Spring Auto-Wiring Beans
In Spring framework, you can wire beans automatically with auto-wiring feature. To enable it, just define the “autowire” attribute in <bean>.
<bean id="customer" class="com.mkyong.common.Customer" autowire="byName" />
In Spring, 5 Auto-wiring modes are supported.
- no – Default, no auto wiring, set it manually via “ref” attribute
- byName – Auto wiring by property name. If the name of a bean is same as the name of other bean property, auto wire it.
- byType – Auto wiring by property data type. If data type of a bean is compatible with the data type of other bean property, auto wire it.
- constructor – byType mode in constructor argument.
- autodetect – If a default constructor is found, use “autowired by constructor”; Otherwise, use “autowire by type”.
Examples
A Customer and Person object for auto wiring demonstration.
package com.mkyong.common;
public class Customer
{
private Person person;
public Customer(Person person) {
this.person = person;
}
public void setPerson(Person person) {
this.person = person;
}
//...
}
package com.mkyong.common;
public class Person
{
//...
}
1. Auto-Wiring ‘no’
This is the default mode, you need to wire your bean via ‘ref’ attribute.
<bean id="customer" class="com.mkyong.common.Customer">
<property name="person" ref="person" />
</bean>
<bean id="person" class="com.mkyong.common.Person" />
2. Auto-Wiring ‘byName’
Auto-wire a bean by property name. In this case, since the name of “person” bean is same with the name of the “customer” bean’s property (“person”), so, Spring will auto wired it via setter method – “setPerson(Person person)
“.
<bean id="customer" class="com.mkyong.common.Customer" autowire="byName" />
<bean id="person" class="com.mkyong.common.Person" />
See full example – Spring Autowiring by Name.
3. Auto-Wiring ‘byType’
Auto-wire a bean by property data type. In this case, since the data type of “person” bean is same as the data type of the “customer” bean’s property (Person object), so, Spring will auto wired it via setter method – “setPerson(Person person)
“.
<bean id="customer" class="com.mkyong.common.Customer" autowire="byType" />
<bean id="person" class="com.mkyong.common.Person" />
See full example – Spring Autowiring by Type.
4. Auto-Wiring ‘constructor’
Auto-wire a bean by property data type in constructor argument. In this case, since the data type of “person” bean is same as the constructor argument data type in “customer” bean’s property (Person object), so, Spring auto wired it via constructor method – “public Customer(Person person)
“.
<bean id="customer" class="com.mkyong.common.Customer" autowire="constructor" />
<bean id="person" class="com.mkyong.common.Person" />
See full example – Spring Autowiring by Constructor.
5. Auto-Wiring ‘autodetect’
If a default constructor is found, uses “constructor”; Otherwise, uses “byType”. In this case, since there is a default constructor in “Customer” class, so, Spring auto wired it via constructor method – “public Customer(Person person)
“.
<bean id="customer" class="com.mkyong.common.Customer" autowire="autodetect" />
<bean id="person" class="com.mkyong.common.Person" />
See full example – Spring Autowiring by AutoDetect.
It’s always good to combine both ‘auto-wire’ and ‘dependency-check’ together, to make sure the property is always auto-wire successfully.
<bean id="customer" class="com.mkyong.common.Customer"
autowire="autodetect" dependency-check="objects />
<bean id="person" class="com.mkyong.common.Person" />
Conclusion
In my view, Spring ‘auto-wiring’ make development faster with great costs – it added complexity for the entire bean configuration file, and you don’t even know which bean will auto wired in which bean.
In practice, i rather wire it manually, it is always clean and work perfectly, or better uses @Autowired annotation, which is more flexible and recommended.
Thanks a lot Mkyong, Your way of writing is very simple to grab. usually ability to explain this much clear shows how clearly and comprehensively You know the subject …End to End. ..You are doing noble work….
thanks
What do you mean by ‘wire’? I am trying to find what is meant by auto-wiring and diving in straight in does not help.
great and simple explanation for spring newbies.earlier i had referred some books to understand this auto wiring concept,but your explanation solved my problem.
I think you dont need to go anywhere such a crystal clear explanation.
Thanks alot for your efforts Sir ..please keep posting. God bless you. 🙂
I in addition to my friends happened to be reading through the best tips from your site and instantly I had a terrible feeling I never expressed respect to the web site owner for them. All of the men were definitely as a consequence excited to read through all of them and have clearly been loving those things. Appreciate your really being simply helpful and then for deciding upon these kinds of superb things millions of individuals are really eager to be informed on. Our own sincere regret for not saying thanks to you sooner.
“there is a default constructor in “Customer” class”
There isn’t.
I thought, default constructor means:
Without any arguments.
Why do you call it default?
simple and sweet!
Easy to learn basic concepts.
very nice..
It is very nice tutorials;
Excellent effort for bring all most all JAVA/JAVA frame works on single thread.
It is very useful for me to revise quickly.
Thanks a lot for your efforts.
Please keep posting such type of atricles.
This is not what I was looking for. You stink!!
Please do not discourage.
He is doing a very good work.
I have been greatly entertained by his articles as part of my interview preparations.
Very simple to understand.
Thanks a lot.
Great…..
Thanks ……….
Wonderfully simple & good tutorial,
Thanks
good mterial
“no – Default, no auto wiring, set it manually via “ref” attribute” –> this is FALSE !
The default is ‘by Type’ !!!
This confused me initially. Please put in the header that this applies only to XML based a/w.
what is meant by dependency check here???
If there isn’t any matching to autowire in a bean which has an object property that should be set, it would throw an exception
I think there is a typo in your note.
Missing a mark ‘”‘ in the attribute dependency-check.
BTW,I’m your big fan.
Wonder full explanation…. thanks
good explanation with example
Thanks a lot