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Conditionally instantiating classes that use #Inject

I'm trying to understand how to handle conditionally creating new instances of a class that uses #Inject. In the below example I have a factory that instantiates classes based on a parameter.
AnimalFactory does not have access to the injector the main class of my application has, so I can't use injector.getInstance(Cat.class)
class AnimalFactory {
public IAnimal create(AnimalType type) {
if (type.equals(AnimalType.CAT)) {
return new Cat(); // Cat uses #Inject, so this won't work of course. But ???
} else if (type.equals(AnimalType.DOG)) {
return new Dog();
}
}
}
In the rest of my app, classes are injected into my constructors because I always need them. Guice creates an instance/singleton for each. But in this scenario, I do not want to create and inject instances for each animal because all but one are needed.

You can use a MapBinder as described here:
public class AnimalModule extends AbstractModule {
public void configure() {
MapBinder<AnimalType, IAnimal> animalBinder= MapBinder.newMapBinder(binder(), AnimalType.class, IAnimal.class);
animalBinder.addBinding(AnimalType.DOG).to(Dog.class);
...
}
}
And than use it in your factory:
class AnimalFactory {
#Inject
Map<AnimalType, IAnimal> animals;
public IAnimal create(AnimalType type) {
return animals.get(type);
}
}

Actually I worked on exactly the same issue and I wrote a feature that allows you to create self-populating factory. Meaning that if you work in Spring/Spring-boot environment you can create a factory that can access and provide any interface implementing class that is managed by Spring-boot without injecting in the factory. You can also give the instances custom names. So, it seems like it fits your case exactly. Here is a link to an article that describes the feature in great detail: Non-intrusive access to "Orphaned" Beans in Spring framework. Also, in MgntUtils library Javadoc there is a good description of the feature here enter link description here. The library itself including source code could be found on Github here and in the package com.mgnt.lifecycle.management.example there is a working example. Maven artifacts are here

Internal working of field injection in spring and why is it not recommended to use

As the title suggests , I want to know how does field injection internally works in spring , I read many articles on this and got to know few things like below but didn't understood the exact reason behind it :
-> It should not be used because when you do unit testing then you are dependent upon the spring
container to instantiate the class in case of field injection.
-> You cannot use "final" keyword in case of field injection , means you cannot make the field immutable.
-> It internally uses reflection
I want to know how exactly does #Autowired works internally , how does it uses reflection , I am trying to understand the exact reason behind all the above mentioned points, what happens behind the scenes when we write the below code :
#Component
public class B {
#Autowired
private A a1;
}
I have read similar questions on stack overflow about this topic , but I couldn't find the exact explanation that I am looking.

Spring has a concept of Bean Post Processors.
When spring builds a bean it applies registered bean post processors that help to "initialize" the bean.
So, there is org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor that handles autowiring.
Basically it works with an newly created object. Spring introspects the fields of the beans (by using reflection). The fields that have #Autowired is a subject for processing with this bean post processor. It finds the candidate for injection in the application context and actually injects the value.
Now given this information, its understandable why final fields cannot be autowired. Leave alone spring, In pure Java, final fields must be instantiated directly right during the declaration (final int i = 123) or in the constructor of the class. But the autowiring happens after constructor, so its impossible to autowire the final fields.
As for the unit testing, the private properties must be somehow configured from the test. But since they're encapsulated (yes, spring kind of breaks encapsulation in this case for its usage), its impossible to write a good test for the class that contains fields injection. That's is a reason to switch to constructor injection.
public class FieldInjection {
#Autowired
private A a;
}
VS.
public class ConstructorInjection {
private final A a;
// this can be generated by lombok, you don't have to put #Autowired on constructor in the case of single constructor, spring will use it to create a bean
public ConstructorInjection(A a) {
this.a = a;
}
}
Now the test for FieldInjection class is impossible:
public class FieldInjectionTest {
#Test
void test() {
FieldInjection underTest = new FieldInjection();
how do you know that you should instantiate A a. ????
}
}
However in the case of constructor injection its a trivial task:
public class ConstructorInjectionTest {
#Test
void test() {
A a = mock(A.class);
ConstructorInjection underTest = new ConstructorInjection(a);
// the dependencies must be supplied in the constructor
// otherwise its impossible to create an object under test
}
}

