Currently I use #Component only on my Views, Controllers and Models.
To be accurate, I use #RestController for Views, #Service for Controllers and #Component for Models (because I want to use Hibernate as an ORM provider)
My problem is that I also use #Autowired constructors which means that I can use only #Component based Objects in my constructor.
Sometimes I need to create a Controller that takes none-Component class. As an example - to add Config clas besides other #Component objects to my constructor .
What should I do in general:
1) Add #Component annotation to all Java classes.
2) Add #Component only to those classes that I need ? (which means that some my Config classes will have #Component when others Config classes will not.)
3) Not use #Autowired in situations like this, create a Controller in a regular way ?
4) Not use #Autowired constructors at all ?
5) Other ideas ?
I know that there are questions similar to this one, but none of them have helped me. I'm following along this tutorial, and the part I can't wrap my mind around is:
#SpringBootApplication
public class Application {
private static final Logger log =
LoggerFactory.getLogger(Application.class);
public static void main(String[] args) {
SpringApplication.run(Application.class);
}
#Bean
public CommandLineRunner demo(CustomerRepository repository) {
return (args) -> {
// save a couple of customers
...
// more lines, etc...
What I don't understand is where the repository passed into demo comes from. I know that the Autowired annotation can do something like that, but it isn't used at all here.
The more specific reason I ask is because I'm trying to adapt what they do here to an application I'm working on. I have a class, separate from all of the persistence/repository stuff, and I want to call repository methods like save and findAll. The issue is that the repository is an interface, so I can't instantiate an object of it to call the methods. So do I have to make a new class that implements the interface and create an object of that? Or is there an easier way using annotations?
When creating a #Bean, adding the repository in the parameters of the bean is enough to wire the repos in your bean. This works pretty much like adding #Autowired annotation inside a class that is annotated as #Component or something similar.
Spring works mostly with interface, since that is simplier to wire vs wiring concrete classes.
Can you try #Repository before the declaration of class? Worked for me in a Spring MVC structure.
#Repository
public class EntityDAOImpl implements EntityDAO{
...
}
The thing to wrap your head around is a Spring Boot application at startup time aims to resolve its dependancy tree. This means discovering and instantiating Beans that the application defines, and those are classes annotated with #Service, #Repository, etc.
This means the default constructor (or the one marked with #Autowire) of all beans is invoked, and after all beans have been constructed the application starts to run.
Where the #Bean annotation comes into play is if you have a bean which does not know the values of it's constructor parameters at compile time (e.g. if you want to wire in a "started at" timestamp): then you would define a class with an #Configuration annotation on it, and expose an #Bean method in it, which would return your bean and have parameters that are the beans dependencies. In it you would invoke the beans constructor and return the bean.
Now, if you want a certain method of some class to be invoked after the application is resolved, you can implement the CommandLineRunner interface, or you can annotate a method with #PostConstruct.
Some useful links / references:
https://docs.spring.io/spring-javaconfig/docs/1.0.0.m3/reference/html/creating-bean-definitions.html
https://www.baeldung.com/spring-inject-prototype-bean-into-singleton
Running code after Spring Boot starts
Execute method on startup in Spring
I have 2 scenarios where I would like to understand/confirm the usage of #Component:
Extending concrete class:
I have a concrete super class A and its sub-class Aa in my web application. I have annotated with Aa with #Component(value="aa") and #Scope(value=WebApplicationContext.SCOPE_SESSION). Also, I have annotated A class with #Component(value="a") and #Scope(value=WebApplicationContext.SCOPE_SESSION).
My question -> I am only doing applicationContext.getBean("aa"). I can skip the annotations in A class (please correct me if I am wrong), but I don't know why and how? My understanding has been that if a class is not annotated with #Component or defined in bean configuration file then Spring doesn't handle its instance management.
Abstract concrete class:
Same scenario and question as above just that in this case super class is an abstract class.
You have to register the beans via beans in a config or via component annotations (Repo or controller or service). If not the bean is not contained in your application context container.
#Component add a bean in the Spring registry. Then, you can retrieve this bean later.
If you don't use the bean, there is no need to add it to the bean registry. (so just remove #Component(value="a") and #Scope(value=WebApplicationContext.SCOPE_SESSION) )
On your use case, you set a scope to SESSION. It means that every time you create a session, Spring will instantiate your class (A / Aa) and put it on the session. As it is an instance of the class you don't need the super class instance (A) to be able to create the Aa instance.
With A beeing abstract, it is exactly the same thing, except if you try to scan it for Spring to pick it, Spring will throws an error saying A cannot be instantiated.
