spring supports primitives, references to other
beans in the same or related factories, lists, maps and properties.
-->

891
<!ELEMENT property (
description?, meta*,
(bean | ref | idref | value | null | list | set | map | props)?
)>

<!--
The property name attribute is the name of the JavaBean property.
This follows JavaBean conventions: a name of "age" would correspond
to setAge()/optional getAge() methods.
-->
<!ATTLIST property name CDATA #REQUIRED>

<!--
A short-cut alternative to a child element "ref bean=".
-->
<!ATTLIST property ref CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
A short-cut alternative to a child element "value".
-->
<!ATTLIST property value CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
A lookup method causes the IoC container to override the given method and return
the bean with the name given in the bean attribute. This is a form of Method Injection.
It's particularly useful as an alternative to implementing the BeanFactoryAware
interface, in order to be able to make getBean() calls for non-singleton instances
at runtime. In this case, Method Injection is a less invasive alternative.
-->
<!ELEMENT lookup-method EMPTY>

<!--
Name of a lookup method. This method should take no arguments.
-->
<!ATTLIST lookup-method name CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
Name of the bean in the current or ancestor factories that the lookup method
should resolve to. Often this bean will be a prototype, in which case the
lookup method will return a distinct instance on every invocation. This
is useful for single-threaded objects.
-->
<!ATTLIST lookup-method bean CDATA #IMPLIED>

892
<!--
Similar to the lookup method mechanism, the replaced-method element is used to control
IoC container method overriding: Method Injection. This mechanism allows the overriding
of a method with arbitrary code.
-->
<!ELEMENT replaced-method (
(arg-type)*
)>

<!--
Name of the method whose implementation should be replaced by the IoC container.
If this method is not overloaded, there's no need to use arg-type subelements.
If this method is overloaded, arg-type subelements must be used for all
override definitions for the method.
-->
<!ATTLIST replaced-method name CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
Bean name of an implementation of the MethodReplacer interface in the current
or ancestor factories. This may be a singleton or prototype bean. If it's
a prototype, a new instance will be used for each method replacement.
Singleton usage is the norm.
-->
<!ATTLIST replaced-method replacer CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
Subelement of replaced-method identifying an argument for a replaced method
in the event of method overloading.
-->
<!ELEMENT arg-type (#PCDATA)>

<!--
Specification of the type of an overloaded method argument as a String.
For convenience, this may be a substring of the FQN. E.g. all the
following would match "java.lang.String":
- java.lang.String
- String
- Str

As the number of arguments will be checked also, this convenience can often
be used to save typing.
-->
<!ATTLIST arg-type match CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--

893
 Defines a reference to another bean in this factory or an external
factory (parent or included factory).
-->
<!ELEMENT ref EMPTY>

<!--
References must specify a name of the target bean.
The "bean" attribute can reference any name from any bean in the context,
to be checked at runtime.
Local references, using the "local" attribute, have to use bean ids;
they can be checked by this DTD, thus should be preferred for references
within the same bean factory XML file.
-->
<!ATTLIST ref bean CDATA #IMPLIED>
<!ATTLIST ref local IDREF #IMPLIED>
<!ATTLIST ref parent CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
Defines a string property value, which must also be the id of another
bean in this factory or an external factory (parent or included factory).
While a regular 'value' element could instead be used for the same effect,
using idref in this case allows validation of local bean ids by the XML
parser, and name completion by supporting tools.
-->
<!ELEMENT idref EMPTY>

<!--
ID refs must specify a name of the target bean.
The "bean" attribute can reference any name from any bean in the context,
potentially to be checked at runtime by bean factory implementations.
Local references, using the "local" attribute, have to use bean ids;
they can be checked by this DTD, thus should be preferred for references
within the same bean factory XML file.
-->
<!ATTLIST idref bean CDATA #IMPLIED>
<!ATTLIST idref local IDREF #IMPLIED>

<!--
Contains a string representation of a property value.
The property may be a string, or may be converted to the required
type using the JavaBeans PropertyEditor machinery. This makes it
possible for application developers to write custom PropertyEditor
implementations that can convert strings to arbitrary target objects.

