Jul 06 2008
Access the Spring-ApplicationContext from everywhere in your Application
In this blog i will show you a short hint how you can access your Spring-ApplicationContext from everywhere in your Application.
Imagine you have an application (e.g. a web or swing-application) which you now want to be Spring-enabled. Ok you add the Spring libraries and the Configuration-file and create your Spring-beans. But there are still some old class-files which you can’t use in this way. These files still need access to the Spring-Honeypot where all the goodies exists and you don’t want to redesign your application.
First create the class “ApplicationContextProvider“. This class implements the ApplicationContextAware. A bean which implements the ApplicationContextAware-interface and is deployed into the context, will be called back on creation of the bean, using the interface’s setApplicationContext(…) method, and provided with a reference to the context, which may be stored for later interaction with the context.
ApplicationContextProvider.java
package context;
import org.springframework.beans.BeansException;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextAware;
/**
* This class provides an application-wide access to the
* Spring ApplicationContext! The ApplicationContext is
* injected in a static method of the class "AppContext".
*
* Use AppContext.getApplicationContext() to get access
* to all Spring Beans.
*
* @author Siegfried Bolz
*/
public class ApplicationContextProvider implements ApplicationContextAware {
public void setApplicationContext(ApplicationContext ctx) throws BeansException {
// Wiring the ApplicationContext into a static method
AppContext.setApplicationContext(ctx);
}
} // .EOF
This bean must be initialized in the Spring-Configuration file:
applicationContext.xml
<bean id="contextApplicationContextProvider" class="context.ApplicationContextProvider"></bean>
The key for success is located in the in the method “setApplicationContext(…)“, here we are wiring the injected ApplicationContext into the static method “public static void setApplicationContext(ApplicationContext applicationContext) of the class “AppContext“:
AppContext.java
package context;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
/**
* This class provides application-wide access to the Spring ApplicationContext.
* The ApplicationContext is injected by the class "ApplicationContextProvider".
*
* @author Siegfried Bolz
*/
public class AppContext {
private static ApplicationContext ctx;
/**
* Injected from the class "ApplicationContextProvider" which is automatically
* loaded during Spring-Initialization.
*/
public static void setApplicationContext(ApplicationContext applicationContext) {
ctx = applicationContext;
}
/**
* Get access to the Spring ApplicationContext from everywhere in your Application.
*
* @return
*/
public static ApplicationContext getApplicationContext() {
return ctx;
}
} // .EOF
Now you have access from all class-files to the Spring-ApplicationContext in your application, if you call the static method:
Poorfile.java
ApplicationContext ctx = AppContext.getApplicationContext();
Honeypotbean honey = (HoneyPotBean) ctx.getBean("honey");
Do you have any improvements? Please drop a comment below.
Hi Siegfried Bolz
Thank for you article about Spring applicationContex. Today I use your classes it in me application. It work perfect.
See you
Tomas Jurman
Czech Republic
It’s not really necessary to create a separate AppContext class, right? Why not let the ApplicationContextProvider have a static field to hold the application context?
Hello Kal,
yes you can use a static field in the ApplicationContextProvider, my way was to use a separate class.
Very neat program. I was looking for something like this to be injected from a webservice end-point. Works very well. Thanks
Can I ask you one question.
- The application context can be changed every where in the application ?
I have problems in connecting to DB. I can not find any way to change hibernate.default_schema property in my application.
Can you help me ?
Hello Bolz,
Thanks alot for this useful blog. I was trying to get currrent apllication context using many approches,but I could nto succed. Getting applucation context was very import for some complex requirements. Your code solved my issue of application context.
Thanks,
Ratna
Menudo crack !!!!!!!
thanks a lot
Juanma
Spain
Thank you so much!!!
hi
i wanna ask u what do u mean by:
Honeypotbean honey = (HoneyPotBean) ctx.getBean(”honey”);
????
thanks
Hello Ali,
this is just an information how you can get access to all beans stored in the Spring-ApplicationContext (the Honeypot).
Hello Bolz,
i am getting a problem with your code, the method AppContext.getApplicationContext() is returning null, do you have any ideia?
thanks
This solution keeps recreating the beans in the application context over and over again. Obviously a big problem for connection pools. Is there a way to access the application context without creating a new one?
Marcia, the Context will be only once created on the initialization of the application (done by the ApplicationContextAware). If you access the Context, it is always the same and not a new one.
