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Spring Boot - Auto configuration of a class that contains AutoWired dependencies

I am in the process of developing a common java library with reusable logic to interact with some AWS services, that will in turn be used by several consumer applications. For reasons outlined here, and the fact that Spring Boot seems to provide a lot of boilerplate free code for things like SQS integration, I have decided to implement this common library as a custom spring boot starter with auto configuration.
I am also completely new to the Spring framework and as a result, have run into a problem where my auto-configured class's instance variables are not getting initialized via the AutoWired annotation.
To better explain this, here is a very simplified version of my common dependency.
CommonCore.java
#Component
public class CommonCore {
#AutoWired
ReadProperties readProperties;
#AutoWired
SqsListener sqsListener; // this will be based on spring-cloud-starter-aws-messaging
public CommonCore() {
Properties props = readProperties.loadCoreProperties();
//initialize stuff
}
processEvents(){
// starts processing events from a kinesis stream.
}
}
ReadProperties.java
#Component
public class ReadProperties {
#Value("${some.property.from.application.properties}")
private String someProperty;
public Properties loadCoreProperties() {
Properties properties = new Properties();
properties.setProperty("some.property", someProperty);
return properties;
}
}
CoreAutoConfiguration.java
#Configuration
public class CommonCoreAutoConfiguration {
#Bean
public CommonCore getCommonCore() {
return new CommonCore();
}
}
The common dependency will be used by other applications like so:
#SpringBootApplication(exclude = {DataSourceAutoConfiguration.class })
public class SampleConsumerApp implements ApplicationRunner {
#Autowired
CommonCore commonCore;
public SampleConsumerApp() {
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SpringApplication.run(SampleConsumerApp.class, args);
}
#Override
public void run(ApplicationArguments args) {
try {
commonCore.processEvents();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
The main problem I have like I mentioned, is the AutoWired objects in the CommonCore instance are not getting initialized as expected. However, I think the actual problems are more deeply rooted; but due to my lack of understanding of the Spring framework, I am finding it difficult to debug this on my own.
I am hoping for a few pointers along these points
Does this approach of developing a custom starter make sense for my use case?
What is the reason for the AutoWired dependencies to not get initialized with this approach?

Wild guess, but I think it's because of the order of how things are constructed. I am talking about this class:
#Component
public class CommonCore {
#AutoWired
ReadProperties readProperties;
#AutoWired
SqsListener sqsListener; // this will be based on spring-cloud-starter-aws-messaging
public CommonCore() {
Properties props = readProperties.loadCoreProperties();
//initialize stuff
}
processEvents(){
// starts processing events from a kinesis stream.
}
}
You are trying to use a Spring injected component in a constructor, but constructor is called before Spring can do its #Autowire magic.
So one option is to autowire as a constructor argument
Something like this (untested):
#Component
public class CommonCore {
private final ReadProperties readProperties;
private final SqsListener sqsListener; // this will be based on spring-cloud-starter-aws-messaging
#AutoWired
public CommonCore(SqsListener sqsListener, ReadProperties readProperties) {
this.readProperties = readPropertis;
this.sqsListener = sqsListener;
Properties props = readProperties.loadCoreProperties();
//initialize stuff
}
processEvents(){
// starts processing events from a kinesis stream.
}
}
Sidenote: I prefer to use dependency injection via constructor arguments always, wherever possible. This also makes unit testing a lot easier without any Spring specific testing libraries.

Class based on factory class not available for autowiring

I'm trying to learn the basics of Spring and have defined this class?
public class Processor {
public Processor() {
this.setup();
}
private void setup(){
//run some setup code
}
public String processString(String str) {
// process the string
return str;
}
}
I want to Spring enable this class so I use a factory bean:
Reading https://www.baeldung.com/spring-factorybean I use:
public class Processor implements FactoryBean<Processor> {
#Override
public Processor getObject() throws Exception {
return new Processor();
}
#Override
public Class<?> getObjectType() {
return Processor.class;
}
}
To Test:
#RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
#ContextConfiguration(classes = ProcessorFactory.class)
public class ProcessorTest {
#Autowired
private Processor processor;
#Test
public void testProcessor() {
//Some tests
}
}
This works as expected.
When I try to use
#Autowired
private Processor processor;
elsewhere in my project I receive compile-time error :
Could not autowire. No beans of 'Processor' type found.
Have I not setup the factory correctly? I should annotate the Processor object to indicate it is to be autowired ? Perhaps this is not a valid use case for Factory ?