894
 Note that this is recommended for simple objects only.
Configure more complex objects by populating JavaBean
properties with references to other beans.
-->
<!ELEMENT value (#PCDATA)>

<!--
The value tag can have an optional type attribute, to specify the
exact type that the value should be converted to. Only needed
if the type of the target property or constructor argument is
too generic: for example, in case of a collection element.
-->
<!ATTLIST value type CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
Denotes a Java null value. Necessary because an empty "value" tag
will resolve to an empty String, which will not be resolved to a
null value unless a special PropertyEditor does so.
-->
<!ELEMENT null (#PCDATA)>

<!--
A list can contain multiple inner bean, ref, collection, or value elements.
Java lists are untyped, pending generics support in Java 1.5,
although references will be strongly typed.
A list can also map to an array type. The necessary conversion
is automatically performed by the BeanFactory.
-->
<!ELEMENT list (
(bean | ref | idref | value | null | list | set | map | props)*
)>

<!--
Enable/disable merging for collections when using parent/child beans.
-->
<!ATTLIST list merge (true | false | default) "default">

<!--
Specify the default Java type for nested values.
-->
<!ATTLIST list value-type CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
A set can contain multiple inner bean, ref, collection, or value elements.

895
 Java sets are untyped, pending generics support in Java 1.5,
although references will be strongly typed.
-->
<!ELEMENT set (
(bean | ref | idref | value | null | list | set | map | props)*
)>

<!--
Enable/disable merging for collections when using parent/child beans.
-->
<!ATTLIST set merge (true | false | default) "default">

<!--
Specify the default Java type for nested values.
-->
<!ATTLIST set value-type CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
A Spring map is a mapping from a string key to object.
Maps may be empty.
-->
<!ELEMENT map (
(entry)*
)>

<!--
Enable/disable merging for collections when using parent/child beans.
-->
<!ATTLIST map merge (true | false | default) "default">

<!--
Specify the default Java type for nested entry keys.
-->
<!ATTLIST map key-type CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
Specify the default Java type for nested entry values.
-->
<!ATTLIST map value-type CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
A map entry can be an inner bean, ref, value, or collection.
The key of the entry is given by the "key" attribute or child element.
-->
<!ELEMENT entry (

896
 key?,
(bean | ref | idref | value | null | list | set | map | props)?
)>

<!--
Each map element must specify its key as attribute or as child element.
A key attribute is always a String value.
-->
<!ATTLIST entry key CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
A short-cut alternative to a "key" element with a "ref bean=" child element.
-->
<!ATTLIST entry key-ref CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
A short-cut alternative to a child element "value".
-->
<!ATTLIST entry value CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
A short-cut alternative to a child element "ref bean=".
-->
<!ATTLIST entry value-ref CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!--
A key element can contain an inner bean, ref, value, or collection.
-->
<!ELEMENT key (
(bean | ref | idref | value | null | list | set | map | props)
)>

<!--
Props elements differ from map elements in that values must be strings.
Props may be empty.
-->
<!ELEMENT props (
(prop)*
)>

<!--
Enable/disable merging for collections when using parent/child beans.
-->
<!ATTLIST props merge (true | false | default) "default">

897
<!--
Element content is the string value of the property.
Note that whitespace is trimmed off to avoid unwanted whitespace
caused by typical XML formatting.
-->
<!ELEMENT prop (#PCDATA)>

<!--
Each property element must specify its key.
-->
<!ATTLIST prop key CDATA #REQUIRED>
Appendix F. spring.tld

F.1 Introduction

One of the view technologies you can use with the Spring Framework is Java Server Pages (JSPs). To
help you implement views using Java Server Pages the Spring Framework provides you with some
tags for evaluating errors, setting themes and outputting internationalized messages.

Please note that the various tags generated by this form tag library are compliant with the XHTML-
1.0-Strict specification and attendant DTD.

This appendix describes the spring.tld tag library.

Section F.2, “The bind tag”

Section F.3, “The escapeBody tag”
Section F.4, “The hasBindErrors tag”
Section F.5, “The htmlEscape tag”
Section F.6, “The message tag”
Section F.7, “The nestedPath tag”
Section F.8, “The theme tag”
Section F.9, “The transform tag”
Section F.10, “The url tag”
Section F.11, “The eval tag”
F.2 The bind tag

Provides BindStatus object for the given bind path. The HTML escaping flag participates in a page-
wide or application-wide setting (i.e. by HtmlEscapeTag or a "defaultHtmlEscape" context-param in
web.xml).

