The central artifact in Spring's new Java-configuration support is the @Configuration-annotated class. These classes consist principally of @Bean-annotated methods that define instantiation, configuration, and initialization logic for objects to be managed by the Spring IoC container. Annotating a class with the @Configuration indicates that the class can be used by the Spring IoC container as a source of bean definitions. The simplest possible @Configuration class would read as follows: @Configuration public class AppConfig { @Bean public MyService myService() { return new MyServiceImpl(); } } For those more familiar with Spring <beans/> XML, the AppConfig class above would be equivalent to: <beans> <bean id="myService" class="com.acme.services.MyServiceImpl"/> </beans> As you can see, the @Bean annotation plays the same role as the <bean/> element. The @Bean annotation will be discussed in depth in the sections below. First, however, we'll cover the various ways of creating a spring container using Java-based configuration.

The sections below document Spring's AnnotationConfigApplicationContext, new in Spring 3.0. This versatile ApplicationContext implementation is capable of accepting not only @Configuration classes as input, but also plain @Component classes and classes annotated with JSR-330 metadata. When @Configuration classes are provided as input, the @Configuration class itself is registered as a bean definition, and all declared @Bean methods within the class are also registered as bean definitions. When @Component and JSR-330 classes are provided, they are registered as bean definitions, and it is assumed that DI metadata such as @Autowired or @Inject are used within those classes where necessary.

In much the same way that Spring XML files are used as input when instantiating a ClassPathXmlApplicationContext, @Configuration classes may be used as input when instantiating an AnnotationConfigApplicationContext. This allows for completely XML-free usage of the Spring container: public static void main(String[] args) { ApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(AppConfig.class); MyService myService = ctx.getBean(MyService.class); myService.doStuff(); } As mentioned above, AnnotationConfigApplicationContext is not limited to working only with @Configuration classes. Any @Component or JSR-330 annotated class may be supplied as input to the constructor. For example: public static void main(String[] args) { ApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(MyServiceImpl.class, Dependency1.class, Dependency2.class); MyService myService = ctx.getBean(MyService.class); myService.doStuff(); } The above assumes that MyServiceImpl, Dependency1 and Dependency2 use Spring dependency injection annotations such as @Autowired.

An AnnotationConfigApplicationContext may be instantiated using a no-arg constructor and then configured using the register() method. This approach is particularly useful when programmatically building an AnnotationConfigApplicationContext. public static void main(String[] args) { AnnotationConfigApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(); ctx.register(AppConfig.class, OtherConfig.class); ctx.register(AdditionalConfig.class); ctx.refresh(); MyService myService = ctx.getBean(MyService.class); myService.doStuff(); }

Experienced Spring users will be familiar with the following commonly-used XML declaration from Spring's context: namespace <beans> <context:component-scan base-package="com.acme"/> </beans> In the example above, the com.acme package will be scanned, looking for any @Component-annotated classes, and those classes will be registered as Spring bean definitions within the container. AnnotationConfigApplicationContext exposes the scan(String...) method to allow for the same component-scanning functionality:public static void main(String[] args) { AnnotationConfigApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(); ctx.scan("com.acme"); ctx.refresh(); MyService myService = ctx.getBean(MyService.class); } Remember that @Configuration classes are meta-annotated with @Component, so they are candidates for component-scanning! In the example above, assuming that AppConfig is declared within the com.acme package (or any package underneath), it will be picked up during the call to scan(), and upon refresh() all its @Bean methods will be processed and registered as bean definitions within the container.