Guice / DI and mixing injection and parameters passed in at runtime

I have a situation where when I initialize some of my classes, some of the fields I need to be injected (e.g. references to factories etc) whereas some others are dynamic and created at runtime (e.g. usernames etc). How do I construct such objects using the GUICE framework?
Simply annotating the fields I need injected as #Inject doesn't work as they seem to not be set up when creating an object using the constructor. For instance:
class C {
#Inject
private FactoryClass toBeInjected;
private ConfigurationField passedIn;
public C(ConfigurationField passedIn) {
this.passedIn = passedIn;
}
}
If my understanding is correct (and I could be wrong), the fact that I'm creating a new instance of C via new and not through Guice means that no injection will take place. I do need to pass these parameters in the constructor, but also want some fields injected -- so how do I solve this problem?

A feature specifically matching "mixing injection and parameters passed" would be Assisted Injection.
class C {
// Guice will automatically create an implementation of this interface.
// This can be defined anywhere, but I like putting it in the class itself.
interface Factory {
C create(ConfigurationField passedIn);
}
#Inject
private FactoryClass toBeInjected;
private ConfigurationField passedIn;
private SomeOtherDepIfYoudLike otherDep;
#Inject public C(#Assisted ConfigurationField passedIn,
SomeOtherDepIfYoudLike otherDep) {
this.passedIn = passedIn;
this.otherDep = otherDep;
}
}
Now in your module:
#Override public void configure() {
install(new FactoryModuleBuilder().build(C.Factory.class));
}
Now when someone wants to create a C, they can avoid calling the constructor directly; instead, they inject a C.Factory into which they pass a ConfigurationField instance of their choice and receive a fully-constructed, fully-injected C instance. (Like with most well-designed DI objects, they can call the constructor directly.)
Note that this design is especially useful in a few ways:
You can use constructor injection, treat all your fields as final, and treat the object as immutable.
If you stick with constructor injection entirely, your object will never be in a partially-initialized state, and your API stays simple (call the constructor and your object is ready).
For testing, you can write any implementation of C.Factory and have it return any instance you want. This can include test doubles of C or its factory: Fakes, mocks, or spies that you create manually or by using Mockito, EasyMock, JMock, or any other mocking framework.

What you are looking for is "On Demand" Injections:
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Injector injector = Guice.createInjector(...);
CreditCardProcessor creditCardProcessor = new PayPalCreditCardProcessor();
injector.injectMembers(creditCardProcessor);
}
or for static things
#Override public void configure() {
requestStaticInjection(ProcessorFactory.class);
...
}
All explained very well https://github.com/google/guice/wiki/Injections#on-demand-injection.
Note:
Both of these things are code smells and should only really be used
for migrating old code over to Guice. New code should not use these
approaches.

Guice scenario where multiple injector references appear unavoidable

I have a use case where it appears that referencing a Guice injector from multiple locations is the only solution—though this is generally discouraged.
My application is built on top of Talend, an open source ETL platform. Most of my actual application is in Java classes that are called by Talend components. These components include Java snippets that I write and that, in turn, instantiate/invoke my classes.
Now I intend to use Guice throughout my Java classes but there is absolutely no way for me to inject dependencies into the Talend components (so that they would be available to the Java snippets). Instead, I need to actually create these dependencies. I’d like to at least have Guice control the instantiation, which means that instead of using new, it appears that the only way I can instantiate my classes (the ones with #Inject constructors) is to call injector.getInstance. This, in turn, implies that I need to keep the injector around, presumably using an old-fashioned factory that creates it in the first place and makes it available as a singleton.
I just can’t see any other way to handle this but perhaps I’m missing something.

