How to load Spring AOP into web app? - spring

Question

I was trying to implement Spring AOP in web app. Unfortunately all the sample code I found on the Web are console app. I was running out of clue how could I do it in web app?
In web.xml file, I load the applicationContext.xml like this:
<context-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml</param-value>
</context-param>
In applicationContext.xml file, I have ProxyFactoryBean defined like this:
<bean id="theBo" class="my.package.TheBo">
...
</bean>
<bean id="theProxy" class="org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="proxyInterfaces">
<list>
<value>my.package.ITheBo</value>
</list>
</property>
<property name="target" ref="theBo"/>
<property name="interceptorNames">
<list>
<value>loggingBeforeAdvice</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>
My situation now is I don't know where is the best place to put this code:
ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml");
theBo = (ITheBo) context.getBean("theProxy");
If this was a console app, I would rather put it in the main(), but how could I do it in web app?

Answer 1

You do not need the following piece of code to load the context:
ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("WEBINF/applicationContext.xml");
theBo = (ITheBo) context.getBean("theProxy");
You have to add the ContextLoaderListener to your web.xml file:
<listener>
<listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
</listener>
Now when your web application starts the contexts declared in the <context-param> contextConfigLocation are loaded. In your case '/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml'.
If you need your context in a specific class you can implement the ApplicationContextAware interface to retrieve it.
For the rest, your webapp is now a basic spring application where you can wire your classes as you would normally do.

Answer 2

Thanks to #Dave Newton giving me the clue. In order for me to inject theProxy from the web, for my case, it was JSF, I have to put following code in faces-config.xml.
<application>
<variable-resolver>
org.springframework.web.jsf.DelegatingVariableResolver
</variable-resolver>
</application>
<managed-bean>
<managed-bean-name>theAction</managed-bean-name>
<managed-bean-class>org.huahsin68.theAction</managed-bean-class>
<managed-bean-scope>session</managed-bean-scope>
<managed-property>
<property-name>theBo</property-name>
<value>#{theProxy}</value>
</managed-property>
</managed-bean>
And the put in the listener provided by #tom as well into web.xml.