We use #Configuration classes with lots of #Bean annotated methods that essentially read like this:
#Bean
public TeamContactIndexer teamContactIndexer(GroupService groupService, ContactCrudService contactCrudService, ContactRetrieveService contactRetrieveService) {
return new TeamContactIndexer(groupService, contactCrudService, contactRetrieveService);
}
So this returns a new bean and injects other spring declared things via method arguments into the constructor by name.
The only way I know to reduce verbosity is to annotate the beans with #Component and constructor with #Autowired.
For many this is perfectly acceptable but I prefer to not litter my code with Spring annotations just to facilitate plumbing and keep a clean separation between completely spring free business logic and plumbing code in #Configuration annotated classes. I treat them as a more type safe, less verbose replacement for what we used to do in xml.
However, wouldn't it be nice if I could just go ...
#Bean
public TeamContactIndexer teamContactIndexer;
... and have spring figure out that it needs to autowire the constructor of that class (100% spring free) to produce the bean. This is not currently supported in Spring as far as I can see even though it should be quite easy to do as far as I can see. Am I missing something or is there really no way around me micromanaging constructor calls in my #Configuration classes (other than littering my code with annotations)? The vast majority of my #Bean methods should be easily replaced like this.
UPDATE
#bezmax has provided a workable approach here which is to use a component scan annotation.
#Configuration
#ComponentScan(
basePackages={"com.github.jsonj.tools"},
includeFilters = { #Filter(type = FilterType.ASSIGNABLE_TYPE, value = {JsonParser.class})})
public class JsonParserConfig {
}
I've used the above to provide a bean definition for a bean without annotations in a library that I use. This replaces the #Bean annotated factory method I had earlier. It's still somewhat verbose but at least you can put in a comma separated list of classes. The default for type is wrong for this usecase so you must specify it; likewise the package defintion is required even though it could be deduced from the class on the filter.
IMHO there is room for an obvious improvement in Spring, which is to provide an annotation that simply takes a comma separated list of classes. So, instead of scanning a package, simply list the bean classes you want initialized. There are probably still a few hairy issues with autowiring via the constructor.
This feature is implemented in Spring 4.3 (not yet released).
You can read more about that in the changelog (see 6.1)
Added:
As about registering your unannotated classes automatically, there seems to be a flexible way to achieve this using #ComponentScan annotation. This annotation allows you to specify a set of include filters, which, when matched on classes, are automatically registered as beans. I had not actually tried using more complex rules with this filter, and it seems that you have several options there (check out the documentation on #ComponentScan) but the easiest one would be something like this:
#Configuration
#ComponentScan(
value = "some.package.path",
includeFilters = {
#Filter(type = ASSIGNABLE_TYPE, value = {
MyClass1.class,
MyClass2.class,
MyClass3.class
})
})
public class WebConfig extends WebMvcConfigurerAdapter {
...
I understand that #Component annotation was introduced in spring 2.5 in order to get rid of xml bean definition by using classpath scanning.
#Bean was introduced in spring 3.0 and can be used with #Configuration in order to fully get rid of xml file and use java config instead.
Would it have been possible to re-use the #Component annotation instead of introducing #Bean annotation? My understanding is that the final goal is to create beans in both cases.
#Component
Preferable for component scanning and automatic wiring.
When should you use #Bean?
Sometimes automatic configuration is not an option. When? Let's imagine that you want to wire components from 3rd-party libraries (you don't have the source code so you can't annotate its classes with #Component), so automatic configuration is not possible.
The #Bean annotation returns an object that spring should register as bean in application context. The body of the method bears the logic responsible for creating the instance.
#Component and #Bean do two quite different things, and shouldn't be confused.
#Component (and #Service and #Repository) are used to auto-detect and auto-configure beans using classpath scanning. There's an implicit one-to-one mapping between the annotated class and the bean (i.e. one bean per class). Control of wiring is quite limited with this approach, since it's purely declarative.
#Bean is used to explicitly declare a single bean, rather than letting Spring do it automatically as above. It decouples the declaration of the bean from the class definition, and lets you create and configure beans exactly how you choose.
To answer your question...
would it have been possible to re-use the #Component annotation instead of introducing #Bean annotation?
Sure, probably; but they chose not to, since the two are quite different. Spring's already confusing enough without muddying the waters further.
#Component auto detects and configures the beans using classpath scanning whereas #Bean explicitly declares a single bean, rather than letting Spring do it automatically.
#Component does not decouple the declaration of the bean from the class definition where as #Bean decouples the declaration of the bean from the class definition.
#Component is a class level annotation whereas #Bean is a method level annotation and name of the method serves as the bean name.
#Component need not to be used with the #Configuration annotation where as #Bean annotation has to be used within the class which is annotated with #Configuration.
We cannot create a bean of a class using #Component, if the class is outside spring container whereas we can create a bean of a class using #Bean even if the class is present outside the spring container.
