How to get the initialized bean factory

[Erwin]

I am a beginner with Spring,

I have a web application (in a Jetty webapp), my web.xml indicates where to find the applicationContext.xml to Jetty. It works.

But I would like to get the bean factory in my java code.

When I hadn't the webapp and had only Junit tests I had something like :

        ClassPathResource res = new ClassPathResource("applicationContext.xml");
        springFactory = new XmlBeanFactory(res);

but now I work in Jetty I would like to get the already instantiated by Jetty bean factory.

I searched for some static methods but didn't find.

Thanks for replies.

Here is a part of my xeb.xml file :

<web-app>
	<context-param>
		<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
		<param-value>classpath*:/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml</param-value>
	</context-param>
</web-app>

And a part of my applicationContext.xml file :

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xmlns:util="http://www.springframework.org/schema/util"
	xmlns:configurator="http://cocoon.apache.org/schema/configurator"
	xmlns:avalon="http://cocoon.apache.org/schema/avalon"
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.0.xsd
                           http://www.springframework.org/schema/util http://www.springframework.org/schema/util/spring-util-2.0.xsd
                           http://cocoon.apache.org/schema/configurator http://cocoon.apache.org/schema/configurator/cocoon-configurator-1.0.xsd
                           http://cocoon.apache.org/schema/avalon http://cocoon.apache.org/schema/avalon/cocoon-avalon-1.0.xsd">
	<!-- Activate Cocoon Spring Configurator -->
	<configurator:settings />
	<!-- Configure Log4j -->
 	<bean name="org.apache.cocoon.spring.configurator.log4j"
		class="org.apache.cocoon.spring.configurator.log4j.Log4JConfigurator"
		scope="singleton">
		<property name="settings"
		ref="org.apache.cocoon.configuration.Settings" />
		<property name="resource" value="/WEB-INF/log4j.xml" />
	</bean>
	<!-- Activate Avalon Bridge -->
	<avalon:bridge />
	<bean id="myDataSource"
		class="org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectFactoryBean">
		<property name="jndiName" value="java:comp/env/jdbc/metadatadb" />
	</bean>
	<bean id="sessionFactory"
		class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalSessionFactoryBean">
		<property name="dataSource" ref="myDataSource" />
		<property name="configLocation">
			<value>classpath:/hibernate.cfg.xml</value>
		</property>
	</bean>
	<bean id="transactionManager"
		class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTransactionManager">
		<property name="sessionFactory">
			<ref bean="sessionFactory" />
		</property>
	</bean>
	<bean id="storageInitializer"
		class="xxx.StorageInitializer">
		<property name="sessionFactory">
			<ref bean="sessionFactory"/>
		</property>
	</bean>
</beans>

[pmularien]

I think that WebApplicationContext has the methods you'll need.

[Marten Deinum]

[default consultant answer]
Well it depends...
[/default consultant answer]

If you are in a Web environment and want to access it based on a incoming request you can use the ServletRequestUtils if you want it anywhere where you have a ServletContext at hand use the WebApplicationContextUtils

[infinity2heaven]

See if this handy class helps

 
/**
 * Context Loader for loading all application contexts
 * @author <your name here :)>
 */
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;
public class ContextTools {
    public static ApplicationContext createDeployedApplicationContext() {
       return new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext (new String[] {
        "classpath*:applicationContext*.xml"    
       }); 
     }
 
    private ContextTools() { }
}

Note: this assumes all your app contexts follow a naming convention - applicationContext-xxx.xml (dao, mail, business, security etc ..)

[Marten Deinum]

Which is something you really don't want to do!!! Create a new ApplicatonContext each time you need one. If you want to run out of memory and have a performance drag that is one of the things to do!

[infinity2heaven]

Hmm., didn't realise the use of this class for multiple calls! Would making it a singleton help?

 
public class ContextTools {
 
 private static ApplicationContext context = null;
 
    public static ApplicationContext createDeployedApplicationContext() {
     if (context == null) {
       return new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext (new String[] {
        "classpath*:applicationContext*.xml"    
       }); 
     }
     return context;
     }
    
    private ContextTools() { }
}

[Marten Deinum]

It would help but still you don't have a reference to the (Web)ApplicationContext created by the ContextLoaderListener and/or the one created by the a DispatcherServlet.

[infinity2heaven]

Makes Sense. I use the above class primarily for my tests though

[Andreas Senft]

Have a look at this thread. A possible solution is outlined there.

Regards,
Andreas

[Erwin]

Thanks for all your answers.

I have effectively found this thread and so I tried this, I believe it is the solution :
- in my web.xml

	<context-param>
		<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
		<param-value>classpath*:/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml</param-value>
	</context-param>
	<listener>
		<listener-class>
			com.xxx.ContextStoreListener
		</listener-class>
	</listener>

- and a new file

public class ContextStoreListener implements ServletContextListener {
    public void contextInitialized(ServletContextEvent evt) {        
        ServletContext servletCtx = evt.getServletContext();
        WebApplicationContext webApplicationContext =
            WebApplicationContextUtils.getWebApplicationContext(servletCtx);
        
        System.out.println("webApplicationContext:" + webApplicationContext);
        
        ApplicationContext context = webApplicationContext;
        
        BeanFactory beanFactory = context;
        
        StorageInitializer.setBeanFactory(context);
    }

    /**
     * {@inheritDoc}
     * @see javax.servlet.ServletContextListener#contextDestroyed(javax.servlet.ServletContextEvent)
     */
    public void contextDestroyed(ServletContextEvent evt) {
    }
}

I think it is the good way to solve my problem... but it seems that my ContextStoreListener is not working in the same classloader than my application. So when I do "StorageInitializer.getBeanFactory();" I get NULL.

I am working with Cocoon, perhaps does it instantiate an other classloader ?

In more I do not get my bean factory but I get the cocoon bean spring factory.

All that is strange, I'm still looking for. Any idea ?