Spring configuration class to inject bean as property - spring

Question

I am having a spring configuration class which I am using to read from properties file and create the beans.
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.PropertySource;
#Configuration
#PropertySource("classpath:conf.properties")
public class ApplicationConfiguration {
#Value("${name}")
private String username;
#Value("${password}")
private String password;
#Value("${ethnicity}")
private String ethnicity;
#Bean
public Employee employee(){
Employee emp = new Employee();
ConfigParam configParam = new ConfigParam();
configParam.setEthnicity(ethnicity);
emp.setConfigParam(configParam);
return emp;
}
}
Inside the xml file
<property name="configParam">
<bean class="com.test.config.ConfigParam">
<property name="ethnicity" value="indian" />
</bean>
</property>
I am able to set the username and password properties but unable to set the configParam attribute to employee since we need to inject the ConfigParamand its a bean. Please let me know how to inject a bean inside the employee method.

Answer 1

Assuming that your Spring XML context that includes the configParam definition is called my-spring-context.xml and is found in a resources/spring folder, in other words in a spring folder in your classpath (name and folder are arbitrary):
Make your ApplicationConfiguration configuration class aware of that XML context file by using the #ImportResource annotation:
#Configuration
#ImportResource("classpath:spring/my-spring-context.xml")
#PropertySource("classpath:conf.properties")
public class ApplicationConfiguration {
//...
}
Then in your employee method dependency-inject the XML bean as usual. If you want to inject by name and not by type you can add the #Qualifier("myBeanName") directly prior the configParam argument definition.
#Bean
#Autowired
public Employee employee(ConfigParam configParam){
Employee emp = new Employee();
configParam.setEthnicity(ethnicity);
emp.setConfigParam(configParam);
return emp;
}