Context Management

Each TestContext provides context management and caching support for the test instance for which it is responsible. Test instances do not automatically receive access to the configured ApplicationContext. However, if a test class implements the ApplicationContextAware interface, a reference to the ApplicationContext is supplied to the test instance. Note that AbstractJUnit4SpringContextTests and AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests implement ApplicationContextAware and, therefore, provide access to the ApplicationContext automatically.

@Autowired ApplicationContext

As an alternative to implementing the ApplicationContextAware interface, you can inject the application context for your test class through the @Autowired annotation on either a field or setter method, as the following example shows:

Java
Kotlin

@SpringJUnitConfig
class MyTest {

	@Autowired (1)
	ApplicationContext applicationContext;

	// class body...
}

1	Injecting the `ApplicationContext`.

@SpringJUnitConfig
class MyTest {

	@Autowired (1)
	lateinit var applicationContext: ApplicationContext

	// class body...
}

1	Injecting the `ApplicationContext`.

Similarly, if your test is configured to load a WebApplicationContext, you can inject the web application context into your test, as follows:

Java
Kotlin

@SpringJUnitWebConfig (1)
class MyWebAppTest {

	@Autowired (2)
	WebApplicationContext wac;

	// class body...
}

1	Configuring the `WebApplicationContext`.
2	Injecting the `WebApplicationContext`.

@SpringJUnitWebConfig (1)
class MyWebAppTest {

	@Autowired (2)
	lateinit var wac: WebApplicationContext
	// class body...
}

1	Configuring the `WebApplicationContext`.
2	Injecting the `WebApplicationContext`.

Dependency injection by using @Autowired is provided by the DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener, which is configured by default (see Dependency Injection of Test Fixtures).

Test classes that use the TestContext framework do not need to extend any particular class or implement a specific interface to configure their application context. Instead, configuration is achieved by declaring the @ContextConfiguration annotation at the class level. If your test class does not explicitly declare application context resource locations or component classes, the configured ContextLoader determines how to load a context from a default location or default configuration classes. In addition to context resource locations and component classes, an application context can also be configured through application context initializers.

The following sections explain how to use Spring’s @ContextConfiguration annotation to configure a test ApplicationContext by using XML configuration files, Groovy scripts, component classes (typically @Configuration classes), or context initializers. Alternatively, you can implement and configure your own custom SmartContextLoader for advanced use cases.