This first example is hardly compelling, but serves to illustrate basic usage. All we are going to do is code a custom BeanPostProcessor implementation that simply invokes the toString() method of each bean as it is created by the container and prints the resulting string to the system console. Yes, it is not hugely useful, but serves to get the basic concepts across before we move into the second example which is actually useful.

Find below the custom BeanPostProcessor implementation class definition:

package scripting;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.config.BeanPostProcessor;
import org.springframework.beans.BeansException;

public class InstantiationTracingBeanPostProcessor implements BeanPostProcessor {

    // simply return the instantiated bean as-is
    public Object postProcessBeforeInitialization(Object bean, String beanName) throws BeansException {
        return bean; // we could potentially return any object reference here...
    }

    public Object postProcessAfterInitialization(Object bean, String beanName) throws BeansException {
        System.out.println("Bean '" + beanName + "' created : " + bean.toString());
        return bean;
    }
}

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns:lang="http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans 
           http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
           http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang 
           http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang/spring-lang-3.0.xsd">

    <lang:groovy id="messenger"
          script-source="classpath:org/springframework/scripting/groovy/Messenger.groovy">
        <lang:property name="message" value="Fiona Apple Is Just So Dreamy."/> 
    </lang:groovy>
    
    <!-- 
        when the above bean ('messenger') is instantiated, this custom
        BeanPostProcessor implementation will output the fact to the system console
     -->
    <bean class="scripting.InstantiationTracingBeanPostProcessor"/>

</beans>

Notice how the InstantiationTracingBeanPostProcessor is simply defined; it doesn't even have a name, and because it is a bean it can be dependency injected just like any other bean. (The above configuration also just so happens to define a bean that is backed by a Groovy script. The Spring 2.0 dynamic language support is detailed in the chapter entitled Chapter 28, Dynamic language support.)

Find below a small driver script to exercise the above code and configuration;

import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.scripting.Messenger;

public final class Boot {

    public static void main(final String[] args) throws Exception {
        ApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("scripting/beans.xml");
        Messenger messenger = (Messenger) ctx.getBean("messenger");
        System.out.println(messenger);
    }
}

The output of executing the above program will be (something like) this:

Bean 'messenger' created : [email protected]
[email protected]

Using callback interfaces or annotations in conjunction with a custom BeanPostProcessor implementation is a common means of extending the Spring IoC container. This next example is a bit of a cop-out, in that you are directed to the section entitled Section 29.3.1, “@Required” which demonstrates the usage of a custom BeanPostProcessor implementation that ships with the Spring distribution which ensures that JavaBean properties on beans that are marked with an (arbitrary) annotation are actually (configured to be) dependency-injected with a value.

The PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer is used to externalize property values from a BeanFactory definition, into another separate file in the standard Java Properties format. This is useful to allow the person deploying an application to customize environment-specific properties (for example database URLs, usernames and passwords), without the complexity or risk of modifying the main XML definition file or files for the container.

Consider the following XML-based configuration metadata fragment, where a DataSource with placeholder values is defined. We will configure some properties from an external Properties file, and at runtime, we will apply a PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer to the metadata which will replace some properties of the DataSource:

<bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
    <property name="locations">
        <value>classpath:com/foo/jdbc.properties</value>
    </property>
</bean>

<bean id="dataSource" destroy-method="close"
      class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource">
    <property name="driverClassName" value="${jdbc.driverClassName}"/>
    <property name="url" value="${jdbc.url}"/>
    <property name="username" value="${jdbc.username}"/>
    <property name="password" value="${jdbc.password}"/>
</bean>

The actual values come from another file in the standard Java Properties format:

jdbc.driverClassName=org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver
jdbc.url=jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://production:9002
jdbc.username=sa
jdbc.password=root

With the context namespace introduced in Spring 2.5, it is possible to configure property placeholders with a dedicated configuration element. Multiple locations may be provided as a comma-separated list for the location attribute.

<context:property-placeholder location="classpath:com/foo/jdbc.properties"/>

The PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer doesn't only look for properties in the Properties file you specify, but also checks against the Java System properties if it cannot find a property you are trying to use. This behavior can be customized by setting the systemPropertiesMode property of the configurer. It has three values, one to tell the configurer to always override, one to let it never override and one to let it override only if the property cannot be found in the properties file specified. Please consult the Javadoc for the PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer for more information.

Class name substitution

The PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer can be used to substitute class names, which is sometimes useful when you have to pick a particular implementation class at runtime. For example: <bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer"> <property name="locations"> <value>classpath:com/foo/strategy.properties</value> </property> <property name="properties"> <value>custom.strategy.class=com.foo.DefaultStrategy</value> </property> </bean> <bean id="serviceStrategy" class="${custom.strategy.class}"/> If the class is unable to be resolved at runtime to a valid class, resolution of the bean will fail once it is about to be created (which is during the preInstantiateSingletons() phase of an ApplicationContext for a non-lazy-init bean.)

The PropertyOverrideConfigurer, another bean factory post-processor, is similar to the PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer, but in contrast to the latter, the original definitions can have default values or no values at all for bean properties. If an overriding Properties file does not have an entry for a certain bean property, the default context definition is used.

Note that the bean factory definition is not aware of being overridden, so it is not immediately obvious when looking at the XML definition file that the override configurer is being used. In case that there are multiple PropertyOverrideConfigurer instances that define different values for the same bean property, the last one will win (due to the overriding mechanism).

Properties file configuration lines are expected to be in the format:

beanName.property=value

An example properties file might look like this:

dataSource.driverClassName=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
dataSource.url=jdbc:mysql:mydb

This example file would be usable against a container definition which contains a bean called dataSource, which has driver and url properties.

Note that compound property names are also supported, as long as every component of the path except the final property being overridden is already non-null (presumably initialized by the constructors). In this example...

foo.fred.bob.sammy=123

... the sammy property of the bob property of the fred property of the foo bean is being set to the scalar value 123.

Note: Specified override values are always literal values; they are not translated into bean references. This also applies when the original value in the XML bean definition specifies a bean reference

With the context namespace introduced in Spring 2.5, it is possible to configure property overriding with a dedicated configuration element:

<context:property-override location="classpath:override.properties"/>