Spring boot : configuration inheritance - spring

I have
package com.parent.spring;
public abstract class ParentConfig {
#Bean
public String bParent() {
return "parent bean";
}
then
package com.child.spring;
public class ChildConfig extends ParentConfig {
#Bean
public String bChild() {
return "child bean";
}
}
and here's how I am starting my spring boot app
#SpringBootApplication
#ComponentScan(basePackages = { "com.child.spring","com.parent.spring" })
public class MyMain {
public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception {
SpringApplication.run(MyMain.class, args);
}
}
I want to load beans from child config first and the from parent config. However, opposite is happening. Don't want to use depends on option as this is just an example, in reality I have lot of beans in child and parent config. Also, I have bunch of other configuration classes in parent package so I don't want to remove that from component scan. Any nicer solution on this ?

I want to load beans from child config first and the from parent
config.
You want to explain to the framework how to do its work ?
Spring Configurations and more generally Spring beans are loaded and added in the context in a order that Spring considers the right to satisfy all dependencies requirements.
Besides, configuration inheritance is not documented as a way to achieve such a thing.
Specifying explicitly the order for specific beans is possible but it should be the exception and not the norm while you seem want to do that exception the norm.

Could you please explain more your use case so that we could provide you the best solution we can :) ?
In general its a wrong approach to treat #Configuration files as regular java classes and use all the power of java as a language for the code in this files. You mention inheritance, how about complicated if-conditions, loops, recursion, anyone? :) My point is that you don't really want to end up with complicated code in configuration and to debug it.
Now regarding the inheritance itself. This is not a good idea, because given the fact that its not a regular java class combined with the understanding of how exactly spring uses these configuration files, you'll understand that configuration gives nothing to you here.
Think about configurations as a place where you state which beans should be loaded. Spring will take care of the rest. I do understand that you have some use case in mind, but it simply doesn't fit Spring approach.
As for your statement:
I want to load beans from child config first and the from parent config.
Could you please explain why do you need this?
When spring loads it scans all the configurations first but doesn't create beans (not yet). Instead it "translates" the information found in these #Configuration classes to a "metadata" (this is called "Bean Definitions" in terms of spring). All the bean definitions from all the configurations....
Only after that Spring starts beans instantiation (it also knows by this time what bean should be created first, for example if you have something like):
class A {
private B b;
public A(B b) {this.b = b;}
}
class B {
....
}
Then its obvious that Spring should create Bean "B" first.

Related

Hack a #Component bean in the context at runtime and override one of its particular field-injected dependencies (no test-scope)

I have a case where an Spring AutoConfiguration class is getting its dependencies through field injection and creating and exposing certain beans after interacting with them.
I would like to override one of its dependencies so the exposed beans are initialized in the way I expect.
Obviously I can disable the Autoconfiguration class and duplicate it completely locally with my desired dependency, but that would not be a maintainable solution since the amount of behaviour to reproduce is huge, and it might break on each spring update.
Is there any easy mechanisme to let the autconfiguration be loaded, and later on use the BeanFactory or something to reinject a particular instance into a particular bean?
I cannot guarantee that this is the ideal solution since this is for topics, instead of classes, but for most cases, it will do the trick.
The AutoConfiguration can be disabled in one topic, and any bean in the topic can be initialized using a particular method in the class Configuration (as usual).
List of AutoConfigurations classes (=topics)
Syntax (to exclude from autoconfiguration):
#Configuration
#EnableAutoConfiguration(exclude={DataSourceAutoConfiguration.class})
public class MyConfiguration {
#bean
public SpecificClass getSpecificClass() {
//init the instance as you want
}
}

