How does the LocalSessionFactoryBean convert to SessionFacto

My appContext has the following:

<bean id="sessionFactory" class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate.LocalSess ionFactoryBean">
<property name="dataSource"><ref bean="dataSource"/></property>
<property name="mappingResources">
<list>
<value>org/appfuse/model/User.hbm.xml</value>
</list>
<property name="hibernateProperties">
<props>
<prop key="hibernate.dialect">net.sf.hibernate.dialect.P ostgreSQLDialect</prop>
</props>
</property>
</bean>

<bean id="userDAO" class="org.appfuse.persistence.hibernate.UserDAOHi bernate">
<property name="sessionFactory"><ref local="sessionFactory"/></property>
</bean>


If I look at the setSessionFactory in HibernateDAOSupport the type of the argument is net.sf.hibernate.SessionFactory. However, my sessionFactory in the configuration file is of type org.springframework.orm.hibernate.LocalSessionFact oryBean. LocalSessionFactoryBean is not a descendant of SessionFactory. How does spring convert this?

Dino

First of all org.springframework.orm.hibernate.LocalSessionFact oryBean is a factory, it implements interface FactoryBean.
When you ask Spring for a bean from your applicationContext (or references this bean in an other), Spring first checks the nature of your bean, if it implements interface FactoryBean, it will be treated as a factory, thus, Spring calls bean method getObject() and returns the object returned by that method.
If you look at org.springframework.orm.hibernate.LocalSessionFact oryBean source you will find:

Code:

---

public class LocalSessionFactoryBean implements FactoryBean, InitializingBean, DisposableBean {
  ...
  private SessionFactory sessionFactory;
  ...

  /**
  * Return the singleton SessionFactory.
  */
  public Object getObject() {
    return this.sessionFactory;
  }
}

---