Change request: compound properties on the right side

[dozen]

Spring supports "compound property names" like here:

<bean id="foo" class="foo.Bar">
  <property name="fred.bob.sammy" value="123"/>
</bean>

But it doesn't support compound names on the right side, like here:

  <property name="contract" ref="txContext.user.contract"/>

where txContext is another bean defined in Spring configuration, and user = getUser(), and contract = getContract()

I'd happy to have that. It would make a population of multiple handlers from one input context a much easer task. Besides, it's just more uniform -- the same expression is supported on both sides of the assignment.

[Andreas Senft]

The idea is not bad. However I see a problem here.
The reference could be a name containing dots. So there would be a compatibility conflict if suddenly dots would be interpreted specially.

Regards,
Andreas

[dozen]

there is a space for compatibility problem, but not that big:

if we have a ref="a.b.c", and there is a bean "a.b.c", and the property is assignable from the bean "a.b.c", then use the bean itself.

to have a conflict there must be two bean of the same type, one having name matching a substring of another, and having property of the same type, and matching the rest of the name of the first bean:

<bean id="foo.bar" class="Foo"/>

<bean id="foo" class="Foo">
  <property name="bar" class="Foo"/>
</bean>

...
  <property name="x" ref="foo.bar"/> <!-- conflict -->

but there is a simple way to keep the compatibility:

  <property name="x" ref="foo" refproperty="bar"/>