applicationcontext.xml necessary?

[biguniverse]

Is it recommended to physically have a file applicationcontext.xml or can I have all bean definitions in my app-servlet.xml file?

In other words, does Spring look in applicationcontext.xml for anything special?

[katentim]

You need to physically have some context to boot from, but I guess you could have all your bean definitions in the app-servlet.xml file.

It would be a better architecture though, to keep them separate. For bigger applications, or even just for integration testing, it even makes sense to split applicationcontext.xml into several files.

[Colin Yates]

If you want to use Hibernate OSIV then you will need to register a ContextListener which needs an appContext file.

[biguniverse]

I do have this in my web.xml, it's just that I'm not using a separate file (i.e. applicationContext.xml) -- is it enough (despite a bad design to have it all in one file)?

	<context-param>
		<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
		<param-value>/WEB-INF/sas-servlet.xml</param-value>
	</context-param>
	<listener>
		<listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
	</listener>

[Colin Yates]

If you are explicitly declaring the context, then no, you don't

[biguniverse]

Thanks; I've been trying to minimize the number of XML files whenever it makes sense. Between Tiles, Hibernate, Spring, etc., the number of files can grow pretty quickly :-)

[katentim]

I've been trying to minimize the number of XML files whenever it makes sense. Between Tiles, Hibernate, Spring

That's a good idea, but I wouldn't sacrifice modularity/readability. You can always separate the files into different directories.

[Colin Yates]

Gotta agree with katentim, that good old OO rule "each thing does one thing, and one thing well" applies to XML files as well