In general, factory beans are pretty outdated, first spring versions indeed used this approach, but spring has evolved since that time.
The Factory bean itself should be registered in the spring configuration (the very first versions of spring used xml based configuration because Java Annotation did not exist at that time) so the tutorial contains the XML configuration example. Anyway, that's probably the reason of failure. In the test you should also specify the path to the xml configuration otherwise the factory bean won't be loaded.
You can use these factory beans (they're still supported) but they have the following downsides:
They couple your code to the spring framework
A lot of boilerplate (usually in typical application there can be hundreds of beans, so creating a Factory Bean for each one is an overkill).
So you can:
Instead of using Factory Beans, annotate the Processor with #Component annotation (or more specialized #Service).
Alternatively Use Java configuration:
#Configration
public class MyConfig {
#Bean
public Processor processor() {
// optionally slightly customize the creation of the class if required;
return new Processor();
}
}

SpringBoot - Register a bean before #Component's get scanned

I have a component Login that depends on ValidatorService. ValidatorService is being injected/autowired in the Login constructor. ValidationServiceImpl is provided by an external API, so I can't just annotate it as #Service.
#Component
class Login {
#Autowire
public Login (ValidatorService validator) {
}
}
#SpringBootApplication
public class Starter {
public static void main(String[] args)
{
SpringApplication.run(Starter.class, args);
}
}
I'm looking for a way to register ValidatorService as a bean before #Components get scanned. Is there a way to get ApplicationContext instance before starting the application?
SpringBoot 2.0.4.RELEASE
UPDATE
I need to pass a validationId that I'll get from main(args) to this external API.
public static void main(String[] args) {
String validationId = args[0];
ValidatorService service = ExternalValidationAPI.getValidationServiceImp(validationId);
}

You should be able to declare it as a bean as such in one of your configuration classes:
#Bean
public ValidatorService validatorService(){
return new ValidatorServiceImpl();
}
This will then autowire in the ValidatorService implementation class at the point it is needed. This method needs to go in an #Configuration class (your Starter class is one).
There's a good example of how to do this here.

I believe you can solve your problem with the help of the #Configurable annotation.
Annotate your Login class with #Configurable instead of #Componenet, and when the ValidatorService object becomes available, you can initiate the Login object with it.

You need to define a ValidationService bean :
#Configuration
public class ValidationServiceConfig {
#Bean
public ValidationService validationService(#Value("${validationId}") String validationId) {
return new ValidationServiceImpl(validationId);
}
}
and run the program this way : java -jar program.jar --validationId=xxx

I solved my problem creating a Configuration class and declaring a Bean to handle the instantiation of the external service that will be injected later (as some people have suggested). In order to retrieve the program arguments I autowired DefaultApplicationArguments to retrieve program arguments with getSourceArgs():
#Configuration
public class ValidatorConfig {
#Autowired
DefaultApplicationArguments applicationArguments;
#Bean
public ValidatorService validatorService()
{
String validationId = applicationArguments.getSourceArgs()[0];
return ExternalValidationAPI.getValidationServiceImp(validationId);
}

