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How to call Spring Framework repositories methods

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

Spring configured mock giving two different instances

Note: I have purposefully removed words from the names of classes and objects, so please excuse the horribly names in my code examples
I've got a test class that sets up my application using some test Spring context files. The application is a wrapper to a web service.
As this is a test, I have mocked the main interface to the web service in question (the ITransporter class). This gives me the ability to set expectations so that I can check that the requests sent to the web service are: in the expected format; have the expected fields complete; etc...
My mock is defined in a file called test-beans-context.xml and is passed into some service beans, as follows:
<bean id="mockTransporter" class="org.easymock.EasyMock" factory-method="createMock" scope="singleton">
<constructor-arg index="0" value="transport.ITransporter" />
</bean>
<bean id="accountService" class="service.AccountService">
<property name="transporter" ref="mockTransporter" />
</bean>
This context file is used in 2 places. (And I fear this is where my problem arises.)
The first being the test class, which is defined as follows:
#RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
#ContextConfiguration( locations={"classpath:test-beans-context.xml"} )
public class AbstractIntegrationTest {
#Autowired
private ITransporter mockTransporter;
//Some tests that perform expectations like the following:
// EasyMock.reset( this.mockTransporter );
// EasyMock.expect( this.mockTransporter.sendRequest( EasyMock.capture(this.requestXmlCapture) ) ).andReturn( responseXml );
}
The second place is in a class that is within the logical trail for getting to sending the request. It loads a separate XML context file /lite-api-context.xml that then imports the test one in my test set up.
public class Factory implements IFactory {
public Factory() {
context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("/lite-api-context.xml");
}
#Override
public IAccountService getAccountService() {
return (IAccountService) context.getBean("accountService");
}
}
And lite-api-context.xml includes this:
<import resource="classpath:/test-beans-context.xml" />
My problem is that in the test class, I'm getting a different instance of the mocked ITransporter to the one that is ultimately being used by my other services. So the expectations I set up are never actually executed as the mocks end up being different instances.
Is there a way to ensure I get the same instance in both places?
Or am I going to have to create my own singleton test implementation of the ITransporter interface? (Basically creating a stub that behaves exactly like my mock does now.)
EDIT: (Answer)
As The Thom said, it appears I need to create my own class to manage the mock.
I wanted to add my solution here too in case anyone stumbled across a similar problem.
Just wrote a quick static class like this:
public class MockTransporter {
private static ITransporter mockTransporter = EasyMock.createMock(ITransporter.class);
public static final ITransporter getInstance() {
return mockTransporter;
}
}
And had to change the XML config to this:
<bean id="mockTransporter" class="MockTransporter" factory-method="getInstance" />

Oh yeah, that's a problem. When you create a new context that's like creating a new object space for Spring. The one created in your XML file is different from the one created in your handmade context. They will always produce different variables.
I've been burned on that one before.
You're only hope if you want the same ones is to manage your own singletons.

The ideal way to solve this problem would be to create the Factory as a Spring bean as well, and inject the AccountService into the Factory bean.
In general context.getBean() should be avoided in production code because it harms the concept of Inversion of Control (for more information see: Why is Spring's ApplicationContext.getBean considered bad?). It's okay to use it in test code though.

