JavaConfigWebApplicationContext allows for seamlessly bootstrapping JavaConfig bean definitions within your servlet container's web.xml. This process requires no Spring XML bean definitions whatsoever:

<web-app>
    <!-- Bootstrap the root application context as usual using ContextLoaderListener -->
    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
    </listener>
    <!-- Configure ContextLoaderListener to use JavaConfigWebApplicationContext
         instead of the default XmlWebApplicationContext -->
    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextClass</param-name>
        <param-value>org.springframework.config.java.JavaConfigWebApplicationContext</param-value>
    </context-param>
    <!-- Configuration locations must consist of one or more comma- or space-delimited
         fully-qualified @Configuration classes -->
    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>example.RootApplicationConfig</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <!-- Declare a Spring MVC DispatcherServlet as usual -->
    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>test</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
        <!-- Configure DispatcherServlet to use JavaConfigWebApplicationContext
             instead of the default XmlWebApplicationContext -->
        <init-param>
            <param-name>contextClass</param-name>
            <param-value>org.springframework.config.java.JavaConfigWebApplicationContext</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <!-- Again, config locations must consist of one or more comma- or space-delimited
             and fully-qualified @Configuration classes -->
        <init-param>
            <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
            <param-value>example.web.WebBeansConfig</param-value>
        </init-param>
    </servlet>
</web-app>

For basic information regarding initialization parameters to DispatcherServlet and use of ContextLoaderListener, see Chapter 13. Web MVC framework in the Core Spring Framework documentation.