Table F.1. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

htmlEscape

false

898
true

Set HTML escaping for this tag, as boolean value. Overrides the default HTML escaping setting for
the current page.

ignoreNestedPath

false

true

Set whether to ignore a nested path, if any. Default is to not ignore.

path

true

true

The path to the bean or bean property to bind status information for. For instance account.name,
company.address.zipCode or just employee. The status object will exported to the page scope,
specifically for this bean or bean property

F.3 The escapeBody tag

Escapes its enclosed body content, applying HTML escaping and/or JavaScript escaping. The HTML
escaping flag participates in a page-wide or application-wide setting (i.e. by HtmlEscapeTag or a
"defaultHtmlEscape" context-param in web.xml).

Table F.2. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

htmlEscape

false

true

Set HTML escaping for this tag, as boolean value. Overrides the default HTML escaping setting for
the current page.

javaScriptEscape

false

899
true

Set JavaScript escaping for this tag, as boolean value. Default is false.

F.4 The hasBindErrors tag

Provides Errors instance in case of bind errors. The HTML escaping flag participates in a page-wide or
application-wide setting (i.e. by HtmlEscapeTag or a "defaultHtmlEscape" context-param in web.xml).

Table F.3. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

htmlEscape

false

true

Set HTML escaping for this tag, as boolean value. Overrides the default HTML escaping setting for
the current page.

name

true

true

The name of the bean in the request, that needs to be inspected for errors. If errors are available for
this bean, they will be bound under the 'errors' key.

F.5 The htmlEscape tag

Sets default HTML escape value for the current page. Overrides a "defaultHtmlEscape" context-param
in web.xml, if any.

Table F.4. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

defaultHtmlEscape

true

true

900
Set the default value for HTML escaping, to be put into the current PageContext.

F.6 The message tag

Retrieves the message with the given code, or text if code isn't resolvable. The HTML escaping flag
participates in a page-wide or application-wide setting (i.e. by HtmlEscapeTag or a
"defaultHtmlEscape" context-param in web.xml).

Table F.5. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

arguments

false

true

Set optional message arguments for this tag, as a (comma-)delimited String (each String argument can
contain JSP EL), an Object array (used as argument array), or a single Object (used as single
argument).

argumentSeparator

false

true

The separator character to be used for splitting the arguments string value; defaults to a 'comma' (',').

code

false

true

The code (key) to use when looking up the message. If code is not provided, the text attribute will be
used.

htmlEscape

false

true

901
Set HTML escaping for this tag, as boolean value. Overrides the default HTML escaping setting for
the current page.

javaScriptEscape

false

true

Set JavaScript escaping for this tag, as boolean value. Default is false.

message

false

true

A MessageSourceResolvable argument (direct or through JSP EL). Fits nicely when used in
conjunction with Spring's own validation error classes which all implement the
MessageSourceResolvable interface. For example, this allows you to iterate over all of the errors in a
form, passing each error (using a runtime expression) as the value of this 'message' attribute, thus
effecting the easy display of such error messages.

scope

false

true

The scope to use when exporting the result to a variable. This attribute is only used when var is also
set. Possible values are page, request, session and application.

text

false

true

Default text to output when a message for the given code could not be found. If both text and code are
not set, the tag will output null.

var

false

true

902
The string to use when binding the result to the page, request, session or application scope. If not
specified, the result gets outputted to the writer (i.e. typically directly to the JSP).

F.7 The nestedPath tag

Sets a nested path to be used by the bind tag's path.

Table F.6. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

path

true

true

Set the path that this tag should apply. E.g. 'customer' to allow bind paths like 'address.street' rather
than 'customer.address.street'.

F.8 The theme tag

Retrieves the theme message with the given code, or text if code isn't resolvable. The HTML escaping
flag participates in a page-wide or application-wide setting (i.e. by HtmlEscapeTag or a
"defaultHtmlEscape" context-param in web.xml).

Table F.7. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

arguments

false

true

Set optional message arguments for this tag, as a (comma-)delimited String (each String argument can
contain JSP EL), an Object array (used as argument array), or a single Object (used as single
argument).

argumentSeparator

false

true

903
The separator character to be used for splitting the arguments string value; defaults to a 'comma' (',').

code

false

true

The code (key) to use when looking up the message. If code is not provided, the text attribute will be
used.

htmlEscape

false

true

Set HTML escaping for this tag, as boolean value. Overrides the default HTML escaping setting for
the current page.

javaScriptEscape

false

true

Set JavaScript escaping for this tag, as boolean value. Default is false.

message

false

true

A MessageSourceResolvable argument (direct or through JSP EL).

scope

false

true

The scope to use when exporting the result to a variable. This attribute is only used when var is also
set. Possible values are page, request, session and application.

