Spring lookup method injection with parameters - spring

Is there a way to use Spring lookup method inject with parameters? For example, I want to be able to instantiate prototype-scoped beans while passing them arbitrary parameters via constructor.

It looks like this vital feature was finally added in Spring 4.1.0.RC2. I have tested it and it seems to work.
It was added as part of JIRA ticket SPR-7431 ("Passing lookup-method arguments to created bean constructor"):
<lookup-method/> should allow specifying any number of parameters. These parameters should be passed directly to the constructor of the newly created bean.
For more info on how the feature was finally added, this blog post was written by the guy who opened the JIRA ticket.

You can inject them via field/setter injection. (Note that constructor injection is frowned upon by spring, although it's supported)

in short, no. Spring does support something called "method injection" but it's different than you're thinking. Spring also supports constructor injection, but then you're not calling the constructor yourself, Spring is, and wiring it itself.
Instead, you can use reflection to instantiate the class and pass arbitrary parameters yourself:
Class<MyObject> clazz = MyObject.class; // this can be looked up or stored in a field, etc.
MyObject myObject = clazz.getConstructor(String.class, int.class)
.newInstance("arbitrary parameter", 42);

Related

getting bean id of target class in advice

I have a few classes that interact with databases (more than one). Some classes are reused so for example "obs.table1" is used to interact with table1 in database "obs" while "ref.table1" is used to interact with table1 in database "ref". These databases are at different URLs and each gets its own connection pool, etc... obs.table1 and ref.table1 are both instances of MyTable1Class, defined in beans file.
I have a pointcut that intercepts calls to methods annotated with #Transactional or with a custom annotation #MyTablesAnnotation and have it set so those calls will all get routed into a #Around advice.
This all works and the flow through the advice is correct.
What I am trying to add is reporting on what is going on in there. Currently I can tell where in there I am, but I can't tell if it was obs.table1 or ref.table1 object that got me there.
Is there a way to extract the bean id of the object on whose method the advice was invoked on?
ProceedingJoinPoint that is passed to the method the only thing I do with it is call a .proceed on it and the rest is just various checks and catches. I see that I can get either the target class or proxy class out of it, but... not sure how to go from there to knowing what the bean id was.
Is it possible?
Firstly it is not recommended to depend on bean id as it creates tight coupling with framework.
To quote from docs Note that it is not usually recommended that an object depend on its bean name, as this represents a potentially brittle dependence on external configuration, as well as a possibly unnecessary dependence on a Spring API.
Now to answer your question yes it is possible to fetch the name of bean via org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanNameAware.
The class for which you require the bean name should implement it and spring will auto-magically inject the name of the bean. However there is a gotcha which you should be aware and is mentioned in docs here

Object created in Spring

I would like to know, whether this is a valid practice to use "new" in spring to create a Object?
You can either use xml->bean to create a object using xml file or use annotations to create a object.
This question arises when I am working on a project and where I want to create a object of a property class(which contains properties and setter/getter method of those properties).
I am able to create a object using new and its working fine but if spring has capability to create and manage object lifecycle then which way I need to go create a object and why?
I think the confusion may arise because of the (over)usage of spring as DI mechanism. Spring is a framework providing many services. Bean or dependency injection is just on of those.
I would say that for POJOs which have just setter and getters without much logic in them you can safely create objects using new keyword. For example, in case of value objects and data classes which do not have much configuration or life cycle events to worry about, go ahead and crate those using new keyword. If you repetitively create these objects and have fields which are not changing often, then I would use spring because it will lessen some of the repetitive code and object creation can be considered externalized or separated from your object usage.
Classes instantiated using spring bean definition xml/annotations are basically 'Spring-Managed' beans which mostly means that their life cycle, scope, etc are managed by spring. Spring manages objects which are beans, which may have some life cycle methods and APIs. These beans are dependencies for the classes in which the are set. The parent objects call some API of these dependencies to fulfil some business cases.
Hope this helps.
The Dependency Injection concept in spring is more useful when we need to construct an object that depends upon many objects, because it saves you time and effort for constructing as well as instantiating dependent objects.
In your case , Since it's a POJO class with only setters and getters , I think it is absolutely safe to instantiate it using a new keyword.

