nested bean access via .getBean(name)

[jonnio]

I've been wondering this for a while...if i have a nested bean with an id attribute, why can't I look up the nested bean by the id?

<bean id="myParent" class="x.y.z.Parent">
   <property name="mybean">
       <bean id="myChild" class="java.lang.Object"/>
   </property>
</bean>

context.getBean("myChild") throws BeanNotFoundException

[libor.subcik]

Hi, this is just how it is meant to be, access to inner beans is limited to the scope of its encapsulating bean. The reference says: Note that the singleton flag and any id attribute are effectively ignored. Inner beans are anonymous prototypes.