Correct way of making a singleton a Spring bean

I am converting a singleton to a Spring bean, so that if the singleton fails to initialize, then entire web application's spring context doesn't load properly.
The advantage of making the Spring context not load properly, is that people will take notice and fix the configuration during deployment itself. As opposed to using 'non-spring bean' singleton: when that throws exception during initialization, nobody notices.. until a actual user complains of missing functionality.
My changes are working as expected.. but I am not sure if I am doing the right thing.
Any thoughts?
The code looks like this:
public class MySingleton {
private static MySingleton INSTANCE = null;
private MySingleton(){}
public static MySingleton getInstance(){
if(INSTANCE == null){
synchronized(MySingleton.class){
if(INSTANCE == null){
try{
doWork()
}catch(Exception e){
throw new IllegalStateException("xyz", e);
}
INSTANCE = new MySingleton();
}
}
}
return INSTANCE;
}
private static void doWork() {
// do some work
}
}
And in the spring config xml, the bean will be defined as:
<bean id="MySingletonBean"
class="com.MySingleton"
factory-method="getInstance" lazy-init="false" singleton="true">
</bean>
Note:
Most of this is similar to the strategy discussed in this article:
http://springtips.blogspot.com/2007/06/configuration-hell-remedy-with.html
Edit 1:
The classes that use this singleton, are not spring beans themselves.. they are just non-spring pojos, that I can't convert to spring. They must rely on getInstance() method get hold of the Singleton.
Edit 2: (copying a comment I made below into this description section)
I am trying to target two things:
I want Spring to initialize the singleton. So that if the
initialization fails, then the application loading fails.
I want the other classes be able to use classes without having to rely on contextAwareObj.getBean("MySingleton")
EDIT 3 (FINAL):
I decided to make this class a singleton.. and am not making it a spring bean. If it fails to initialize, it will log something in the Log file.. hopefully the person doing deployment takes notice.... I abandoned the approach I mentioned earlier because I feel it will create a maintenance nightmare in future, so I had to pick between - singleton - or - spring bean. I chose singleton.

You must declare the INSTANCE field as volatile for double-checked locking to work correctly.
See Effective Java, Item 71.

Why are you using singleton pattern on the first place? Just let Spring create bean for you (with default singleton scope) and... use it. Of course always somebody might create the bean by hand, but this was never a problem in my case.
Dependency injection and Spring-managed bean lifecycle will ease your life significantly (just see how many pitfalls you can avoid). Also note that exceptions thrown from c-tor or #PostContruct method will propagate and cause application context startup to fail as well.
UPDATE: I get your point. This is what came in to my mind:
#Service
public class Singleton {
private static AtomicReference<Singleton> INSTANCE = new AtomicReference<Singleton>();
public Singleton() {
final Singleton previous = INSTANCE.getAndSet(this);
if(previous != null)
throw new IllegalStateException("Second singleton " + this + " created after " + previous);
}
public static Singleton getInstance() {
return INSTANCE.get();
}
}
And let Spring do its job. You can use DI when possible and Singleton.getInstance() where you have to.
Also there are more hard-core solutions like compile-time AspectJ weaving and injecting Spring beans basically to everything.

I'm not sure why you'd want to do this. When you tell Spring that a bean should be a singleton, the corresponding class does not need to be a singleton, and does not need a factory. Spring just simply only ever creates one instance.
The linked article makes no sense to me, since there is NO injection happening, that I can see: "AnyService" is calling the singleton factory method; that the singleton is referenced in the app context is irrelevant until it's referenced, and it seems no other bean references it.

True singleton are hard to get working.
Volatile double-checked locking also does not work property. Read about it on wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-checked_locking
Your best bet is to simply do this
public class MySingleton {
private static MySingleton INSTANCE = new MySingleton();
That is if you do not have any constructor parameters in your real code.

According to me this is a belts-and-suspenders solution.
If you create a bean and declare it as a singleton in the configuration then there should be no need to protect the bean against being multiply created.
You are now basically protecting yourself from someone wrongly configuring the bean.
I personally would "solve" that by documentation in the spring configuration and Javadoc.

To run code at startup (and fail on error) use one of the many ways to register startup events, e.g. see http://www.baeldung.com/running-setup-logic-on-startup-in-spring
Example:
#Component
public class InitializingBeanExampleBean implements InitializingBean {
private static final Logger LOG = Logger.getLogger(InitializingBeanExampleBean.class);
#Autowired
private Environment environment;
#Override
public void afterPropertiesSet() throws Exception {
LOG.info(Arrays.asList(environment.getDefaultProfiles()));
}
}

#Component
public class SingletonDAOImpl {
}
#Component
public class SingletonDAO {
#Autowired private SingletonDAOImpl instance;
public SingletonDAOImpl getInstance(){
return this.instance
}
}
public class WhateverPlaceYouNeedIt{
#Awtowired private SingletonDAO singletonDao;
public void useSIngleton() {
SingletonDAOImpl INSTANCE = singletonDao.getInstance();
}
}
I tried in so many ways to do something like SingletonDao.instance.doSomething()
but just is not in the spring way and you will find so many hacks in order to do this but is incorrect in my opinion
here
You have your Singleton, which can be changed after in a Multiton
For sure is a single implementation
is respecting the INSTANCE pattern as "getInstance"
Is in-memory so each time is the same object as in singleton
is the same principle applied slightly different, very simple, all the time try to KIS implementation(Keep it simple)

Spring #Value annotation always evaluating as null?

