Spring ApplicationContext

Say i initialize the spring IOC container in web.xml as follows..
<context-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value>
some files
</param-value>
</context-param>

<listener> <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoade rListener</listener-class>
</listener>

How can i programmatically get a reference to that instance of ApplicationContext.. or better yet to the beans i defined in the list of files.

Only way i know of is to..
appCtx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(SPRING_XML_FILES);
BeanFactory factory = (BeanFactory) appCtx;
SomeObject o = (SomeObject) appCtx.getBean("somebean");

But then im just duplicating code.:mad:

Whats the point of setting it up in web.xml then if i just have to put int he config files again?

Is there some static method like Spring.getCurrentInstance or ApplicationContext.getCurrentInstance etc.....

It's very rare you need a reference to the applicationContext in your code. If you do, you could use WebApplicationContextUtils or ApplicationContextAware. You might also want to have a read of the end of chapter 3.
http://www.springframework.org/docs/...textUtils.html
http://www.springframework.org/docs/...onality-events
http://www.springframework.org/docs/...context-create

I've read that whole chapter but i guess im still missing something.

Say i have object A that is managed by spring and i inject some object b and c into a.

Now somewhere in my code i want to use object a. How do i get a reference to object a that has be initiliazed via spring? I obviously cant do: A a = new A(); Instead i need some way to pull it from the context like context.getBean("a");

So now you may say just inject object A into the object that needs it. But then how do i get a reference to that object?

Second: Say i use ApplicationContextAware and that object is injected with the ApplicationContext. How do i get that object? Should i create a static method getApplicationContext that retrieves the context?

public class Whatever() implements ApplicationContextAware {

private static ApplicationContext ctx = null;

public setApplicationContext(ApplicationContext context) {
ctx = context;
}

public static getApplicationContext() {
return ctx;
}

}

Is this correct?

You could do that. This thread might be more helpful.
http://forum.springframework.org/showthread.php?t=27884