Thanks a lot!!!
It’s working for my application, and it is very usefull.
What other kind of magik can we do with the ApplicationContextAware?? :>
if any have an awnser to my question, please post it.
Thanks a lot too.
Very usefull and nice code.
Wonderful post. I didn’t knew about ApplicationContextAware. Good work.
Thanks Siegfried, A Great post;
A good solution for those who are forced to use someone elses container.
Cheers
Brett
Hi,
I was using,
ctx=new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(”WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml”);
In this case, it used to create all the beans again. I was able to see that in the log which was as follows…
[code]
NFO [org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext] Refreshing org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext@4605c7: display name [org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext@4605c7]; startup date [Thu Aug 06 16:31:47 EDT 2009]; root of context hierarchy
2009-08-06 16:31:47,779 [,] INFO [org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader] Loading XML bean definitions from class path resource [WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]
2009-08-06 16:31:48,295 [,] INFO [org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext] Bean factory for application context [org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext@4605c7]: org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory@179b905
2009-08-06 16:31:48,373 [,] INFO [org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer] Loading properties file from class path resource [WEB-INF/classes/trade.properties]
2009-08-06 16:31:48,483 [,] INFO [org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory] Pre-instantiating singletons in org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory@179b905: defining beans [propertyConfigurer,tradeConfig,transactionManager,contextApplicationContextProvider,fileUploadForm,multiPartSearch,mPContainer,applicationBean,screenReturnPath,BaseListBean,dataTable,voaDataTable,noemDemandTable,oemDemandTable,noemReqLineTable,oemReqLineTable,noemSupplyTable,oemSupplyTable,quoteTable,noemQuoteTable,oemQuoteTable,poHistoryTable,poHistorySngTable,poHistoryAMTable,noemPoHistoryTable,oemPoHistoryTable,noemsoHistoryTable,oemsoHistoryTable,stockTable,searchReqTable,supplyHistTable,supplyNoteTable,demandHistTable,demandNoteTable,myBuyerQuotes,otherBuyerQuotes,custShipToAdd,custBillToAdd,acctSearchTable2,mfrSearchTable2,cnoSearchTable,stocklocationTable,stockNoteTable,arsSearch1,arsSearch2,arsSearch3,poSearch,vendorSearch,soSearchTable,userApprovalLocationsBean,uplLEntryHandler,secRoleHandler,secRoleAdmin,webAppHandler,adminProfileHandler,userLoginHandler,workGroupAdmin,adminWgHandler,SequenceBean,tradeSessionBean,menuNavigation,userBean,tradeAuthenticationController,loginBean,tradeLoginUser,tradeRules,tradeProfiles,tradeProfilesHandler,userAdminBean,userLoginAdminBean,addEditUserLogin,stockItemsVwHandler,multiviewSearch,ddlBean,clearCache,accountVwBean,accountSearchHandler,customerSearchHandler,customerAddressSearchHandler,contactDetailsVwBean,contactDetailsVwHandler,buyerQuoteLinesHandler,otherQuoteLinesHandler,addQuote,buyerQuotesDetails,editQuote,searchBuyerReqReqLinesHandler,viewQuote,viewReqLine,viewBuyerCustomerRequirement,customerReqLinesBean,customerRequirementsBean,upLoadReqLines,uploadSig,custReqLineHistHandler,requirementBuyersBean,requirementBuyersHandler,buyerQuotesBean,quoteLinesHandler,quoteVwBeanHandler,addReqLine,closeRequirement,createCustomerRequirement,customerReqLinesHandler,editCustomerRequirement,editReqLine,searchReqReqLinesHandler,quoteAcceptance,sellerQuoteDetail,arsSupplyHandler,searchArsHandler,arsDemandHandler,stockHandler,