Spring bean definition template

As we discussed earlier a bean definition in configuration metadata can contain constructor arguments, property values etc. Spring framework provides the facility to define a bean definition template which can be used by child bean definitions. To define a template remove class attribute and use abstract attribute to true in bean definition.
Use parent attribute in child definition and pass template bean into it.

Syntax:

<bean id="templateId" abstract=”true”>
      <property name="name1" value="value1"/>
      <property name="name2" value="value2"/>
</bean>
 
<bean id="childBeanId" class="ChildBeanId" parent="templateId">
      <property name="name1" value="value"/>
      <property name="name3" value="value3"/>
</bean>

Note: We can create template with or without using the class attribute. If we create template using class attribute then corresponding class can’t be instantiated.

Example Explanation:

We have created two beans “HelloWorld” and “HelloJava”. HelloWorld.java and HelloJava.java have one common property msg1. In applicationContext.xml we defined a template helloTemplate which define msg1 property. Then HelloJava and HelloWorld bean use this template as parent and inherits the msg1 property.

Example:

HelloWorld.java

package com.w3schools.business;
 
/**
 * This class will be used as a bean class.
 * @author w3schools
 */
public class HelloWorld {
	private String msg1;
	private String msg2;
 
	public String getMsg1() {
		return msg1;
	}
	public void setMsg1(String msg1) {
		this.msg1 = msg1;
	}
 
	public String getMsg2() {
		return msg2;
	}
	public void setMsg2(String msg2) {
		this.msg2 = msg2;
	}	
}

HelloJava.java

package com.w3schools.business;
 
/**
 * This class will be used as a bean class.
 * @author w3schools
 */
public class HelloJava {
	private String msg1;
	private String msg2;
 
	public String getMsg1() {
		return msg1;
	}
	public void setMsg1(String msg1) {
		this.msg1 = msg1;
	}
 
	public String getMsg2() {
		return msg2;
	}
	public void setMsg2(String msg2) {
		this.msg2 = msg2;
	}
 
}

applicationContext.java

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">
 
   <bean id="helloTemplate" abstract="true">
       <property name="msg1" value="Common World."/>
   </bean>
 
   <bean id="helloWorld" 
       class="com.w3schools.business.HelloWorld" parent="helloTemplate">
     <property name="msg2" value="World."/>
   </bean>
 
    <bean id="helloJava" 
        class="com.w3schools.business.HelloJava" parent="helloTemplate">
     <property name="msg2" value="Java"/>
    </bean>
 
</beans>

Test.java

package com.w3schools.business;
 
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;
 
public class Test {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
	//Get ApplicationContext using spring configuration file.
	ApplicationContext context = 
	   new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("applicationContext.xml");
 
	//Get HelloWorld bean object from ApplicationContext instance. 
	HelloWorld helloWorld = (HelloWorld) context.getBean("helloWorld");
 
	//Process HelloWorld Object.
	System.out.println("HelloWorld bean properties: ");
	System.out.println("Hello " + helloWorld.getMsg1());
	System.out.println("Hello " + helloWorld.getMsg2());
 
	//Get HelloJava bean object from ApplicationContext instance. 
	HelloJava helloJava = (HelloJava) context.getBean("helloJava");
 
	//Process HelloJava Object.
	System.out.println("HelloJava bean properties: ");
	System.out.println("Hello " + helloJava.getMsg1());
	System.out.println("Hello " + helloJava.getMsg2());
  } 
}

Output:

HelloWorld bean properties: 
Hello Common World.
Hello World.
HelloJava bean properties: 
Hello Common World.
Hello Java

Download this example.