So, I have a simple properties file with the following entries:
my.value=123
another.value=hello world
This properties file is being loaded using a PropertyPlaceHolderConfigurer, which references the properties file above.
I have the following class, for which I'm trying to load these properties in to like so:
public class Config
{
#Value("${my.value}")
private String mValue;
#Value("${another.value}")
private String mAnotherValue;
// More below...
}
The problem is that, mValue and mAnotherValue are ALWAYS null... yet in my Controllers, the value is being loaded just fine. What gives?

If instances of Config are being instantiated manually via new, then Spring isn't getting involved, and so the annotations will be ignored.
If you can't change your code to make Spring instantiate the bean (maybe using a prototype-scoped bean), then the other option is to use Spring's load-time classloader weaving functionality (see docs). This is some low-level AOP which allows you to instantiate objects as you normally would, but Spring will pass them through the application context to get them wired up, configured, initialized, etc.
It doesn't work on all platforms, though, so read the above documentation link to see if it'll work for you.

I had similar issues but was a newbie to Spring.
I was trying to load properties into an #Service, and tried to use #Value to retrieve the property value with...
#Autowired
public #Value("#{myProperties['myValue']}") String myValue;
I spend a whole day trying various combinations of annotations, but it always returned null.
In the end the answer as always is obvious after the fact.
1) make sure Spring is scanning your class for annotations by including the package hierachy
In your servlet.xml (it will scan everything below the base value you insert.
2) Make sure you are NOT 'new'ing the class that you just told Spring to look at. Instead, you use #Autowire in the #Controller class.
Everything in Spring is a Singleton, and what was happening was Spring loaded the values into its Singleton, then I had 'new'ed another instance of the class which did not contain the newly loaded values so it was always null.
Instead in the #Controller use...
#Autowired
private MyService service;
Debugging...
One thing I did to find this was to extend my Service as follows...
#Service
public class MyService implements InitializingBean
Then put in debug statements in...
#Override
public void afterPropertiesSet() throws Exception {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
LOGGER.debug("property myValue:" + myValue);
}
Here I could see the value being set on initialization, and later when I printed it in a method it was null, so this was a good clue for me that it was not the same instance.
Another clue to this error was that Tomcat complained of Timeouts trying to read from the Socket with Unable to parse HTTPheader... This was because Spring had created an instance of the service and so had I, so my one was doing the real work, and Spring was timing out on its instance.

See my answer here.
I ran into the same symptoms (#Value-annotated fields being null) but with a different underlying issue:
import com.google.api.client.util.Value;
Ensure that you are importing the correct #Value annotation class! Especially with the convenience of IDEs nowadays, this is a VERY easy mistake to make (I am using IntelliJ, and if you auto-import too quickly without reading WHAT you are auto-importing, you might waste a few hours like I did).
The correct import is:
org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value

As its working with #Controller, it seems you are instantiating Config yourself. Let the Spring instantiate it.

You can also make your properties private, make sure your class is a Spring bean using #Service or #Component annotations so it always gets instantiated and finally add setter methods annotated with #Value . This ensures your properties will be assigned the values specified in your application.properties or yml config files.
#Service
public class Config {
private static String myProperty;
private static String myOtherProperty;
#Value("${my.value}")
public void setMyProperty(String myValue) {
this.myProperty = myValue;}
#Value("${other.value}")
public void setMyOtherProperty(String otherValue) {
this.myOtherProperty = otherValue;}
//rest of your code...
}

Add <context:spring-configured /> to you application context file.
Then add the #Configurable annotation to Config class.