controlNoSearchHandler,demandHistVwBean,demandHistVwHandler,demandHistoryDetail,demandNotesBean,demandNotesHandler,demandReqLineHandler,demandSearch,addDemand,editDemand,editSupply,demandSearchHandler,demandSearchVwBean,demandSearchVwHandler,demandBean,demandLBBean,inventoryItemNotesBean,notesBean,mfgSearchHandler,poSearchHandler,poDetail,soDetail,openPoOrdersHandler,hPoDetail,poHistoryBean,poHistoryHandler,poHistorySngHandler,poHistoryAcctMateHandler,searchPOHistory,poHItemHistoryHandler,poReceiptsHandler,itemHistoryVwBean,poNonStockPoolHandler,recievedOrdersHandler,nonStockSearchHandler,openSoOrdersHandler,shippedOrdersHandler,receivedPoOrdersHandler,soHistoryDetail,salesOrderInvoicesHandler,soHistoryHandler,stockItemsDetailBean,stockItemsVwBean,stockItemQuantitiesVwBean,stockLocationList,addSupply,supplyBean,supplyLBBean,supplyHistVwBean,supplyHistVwHandler,supplyHistoryDetail,supplyNotesHandler,supplyNotesBean,supplySearch,supplySearchHandler,vendorSearchHandler,vendorAddressesVwBean,supplySearchVwBean,supplySearchVwHandler,tradeUserBean,soSearchHandler,NextPhase,Trade,ERP,datawarehouse,sqlMapClient,jdbcUtil,jdbcSignatureDAO,pilotUsersVwDAO,soLinesAllDAO,securityRoleDAO,userLoginDAO,userLoginSignaturesDAO,profileLookupValuesDAO,userProfilesDAO,profilesDAO,userRolesDAO,userRolesVwDAO,userTradeGroupsDAO,partVwDAO,mfrDemandSummaryVwDAO,mfrSupplySummaryVwDAO,dwhAccountNotesVwDAO,userLoginTarget,mailService,version,mailSender,email,userLoginService,securityRoleService,acegiFilterChainProxy,httpSessionContextIntegrationFilter,log4jMDCUserFilter,securityRequestFilter,exceptionTranslationFilter,authenticationManager,daoAuthenticationProvider,rememberMeAuthenticationProvider,formAuthenticationProcessingFilter,jdbcLogError,accountAgentDAO,accountDAO,accountsVwDAO,addressDAO,addressTypeDAO,applicationsDAO,businessTypeDAO,businessTypeVwDAO,buyerQuotesDAO,buyerWorkgroupsVwDAO,buyersVwDAO,buyerQuotesVwDAO,commodityTypesVwDAO,commodityManagersVwDAO,contactDAO,contactAddressDAO,contactDetailsVwDAO,contactSearchVwDAO,countriesVwDAO,customerBuyerRequirementsVwDAO,customerRequirementsDAO,customerRequirementLinesDAO,customersVwDAO,customerAddressesVwDAO,erpCustomerContactsVwDAO,requirementLineAvlPartsDAO,customerReqLinesHistVwDAO,customerRequirementsVwDAO,demandVDAO,dateCodesVwDAO,demandHistVwDAO,demandStatusHistDAO,demandBuyersDAO,demandTypesVwDAO,demandNotesDAO,demandSearchVwDAO,erpProcedureDAO,erpPoHeaderDAO,erpPoLinesDAO,salesTermsVwDAO,shipMethodsVwDAO,itemHistoryVwDAO,inventoryItemNotesDAO,jdbcTradeSequenceDAO,jdbcTradeUtilDAO,jdbcControlNoDAO,locationsDAO,lightBoardDAO,manufacturersVwDAO,necxadmCacheObjDAO,xtradeCacheObjDAO,openSoLinesVwDAO,openPoLinesVwDAO,partClassVwDAO,packagingVwDAO,poLineSearchVwDAO,poHeaderDAO,poLineDAO,poSpecialInstructionsVwDAO,specialInstructionsVwDAO,poLineReceiptsVwDAO,phoneDAO,phoneTypeDAO,procedureDAO,productConditionsVwDAO,poHeaderVwDAO,purchaseOrdersAcctmateVwDAO,purchaseOrdersErpVwDAO,purchaseOrdersSngerpVwDAO,purchaseOrderReceiptsVwDAO,quoteStatusesDAO,quoteStatusHistDAO,reqBuyerStatusHistVwDAO,requirementBuyerStatusesDAO,requirementBuyersDAO,requirementStatusesDAO,requirementStatusHistDAO,rohsTypesVwDAO,salespersonsVwDAO,salesOrdersVwDAO,salesOrderInvoicesVwDAO,salesOrderShipmentsVwDAO,erpSoHeadersVwDAO,soHeaderDAO,erpSoLinesVwDAO,shippingLocationsVwDAO,soLineShipmentsVwDAO,stockItemQuantitiesVwDAO,stockItemsVwDAO,supplyVDAO,supplyHistVwDAO,supplyNotesDAO,supplySearchVwDAO,tradeOrganizationsMvDAO,userAccountsDAO,userApprovalLocationDAO,userApprovalLocationVwDAO,userAccountsVwDAO,vendorsVwDAO,vendorAddressesVwDAO,userSearchVwDAO,workGroupUsersVwDAO,workGroupsDAO,workGroupUsersDAO,soHeaderVwDAO,accountService,businessTypeTarget,buyersTarget,buyerQuotesTarget,cacheObjectTarget,contactTarget,commodityManagerTarget,commonTarget,customerService,customerAddressesService,partVwTarget,customerRequirementsTarget,demandTarget,lightBoardTarget,manufacturerTarget,poHistoryService,poService,soService,siService,purchasingTarget,stockItemTarget,userTarget,userAdminTarget,userAccountsServiceTarget,userApprovalLocationsTarget,userRolesTarget,userTradeGroupsTarget,vendorsServiceTarget,dbAdminTarget,salesTarget,arsSupplyDemandTarget,supplyTarget,soLinesAllTarget,validationServiceTarget,workGroupTarget,businessTypeService,buyersService,cacheObjectService,commodityService,contactService,commonService,buyerQuotesService,customerRequirementsService,arsSupplyDemandService,dbAdminService,demandService,lightBoardService,manufacturerService,salesService,purchasingService,supplyService,stockItemsService,userAccountsService,userAdminService,userApprovalLocationsService,userService,userRolesService,userTradeGroupsService,validationService,vendorsService,workGroupService,partVwService,soLinesAllService]; root of factory hierarchy
2009-08-06 16:31:48,483 [,] INFO [org.springframework.transaction.jta.JtaTransactionManager] Using JTA UserTransaction: org.jboss.tm.usertx.client.ServerVMClientUserTransaction@6a21b2
2009-08-06 16:31:48,483 [,] INFO [org.springframework.transaction.jta.JtaTransactionManager] Using JTA TransactionManager: com.arjuna.ats.jbossatx.jta.TransactionManagerDelegate@f3e54b
[/code]
Why is that?
What will happen once when this static context doesn’t created initially and remains null.
Next time, it will not created and beans will not be loaded again…
I think it might create big problem………
Hello,
This works great.
Thanks for the solution.
Hi, how I do get WebApplicationContext, cause the scopes such as session available?
thankx
[...] access the bean with Groovy. Here’s how (it’s more or less a wrapper or extension of this post. The main trick is to implement ApplicationContextAware, which let Spring call the [...]
Was having trouble accessing spring beans from a web filter - had a method that worked fine in WebWork (Using DelegatingFilterProxy), but same model did not seem to be working with Struts2. This method worked fine for accessing spring beans from a filter in struts2.
Hi Siegfried Bolz,
thinks for this solution
I was lost a lot of time to found this solution
Please make sure that the lazy-initialization in the contextApplicationContextProvider bean is set to false.
Thanks - you made my day!!! :-)
Thank you very much.
nice thorough explanation, thanks
Thanks for that, Sigi - YMMD!
I was really lost getting out the spring application context. That helped me out.
See you,
Rene
You can use the WebApplicationContextUtils to get the loaded Spring context in every where you want in the ServletContext, follow this example:
ServletContext servletContext =this.getServletContext();
WebApplicationContext wac = WebApplicationContextUtils.getRequiredWebApplicationContext(servletContext);
User user = (User)wac.getBean(”user”);
One of the great helpful tips! Clean, concise, and complete. Thank you.
[...] http://blog.jdevelop.eu/2008/07/06/access-the-spring-applicationcontext-from-everywhere-in-your-appl... [...]
I used this in the validate method in my DTO bean associated with the form.
Unfortunely I coud not understand the standard way of getting the context:
ServletContext servletContext =this.getServletContext();
WebApplicationContext wac = WebApplicationContextUtils.getRequiredWebApplicationContext(servletContext);
The problem is thar I can’t get the this.getServletContext(); to compile…
In my method all I have is a ValidationContext:
public void validateEdicao(ValidationContext context).
So, using the solution posted in this article did work. Thank you.