#Component has different specializations like #Controller, #Repository and #Service whereas #Bean has no specializations.
Let's consider I want specific implementation depending on some dynamic state.
#Bean is perfect for that case.
#Bean
#Scope("prototype")
public SomeService someService() {
switch (state) {
case 1:
return new Impl1();
case 2:
return new Impl2();
case 3:
return new Impl3();
default:
return new Impl();
}
}
However there is no way to do that with #Component.
Both approaches aim to register target type in Spring container.
The difference is that #Bean is applicable to methods, whereas #Component is applicable to types.
Therefore when you use #Bean annotation you control instance creation logic in method's body (see example above). With #Component annotation you cannot.
I see a lot of answers and almost everywhere it's mentioned #Component is for autowiring where component is scanned, and #Bean is exactly declaring that bean to be used differently. Let me show how it's different.
#Bean
First it's a method level annotation.
Second you generally use it to configure beans in Java code (if you are not using xml configuration) and then call it from a class using the
ApplicationContext.getBean method. Example:
#Configuration
class MyConfiguration{
#Bean
public User getUser() {
return new User();
}
}
class User{
}
// Getting Bean
User user = applicationContext.getBean("getUser");
#Component
It is the general way to annotate a bean and not a specialized bean.
It is a class level annotation and is used to avoid all that configuration stuff through java or xml configuration.
We get something like this.
#Component
class User {
}
// to get Bean
#Autowired
User user;
That's it. It was just introduced to avoid all the configuration steps to instantiate and use that bean.
You can use #Bean to make an existing third-party class available to your Spring framework application context.
#Bean
public ViewResolver viewResolver() {
InternalResourceViewResolver viewResolver = new InternalResourceViewResolver();
viewResolver.setPrefix("/WEB-INF/view/");
viewResolver.setSuffix(".jsp");
return viewResolver;
}
By using the #Bean annotation, you can wrap a third-party class (it may not have #Component and it may not use Spring), as a Spring bean. And then once it is wrapped using #Bean, it is as a singleton object and available in your Spring framework application context. You can now easily share/reuse this bean in your app using dependency injection and #Autowired.
So think of the #Bean annotation is a wrapper/adapter for third-party classes. You want to make the third-party classes available to your Spring framework application context.
By using #Bean in the code above, I'm explicitly declare a single bean because inside of the method, I'm explicitly creating the object using the new keyword. I'm also manually calling setter methods of the given class. So I can change the value of the prefix field. So this manual work is referred to as explicit creation. If I use the #Component for the same class, the bean registered in the Spring container will have default value for the prefix field.
On the other hand, when we annotate a class with #Component, no need for us to manually use the new keyword. It is handled automatically by Spring.
When you use the #Component tag, it's the same as having a POJO (Plain Old Java Object) with a vanilla bean declaration method (annotated with #Bean). For example, the following method 1 and 2 will give the same result.
Method 1
#Component
public class SomeClass {
private int number;
public SomeClass(Integer theNumber){
this.number = theNumber.intValue();
}
public int getNumber(){
return this.number;
}
}
with a bean for 'theNumber':
#Bean
Integer theNumber(){
return new Integer(3456);
}
Method 2
//Note: no #Component tag
public class SomeClass {
private int number;
public SomeClass(Integer theNumber){
this.number = theNumber.intValue();
}
public int getNumber(){
return this.number;
}
}
with the beans for both:
#Bean
Integer theNumber(){
return new Integer(3456);
}
#Bean
SomeClass someClass(Integer theNumber){
return new SomeClass(theNumber);
}
Method 2 allows you to keep bean declarations together, it's a bit more flexible etc. You may even want to add another non-vanilla SomeClass bean like the following:
#Bean
SomeClass strawberryClass(){
return new SomeClass(new Integer(1));
}
You have two ways to generate beans.
One is to create a class with an annotation #Component.
The other is to create a method and annotate it with #Bean. For those classes containing method with #Bean should be annotated with #Configuration
Once you run your spring project, the class with a #ComponentScan annotation would scan every class with #Component on it, and restore the instance of this class to the Ioc Container. Another thing the #ComponentScan would do is running the methods with #Bean on it and restore the return object to the Ioc Container as a bean.
So when you need to decide which kind of beans you want to create depending upon current states, you need to use #Bean. You can write the logic and return the object you want.
Another thing worth to mention is the name of the method with #Bean is the default name of bean.
Difference between Bean and Component:
#component and its specializations(#Controller, #service, #repository) allow for auto-detection
using classpath scanning. If we see component class like #Controller, #service, #repository will be scan automatically by the spring framework using the component scan.
#Bean on the other hand can only be used to explicitly declare a single bean in a configuration class.