Inject spring bean dynamically

In a java-spring web-app I would like to be able to dynamically inject beans.
For example I have an interface with 2 different implementations:
In my app I'm using some properties file to configure injections:
#Determines the interface type the app uses. Possible values: implA, implB
myinterface.type=implA
My injections actually loaded conditionally relaying on the properties values in the properties file. For example in this case myinterface.type=implA wherever I inject MyInterface the implementation that will be injected will be ImplA (I accomplished that by extending the Conditional annotation).
I would like that during runtime - once the properties are changed the following will happen (without server restart):
The right implementation will be injected. For example when setting myinterface.type=implB ImplB will be injected where-ever MyInterface is used
Spring Environment should be refreshed with the new values and re-injected as well to beans.
I thought of refreshing my context but that creates problems.
I thought maybe to use setters for injection and re-use those setters once properties are re-configured. Is there a working practice for such a requirement?
Any ideas?
UPDATE
As some suggested I can use a factory/registry that holds both implementations (ImplA and ImplB) and returns the right one by querying the relevant property.
If I do that I still have the second challenge - the environment. for example if my registry looks like this:
#Service
public class MyRegistry {
private String configurationValue;
private final MyInterface implA;
private final MyInterface implB;
#Inject
public MyRegistry(Environmant env, MyInterface implA, MyInterface ImplB) {
this.implA = implA;
this.implB = implB;
this.configurationValue = env.getProperty("myinterface.type");
}
public MyInterface getMyInterface() {
switch(configurationValue) {
case "implA":
return implA;
case "implB":
return implB;
}
}
}
Once property has changed I should re-inject my environment. any suggestions for that?
I know I can query that env inside the method instead of constructor but this is a performance reduction and also I would like to think of an ider for re-injecting environment (again, maybe using a setter injection?).

I would keep this task as simple as possible. Instead of conditionally load one implementation of the MyInterface interface at startup and then fire an event that triggers dynamic loading of another implementation of the same interface, I would tackle this problem in a different way, that is much simpler to implement and maintain.
First of all, I'd just load all possible implementations:
#Component
public class MyInterfaceImplementationsHolder {
#Autowired
private Map<String, MyInterface> implementations;
public MyInterface get(String impl) {
return this.implementations.get(impl);
}
}
This bean is just a holder for all implementations of the MyInterface interface. Nothing magic here, just common Spring autowiring behavior.
Now, wherever you need to inject a specific implementation of MyInterface, you could do it with the help of an interface:
public interface MyInterfaceReloader {
void changeImplementation(MyInterface impl);
}
Then, for every class that needs to be notified of a change of the implementation, just make it implement the MyInterfaceReloader interface. For instance:
#Component
public class SomeBean implements MyInterfaceReloader {
// Do not autowire
private MyInterface myInterface;
#Override
public void changeImplementation(MyInterface impl) {
this.myInterface = impl;
}
}
Finally, you need a bean that actually changes the implementation in every bean that has MyInterface as an attribute:
#Component
public class MyInterfaceImplementationUpdater {
#Autowired
private Map<String, MyInterfaceReloader> reloaders;
#Autowired
private MyInterfaceImplementationsHolder holder;
public void updateImplementations(String implBeanName) {
this.reloaders.forEach((k, v) ->
v.changeImplementation(this.holder.get(implBeanName)));
}
}
This simply autowires all beans that implement the MyInterfaceReloader interface and updates each one of them with the new implementation, which is retrieved from the holder and passed as an argument. Again, common Spring autowiring rules.
Whenever you want the implementation to be changed, you should just invoke the updateImplementations method with the name of the bean of the new implementation, which is the lower camel case simple name of the class, i.e. myImplA or myImplB for classes MyImplA and MyImplB.
You should also invoke this method at startup, so that an initial implementation is set on every bean that implements the MyInterfaceReloader interface.

I solved a similar issue by using org.apache.commons.configuration.PropertiesConfiguration and org.springframework.beans.factory.config.ServiceLocatorFactoryBean:
Let VehicleRepairService be an interface:
public interface VehicleRepairService {
void repair();
}
and CarRepairService and TruckRepairService two classes that implements it:
public class CarRepairService implements VehicleRepairService {
#Override
public void repair() {
System.out.println("repair a car");
}
}
public class TruckRepairService implements VehicleRepairService {
#Override
public void repair() {
System.out.println("repair a truck");
}
}
I create an interface for a service factory:
public interface VehicleRepairServiceFactory {
VehicleRepairService getRepairService(String serviceType);
}
Let use Config as configuration class:
#Configuration()
#ComponentScan(basePackages = "config.test")
public class Config {
#Bean
public PropertiesConfiguration configuration(){
try {
PropertiesConfiguration configuration = new PropertiesConfiguration("example.properties");
configuration
.setReloadingStrategy(new FileChangedReloadingStrategy());
return configuration;
} catch (ConfigurationException e) {
throw new IllegalStateException(e);
}
}
#Bean
public ServiceLocatorFactoryBean serviceLocatorFactoryBean() {
ServiceLocatorFactoryBean serviceLocatorFactoryBean = new ServiceLocatorFactoryBean();
serviceLocatorFactoryBean
.setServiceLocatorInterface(VehicleRepairServiceFactory.class);
return serviceLocatorFactoryBean;
}
#Bean
public CarRepairService carRepairService() {
return new CarRepairService();
}
#Bean
public TruckRepairService truckRepairService() {
return new TruckRepairService();
}
#Bean
public SomeService someService(){
return new SomeService();
}
}
By using FileChangedReloadingStrategy your configuration be reload when you change the property file.
service=truckRepairService
#service=carRepairService
Having the configuration and the factory in your service, let you can get the appropriate service from the factory using the current value of the property.
#Service
public class SomeService {
#Autowired
private VehicleRepairServiceFactory factory;
#Autowired
private PropertiesConfiguration configuration;
public void doSomething() {
String service = configuration.getString("service");
VehicleRepairService vehicleRepairService = factory.getRepairService(service);
vehicleRepairService.repair();
}
}
Hope it helps.