Hey guys,
I much easier way to get the spring application context from anywhere is to just have it autoinjected like this:
@Autowired
private ApplicationContext applicationContext;
Tor :)
In the code when I do
ApplicationContext ctx = AppContext.getApplicationContext();
ctx is null,
I have set lazy-init=false in applicationContext.xml
I think I figured it out, I hadn’t added
contextConfigLocation
/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml
to my web.xml
Tor,
Your solution doesn’t apply in this situation. The whole point is to be able to access the application context from a class that isn’t managed by Spring. You can’t ask Spring to inject dependencies into objects it doesn’t know anything about. ;)
Eric M.
Thank you. Simple and elegant solution.
It is working , thanks a lot!!
Hello,
I have a problem, ctx is null. Why. I think that spring file is incomplete. Can someone help me.
Thanks.
Sheyla
You are the best. It works Gr8!! Perfecto :-)
ctx is null. Bolz, can u pls help me out.
Thanks!!!!!! Very useful and elegant
I have a question. I have this dataSource on my applicationContext.xml.
< bean id=”dataSourceArchive” class=”org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource” destroy-method=”close”>
<property name=”driverClassName” value=”oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver”/>
<property name=”url” value=”jdbc:oracle:thin:@EMDSSERVER2:1521:EMDS2″/>
<property name=”username” value=”dbo”/>
<property name=”password” value=”dbo”/>
</bean >
What I wanna do is to set the “url” property of that “dataSourceArchive” and have it point to another database (EMDSQA instead of EMDS2).
Thanks,
Mei Lin
hello, I hv a problem when calling :
Honeypotbean honey = (HoneyPotBean) ctx.getBean(”honey”);
if the class honey.java have a constructor that takes arguments, and there is no empty constructor, i’m receiving an error that says :
failed to load the bean.
can i load a bean that the correspondant java class takes arguments?
The code could be simplified to:
=== AppContext.java ===
package com.abc;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.beans.BeansException;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextAware;
public class AppContext implements ApplicationContextAware {
private static ApplicationContext applicationContext;
/**
* Loaded during Spring initialization.
*/
@Override
public void setApplicationContext(ApplicationContext ctx)
throws BeansException {
applicationContext = ctx;
}
/**
* Get access to the Spring ApplicationContext from anywhere in application.
* @return Spring ApplicationContext
*/
public static ApplicationContext getApplicationContext() {
return applicationContext;
}
}
=== applicationContext.xml ===
<bean id=”contextApplicationContextProvider” class=”com.abc.AppContext” . . .
Thanks, Good one
Thanks a lot for the post, it helped greatly!!!!
Thanks a lot Siegfried Bolz
Thanks a lot. Very useful solution.
Thanks boss… It is helpful for me…
Nice, clean, simple and Great article!!!
This article is very good, clean and helpful
It seems it is great but I afraid my context is null as well. Do you have any idea why ?
My web.xml contains:
< context-param>
< param-name>contextConfigLocation< /param-name>
< param-value>WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml< /param-value>
< /context-param>
Thanks Jaos (beginner in spring)
great!
when applicationContext has default-lazy-init=”true”, you can specify lazy init on bean level.
<bean id=”contextApplicationContextProvider” class=”context.ApplicationContextProvider” lazy-init=”false”>
Thanks alot for this post…….
Very n1ce! Exactly what i need! Thanks a lot!
Hello Bolz
Thanks!!! It was a very helpful solution.
@Kal, thanks for your comment also.
Hi Siegfried Bolz
Nice one, It works out of the box ;-)
I am currently setting up my junit tests. I have a separate spring configuration for the tests.
From my Test class, in my setUp method I call; ApplicationContextProvider().getBean(”beanName”); but the ApplicationContext is always null!!
Do you have any hints ;-)
regards
Another happy customer :)
@Bolz…..
This is a very good idea…
Thanks a lot…
All that doesnt work if 2 web-applications are using the spring container, because of the Class Loaders e.g. in Tomca, is there any solution to 2 or more webapps that want to share their ApplicationContext? Because I get linkage problems because ApplicationCOntext is loaded by different WebCLassLoaders and hence are never the same. ANY hints?
Hi there,
You don’t need to implement ApplicationContextAware. Using a basic Singleton pattern that is initialized in your main class would work much better for a non Spring-MVC application.
If you have a web application and use Spring-MVC, you can easily autowire your services inside your controllers and thus have access to them. You will likely never need to work directly with ApplicationContext object directly.
Cheers, Stef.
Awsome!
Solved my problem:)
Good post and thanks a lot.