A WebApplicationContext variant of AnnotationConfigApplicationContext is available with AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext. This implementation may be used when configuring the Spring ContextLoaderListener servlet listener, Spring MVC DispatcherServlet, etc. What follows is a web.xml snippet that configures a typical Spring MVC web application. Note the use of the contextClass context-param and init-param: <web-app> <!-- Configure ContextLoaderListener to use AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext instead of the default XmlWebApplicationContext --> <context-param> <param-name>contextClass</param-name> <param-value> org.springframework.web.context.support.AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext </param-value> </context-param> <!-- Configuration locations must consist of one or more comma- or space-delimited fully-qualified @Configuration classes. Fully-qualified packages may also be specified for component-scanning --> <context-param> <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name> <param-value>com.acme.AppConfig</param-value> </context-param> <!-- Bootstrap the root application context as usual using ContextLoaderListener --> <listener> <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class> </listener> <!-- Declare a Spring MVC DispatcherServlet as usual --> <servlet> <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name> <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class> <!-- Configure DispatcherServlet to use AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext instead of the default XmlWebApplicationContext --> <init-param> <param-name>contextClass</param-name> <param-value> org.springframework.web.context.support.AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext </param-value> </init-param> <!-- Again, config locations must consist of one or more comma- or space-delimited and fully-qualified @Configuration classes --> <init-param> <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name> <param-value>com.acme.web.MvcConfig</param-value> </init-param> </servlet> <!-- map all requests for /app/* to the dispatcher servlet --> <servlet-mapping> <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name> <url-pattern>/app/*</url-pattern> </servlet-mapping> </web-app>

Much as the <import/> element is used within Spring XML files to aid in modularizing configurations, the @Import annotation allows for loading @Bean definitions from another configuration class:@Configuration public class ConfigA { public @Bean A a() { return new A(); } } @Configuration @Import(ConfigA.class) public class ConfigB { public @Bean B b() { return new B(); } } Now, rather than needing to specify both ConfigA.class and ConfigB.class when instantiating the context, only ConfigB needs to be supplied explicitly:public static void main(String[] args) { ApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(ConfigB.class); // now both beans A and B will be available... A a = ctx.getBean(A.class); B b = ctx.getBean(B.class); } This approach simplifies container instantiation, as only one class needs to be dealt with, rather than requiring the developer to remember a potentially large number of @Configuration classes during construction.

The example above works, but is simplistic. In most practical scenarios, beans will have dependencies on one another across configuration classes. When using XML, this is not an issue, per se, because there is no compiler involved, and one can simply declare ref="someBean" and trust that Spring will work it out during container initialization. Of course, when using @Configuration classes, the Java compiler places constraints on the configuration model, in that references to other beans must be valid Java syntax. Fortunately, solving this problem is simple. Remember that @Configuration classes are ultimately just another bean in the container - this means that they can take advantage of @Autowired injection metadata just like any other bean! Let's consider a more real-world scenario with several @Configuration classes, each depending on beans declared in the others:@Configuration public class ServiceConfig { private @Autowired AccountRepository accountRepository; public @Bean TransferService transferService() { return new TransferServiceImpl(accountRepository); } } @Configuration public class RepositoryConfig { private @Autowired DataSource dataSource; public @Bean AccountRepository accountRepository() { return new JdbcAccountRepository(dataSource); } } @Configuration @Import({ServiceConfig.class, RepositoryConfig.class}) public class SystemTestConfig { public @Bean DataSource dataSource() { /* return new DataSource */ } } public static void main(String[] args) { ApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(SystemTestConfig.class); // everything wires up across configuration classes... TransferService transferService = ctx.getBean(TransferService.class); transferService.transfer(100.00, "A123", "C456"); }