904
text

false

true

Default text to output when a message for the given code could not be found. If both text and code are
not set, the tag will output null.

var

false

true

The string to use when binding the result to the page, request, session or application scope. If not
specified, the result gets outputted to the writer (i.e. typically directly to the JSP).

F.9 The transform tag

Provides transformation of variables to Strings, using an appropriate custom PropertyEditor from

BindTag (can only be used inside BindTag). The HTML escaping flag participates in a page-wide or
application-wide setting (i.e. by HtmlEscapeTag or a 'defaultHtmlEscape' context-param in web.xml).

Table F.8. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

htmlEscape

false

true

Set HTML escaping for this tag, as boolean value. Overrides the default HTML escaping setting for
the current page.

scope

false

true

The scope to use when exported the result to a variable. This attribute is only used when var is also set.
Possible values are page, request, session and application.

905
value

true

true

The value to transform. This is the actual object you want to have transformed (for instance a Date).
Using the PropertyEditor that is currently in use by the 'spring:bind' tag.

var

false

true

The string to use when binding the result to the page, request, session or application scope. If not
specified, the result gets outputted to the writer (i.e. typically directly to the JSP).

F.10 The url tag

Creates URLs with support for URI template variables, HTML/XML escaping, and Javascript
escaping. Modeled after the JSTL c:url tag with backwards compatibility in mind.

Table F.9. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

url

true

true

The URL to build. This value can include template {placeholders} that are replaced with the URL
encoded value of the named parameter. Parameters must be defined using the param tag inside the
body of this tag.

context

false

true

Specifies a remote application context path. The default is the current application context path.

var

906
false

true

The name of the variable to export the URL value to. If not specified the URL is written as output.

scope

false

true

The scope for the var. 'application', 'session', 'request' and 'page' scopes are supported. Defaults to page
scope. This attribute has no effect unless the var attribute is also defined.

htmlEncoding

false

true

Set HTML escaping for this tag, as a boolean value. Overrides the default HTML escaping setting for
the current page.

javascriptEncoding

false

true

Set JavaScript escaping for this tag, as a boolean value. Default is false.

F.11 The eval tag

Evaluates a Spring expression (SpEL) and either prints the result or assigns it to a variable.

Table F.10. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

expression

true

true

907
The expression to evaluate.

var

false

true

The name of the variable to export the evaluation result to. If not specified the evaluation result is
converted to a String and written as output.

scope

false

true

The scope for the var. 'application', 'session', 'request' and 'page' scopes are supported. Defaults to page
scope. This attribute has no effect unless the var attribute is also defined.

htmlEncoding

false

true

Set HTML escaping for this tag, as a boolean value. Overrides the default HTML escaping setting for
the current page.

javascriptEncoding

false

true

Set JavaScript escaping for this tag, as a boolean value. Default is false.

Appendix G. spring-form.tld

G.1 Introduction

One of the view technologies you can use with the Spring Framework is Java Server Pages (JSPs). To
help you implement views using Java Server Pages the Spring Framework provides you with some
tags for evaluating errors, setting themes and outputting internationalized messages.

908
Please note that the various tags generated by this form tag library are compliant with the XHTML-
1.0-Strict specification and attendant DTD.

This appendix describes the spring-form.tld tag library.

Section G.2, “The checkbox tag”

Section G.3, “The checkboxes tag”
Section G.4, “The errors tag”
Section G.5, “The form tag”
Section G.6, “The hidden tag”
Section G.7, “The input tag”
Section G.8, “The label tag”
Section G.9, “The option tag”
Section G.10, “The options tag”
Section G.11, “The password tag”
Section G.12, “The radiobutton tag”
Section G.13, “The radiobuttons tag”
Section G.14, “The select tag”
Section G.15, “The textarea tag”
G.2 The checkbox tag

Renders an HTML 'input' tag with type 'checkbox'.