Custom annotation like #Value

I need to create a means to add a custom annotation like
#Value("${my.property}")
However, in my case I need to get the value from a database rather then a properties file.
Basically I would like to create a bean on container startup that reads in property name value pairs from a database and can then inject these into fields belonging to other beans.
Approach #1:
One way is to create an Aspect, with a point-cut expression that matches any method having this annotation.
Your aspect will then:
Read the property value in the annotation
Look up the required value an inject it into the class.
AOP Kickstart
Here's a guide to getting started with AOP in Spring
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/spring/aop_with_spring.htm
Joinpoint matching
Here's a reference that describes how to create a join-point that matches on annotations: http://eclipse.org/aspectj/doc/next/adk15notebook/annotations-pointcuts-and-advice.html
Approach #2:
Another way is to use a BeanFactoryPostProcessor - this is essentially how a PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer works.
It will look at your bean definitions, and fetch the underlying class.
It will then check for the annotation in the class, using reflection.
It will update the bean definition to include injecting the property as per the value in the annotation.
. . actually I think approach #2 sounds more like what you want - all of the processing happens on "start-up". . . (In actual fact your modifying the bean recipes even before startup). . whereas if you used AOP, you'd be intercepting method invocations, which might be too late for you?
Namespace Handler
If you wanted you could even create your own Spring namespace handler to turn on your post processor in a terse way. Eg:
<myApp:injectFromDb />
as an alternative to:
<bean class="MyDatabaseLookupProcessorImpl etc, etc. />
Update: Approach #3
As of Spring 3.1 there's also the PropertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer, that will provide most of the plumbing for you, so you can achieve this with less code.
Alternatively you should be able to configure kind of properties repository bean and then use it in SpEL directly in #Value annotation.
Let's say you'd have bean called propertiesRepository in your context that implements following interface:
interface PropertiesRepository {
String getProperty(String propertyName);
}
then on bean where you want to inject values you can use following expression
#Value("#{propertiesRepository.getProperty('my.property')}")
String myProperty;
You can use #Value annotation by injecting database configuration in application environment itself.
I know this is an old question but I didn't find an exact solution. So documenting it here.
I have already answered the same on different forum.
Please refer to this answer for exact solution to your problem.

object creation in spring

If I am using spring frame work in my application does creating an object like this Test test = new Test() a bad way for creating an instance? Should I always use the bean config to get the objects/bean that I need? If yes, does that means I should have all the object/bean definition in spring applicationContext xml file?
If you want your object to be managed by Spring (this means that dependencies are injected, among other things) you have to use the ApplicationContext.
Calling Test test = new Test() isn't illegal, or even bad practice. It just means that Spring will have no awareness of this object, and it won't bother autowiring it's dependencies, or doing anything else that you'd expect Spring to do.
You don't necessarily need to use the applicationContext.xml file for ALL of your bean declarations. Many people favor annotations, which allow you to declare beans outside of the applicationContext.xml file.
It's worth nothing that Spring-managed beans are by default singletons (think of Servlets). If you want stateful beans that are Spring aware, you could use an ObjectFactoryCreatingFactoryBean to do something like this:
#Autowired
private ObjectFactory myWidgetFactory;
public void doStuff() {
Widget w = myWidgetFactory.getObject();
}
You can read more about this behaviour here:
http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.x/api/org/springframework/beans/factory/config/ObjectFactoryCreatingFactoryBean.html
For me there's a big difference between objects that represent components of my application -- services, controllers, DAOs, utilities, etc. -- and objects that represent entities within my application -- Person, Order, Invoice, Account, etc. The former type of objects should absolutely be managed by Spring and injected. The latter type are typically created on the fly by the application, and that frequently will involve calling new. This is not a problem.
Test test = new Test() a bad way for
creating an instance?
Yes it is bad practice.
Should I always use the bean config
to get the objects/bean that I need?
Yes, if you are using Spring for dependency injection.
If yes, does that means I should have
all the object/bean definition in
spring applicationContext xml file?
Always! You could use Annotations too.

Making sure a Spring Bean is properly initialised

What is the most concise way of making sure that a Spring bean has all properties set and the init method called?
I'll favour answers which use setter injection and XML configuration, since that's what I'm using right now.
I'm trying to evade the case where I either forget to configure a setter or call the init-method.
In future projects I would favour skaffman's response, but I've chosen the one which suits me right now.
This poll is exactly what you are looking for.
Here are the results:
By using the dependency-check attribute in XML: 11.52%
By using the #Required annotation (or a custom annotation): 21.40%
By using InitializingBean and an assert facility: 23.87%
By using init-method and an assert facility: 14.40%
I don't have to, because I use constructor injection for required properties: 19.34%
I check my dependencies in my business methods: 7.41%
I don't check required dependencies: 34.16%
Use the #Required annotation on the setter methods. Spring will then check that they've all been set without you having to check manually.
Alternatively, annotate your init methods with #PostConstruct, and Spring will invoke them for you.
You can add the dependency-check attribute to your bean definition to ensure that all objects / primitives / both have been set.
<bean id="myBean" class="com.foo.MyBean" dependency-check="objects"/>
Skaffman's answer gives more control, but does introduce a compile-time dependency on Spring which you may / may not want.
Use the following attributes of the beans tag to make sure dependency checking and the init method is called on all beans, but it rather assumes you don't call your method "innit".
<beans default-init-method="init" default-dependency-check="objects">
see link

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