In the scenario above, using @Autowired works well and provides the desired modularity, but determining exactly where the autowired bean definitions are declared is still somewhat ambiguous. For example, as a developer looking at ServiceConfig, how do you know exactly where the @Autowired AccountRepository bean is declared? It's not explicit in the code, and this may be just fine. Remember that the SpringSource Tool Suite provides tooling that can render graphs showing how everything is wired up - that may be all you need. Also, your Java IDE can easily find all declarations and uses of the AccountRepository type, and will quickly show you the location of @Bean methods that return that type. In cases where this ambiguity is not acceptable and you wish to have direct navigation from within your IDE from one @Configuration class to another, consider autowiring the configuration classes themselves: @Configuration public class ServiceConfig { private @Autowired RepositoryConfig repositoryConfig; public @Bean TransferService transferService() { // navigate 'through' the config class to the @Bean method! return new TransferServiceImpl(repositoryConfig.accountRepository()); } } In the situation above, it is completely explicit where AccountRepository is defined. However, ServiceConfig is now tightly coupled to RepositoryConfig; that's the tradeoff. This tight coupling can be somewhat mitigated by using interface-based or abstract class-based @Configuration classes. Consider the following: @Configuration public class ServiceConfig { private @Autowired RepositoryConfig repositoryConfig; public @Bean TransferService transferService() { return new TransferServiceImpl(repositoryConfig.accountRepository()); } } @Configuration public interface RepositoryConfig { @Bean AccountRepository accountRepository(); } @Configuration public class DefaultRepositoryConfig implements RepositoryConfig { public @Bean AccountRepository accountRepository() { return new JdbcAccountRepository(...); } } @Configuration @Import({ServiceConfig.class, DefaultRepositoryConfig.class}) // import the concrete config! public class SystemTestConfig { public @Bean DataSource dataSource() { /* return DataSource */ } } public static void main(String[] args) { ApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(SystemTestConfig.class); TransferService transferService = ctx.getBean(TransferService.class); transferService.transfer(100.00, "A123", "C456"); } Now ServiceConfig is loosely coupled with respect to the concrete DefaultRepositoryConfig, and built-in IDE tooling is still useful: it will be easy for the developer to get a type hierarchy of RepositoryConfig implementations. In this way, navigating @Configuration classes and their dependencies becomes no different than the usual process of navigating interface-based code.

Spring's @Configuration class support does not aim to be a 100% complete replacement for Spring XML. Some facilities such as Spring XML namespaces remain an ideal way to configure the container. In cases where XML is convenient or necessary, you have a choice: either instantiate the container in an "XML-centric" way using, for example, ClassPathXmlApplicationContext, or in a "Java-centric" fashion using AnnotationConfigApplicationContext and the @ImportResource annotation to import XML as needed.

It may be preferable to bootstrap the Spring container from XML and include @Configuration classes in an ad-hoc fashion. For example, in a large existing codebase that uses Spring XML, it will be easier to create @Configuration classes on an as-needed basis and include them from the existing XML files. Below you'll find the options for using @Configuration classes in this kind of "XML-centric" situation.

Remember that @Configuration classes are ultimately just bean definitions in the container. In this example, we create a @Configuration class named AppConfig and include it within system-test-config.xml as a <bean/>definition. Because <context:annotation-config/> is switched on, the container will recognize the @Configuration annotation, and process the @Bean methods declared in AppConfig properly.@Configuration public class AppConfig { private @Autowired DataSource dataSource; public @Bean AccountRepository accountRepository() { return new JdbcAccountRepository(dataSource); } public @Bean TransferService transferService() { return new TransferService(accountRepository()); } } system-test-config.xml <beans> <!-- enable processing of annotations such as @Autowired and @Configuration --> <context:annotation-config/> <context:property-placeholder location="classpath:/com/acme/jdbc.properties"/> <bean class="com.acme.AppConfig"/> <bean class="org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DriverManagerDataSource"> <property name="url" value="${jdbc.url}"/> <property name="username" value="${jdbc.username}"/> <property name="password" value="${jdbc.password}"/> </bean> </beans> jdbc.properties jdbc.url=jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://localhost/xdb jdbc.username=sa jdbc.password= public static void main(String[] args) { ApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("classpath:/com/acme/system-test-config.xml"); TransferService transferService = ctx.getBean(TransferService.class); // ... } In system-test-config.xml above, the AppConfig<bean/> does not declare an id element. While it would be acceptable to do so, it is unnecessary given that no other bean will ever refer to it, and it is unlikely that it will be explicitly fetched from the container by name. Likewise with the DataSource bean - it is only ever autowired by type, so an explicit bean id is not strictly required.

