Imagine a situation where there are 2 independent modules - Module A and B. Both of them are constructed using Spring. Each of them have its own applicationContext - Module A works with applicationContextA and B - applicationContextB.
Module A contains facade class - defined in a bean moduleAFacade - that provides some functionality of Module A. Module B needs to access the functionality of Module A.
Let's have Module A added as a .jar dependency in the module B.
There is this construction in applicationContextB:
<bean id="moduleBBeanUsingModuleAfacade" class="com.example.moduleB">
<property name="moduleAFacadeObject" ref="moduleAFacade" />
</bean>
But applicationContext of Module A is not accessible from Module B's appContext directly. I need to use something like
<import resource="classpath*:moduleAApplicationContext.xml" />
Are there any other methods to access application contexts of .jar files added to the project as dependency?
Are there some best practises how to accomplish the task?
You can define a configuration file in module A
package you.organisation.moduleA.config;
@Configuration
@ImportResource("classpath:path/to/applicationContextA.xml")
public class ModuleAConfig implements Serializable {
}
and in the module B context file, you can access module A beans
<context:component-scan base-package="you.organisation.*.config" />
If you want to use Module B config files, tou do the same
package you.organisation.moduleB.config;
@Configuration
@ImportResource("classpath:path/to/applicationContextB.xml")
public class ModuleBConfig implements Serializable {
}
and in the module that will use it
<context:component-scan base-package="you.organisation.*.config" />
About best practices you must be careful when using wildcards, please have a look to the section 4.7.2.2