In Spring framework, you can wire beans automatically with auto-wiring feature. To enable it, just define the “autowire
” attribute in <bean>
.
<bean id="customer" class="com.mkyong.common.Customer" autowire="byName" />
In Spring, 5 Auto-wiring modes are supported.
- no – Default, no auto wiring, set it manually via “ref” attribute
- byName – Auto wiring by property name. If the name of a bean is same as the name of other bean property, auto wire it.
- byType – Auto wiring by property data type. If data type of a bean is compatible with the data type of other bean property, auto wire it.
- constructor – byType mode in constructor argument.
- autodetect – If a default constructor is found, use “autowired by constructor”; Otherwise, use “autowire by type”.
Examples
A Customer
and Person
object for auto wiring demonstration.
package com.mkyong.common;
public class Customer
{
private Person person;
public Customer(Person person) {
this.person = person;
}
public void setPerson(Person person) {
this.person = person;
}
//...
}
package com.mkyong.common;
public class Person
{
//...
}
1. Auto-Wiring ‘no’
This is the default mode, you need to wire your bean via ‘ref
’ attribute.
<bean id="customer" class="com.mkyong.common.Customer">
<property name="person" ref="person" />
</bean>
<bean id="person" class="com.mkyong.common.Person" />
2. Auto-Wiring ‘byName
’
Auto-wire a bean by property name. In this case, since the name of “person
” bean is same with the name of the “customer
” bean’s property (“person
”), so, Spring will auto wired it via setter method – “setPerson(Person person)
“.
<bean id="customer" class="com.mkyong.common.Customer" autowire="byName" />
<bean id="person" class="com.mkyong.common.Person" />
3. Auto-Wiring ‘byType
’
Auto-wire a bean by property data type. In this case, since the data type of “person
” bean is same as the data type of the “customer
” bean’s property (Person
object), so, Spring will auto wired it via setter method – “setPerson(Person person)
“.
<bean id="customer" class="com.mkyong.common.Customer" autowire="byType" />
<bean id="person" class="com.mkyong.common.Person" />
4. Auto-Wiring ‘constructor
’
Auto-wire a bean by property data type in constructor argument. In this case, since the data type of “person
” bean is same as the constructor argument data type in “customer
” bean’s property (Person
object), so, Spring auto wired it via constructor method – “public Customer(Person person)
“.
<bean id="customer" class="com.mkyong.common.Customer" autowire="constructor" />
<bean id="person" class="com.mkyong.common.Person" />
5. Auto-Wiring ‘autodetect’
If a default constructor is found, uses “constructor
”; Otherwise, uses “byType
”. In this case, since there is a default constructor in “Customer
” class, so, Spring auto wired it via constructor
method – “public Customer(Person person)
“.
<bean id="customer" class="com.mkyong.common.Customer" autowire="autodetect" />
<bean id="person" class="com.mkyong.common.Person" />
Note
. It’s always good to combine both ‘auto-wire
’ and ‘dependency-check
’ together, to make sure the property is always auto-wire successfully.
<bean id="customer" class="com.mkyong.common.Customer"
autowire="autodetect" dependency-check="objects />
<bean id="person" class="com.mkyong.common.Person" />
Conclusion
In my view, Spring ‘auto-wiring’ make development faster with great costs – it added complexity for the entire bean configuration file, and you don’t even know which bean will auto wired in which bean.
In practice, i rather wire it manually, it is always clean and work perfectly, or better uses @Autowired
annotation, which is more flexible and recommended.