Because @Configuration is meta-annotated with @Component, @Configuration-annotated classes are automatically candidates for component scanning. Using the same scenario as above, we can redefine system-test-config.xml to take advantage of component-scanning. Note that in this case, we don't need to explicitly declare <context:annotation-config/>, because <context:component-scan/> enables all the same functionality.system-test-config.xml <beans> <!-- picks up and registers AppConfig as a bean definition --> <context:component-scan base-package="com.acme"/> <context:property-placeholder location="classpath:/com/acme/jdbc.properties"/> <bean class="org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DriverManagerDataSource"> <property name="url" value="${jdbc.url}"/> <property name="username" value="${jdbc.username}"/> <property name="password" value="${jdbc.password}"/> </bean> </beans>

In applications where @Configuration classes are the primary mechanism for configuring the container, it will still likely be necessary to use at least some XML. In these scenarios, simply use @ImportResource and define only as much XML as is needed. Doing so achieves a "Java-centric" approach to configuring the container and keeps XML to a bare minimum. @Configuration @ImportResource("classpath:/com/acme/properties-config.xml") public class AppConfig { private @Value("${jdbc.url}") String url; private @Value("${jdbc.username}") String username; private @Value("${jdbc.password}") String password; public @Bean DataSource dataSource() { return new DriverManagerDataSource(url, username, password); } } properties-config.xml <beans> <context:property-placeholder location="classpath:/com/acme/jdbc.properties"/> </beans> jdbc.properties jdbc.url=jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://localhost/xdb jdbc.username=sa jdbc.password= public static void main(String[] args) { ApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(AppConfig.class); TransferService transferService = ctx.getBean(TransferService.class); // ... }

@Bean is a method-level annotation and a direct analog of the XML <bean/> element. The annotation supports some of the attributes offered by <bean/>, such as: init-method, destroy-method, autowiring and name. You can use the @Bean annotation in a @Configuration-annotated or in a @Component-annotated class.

To declare a bean, simply annotate a method with the @Bean annotation. You use this method to register a bean definition within an ApplicationContext of the type specified as the method's return value. By default, the bean name will be the same as the method name. The following is a simple example of a @Bean method declaration: @Configuration public class AppConfig { @Bean public TransferService transferService() { return new TransferServiceImpl(); } } The preceding configuration is exactly equivalent to the following Spring XML: <beans> <bean id="transferService" class="com.acme.TransferServiceImpl"/> </beans> Both declarations make a bean named transferService available in the ApplicationContext, bound to an object instance of type TransferServiceImpl: transferService -> com.acme.TransferServiceImpl

When @Beans have dependencies on one another, expressing that dependency is as simple as having one bean method call another: @Configuration public class AppConfig { @Bean public Foo foo() { return new Foo(bar()); } @Bean public Bar bar() { return new Bar(); } } In the example above, the foo bean receives a reference to bar via constructor injection.

Beans declared in a @Configuration-annotated class support the regular lifecycle callbacks. Any classes defined with the @Bean annotation can use the @PostConstruct and @PreDestroy annotations from JSR-250, see JSR-250 annotations for further details. The regular Spring lifecycle callbacks are fully supported as well. If a bean implements InitializingBean, DisposableBean, or Lifecycle, their respective methods are called by the container. The standard set of *Aware interfaces such as BeanFactoryAware, BeanNameAware, MessageSourceAware, ApplicationContextAware, and so on are also fully supported. The @Bean annotation supports specifying arbitrary initialization and destruction callback methods, much like Spring XML's init-method and destroy-method attributes on the bean element: public class Foo { public void init() { // initialization logic } } public class Bar { public void cleanup() { // destruction logic } } @Configuration public class AppConfig { @Bean(initMethod = "init") public Foo foo() { return new Foo(); } @Bean(destroyMethod = "cleanup") public Bar bar() { return new Bar(); } } Of course, in the case of Foo above, it would be equally as valid to call the init() method directly during construction: @Configuration public class AppConfig { @Bean public Foo foo() { Foo foo = new Foo(); foo.init(); return foo; } // ... } When you work directly in Java, you can do anything you like with your objects and do not always need to rely on the container lifecycle!