Factory design pattern and Spring

I am wondering what is the current best practice as to the use of factory pattern within the context of Spring framework in using dependency injection. My wonder arises about whether the factory pattern is still relevant nowadays in light of the use of Spring dependency injection. I did some searching and see some past discussion (Dependency Injection vs Factory Pattern) but seem there is different view.
I see in some real life project in using a Map to hold all the beans and rely on autowiring to create those beans. When the bean is needed, it get it via the map using the key.
public abstract class Service {
//some methods
}
#Component
public class serviceA extends Service {
//implementation
}
#Component
public class serviceB extends Service {
//implementation
}
Map<String, Service> services;
But I see there is some difference among the two approaches.
Using the above method, all beans are created on application start up and the creation of object is handled by the framework. It also implies there is only one bean for each type.
While for factory pattern, the factory class creates the object on request. And it can create a new object for each request.
I think a deeper question may be, when Spring framework is used in a project, should it be strived to not create any object inside a class, which means the factory pattern ( or any creational design patterns?) should not be used, as Spring is supposed to be the central handler of the objects dependency ?
The answer to this question can be really deep and broad, I'll try to provide some points that hopefully will help.
First off, spring stores its beans (singletons) in the ApplicationContext. Essentially this is the map you're talking about. In a nutshell, it allows getting the bean by name, type, etc.
ApplicationContext, while being a really important concept, is not the whole Spring, in fact Spring framework allows much more flexibility:
You say, using a map implies that all the beans will be created at the beginning of the application and there is one instance of the bean.
Spring has a concept of Lazy beans, basically supporting a concept of beans being actually created only when they're required for the first time, so Spring supports the "delayed" beans initialization
Spring also allows more than one instance of a bean per type. So this map is more "advanced". For example you can create more than one implementation of the interface and use declare both as beans. As long as you provide enough information about what bean should be injected to the class that might use them (for example with a help of qualifiers suppored in spring), you're good to go. In addition, there are features in spring IoC container that allow injecting all registered implementations of an interface into a list:
interface Foo {}
#Component
class FooImpl1 implements Foo {}
#Component
class FooImpl2 implements Foo {}
class Client {
#Autowired
List<Foo> allFoos;
}
Now you say:
While for factory pattern, the factory class creates the object on request. And it can create a new object for each request.
Actually Spring can create objects per request. Not all beans have to be singletons, in general spring has a concept of scopes for this purposes.
For example, scope prototype means that Spring will create a bean upon each usage. In particular one interesting usage that spring supports in variety of ways is Injecting prototype bean into singleton. Some solutions use exactly like a factory (read about annotation #Lookup others rely on auto-generated proxy in runtime (like javax.inject.Provider). Prototype scope beans are not held in the application context, so here again spring goes beyond a simple map abstraction.
Last feature that you haven't mentioned is that sometimes even for singletons the initialization can be a little bit more complicated then calling a constructor with Parameters. Spring can address that by using Java Configurations:
#Configuration
public class MyConfig {
public SomeComplicatedObject foo(#Value("...") config, Bar bar) {
SomeComplicatedObject obj = new SomeComplicatedObject() // lets pretend this object is from some thirdparty, it only has no-op constructor, and you can't place spring annotations on it (basically you can't change it):
obj.setConfig(config);
obj.setBar(bar);
return obj;
}
}
The method foo here initializes the object SomeComplicatedObject and returns it. This can be used instead of factories to integrate "legacy" code (well, java configurations go way beyond this, but its out of scope for this question).
So bottom line, you Spring as an IoC container can provide many different ways to deal with object creation, in particular it can do everything that factory design pattern offers.
Now, I would like to also refer to your last sentense:
I think a deeper question may be, when Spring framework is used in a project, should it be strived to not create any object inside a class, which means the factory pattern ( or any creational design patterns?) should not be used, as Spring is supposed to be the central handler of the objects dependency ?
Indeed you don't have to use Factory Pattern when using Spring, since (as I hopefully have convinced you) provides everything that factory can do and more.
Also I agree that spring is supposed to be the central handler of the objects dependency (unless there are also parts of the application which are written in a different manner so you have to support both :) )
I don't think we should avoid using "new" altogether, not everything should/can be a bean, but I do see (from my subjective experience, so this is arguable) that you use it much less leaving the creation of most of the objects to Spring.
Should we avoid a usage of any creation design pattern? I don't think so, sometimes you can opt for implementing "builder" design pattern for example, its also a creational pattern but spring doesn't provide a similar abstraction.
I think if your project uses Spring framework you should use it. Although it depends on your project design e.g. You may use creational patterns along side with Spring IoC. e.g when you have abstraction layers not framework dependant (agnostic code)
interface ServiceFactory {
Service create(String type);
}
#Component
class SpringServiceFactory implements ServiceFactory {
#Autowired private ApplicationContext context;
Service create(String type) {
return context.getBean(type)
}
}
I use Factory pattern as well when I refactor legacy not unit testable code which also uses Spring Framework in order to implement unit tests.
// legacy service impossible to mock
class LegacyApiClient implements Closeable {...}
#Component
class LegacyApiClientFactory {
LegacyApiClient create(String endpoint) {
return new LegacyApiClient(endpoint);
}
}
#Component
class OtherService {
private final String endpoint
private final LegacyApiClientFactory factory;
OtherService(#Value("${post.endpoint}") String endpoint,
LegacyApiClientFactory factory) {...}
void doCall {
try (LegacyApiClient client = factory.create(endpoint)) {
client.postSomething();
}
}
}
....
// a random unit test
LegacyApiClient client = mock(LegacyApiClient.class)
LegacyApiClientFactory factory = mock(LegacyApiClientFactory.class)
OtherService service = new OtherService("http://scxsc", factory);
when(factory.create(any())).thenReturn(client)
service.doCall()
....