Table G.1. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

accesskey

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

cssClass

false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute

cssErrorClass

false

909
true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute. Used when the bound field has errors.

cssStyle

false

true

Equivalent to "style" - HTML Optional Attribute

dir

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

disabled

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute. Setting the value of this attribute to 'true' (without the quotes) will disable
the HTML element.

htmlEscape

false

true

Enable/disable HTML escaping of rendered values.

id

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

910
label

false

true

Value to be displayed as part of the tag

lang

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

onblur

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onchange

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

ondblclick

false

true

911
HTML Event Attribute

onfocus

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeydown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeypress

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeyup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousedown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousemove

false

912
true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseout

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseover

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

path

true

true

Path to property for data binding

tabindex

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

title

913
false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

value

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute

G.3 The checkboxes tag

Renders multiple HTML 'input' tags with type 'checkbox'.

Table G.2. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

accesskey

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

cssClass

false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute

cssErrorClass

false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute. Used when the bound field has errors.

914
cssStyle

false

true

Equivalent to "style" - HTML Optional Attribute

delimiter

false

true

Delimiter to use between each 'input' tag with type 'checkbox'. There is no delimiter by default.

dir

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

disabled

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute. Setting the value of this attribute to 'true' (without the quotes) will disable
the HTML element.

element

false

true

Specifies the HTML element that is used to enclose each 'input' tag with type 'checkbox'. Defaults to
'span'.

htmlEscape

false

915
true

Enable/disable HTML escaping of rendered values.

id

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

itemLabel

false

true

Value to be displayed as part of the 'input' tags with type 'checkbox'

items

true

true

The Collection, Map or array of objects used to generate the 'input' tags with type 'checkbox'

itemValue

false

true

Name of the property mapped to 'value' attribute of the 'input' tags with type 'checkbox'

lang

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

onblur

916
false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onchange

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

ondblclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onfocus

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeydown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

917
onkeypress

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeyup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousedown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousemove

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseout

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseover

false

true

918
HTML Event Attribute

onmouseup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

path

true

true

Path to property for data binding

tabindex

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

title

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

G.4 The errors tag

Renders field errors in an HTML 'span' tag.

Table G.3. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

cssClass

false

919
true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute

cssStyle

false

true

Equivalent to "style" - HTML Optional Attribute

delimiter

false

true

Delimiter for displaying multiple error messages. Defaults to the br tag.

dir

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

element

false

true

Specifies the HTML element that is used to render the enclosing errors.

htmlEscape

false

true

Enable/disable HTML escaping of rendered values.

id

920
false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

lang

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

onclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

ondblclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeydown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeypress

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

921
onkeyup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousedown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousemove

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseout

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseover

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseup

false

true

922
HTML Event Attribute

path

false

true

Path to errors object for data binding

tabindex

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

title

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

G.5 The form tag

Renders an HTML 'form' tag and exposes a binding path to inner tags for binding.

Table G.4. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

acceptCharset

false

true

Specifies the list of character encodings for input data that is accepted by the server processing this
form. The value is a space- and/or comma-delimited list of charset values. The client must interpret
this list as an exclusive-or list, i.e., the server is able to accept any single character encoding per entity
received.

action

923
false

true

HTML Required Attribute

commandName

false

true

Name of the model attribute under which the form object is exposed. Defaults to 'command'.

cssClass

false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute

cssStyle

false

true

Equivalent to "style" - HTML Optional Attribute

dir

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

enctype

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute

924
htmlEscape

false

true

Enable/disable HTML escaping of rendered values.

id

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

lang

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

method

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute

modelAttribute

false

true

Name of the model attribute under which the form object is exposed. Defaults to 'command'.

name

false

true

925
HTML Standard Attribute - added for backwards compatibility cases

onclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

ondblclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeydown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeypress

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeyup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousedown

false

926
true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousemove

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseout

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseover

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onreset

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onsubmit

927
false

true

HTML Event Attribute

target

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute

title

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

G.6 The hidden tag

Renders an HTML 'input' tag with type 'hidden' using the bound value.

Table G.5. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

htmlEscape

false

true

Enable/disable HTML escaping of rendered values.

id

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

928
path

true

true

Path to property for data binding

G.7 The input tag

Renders an HTML 'input' tag with type 'text' using the bound value.