You can specify that your beans defined with the @Bean annotation should have a specific scope. You can use any of the standard scopes specified in the Bean Scopes section. The default scope is singleton, but you can override this with the @Scope annotation: @Configuration public class MyConfiguration { @Bean @Scope("prototype") public Encryptor encryptor() { // ... } }

Spring offers a convenient way of working with scoped dependencies through scoped proxies. The easiest way to create such a proxy when using the XML configuration is the <aop:scoped-proxy/> element. Configuring your beans in Java with a @Scope annotation offers equivalent support with the proxyMode attribute. The default is no proxy (ScopedProxyMode.NO), but you can specify ScopedProxyMode.TARGET_CLASS or ScopedProxyMode.INTERFACES. If you port the scoped proxy example from the XML reference documentation (see preceding link) to our @Bean using Java, it would look like the following: // an HTTP Session-scoped bean exposed as a proxy @Bean @Scope(value = "session", proxyMode = ScopedProxyMode.TARGET_CLASS) public UserPreferences userPreferences() { return new UserPreferences(); } @Bean public Service userService() { UserService service = new SimpleUserService(); // a reference to the proxied userPreferences bean service.setUserPreferences(userPreferences()); return service; }

As noted earlier, lookup method injection is an advanced feature that you should use rarely. It is useful in cases where a singleton-scoped bean has a dependency on a prototype-scoped bean. Using Java for this type of configuration provides a natural means for implementing this pattern. public abstract class CommandManager { public Object process(Object commandState) { // grab a new instance of the appropriate Command interface Command command = createCommand(); // set the state on the (hopefully brand new) Command instance command.setState(commandState); return command.execute(); } // okay... but where is the implementation of this method? protected abstract Command createCommand(); } Using Java-configuration support , you can create a subclass of CommandManager where the abstract createCommand() method is overridden in such a way that it looks up a new (prototype) command object: @Bean @Scope("prototype") public AsyncCommand asyncCommand() { AsyncCommand command = new AsyncCommand(); // inject dependencies here as required return command; } @Bean public CommandManager commandManager() { // return new anonymous implementation of CommandManager with command() overridden // to return a new prototype Command object return new CommandManager() { protected Command createCommand() { return asyncCommand(); } } }

By default, configuration classes use a @Bean method's name as the name of the resulting bean. This functionality can be overridden, however, with the name attribute. @Configuration public class AppConfig { @Bean(name = "myFoo") public Foo foo() { return new Foo(); } }

As discussed in , it is sometimes desirable to give a single bean multiple names, otherwise known as bean aliasing. The name attribute of the @Bean annotation accepts a String array for this purpose. @Configuration public class AppConfig { @Bean(name = { "dataSource", "subsystemA-dataSource", "subsystemB-dataSource" }) public DataSource dataSource() { // instantiate, configure and return DataSource bean... } }

The following example shows a @Bean annotated method being called twice: @Configuration public class AppConfig { @Bean public ClientService clientService1() { ClientServiceImpl clientService = new ClientServiceImpl(); clientService.setClientDao(clientDao()); return clientService; } @Bean public ClientService clientService2() { ClientServiceImpl clientService = new ClientServiceImpl(); clientService.setClientDao(clientDao()); return clientService; } @Bean public ClientDao clientDao() { return new ClientDaoImpl(); } } clientDao() has been called once in clientService1() and once in clientService2(). Since this method creates a new instance of ClientDaoImpl and returns it, you would normally expect having 2 instances (one for each service). That definitely would be problematic: in Spring, instantiated beans have a singleton scope by default. This is where the magic comes in: All @Configuration classes are subclassed at startup-time with CGLIB. In the subclass, the child method checks the container first for any cached (scoped) beans before it calls the parent method and creates a new instance. The behavior could be different according to the scope of your bean. We are talking about singletons here. Beware that, in order for JavaConfig to work, you must include the CGLIB jar in your list of dependencies. There are a few restrictions due to the fact that CGLIB dynamically adds features at startup-time: Configuration classes should not be final They should have a constructor with no arguments