Spring Boot: how to configure a set of implementations to inject?

In my Spring Boot app, I have events that should be reported in various ways, depending on the environment.
I defined interface IReporter and several implementations, namely LogReporter, EmailReporter, RpcReporter. Also new implementations may appear in future.
Now I want my events to be reported using a subset of reporters. The subset must be specified in the app configuration as the following (for example):
events.reporters=LogReporter,EmailReporter
or
events.reporters=${EVENT_REPORTERS}
or something similar.
As a result, I would like the component that handles events (say class EventHandler) to have magically injected List<IReporter> myReporters containing only the necessary implementations.
And, of course, if a new implementation is created, the only thing to update must be the app configuration (not the code of EventHandler).
I'm familiar with injecting all available implementations, only a #Primary implementation, or a specific one picked with #Qualifier. But looks like these do not solve my problem.
class EventHandler {
#Value("${events.reporter}")
List<String> requiredImplementation;
#Autowired
List<IReporter> myReporters;
public List<IReporter> getRequiredImplementation() {
return myReporters.stream()
.filter(reporter -> requiredImplementation.contains(reporter.getClass().getSimpleName()))
.collect(Collectors.toList());
}
}
EDIT:
One option I could think if we want framework to autowire only the required beans, we can explore #ConditionalOnExpression.
For instance:
#Component
#ConditionalOnExpression("#{'${events.reporter}'.contains('LogReporter')}")
Class LogReporter {
}
#Component
#ConditionalOnExpression("#{'${events.reporter}'.contains('EmailReporter')}")
Class EmailReporter {
}

