Spring static factory with factory-method and parameter - spring

Question

I have a problem transfering code to Spring applicationContext.xml
The source is:
File inFile = new File ("path/to/file/", "fileName.docx")
WordprocessingMLPackage wordMLPackage = Docx4J.load(inFile);
My not working solution is:
<bean id="inFile" class="java.io.File">
<constructor-arg value="path/to/file/" />
<constructor-arg value="fileName.docx" />
</bean>
<bean id="docx4j" class="org.docx4j.Docx4J" factory-method="load">
<constructor-arg ref="inFile" />
</bean>
<bean id="wordprocessingMLPackage" class="org.docx4j.openpackaging.packages.WordprocessingMLPackage" factory-bean="docx4j" />
What I'm getting out of the bean "wordprocessingMLPackage" is indeed an instance of the Class WordprocessingMLPackage, but it seems empty although the File I'm trying to load isn't (and yes, the path is doublechecked).
When trying
MainDocumentPart mdp = wordprocessingMLPackage.getMainDocumentPart();
List<Object> content = mdp.getContent();
I'm getting a NullPointerException because mdp is null!
Has anyone an idea... or even a solution?
============================================================
I found a solution especially for my problem.
Here is the source of Docx4j.load():
public static WordprocessingMLPackage load(File inFile) throws Docx4JException {
return WordprocessingMLPackage.load(inFile);
}
That means I can create an instance of WordprocessingMLPackage by its static self!
The code which is working:
<bean id="wordprocessingMLPackage" class="org.docx4j.openpackaging.packages.WordprocessingMLPackage" factory-method="load">
<constructor-arg ref="baseDocument" />
</bean>
So I found a lucky "workaround" for the original problem.
Since this question isn't urgent any more, I'm still interested in the correct solution, especially in a solution which allows injecting the WordprocessingMLPackage in other beans.
Thank you!

Answer 1

Here you need to make use of MethodInvokingFactoryBean as detailed below.
<bean id="beanId"
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.MethodInvokingFactoryBean">
<property name="targetClass" value="org.docx4j.Docx4J" />
<property name="targetMethod" value="load"/>
<property name="arguments">
<list>
<ref bean="inFile" />
</list>
</property>
</bean>
In your code get hold of applicationContext instance and invoke the below LOC
WordprocessingMLPackage ml = (WordprocessingMLPackage) applicationContext.getBean("beanId");
Let know in comments if you face any issues.

Answer 2

As Bond - Java Bond stated this works:
<bean id="inFile" class="java.io.File">
<constructor-arg value="path/to/file/" />
<constructor-arg value="fileName.docx" />
</bean>
<bean id="beanId" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.MethodInvokingFactoryBean">
<property name="targetClass" value="org.docx4j.Docx4J" />
<property name="targetMethod" value="load"/>
<property name="arguments">
<list>
<ref bean="inFile" />
</list>
</property>
</bean>
You can now use the bean as
WordprocessingMLPackage ml = (WordprocessingMLPackage) applicationContext.getBean("beanId");
or you can inject the bean directly as
<bean id="service" class="app.service.Service">
<property name="wordprocessingMLPackage" ref="beanId" />
</bean>
Thank you!!!