Table G.6. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

accesskey

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

alt

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute

autocomplete

false

true

Common Optional Attribute

cssClass

false

true

929
Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute

cssErrorClass

false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute. Used when the bound field has errors.

cssStyle

false

true

Equivalent to "style" - HTML Optional Attribute

dir

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

disabled

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute. Setting the value of this attribute to 'true' (without the quotes) will disable
the HTML element.

htmlEscape

false

true

Enable/disable HTML escaping of rendered values.

id

930
false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

lang

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

maxlength

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute

onblur

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onchange

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

931
ondblclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onfocus

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeydown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeypress

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeyup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousedown

false

true

932
HTML Event Attribute

onmousemove

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseout

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseover

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onselect

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

path

true

933
true

Path to property for data binding

readonly

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute. Setting the value of this attribute to 'true' (without the quotes) will make the
HTML element readonly.

size

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute

tabindex

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

title

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

G.8 The label tag

Renders a form field label in an HTML 'label' tag.

Table G.7. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

cssClass

934
false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute.

cssErrorClass

false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute. Used only when errors are present.

cssStyle

false

true

Equivalent to "style" - HTML Optional Attribute

dir

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

for

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

htmlEscape

false

true

Enable/disable HTML escaping of rendered values.

935
id

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

lang

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

onclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

ondblclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeydown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeypress

false

true

936
HTML Event Attribute

onkeyup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousedown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousemove

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseout

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseover

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseup

false

937
true

HTML Event Attribute

path

true

true

Path to errors object for data binding

tabindex

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

title

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

G.9 The option tag

Renders a single HTML 'option'. Sets 'selected' as appropriate based on bound value.

Table G.8. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

cssClass

false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute

cssErrorClass

938
false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute. Used when the bound field has errors.

cssStyle

false

true

Equivalent to "style" - HTML Optional Attribute

dir

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

disabled

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute. Setting the value of this attribute to 'true' (without the quotes) will disable
the HTML element.

htmlEscape

false

true

Enable/disable HTML escaping of rendered values.

id

false

true

939
HTML Standard Attribute

label

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute

lang

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

onclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

ondblclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeydown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeypress

false

940
true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeyup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousedown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousemove

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseout

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseover

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseup

941
false

true

HTML Event Attribute

tabindex

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

title

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

value

true

true

HTML Optional Attribute

G.10 The options tag

Renders a list of HTML 'option' tags. Sets 'selected' as appropriate based on bound value.

Table G.9. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

cssClass

false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute

942
cssErrorClass

false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute. Used when the bound field has errors.

cssStyle

false

true

Equivalent to "style" - HTML Optional Attribute

dir

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

disabled

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute. Setting the value of this attribute to 'true' (without the quotes) will disable
the HTML element.

htmlEscape

false

true

Enable/disable HTML escaping of rendered values.

id

false

true

943
HTML Standard Attribute

itemLabel

false

true

Name of the property mapped to the inner text of the 'option' tag

items

true

true

The Collection, Map or array of objects used to generate the inner 'option' tags

itemValue

false

true

Name of the property mapped to 'value' attribute of the 'option' tag

lang

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

onclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

ondblclick

false

944
true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeydown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeypress

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeyup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousedown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousemove

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseout

945
false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseover

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

tabindex

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

title

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

G.11 The password tag

Renders an HTML 'input' tag with type 'password' using the bound value.

Table G.10. Attributes

946
Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description
accesskey

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

alt

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute

autocomplete

false

true

Common Optional Attribute

cssClass

false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute

cssErrorClass

false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute. Used when the bound field has errors.

cssStyle

false

true

947
Equivalent to "style" - HTML Optional Attribute

dir

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

disabled

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute. Setting the value of this attribute to 'true' (without the quotes) will disable
the HTML element.

htmlEscape

false

true

Enable/disable HTML escaping of rendered values.

id

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

lang

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

maxlength

948
false

true

HTML Optional Attribute

onblur

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onchange

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

ondblclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onfocus

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

949
onkeydown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeypress

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeyup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousedown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousemove

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseout

false

true

950
HTML Event Attribute

onmouseover

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onselect

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

path

true

true

Path to property for data binding

readonly

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute. Setting the value of this attribute to 'true' (without the quotes) will make the
HTML element readonly.

showPassword

false

951
true

Is the password value to be shown? Defaults to false.

size

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute

tabindex

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

title

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

G.12 The radiobutton tag

Renders an HTML 'input' tag with type 'radio'.

