Loading spring application context files that are inside a jar in classpath - spring

Question

I am trying to use ClassPathXmlApplicationContext in my java standalone code to load applicationContext.xml that is inside a jar file which is in my class path.
ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("classpath*:**/applicationContext*.xml");
applicationContext.xml entry as follows,
<bean id="myAdder" class="com.foo.bar.MyAdder">
<property name="floatAdder" ref="floatAdder"/>
</bean>
And, when I try to load a bean that way I am getting NoSuchBeanException. Can't a bean by loaded in this way?
The jar file is added to my classpath as a maven dependency. When I see the Java Build Path in Eclipse for this project, I see this jar linked as M2_REPO/.../..
I was assuming I can load the bean inside the jar file as the jar is in classpath this way. Am I missing something?
Thanks,Abi

Answer 1

This should work, I just created the 2 projects and checked.
Project A (standard Maven project created with STS) has applicationContext.xml in src/main/resources.
pom.xml:
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>org.D</groupId>
<artifactId>A</artifactId>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<properties>
<spring.version>3.0.5.RELEASE</spring.version>
</properties>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
<version>${spring.version}</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</project>
applicationContext.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"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd">
<bean id="myAdder" class="com.foo.bar.MyAdder">
<property name="foo" value="bar" />
</bean>
</beans>
Project B:
pom.xml: same as A, except A is added as dependency:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.D</groupId>
<artifactId>A</artifactId>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>
Start.java in project B:
public static void main(String[] args) {
ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(
"classpath*:**/applicationContext*.xml");
MyAdder myAdder = (MyAdder) context.getBean("myAdder");
System.out.println(myAdder.getFoo());
}
mvn install A first, then run Start in project B.

Answer 2

Do you really need the classpath*: prefix on that location? (Is that * legal?) I would have expected something more like:
ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("**/applicationContext*.xml);