Java Configuration vs Component Scan Annotations

Java configuration allows us to manage bean creation within a configuration file. Annotated #Component, #Service classes used with component scanning does the same. However, I'm concerned about using these two mechanisms at the same time.
Should Java configuration and annotated component scans be avoided in the same project? I ask because the result is unclear in the following scenario:
#Configuration
public class MyConfig {
#Bean
public Foo foo() {
return new Foo(500);
}
}
...
#Component
public class Foo {
private int value;
public Foo() {
}
public Foo(int value) {
this.value = value;
}
}
...
public class Consumer {
#Autowired
Foo foo;
...
}
So, in the above situation, will the Consumer get a Foo instance with a 500 value or 0 value? I've tested locally and it appears that the Java configured Foo (with value 500) is created consistently. However, I'm concerned that my testing isn't thorough enough to be conclusive.
What is the real answer? Using both Java config and component scanning on #Component beans of the same type seems like a bad thing.
I think your concern is more like raised by the following use case:
You have a custom spring-starter-library that have its own #Configuration classes and #Bean definitions, BUT if you have #Component/#Service in this library, you will need to explicitly #ComponentScan these packages from your service, since the default #ComponentScan (see #SpringBootApplication) will perform component scanning from the main class, to all sub-packages of your app, BUT not the packages inside the external library. For that purpose, you only need to have #Bean definitions in your external library, and to inject these external configurations via #EnableSomething annotation used on your app's main class (using #Import(YourConfigurationAnnotatedClass.class) OR via using spring.factories in case you always need the external configuration to be used/injected.
Of course, you CAN have #Components in this library, but the explicit usage of #ComponentScan annotation may lead to unintended behaviour in some cases, so I would recommend to avoid that.
So, to answer your question -> You can have both approaches of defining beans, only if they're inside your app, but bean definitions outside your app (e.g. library) should be explicitly defined with #Bean inside a #Configuration class.
It is perfectly valid to have Java configuration and annotated component scans in the same project because they server different purposes.
#Component (#Service,#Repository etc) are used to auto-detect and auto-configure beans.
#Bean annotation is used to explicitly declare a single bean, instead of letting Spring do it automatically.
You can do the following with #Bean. But, this is not possible with #Component
#Bean
public MyService myService(boolean someCondition) {
if(someCondition) {
return new MyServiceImpl1();
}else{
return new MyServiceImpl2();
}
}
Haven't really faced a situation where both Java config and component scanning on the bean of the same type were required.
As per the spring documentation,
To declare a bean, simply annotate a method with the #Bean annotation.
When JavaConfig encounters such a method, it will execute that method
and register the return value as a bean within a BeanFactory. By
default, the bean name will be the same as the method name
So, As per this, it is returning the correct Foo (with value 500).
In general, there is nothing wrong with component scanning and explicit bean definitions in the same application context. I tend to use component scanning where possible, and create the few beans that need more setup with #Bean methods.
There is no upside to include classes in the component scan when you create beans of their type explicitly. Component scanning can easily be targeted at certain classes and packages. If you design your packages accordingly, you can component scan only the packages without "special" bean classes (or else use more advanced filters on scanning).
In a quick look I didn't find any clear information about bean definition precedence in such a case. Typically there is a deterministic and fairly stable order in which these are processed, but if it is not documented it maybe could change in some future Spring version.

Can spring statemachine support multi configuration?

In my project, i have a problem; i have many scenes in which i need to support multi status configuration, for example, i need to define create order status machine and i also need to define create item status; so can any one tell me how can i do with spring statemachine?
i already use #EnableStateMachineFactory and define
#Configuration
#EnableStateMachineFactory
#SuppressWarnings("all")
public class OrderHoldConfiguration extends EnumStateMachineConfigurerAdapter<HoldState, HoldEvent> {
...
}
#Configuration
#EnableStateMachineFactory
public class JsdConfiguration extends EnumStateMachineConfigurerAdapter<BizState, BizEvent> {
...
}
but it don't work, which way should i use?
Looks like docs are a bit unclear on this but both #EnableStateMachine and #EnableStateMachineFactory work in a same way where resulting beans are named stateMachine and stateMachineFactory respectively. In your case other factory simple gets overridden.
#EnableStateMachineFactory(name = "factory1"){}
#EnableStateMachineFactory(name = "factory2"){}
Then you can autowire or get bean from spring app context just like any other bean by name. There is existing ticket gh-306 to allow autowiring by generic types so until that gets fixed you need to wire by name (i.e using #Qualifier).

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