How do you create a .class bean (not an instance)

[Paul Newport]

I want to create an instance of org.springframework.jdbc.core.BeanPropertyRowMappe r that takes a class as its constructor

e.g. new BeanPropertyRowMapper(Address.class)

How do I do this in a Spring config ?

I'm a bit stumped on how to create a bean containing Address.class, as I am so used to creating singletons of instances of classes.

<bean id="addressRowMapper"
		class="org.springframework.jdbc.core.BeanPropertyRowMapper">
		<constructor-arg >
????? What goes here ???????
		</constructor-arg >

	</bean>

[Paul Newport]

PS this works but I was hoping there is a more graceful way of doing it:

<bean id="address"
		class="net.targetgroup.batch.validator.Address" />

	<bean id="addressClass" factory-bean="address"
		factory-method="getClass" />

[Marten Deinum]

It will work out of the box. Spring will do the conversion.

<bean id="addressRowMapper" class="org.springframework.jdbc.core.BeanPropertyRowMapper">
  <constructor-arg value="net.targetgroup.batch.validator.Address" />
</bean>

[Paul Newport]

It will work out of the box. Spring will do the conversion.

<bean id="addressRowMapper" class="org.springframework.jdbc.core.BeanPropertyRowMapper">
  <constructor-arg value="net.targetgroup.batch.validator.Address" />
</bean>

Oh, that is annoyingly magic ;-)

Thanks !

PS can you point me in the direction of the documentation that explains how the magic works ?

[Marten Deinum]

Spring uses PropertyEditors for that (just like the Spring MVC stuff). It inspects the target type (in your case a Class) and tries to find a PropertyEditor for that. Spring has several shipped out of the box.

Like converting a String to an Array or List or Set. A Properties object into a Map and vice versa and also one for a String to Class conversion.

That is explained in the reference guide Chapter 3.3.2.1.

[Paul Newport]

Spring uses PropertyEditors

I guessed it might be proprty editors; that is most cool. Thanks again.