If I understand you correctly then the goal is not to replace injected object instances but to use different implementations during interface method call depends on some condition at run time.
If it is so then you can try to look at the Sring TargetSource mechanism in combination with ProxyFactoryBean. The point is that proxy objects will be injected to beans that uses your interface, and all the interface method calls will be sent to TargetSource target.
Let's call this "Polymorphic Proxy".
Have a look at example below:
ConditionalTargetSource.java
#Component
public class ConditionalTargetSource implements TargetSource {
#Autowired
private MyRegistry registry;
#Override
public Class<?> getTargetClass() {
return MyInterface.class;
}
#Override
public boolean isStatic() {
return false;
}
#Override
public Object getTarget() throws Exception {
return registry.getMyInterface();
}
#Override
public void releaseTarget(Object target) throws Exception {
//Do some staff here if you want to release something related to interface instances that was created with MyRegistry.
}
}
applicationContext.xml
<bean id="myInterfaceFactoryBean" class="org.springframework.aop.framework.ProxyFactoryBean">
<property name="proxyInterfaces" value="MyInterface"/>
<property name="targetSource" ref="conditionalTargetSource"/>
</bean>
<bean name="conditionalTargetSource" class="ConditionalTargetSource"/>
SomeService.java
#Service
public class SomeService {
#Autowired
private MyInterface myInterfaceBean;
public void foo(){
//Here we have `myInterfaceBean` proxy that will do `conditionalTargetSource.getTarget().bar()`
myInterfaceBean.bar();
}
}
Also if you want to have both MyInterface implementations to be Spring beans, and the Spring context could not contains both instances at the same time then you can try to use ServiceLocatorFactoryBean with prototype target beans scope and Conditional annotation on target implementation classes. This approach can be used instead of MyRegistry.
P.S.
Probably Application Context refresh operation also can do what you want but it can cause other problems such as performance overheads.

This may be a duplicate question or at least very similar, anyway I answered this sort of question here: Spring bean partial autowire prototype constructor
Pretty much when you want a different beans for a dependency at run-time you need to use a prototype scope. Then you can use a configuration to return different implementations of the prototype bean. You will need to handle the logic on which implementation to return yourself, (they could even be returning 2 different singleton beans it doesn't matter) But say you want new beans, and the logic for returning the implementation is in a bean called SomeBeanWithLogic.isSomeBooleanExpression(), then you can make a configuration:
#Configuration
public class SpringConfiguration
{
#Bean
#Autowired
#Scope("prototype")
public MyInterface createBean(SomeBeanWithLogic someBeanWithLogic )
{
if (someBeanWithLogic .isSomeBooleanExpression())
{
return new ImplA(); // I could be a singleton bean
}
else
{
return new ImplB(); // I could also be a singleton bean
}
}
}
There should never be a need to reload the context. If for instance, you want the implementation of a bean to change at run-time, use the above. If you really need to reload your application, because this bean was used in constructors of a singleton bean or something weird, then you need to re-think your design, and if these beans are really singleton beans. You shouldn't be reloading the context to re-create singleton beans to achieve different run-time behavior, that is not needed.
Edit The first part of this answer answered the question about dynamically injecting beans. As asked, but I think the question is more of one: 'how can I change the implementation of a singleton bean at run-time'. This could be done with a proxy design pattern.
interface MyInterface
{
public String doStuff();
}
#Component
public class Bean implements MyInterface
{
boolean todo = false; // change me as needed
// autowire implementations or create instances within this class as needed
#Qualifier("implA")
#Autowired
MyInterface implA;
#Qualifier("implB")
#Autowired
MyInterface implB;
public String doStuff()
{
if (todo)
{
return implA.doStuff();
}
else
{
return implB.doStuff();
}
}
}

You can use #Resource annotation for injection as originally answered here
e.g.
#Component("implA")
public class ImplA implements MyInterface {
...
}
#Component("implB")
public class ImplB implements MyInterface {
...
}
#Component
public class DependentClass {
#Resource(name = "\${myinterface.type}")
private MyInterface impl;
}
and then set the implementation type in properties file as -
myinterface.type=implA

Be aware that - if interesting to know about - FileChangedReloadingStrategy makes your project highly dependent on the deployment conditions: the WAR/EAR should be exploded by container and your should have direct access to the file system, conditions that are not always met in all situations and environments.

You can use Spring #Conditional on a property value. Give both Beans the same name and it should work as only one Instance will be created.
Have a look here on how to use #Conditional on Services and Components:
http://blog.codeleak.pl/2015/11/how-to-register-components-using.html

public abstract class SystemService {
}
public class FooSystemService extends FileSystemService {
}
public class GoSystemService extends FileSystemService {
}
#Configuration
public class SystemServiceConf {
#Bean
#Conditional(SystemServiceCondition.class)
public SystemService systemService(#Value("${value.key}") value) {
switch (value) {
case A:
return new FooSystemService();
case B:
return new GoSystemService();
default:
throw new RuntimeException("unknown value ");
}
}
}
public class SystemServiceCondition implements Condition {
#Override
public boolean matches(ConditionContext conditionContext, AnnotatedTypeMetadata annotatedTypeMetadata) {
return true;
}
}

How to disable Spring autowiring in unit tests for #Configuration/#Bean usage

I want configure a component test using spring-test configuration inner class (#Configuration). Tested components has some services which I'd like to mock for the test. These services are classes (no interface used) and have spring annotations (#Autowired) in them. Mockito can easily mock them, however, I found no way of disabling spring autowiring.
Example how I can easily reproduce:
#RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
#ContextConfiguration(classes = SomeTest.Beans.class)
public class SomeTest {
// configured in component-config.xml, using ThirdPartyService
#Autowired
private TestedBean entryPoint;
#Test
public void test() {
}
#Configuration
#ImportResource("/spring/component-config.xml")
static class Beans {
#Bean
ThirdPartyService createThirdPartyService() {
return mock(ThirdPartyService.class);
}
}
}
public class ThirdPartyService {
#Autowired
Foo bar;
}
public class TestedBean {
#Autowired
private ThirdPartyService service;
}
In this example "TestBean" represents the service to be mocked. I would NOT like "bar" to be injected by spring! #Bean(autowire = NO) does not help (in fact, that's the default value).
(Please save me from "use interfaces!" comments - the mocked service can be 3rd party which I can't do anything with.)
UPDATE
Springockito partially solves the problem, as long as you don't have to have anything else to configure (so you can't use configuration class with Springockito - it does not support it), but use mocks only.
Still looking for pure spring solution, if there's any...

Here is my solution to your problem:
import static org.mockito.Mockito.mockingDetails;
import org.springframework.beans.BeansException;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.config.InstantiationAwareBeanPostProcessorAdapter;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
#Configuration
public class MockitoSkipAutowireConfiguration {
#Bean MockBeanFactory mockBeanFactory() {
return new MockBeanFactory();
}
private static class MockBeanFactory extends InstantiationAwareBeanPostProcessorAdapter {
#Override
public boolean postProcessAfterInstantiation(Object bean, String beanName) throws BeansException {
return !mockingDetails(bean).isMock();
}
}
}
and then just
#Import(MockitoSkipAutowireConfiguration.class)
in your test #Configuration and you are all set