In my case in my unit test, executeScenarioRequest always is null
#RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
#ExtendWith(MockitoExtension.class)
class ScenarioServiceTestOld {
#Value("classpath:scenario/SampleScenario.json")
Resource executeScenarioRequest;
Change #ExtendWith(MockitoExtension.class) to #ExtendWith(SpringExtension.class)

Auto-cast Spring Beans

Is there a way to auto-cast Spring beans to the class defined in the application context XML? I'd like to avoid putting type information about the beans in 2 places.... in the xml configuration file and also in the code as a cast.
For instance, given this config file
<bean id="bean-name" class="SimpleSpringBean" scope="prototype">
<property name="myValue" value="simple value"></property>
</bean>
Can I call ApplicationContext.getBean("bean-name") in such a way as to avoid directly casting the return type to SimpleStringBean. I know I can also call ApplicationContext.getBean("bean-name", SimpleSpringBean.class) to avoid the cast itself, but I still have the type info in 2 places.
It seems that Spring can get the class info (ApplicationContext.getType) or by getting the type from the bean itself, but no way to automatically cast the type without programmer intervention.

I agree with Sii, you should avoid calling getBean as much as you can. Just wire your beans to classes that depends on them.
Still, if you have a single class that holds the application context, you can provide a wrapper generic method like the following:
class MyContextHolder{
ApplicationContext appContext;
......
#SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
public static <T> T getBean(String beanName)
{
return (T)appContext.getBean(beanName);
}
}
Then you can call it without casting
MyClass mc = MyContextHolder.getBean("myClassBean");

The answer is you shouldn't be using ApplicationContext.getBean() at all if it's possible, and bear with the one place you have to in the bootstrap code. (Generally, you should never need to use getBean() outside of your application's entry points.)
Also, what you're asking is likely impossible in the Java language at all. Casting is a compile-time feature, combined with a runtime check. The return type of getBean() simply must be known at compile time. Even if Spring can determine the type of an object, it can't change its own method signatures at runtime.
Another thing is that even if this were possible, the feature wouldn't be all that useful. Because Spring AOP is implemented using dynamic proxies, you nearly always want Spring to hand you an instance of an interface the bean implements (which could be an AOP proxy), not of the implementation class.

Another approach I also use is autowiring the bootstrapping class using:
public class Main {
#Autowired FooFacade foo;
#Autowired BarFacade bar;
public static void main(String[] args) {
ApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("appCtx.xml");
AutowireCapableBeanFactory bf = ctx.getAutowireCapableBeanFactory();
Object main = bf.createBean(Main.class,
AutowireCapableBeanFactory.AUTOWIRE_AUTODETECT,
false);
((Main) main).run();
}
private void run() {
foo.doBootstrapStuff();
bar.doMoreBootstrapStuff();
}
}
(Code done from memory. Might only work if you have the Spring context configured to process wiring annotations, in that case making setters for foo and bar should work.)

The main reason for getBean being untyped is the compatibility of Spring (up to version 2.5.x) with Java 1.4. Spring 3.0 will drop that and thus offer typed getBean method then.
Nevertheless you should avoid looking up beans directly and minimize its usage as far as possible.

What if I use Spring as an object factory that my application uses extensively.
That is, instead of writing a bunch of classes that already inherit or wrap around
known Java classes I just decide to move all that into an xml file to cut down on
lines of Java code. This will mean many lines of xml but I won't need to make
skeleton Java classes which I inject with Spring or autowire. Thus making the lines
of Java code less.
For this reason and still as I am new to Spring I have just as stated in previous
posts used static Java methods which wrap around the getBeans().
I have worked with Spring but it is still new to me so forgive my question.

"Because Spring AOP is implemented using dynamic proxies, you nearly always want Spring to hand you an instance of an interface the bean implements (which could be an AOP proxy), not of the implementation class"
So there is no way to get a dynamic proxy using getBean(), then whats the best practice if there are no interfaces and its a stand alone driver class to be executed?