org.springframework.context
Interface ApplicationContext

All Superinterfaces:

ApplicationEventPublisher, BeanFactory, HierarchicalBeanFactory, ListableBeanFactory, MessageSource, ResourceLoader, ResourcePatternResolver

All Known Subinterfaces:

ConfigurableApplicationContext, ConfigurableWebApplicationContext, WebApplicationContext

All Known Implementing Classes:

AbstractApplicationContext, AbstractRefreshableWebApplicationContext, StaticWebApplicationContext

public interface ApplicationContext

extends ListableBeanFactory, HierarchicalBeanFactory, MessageSource, ApplicationEventPublisher, ResourcePatternResolver

Central interface to provide configuration for an application. This is read-only while the application is running, but may be reloaded if the implementation supports this.

An ApplicationContext provides:

• Bean factory methods, inherited from ListableBeanFactory. This avoids the need for applications to use singletons.
• The ability to resolve messages, supporting internationalization. Inherited from the MessageSource interface.
• The ability to load file resources in a generic fashion. Inherited from the ResourceLoader interface.
• The ability to publish events. Implementations must provide a means of registering event listeners.
• Inheritance from a parent context. Definitions in a descendant context will always take priority. This means, for example, that a single parent context can be used by an entire web application, while each servlet has its own child context that is independent of that of any other servlet.

In addition to standard bean factory lifecycle capabilities, ApplicationContext implementations need to detect ApplicationContextAware beans and invoke the setApplicationContext method accordingly.

Author:

Rod Johnson, Juergen Hoeller

See Also:

ApplicationContextAware.setApplicationContext(org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext)

Field Summary

Fields inherited from interface org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanFactory

FACTORY_BEAN_PREFIX

Fields inherited from interface org.springframework.core.io.support.ResourcePatternResolver

CLASSPATH_URL_PREFIX

Method Summary

String	getDisplayName() Return a friendly name for this context.
ApplicationContext	getParent() Return the parent context, or null if there is no parent, and this is the root of the context hierarchy.
long	getStartupDate() Return the timestamp when this context was first loaded.
void	publishEvent(ApplicationEvent event) Notify all listeners registered with this application of an application event.

Methods inherited from interface org.springframework.beans.factory.ListableBeanFactory

containsBeanDefinition, getBeanDefinitionCount, getBeanDefinitionNames, getBeanDefinitionNames, getBeansOfType, getBeansOfType

Methods inherited from interface org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanFactory

containsBean, getAliases, getBean, getBean, getType, isSingleton

Methods inherited from interface org.springframework.beans.factory.HierarchicalBeanFactory

getParentBeanFactory

Methods inherited from interface org.springframework.context.MessageSource

getMessage, getMessage, getMessage

Methods inherited from interface org.springframework.core.io.support.ResourcePatternResolver

getResources

Methods inherited from interface org.springframework.core.io.ResourceLoader

getResource

Method Detail

getParent

public ApplicationContext getParent()

Return the parent context, or null if there is no parent, and this is the root of the context hierarchy.

Returns:

the parent context, or null if there is no parent

getDisplayName

public String getDisplayName()

Return a friendly name for this context.

Returns:

a display name for this context

getStartupDate

public long getStartupDate()

Return the timestamp when this context was first loaded.

Returns:

the timestamp (ms) when this context was first loaded

publishEvent

public void publishEvent(ApplicationEvent event)

Notify all listeners registered with this application of an application event. Events may be framework events (such as RequestHandledEvent) or application-specific events.

Specified by:

publishEvent in interface ApplicationEventPublisher

Parameters:

event - event to publish

See Also:

RequestHandledEvent