I solved it by creating FactoryBean for my bean instead of just mocking bean. At this way Spring don't try to autowire fields.
Factory bean helping class:
public class MockitoFactoryBean<T> implements FactoryBean<T> {
private final Class<T> clazz;
public MockitoFactoryBean(Class<T> clazz) {
this.clazz = clazz;
}
#Override public T getObject() throws Exception {
return mock(clazz);
}
#Override public Class<T> getObjectType() {
return clazz;
}
#Override public boolean isSingleton() {
return true;
}
}
Actual test context part:
#Configuration
public class TestContext {
#Bean
public FactoryBean<MockingService> mockingService() {
return new MockitoFactoryBean<>(MockingService.class);
}
}

Check Spring profiles. You don't need to disable auto wiring, you need to inject different beans for different configuration.

You could add the mocked service manually to the spring application context via org.springframework.beans.factory.config.SingletonBeanRegistry#registerSingleton. This way the mock is not post-processed by spring and spring does not attempt to autowire the mock. The mock itself will be injected into your tested bean.
#RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
#ContextConfiguration(classes = SomeTest.Beans.class)
public class SomeTest {
// configured in component-config.xml, using ThirdPartyService
#Autowired
private TestedBean entryPoint;
#Autowired
private ThirdPartyService thirdPartyServiceMock;
#Test
public void test() {
}
#Configuration
static class Beans {
#Autowired
private GenericApplicationContext ctx;
#Bean
TestedBean testedBean() {
ctx.getBeanFactory().registerSingleton("thirdPartyService", mock(ThirdPartyService.class));
return new TestedBean();
}
}
public static class ThirdPartyService {
#Autowired
Object bar;
}
public static class TestedBean {
#Autowired
private ThirdPartyService service;
}
}

I am in quite the same situation.
What I found that if you do not set the context loader by #ContextConfiguration annotation on your test class, the default context loader will be used, which derived from AbstractGenericContextLoader. I had a look at its source and turned out it registers all the bean post processors which are responsible for reading annotations such #Autowired. In other words, annotation config is enabled by default.
So the main problem is that there are two configurations which are in conflict: in the java config we said that autowiring is not needed, while the autowired annotation tells the opposite. The real question is how to disable the annotation processing in order to eliminate the undesired configuration.
As far as I know there is no such spring implementation of ContextLoader which would not be derived from AbstractGenericContextLoader so I guess the only we can do is to write our own. It would be something like this:
public static class SimpleContextLoader implements ContextLoader {
#Override
public String[] processLocations(Class<?> type, String... locations) {
return strings;
}
#Override
public ApplicationContext loadContext(String... locations) throws Exception {
// in case of xml configuration
return new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(strings);
// in case of java configuration (but its name is quite misleading)
// return new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(TestConfig.class);
}
}
Of course it would be worth to spend more time to find out how to implement ContextLoader properly.
Cheers,
Robert

There are so many ways of doing this, I'm pretty sure that this answer will be incomplete, but here are a few options...
As currently seems to be recommended practice, use constructor injection for your services rather than autowiring the fields directly. This makes testing like this so much easier.
public class SomeTest {
#Mock
private ThirdPartyService mockedBean;
#Before
public void init() {
initMocks(this);
}
#Test
public void test() {
BeanUnderTest bean = new BeanUnderTest(mockedBean);
// ...
}
}
public class BeanUnderTest{
private ThirdPartyService service;
#Autowired
public BeanUnderTest(ThirdPartyService ThirdPartyService) {
this.thirdPartyService = thirdPartyService;
}
}
By doing that, you can also mix up autowired and mocked services by autowiring into the test itself and then constructing the beans under test with the most useful mix of autowired and mocked beans.
A reasonable alternative is to use Spring profiles to define stub services. This is particularly useful when wish to use the same stubbed features in multiple tests:
#Service
#Primary
#Profile("test")
public class MyServiceStub implements MyService {
// ...
}
#RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
#ContextConfiguration(classes = SomeTest.Beans.class)
#ActiveProfiles({"test"})
public class SomeTest {
// ...
}
By using the #Primary annotation, it ensures that this stub bean will be used instead of any other bean implementing the MyService interface. I tend to use this approach for things like email services, where by changing profile, I'm able to switch between a real mail server and Wiser.