Consider static injection. This will still hide persistent references to your injector across your app, but it will save you from having to pepper your code with injector.getInstance(...) calls. In any case you can inject Injector if you really need to.
class TalendDependencyModule extends AbstractModule {
#Override public void configure() {
requestStaticInjection(ExtractorDependencies.class);
requestStaticInjection(ProcessorDependencies.class);
}
}
public class ExtractorDependencies {
#Inject private static Provider<ParserService> parserServiceProvider;
#Inject private static Provider<SomethingElse> somethingElseProvider;
private ExtractorDependencies() { }
static ParserService getParserService() {
return parserServiceProvider.get();
}
/* ... */
}

I don't know how many Talend objects you have but you might want to consider using providers. For instance suppose you have your own class that you want Guice to manage creation of:
public interface INotTalendControlled {}
public class NotTalendControlled implements INotTalendControlled {}
This will be added to a Talend object whose dependencies cannot be injected via Guice (although I assume there is some manual process for doing so either constructor or setter):
public class TalendControlled {
private INotTalendControlled notTalendControlled;
private TalendControlled(INotTalendControlled notTalendControlled) {
this.notTalendControlled = notTalendControlled;
}
public INotTalendControlled getValue() {
return notTalendControlled;
}
}
If you want Guice to manage these lifecycles and the lifecycle of Talend controlled objects you can use a provider like so:
public static class TestModule extends AbstractModule {
#Override
protected void configure() {
bind(INotTalendControlled.class).to(NotTalendControlled.class);
}
#Provides
public TalendControlled provideInjectsToTalendObject(INotTalendControlled notTalendControlled) {
return new TalendControlled(notTalendControlled);
}
}
The #Provides method will hide of the use of new for all objects as you can now directly inject TalendControlled objects (#Inject TalenControlled talendControlled) and an explicit injector is not needed to construct their dependencies.

How can I get a Spring bean injected in my custom Wicket model class?

In a custom Wicket class, not unlike the following, I'm using a service bean which should be injected by Spring, as defined with the SpringBean annotation (from the wicket-spring project).
public class ReportExportFileModel extends AbstractReadOnlyModel<File> {
#SpringBean(name = "reportService")
ReportService reportService;
ReportDto reportDto;
ReportExportFileModel(ReportDto reportDto) {
this.reportDto = reportDto;
}
#Override
public File getObject() {
try {
return reportService.generatePentahoReport(reportDto);
} catch (ReportGenerationException e) {
// ...
}
}
}
However, this doesn't work: reportService.generatePentahoReport() fails with NullPointerException, because the bean has not been injected by Spring for some reason.
Curiously, I've used the exact same Model code as anonymous inner class on a Wicket Page, and there was no problem there.
How can I fix this?

The wicket dependency-injection works with classes implementing IComponentInstantiationListener. These application-level listeners are called whenever a Component is instantiated. This is the hook used for dependency injection of components.
The model classes do not have such a mechanism in place. Any model can directly implement IModel so there is no abstract base class which can call the listeners, unlike Component.
I use the following base class for my injected models (Wicket 1.5):
public abstract class InjectedDetachableModel<T> extends LoadableDetachableModel<T> {
public InjectedDetachableModel() {
Injector.get().inject(this);
}
public InjectedDetachableModel(T a_entity) {
super(a_entity);
Injector.get().inject(this);
}
}
Edit:
Summary of relevant differences between 1.4 and 1.5, taken from Wicket 1.5 migration guide:
Wicket 1.4
#Override
protected void init()
{
// initialize Spring
addComponentInstantiationListener(new SpringComponentInjector(this, applicationContext));
}
and
InjectorHolder.getInjector().inject(Object object)
Wicket 1.5:
#Override
protected void init()
{
// initialize Spring
getComponentInstantiationListeners().add(new SpringComponentInjector(this, applicationContext))
}
and
Injector.get().inject(Object object)

Apparently Spring beans don't get automatically injected to other classes than Pages. I've run to this also with my custom WebRequestCycle class.
One easy solution is to trigger the injection manually using InjectorHolder.getInjector().inject(this).
So, writing the constructor like this makes the model work as intended:
ReportExportFileModel(ReportDto reportDto) {
this.reportDto = reportDto;
InjectorHolder.getInjector().inject(this);
}
Edit: ah, right after posting this, I found another SO question with a more accurate explanation of what's going on:
#SpringBean works only in any subclass of Component.