Package org.springframework.beans.factory

The core package implementing Spring's lightweight Inversion of Control (IoC) container.

See:
Description

Interface Summary

BeanFactory	Interface to be implemented by objects that hold a number of bean definitions, each uniquely identified by a String name.
BeanFactoryAware	Interface to be implemented by beans that wish to be aware of their owning BeanFactory.
BeanNameAware	Interface to be implemented by beans that want to be aware of their bean name in a bean factory.
DisposableBean	Interface to be implemented by beans that want to release resources on destruction.
FactoryBean	Interface to be implemented by objects used within a BeanFactory that are themselves factories.
HierarchicalBeanFactory	Sub-interface implemented by bean factories that can be part of a hierarchy.
InitializingBean	Interface to be implemented by beans that need to react once all their properties have been set by a BeanFactory: for example, to perform custom initialization, or merely to check that all mandatory properties have been set.
ListableBeanFactory	Extension of the BeanFactory interface to be implemented by bean factories that can enumerate all their bean instances, rather than attempting bean lookup by name one by one as requested by clients.

Class Summary

BeanFactoryUtils

Convenience methods operating on bean factories, returning bean instances, names or counts taking into account the nesting hierarchy of a bean factory.

Exception Summary

BeanCreationException	Exception thrown when a BeanFactory encounters an error when attempting to create a bean from a bean definition.
BeanDefinitionStoreException	Exception thrown when a BeanFactory encounters an internal error, and its definitions are invalid: for example, if an XML document containing bean definitions isn't well-formed.
BeanInitializationException	Exception that a bean implementation is suggested to throw if its own factory-aware initialization code fails.
BeanIsNotAFactoryException	Exception thrown when a bean is not a factory, but a user tries to get at the factory for the given bean name.
BeanNotOfRequiredTypeException	Thrown when a bean doesn't match the required type.
FactoryBeanCircularReferenceException	Exception thrown if a FactoryBean is involved in a circular reference.
NoSuchBeanDefinitionException	Exception thrown when a BeanFactory is asked for a bean instance name for which it cannot find a definition.
UnsatisfiedDependencyException	Exception thrown when a bean depends on other beans or simple properties that were not specified in the bean factory definition, although dependency checking was enabled.

Package org.springframework.beans.factory Description

The core package implementing Spring's lightweight Inversion of Control (IoC) container.

Provides an alternative to the Singleton and Prototype design patterns, including a consistent approach to configuration management. Builds on the org.springframework.beans package.

This package and related packages are discussed in Chapter 11 of Expert One-On-One J2EE Design and Development by Rod Johnson (Wrox, 2002).