Table G.11. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

accesskey

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

cssClass

952
false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute

cssErrorClass

false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute. Used when the bound field has errors.

cssStyle

false

true

Equivalent to "style" - HTML Optional Attribute

dir

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

disabled

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute. Setting the value of this attribute to 'true' (without the quotes) will disable
the HTML element.

htmlEscape

false

true

953
Enable/disable HTML escaping of rendered values.

id

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

label

false

true

Value to be displayed as part of the tag

lang

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

onblur

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onchange

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onclick

false

954
true

HTML Event Attribute

ondblclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onfocus

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeydown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeypress

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeyup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousedown

955
false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousemove

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseout

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseover

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

path

true

true

Path to property for data binding

956
tabindex

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

title

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

value

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute

G.13 The radiobuttons tag

Renders multiple HTML 'input' tags with type 'radio'.

Table G.12. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

accesskey

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

cssClass

false

true

957
Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute

cssErrorClass

false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute. Used when the bound field has errors.

cssStyle

false

true

Equivalent to "style" - HTML Optional Attribute

delimiter

false

true

Delimiter to use between each 'input' tag with type 'radio'. There is no delimiter by default.

dir

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

disabled

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute. Setting the value of this attribute to 'true' (without the quotes) will disable
the HTML element.

element

false

958
true

Specifies the HTML element that is used to enclose each 'input' tag with type 'radio'. Defaults to 'span'.

htmlEscape

false

true

Enable/disable HTML escaping of rendered values.

id

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

itemLabel

false

true

Value to be displayed as part of the 'input' tags with type 'radio'

items

true

true

The Collection, Map or array of objects used to generate the 'input' tags with type 'radio'

itemValue

false

true

Name of the property mapped to 'value' attribute of the 'input' tags with type 'radio'

lang

959
false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

onblur

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onchange

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

ondblclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onfocus

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

960
onkeydown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeypress

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeyup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousedown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousemove

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseout

false

true

961
HTML Event Attribute

onmouseover

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

path

true

true

Path to property for data binding

tabindex

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

title

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

G.14 The select tag

962
Renders an HTML 'select' element. Supports databinding to the selected option.

Table G.13. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

accesskey

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

cssClass

false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute

cssErrorClass

false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute. Used when the bound field has errors.

cssStyle

false

true

Equivalent to "style" - HTML Optional Attribute

dir

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

disabled

963
false

true

HTML Optional Attribute. Setting the value of this attribute to 'true' (without the quotes) will disable
the HTML element.

htmlEscape

false

true

Enable/disable HTML escaping of rendered values.

id

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

itemLabel

false

true

Name of the property mapped to the inner text of the 'option' tag

items

false

true

The Collection, Map or array of objects used to generate the inner 'option' tags

itemValue

false

true

964
Name of the property mapped to 'value' attribute of the 'option' tag

lang

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

multiple

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute

onblur

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onchange

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

ondblclick

false

965
true

HTML Event Attribute

onfocus

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeydown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeypress

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeyup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousedown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousemove

966
false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseout

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseover

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

path

true

true

Path to property for data binding

size

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute

967
tabindex

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

title

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

G.15 The textarea tag

Renders an HTML 'textarea'.

Table G.14. Attributes

Attribute Required? Runtime Expression? Description

accesskey

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

cols

false

true

HTML Required Attribute

cssClass

false

true

968
Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute

cssErrorClass

false

true

Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute. Used when the bound field has errors.

cssStyle

false

true

Equivalent to "style" - HTML Optional Attribute

dir

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

disabled

false

true

HTML Optional Attribute. Setting the value of this attribute to 'true' (without the quotes) will disable
the HTML element.

htmlEscape

false

true

Enable/disable HTML escaping of rendered values.

id

false

969
true

HTML Standard Attribute

lang

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

onblur

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onchange

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

ondblclick

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onfocus

970
false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeydown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeypress

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onkeyup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousedown

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmousemove

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

971
onmouseout

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseover

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onmouseup

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

onselect

false

true

HTML Event Attribute

path

true

true

Path to property for data binding

readonly

false

true

972
HTML Optional Attribute. Setting the value of this attribute to 'true' (without the quotes) will make the
HTML element readonly.

rows

false

true

HTML Required Attribute

tabindex

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

title

false

true

HTML Standard Attribute

973