Role

APPLICATION

Role hint indicating that a BeanDefinition is a major part of the application. Typically corresponds to a user-defined bean.

SUPPORT

Role hint indicating that a BeanDefinition is a supporting part of some larger configuration, typically an outer org.springframework.beans.factory.parsing.ComponentDefinition. SUPPORT beans are considered important enough to be aware of when looking more closely at a particular org.springframework.beans.factory.parsing.ComponentDefinition, but not when looking at the overall configuration of an application.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Role hint indicating that a BeanDefinition is providing an entirely background role and has no relevance to the end-user. This hint is used when registering beans that are completely part of the internal workings of a org.springframework.beans.factory.parsing.ComponentDefinition.