Deferring class instantiation until first use

[shoffy]

It appears as if Spring instantiates a class when a configuration file is loaded instead of deferring to first use of that bean, regardless of whether the lazy-init parameter has been set to true. It throws a "ClassNotFoundException".

Is there any way to defer the instantiation of the class until first use?

We are attempting to use Spring as sort of a pseudo-registry. We'd like to be able to deploy a Spring ApplicationContext xml file which has definitions for all of our Services, but allow users to only load in the particular services they need.

[klr8]

Instantiation of all (singleton) beans during bean factory startup is a feature of an application context, so by using a normal bean factory you should be able to avoid it.

Another option is using prototype beans instead of singletons by setting the singleton="false" attribute on your bean definition. That way the bean factory will create a new instance of your bean every time you call getBean().

Erwin