The ref element

[thosmas]

Hi!

I would like to be able to define an XMLApplicationContext as a bean in another
XMLApplicationContext. I also want to set this other context as the parent of the first one.
What I'm looking for I guess is an expansion of the ref element, so I could define my
ApplicationContext bean like:

<bean id="myAppContext"
class="ClassPathXmlApplicationContext">
<constructor-arg index=0><value>myAppContext.xml</value></constructor-arg>
<constructor-arg index=1><ref this/></constructor-arg>
</bean>

...where <ref this/> (or something similar) would set an argument/property with type
ApplicationContext, and the value is the ApplicationContext holding the defined bean.

It this possible? And when will I see a 1.1.2 release with this implemented? 8)

-Thomas

PS! Generally I would like to see all org.springframework public code implemented to
be used in the spring framework (conforming to JavaBeans conventions)!

[Andreas Senft]

For what purpose would you need such a feature?

Maybe ContextSingletonBeanFactoryLocator might be useful for what you plan to do. For more information see also the Reference manual chapter 3.16.

Regards,
Andreas

[thosmas]

I'm writing an application containing a lot of spring enabled beans. The application can
operate in several contexts. Some state is shared between these contexts and some is not.
I have implemented this with an ApplicationContext hierarchy, where the shared state is
set up as singleton beans in a shared parent ApplicationContext, and the context specific
state is set up as singleton and prototype beans in a context specific child
ApplicationContext. This way the ApplicationContext objects directly correspond with my
application's contexts (then i probably have done something right, huh?).

On the other hand, I have now redesigned my code a little such that the entire
ApplicationContext hierarchy is created in code, so I actually don't need the feature
anylonger. 8) Thanks for the quick reply anyways!!!