#Bean used to explicitly declare a single bean, rather than letting spring do it automatically. Its make septate declaration of bean from the class definition.
In short #Controller, #service, #repository are for auto-detection and #Bean to create seprate bean from class
- #Controller
public class LoginController
{ --code-- }
- #Configuration
public class AppConfig {
#Bean
public SessionFactory sessionFactory()
{--code-- }
Spring supports multiple types annotations such as #Component, #Service, #Repository. All theses can be found under the org.springframework.stereotype package.
#Bean can be found under the org.springframework.context.annotation package.
When classes in our application are annotated with any of the above mentioned annotation then during project startup spring scan(using #ComponentScan) each class and inject the instance of the classes to the IOC container. Another thing the #ComponentScan would do is running the methods with #Bean on it and restore the return object to the Ioc Container as a bean.
#Component
If we mark a class with #Component or one of the other Stereotype annotations these classes will be auto-detected using classpath scanning. As long as these classes are in under our base package or Spring is aware of another package to scan, a new bean will be created for each of these classes.
package com.beanvscomponent.controller;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
#Controller
public class HomeController {
public String home(){
return "Hello, World!";
}
}
There's an implicit one-to-one mapping between the annotated class and the bean (i.e. one bean per class). Control of wiring is quite limited with this approach since it's purely declarative. It is also important to note that the stereotype annotations are class level annotations.
#Bean
#Bean is used to explicitly declare a single bean, rather than letting Spring do it automatically like we did with #Controller. It decouples the declaration of the bean from the class definition and lets you create and configure beans exactly how you choose. With #Bean you aren't placing this annotation at the class level. If you tried to do that you would get an invalid type error. The #Bean documentation defines it as:
Indicates that a method produces a bean to be managed by the Spring container.
Typically, #Bean methods are declared within #Configuration classes.We have a user class that we needed to instantiate and then create a bean using that instance. This is where I said earlier that we have a little more control over how the bean is defined.
package com.beanvscomponent;
public class User {
private String first;
private String last;
public User(String first, String last) {
this.first = first;
this.last = last;
}
}
As i mentioned earlier #Bean methods should be declared within #Configuration classes.
package com.beanvscomponent;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
#Configuration
public class ApplicationConfig {
#Bean
public User superUser() {
return new User("Partho","Bappy");
}
}
The name of the method is actually going to be the name of our bean. If we pull up the /beans endpoint in the actuator we can see the bean defined.
{
"beans": "superUser",
"aliases": [],
"scope": "singleton",
"type": "com.beanvscomponent.User",
"resource": "class path resource
[com/beanvscomponent/ApplicationConfig.class]",
"dependencies": []
}
#Component vs #Bean
I hope that cleared up some things on when to use #Component and when to use #Bean. It can be a little confusing but as you start to write more applications it will become pretty natural.
#Bean was created to avoid coupling Spring and your business rules in compile time. It means you can reuse your business rules in other frameworks like PlayFramework or JEE.
Moreover, you have total control on how create beans, where it is not enough the default Spring instantation.
I wrote a post talking about it.
https://coderstower.com/2019/04/23/factory-methods-decoupling-ioc-container-abstraction/
1. About #Component
#Component functs similarily to #Configuration.
They both indicate that the annotated class has one or more beans need to be registered to Spring-IOC-Container.
The class annotated by #Component, we call it Component of Spring. It is a concept that contains several beans.
Component class needs to be auto-scanned by Spring for registering those beans of the component class.
2. About #Bean
#Bean is used to annotate the method of component-class(as mentioned above). It indicate the instance retured by the annotated method needs to be registered to Spring-IOC-Container.
3. Conclusion
The difference between them two is relatively obivious, they are used in different circumstances.
The general usage is:
// #Configuration is implemented by #Component
#Configuration
public ComponentClass {
#Bean
public FirstBean FirstBeanMethod() {
return new FirstBean();
}
#Bean
public SecondBean SecondBeanMethod() {
return new SecondBean();
}
}
Additional Points from above answers
Let’s say we got a module which is shared in multiple apps and it contains a few services. Not all are needed for each app.
If use #Component on those service classes and the component scan in the application,
we might end up detecting more beans than necessary
In this case, you either had to adjust the filtering of the component scan or provide the configuration that even the unused beans can run. Otherwise, the application context won’t start.
In this case, it is better to work with #Bean annotation and only instantiate those beans,
which are required individually in each app
So, essentially, use #Bean for adding third-party classes to the context. And #Component if it is just inside your single application.
#Bean can be scoped and #component cannot
such as
#Scope(value = WebApplicationContext.SCOPE_REQUEST, proxyMode = ScopedProxyMode.TARGET_CLASS)