Package org.springframework.beans.factory

Interface FactoryBean<T>

Type Parameters:
T - the bean type
All Known Subinterfaces:
SmartFactoryBean<T>
All Known Implementing Classes:
AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean, AbstractFactoryBean, AbstractServiceLoaderBasedFactoryBean, AbstractSingletonProxyFactoryBean, CacheProxyFactoryBean, ConcurrentMapCacheFactoryBean, ConnectorServerFactoryBean, ContentNegotiationManagerFactoryBean, ConversionServiceFactoryBean, CronTriggerFactoryBean, DateTimeFormatterFactoryBean, EmbeddedDatabaseFactoryBean, FieldRetrievingFactoryBean, ForkJoinPoolFactoryBean, FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean, FreeMarkerConfigurationFactoryBean, GsonFactoryBean, Jackson2ObjectMapperFactoryBean, JCacheManagerFactoryBean, JndiObjectFactoryBean, JobDetailFactoryBean, JtaTransactionManagerFactoryBean, ListFactoryBean, LocalConnectionFactoryBean, LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean, LocalEntityManagerFactoryBean, LocalSessionFactoryBean, MapFactoryBean, MBeanProxyFactoryBean, MBeanServerConnectionFactoryBean, MBeanServerFactoryBean, MethodInvokingFactoryBean, MethodInvokingJobDetailFactoryBean, MethodLocatingFactoryBean, ObjectFactoryCreatingFactoryBean, PropertiesFactoryBean, PropertyPathFactoryBean, ProviderCreatingFactoryBean, ProxyFactoryBean, ProxyFactoryBean, ResourceAdapterFactoryBean, ScheduledExecutorFactoryBean, SchedulerFactoryBean, ScopedProxyFactoryBean, ServiceFactoryBean, ServiceListFactoryBean, ServiceLoaderFactoryBean, ServiceLocatorFactoryBean, ServletContextAttributeFactoryBean, ServletContextParameterFactoryBean, ServletServerContainerFactoryBean, SetFactoryBean, SharedEntityManagerBean, SimpleTriggerFactoryBean, SortedResourcesFactoryBean, TaskExecutorFactoryBean, ThreadPoolExecutorFactoryBean, TransactionProxyFactoryBean, WebSocketContainerFactoryBean, YamlMapFactoryBean, YamlPropertiesFactoryBean
public interface FactoryBean<T>
Interface to be implemented by objects used within a BeanFactory which are themselves factories for individual objects. If a bean implements this interface, it is used as a factory for an object to expose, not directly as a bean instance that will be exposed itself.

NB: A bean that implements this interface cannot be used as a normal bean. A FactoryBean is defined in a bean style, but the object exposed for bean references (getObject()) is always the object that it creates.

FactoryBeans can support singletons and prototypes, and can either create objects lazily on demand or eagerly on startup. The SmartFactoryBean interface allows for exposing more fine-grained behavioral metadata.

This interface is heavily used within the framework itself, for example for the AOP ProxyFactoryBean or the JndiObjectFactoryBean. It can be used for custom components as well; however, this is only common for infrastructure code.

FactoryBean is a programmatic contract. Implementations are not supposed to rely on annotation-driven injection or other reflective facilities. Invocations of getObjectType() and getObject() may arrive early in the bootstrap process, even ahead of any post-processor setup. If you need access to other beans, implement BeanFactoryAware and obtain them programmatically.

The container is only responsible for managing the lifecycle of the FactoryBean instance, not the lifecycle of the objects created by the FactoryBean. Therefore, a destroy method on an exposed bean object (such as Closeable.close()) will not be called automatically. Instead, a FactoryBean should implement DisposableBean and delegate any such close call to the underlying object.

Finally, FactoryBean objects participate in the containing BeanFactory's synchronization of bean creation. Thus, there is usually no need for internal synchronization other than for purposes of lazy initialization within the FactoryBean itself (or the like).

Since:
08.03.2003
Author:
Rod Johnson, Juergen Hoeller
See Also:

  • Field Summary

    Fields
    Modifier and Type
    Field
    Description
    static final String
    OBJECT_TYPE_ATTRIBUTE
    The name of an attribute that can be set on a BeanDefinition so that factory beans can signal their object type when it cannot be deduced from the factory bean class.

  • Method Summary

    Modifier and Type
    Method
    Description
    @Nullable T
    getObject()
    Return an instance (possibly shared or independent) of the object managed by this factory.
    @Nullable Class<?>
    getObjectType()
    Return the type of object that this FactoryBean creates, or null if not known in advance.
    default boolean
    isSingleton()
    Is the object managed by this factory a singleton? That is, will getObject() always return the same object (a reference that can be cached)?

  • Field Details

    • OBJECT_TYPE_ATTRIBUTE

      static final String OBJECT_TYPE_ATTRIBUTE
      The name of an attribute that can be set on a BeanDefinition so that factory beans can signal their object type when it cannot be deduced from the factory bean class.
      Since:
      5.2
      See Also:

  • Method Details

    • getObject

      @Nullable T getObject() throws Exception
      Return an instance (possibly shared or independent) of the object managed by this factory.

      As with a BeanFactory, this allows support for both the Singleton and Prototype design patterns.

      If this FactoryBean is not fully initialized yet at the time of the call (for example because it is involved in a circular reference), throw a corresponding FactoryBeanNotInitializedException.

      FactoryBeans are allowed to return null objects. The bean factory will consider this as a normal value to be used and will not throw a FactoryBeanNotInitializedException in this case. However, FactoryBean implementations are encouraged to throw FactoryBeanNotInitializedException themselves, as appropriate.

      Returns:
      an instance of the bean (can be null)
      Throws:
      Exception - in case of creation errors
      See Also:

    • getObjectType

      @Nullable Class<?> getObjectType()
      Return the type of object that this FactoryBean creates, or null if not known in advance.

      This allows one to check for specific types of beans without instantiating objects, for example on autowiring.

      In the case of implementations that create a singleton object, this method should try to avoid singleton creation as far as possible; it should rather estimate the type in advance. For prototypes, returning a meaningful type here is advisable too.

      This method can be called before this FactoryBean has been fully initialized. It must not rely on state created during initialization; of course, it can still use such state if available.

      NOTE: Autowiring will simply ignore FactoryBeans that return null here. Therefore, it is highly recommended to implement this method properly, using the current state of the FactoryBean.

      Returns:
      the type of object that this FactoryBean creates, or null if not known at the time of the call
      See Also:

    • isSingleton

      default boolean isSingleton()
      Is the object managed by this factory a singleton? That is, will getObject() always return the same object (a reference that can be cached)?

      NOTE: If a FactoryBean indicates that it holds a singleton object, the object returned from getObject() might get cached by the owning BeanFactory. Hence, do not return true unless the FactoryBean always exposes the same reference.

      The singleton status of the FactoryBean itself will generally be provided by the owning BeanFactory; usually, it has to be defined as singleton there.

      NOTE: This method returning false does not necessarily indicate that returned objects are independent instances. An implementation of the extended SmartFactoryBean interface may explicitly indicate independent instances through its SmartFactoryBean.isPrototype() method. Plain FactoryBean implementations which do not implement this extended interface are simply assumed to always return independent instances if the isSingleton() implementation returns false.

      The default implementation returns true, since a FactoryBean typically manages a singleton instance.

      Returns:
      whether the exposed object is a singleton
      See Also: