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Spring: #Autowired without #Component

In a real project, I found out that #Component may be omitted in the following code:
// no #Component !!!!!
public class MovieRecommender {
private final CustomerPreference customerPreference;
#Autowired
public MovieRecommender(CustomerPreference customerPreference) {
this.customerPreference = customerPreference;
}
// ...
}
#Component
public class CustomerPreference {...}
(The example is taken from the official Spring docs https://docs.spring.io/spring-framework/docs/4.3.x/spring-framework-reference/htmlsingle/#beans-autowired-annotation , and the docs show no #Component at all, which may mean either that it is not needed, or that it is just not shown.)
The project where I work does not use any XML bean declarations, but it uses frameworks other than just Spring, so it is possible that something declares the class as a bean. Or it may be a feature of the version of Spring that we use, and if that feature is not documented, it may be dropped later.
Question:
Must the class that uses #Autowired be annotated with #Component (well, be a bean)? Is there any official documentation about that?
UPD Folks, there is no #Configuration and no XML configs in the project, I know that such declarations make a bean from a class, but the question is not about them. I even wrote "(well, be a bean)" in the question above to cover that. Does #Autowired work in a class that is not a bean? Or maybe it declares the class that uses it as a bean?

there are several ways to instantiate a bean in Spring.
One of them indeed is with the #Component annotations, with that, Spring will scan all the packages defined for component-scan and initialize all annotated classes (either with #Component or one of the annotations that uses it - Controller, Service, etc.).
Other way to initialise beans is using a configuration class (annotated with #Configuration) that includes methods annotated with #Bean. each of these methods will create a bean.
There's also an option to create the beans using xml configurations, but this is becoming less and less common, as the annotation-based approach is more convinient

According to https://stackoverflow.com/a/3813725/755804 , with autowireBean() it is possible to autowire a bean from a class not declared as a bean.
#Autowired
private AutowireCapableBeanFactory beanFactory;
public void sayHello(){
System.out.println("Hello World");
Bar bar = new Bar();
beanFactory.autowireBean(bar);
bar.sayHello();
}
and
package com.example.demo;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
public class Bar {
#Autowired
private Foo foo;
public void sayHello(){
System.out.println("Bar: Hello World! foo="+foo);
}
}
On the other hand, by default the latest Spring does not assume that classes that use #Autowire are #Component-s.
UPD
As to the mentioned real project, the stack trace shows that the constructor is called from createBean(). That is, the framework creates beans from classes declared in the framework's configs.

Why is #Bean(initMethod="") not detecting given method in spring?

Edit Fixed by changing package.
I have this configuration file for spring framework
#Configuration
public class AppConfig {
#Bean(initMethod = "populateCache")
public AccountRepository accountRepository(){
return new JdbcAccountRepository();
}
}
JdbcAccountRepository looks like this.
#Repository
public class JdbcAccountRepository implements AccountRepository {
#Override
public Account findByAccountId(long
return new SavingAccount();
}
public void populateCache() {
System.out.println("Populating Cache");
}
public void clearCache(){
System.out.println("Clearing Cache");
}
}
I'm new to spring framework and trying to use initMethod or destroyMethod. Both of these method are showing following errors.
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValidationException: Could not find an init method named 'populateCache' on bean with name 'accountRepository'
Here is my main method.
public class BeanLifeCycleDemo {
public static void main(String[] args) {
ConfigurableApplicationContext applicationContext = new
AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(AppConfig.class);
AccountRepository bean = applicationContext.getBean(AccountRepository.class);
applicationContext.close();
}
}
Edit
I was practicing from a book and had created many packages for different chapters. Error was it was importing different JdbcAccountRepository from different package that did not have that method. I fixed it and it works now. I got hinted at this from answers.

Like you said, if you are mixing configurations types, it can be confusing. Besides, even if you created a Bean of type AccountRepository, because Spring does a lot of things at runtime, it can call your initMethod, even if the compiler couldn't.
So yes, if you have many beans with the same type, Spring can be confused an know which one to call, hence your exception.
Oh and by the way, having a Configuration creating the accountRepoisitory Bean, you can remove the #Repository from your JdbcAccountRepository... It is either #Configuration + #Bean or #Component/Repository/Service + #ComponentScan.
TL;DR
Here is more information and how Spring creates your bean : What object are injected by Spring ?
#Bean(initMethod = "populateCache")
public AccountRepository accountRepository(){
return new JdbcAccountRepository();
}
With this code, Spring will :
Detect that you want to add a Bean in the application Context
The bean information are retrieved from the method signature. In your case, it will create a bean of type AccountRepository named accountRepository... That's all Spring knows, it won't look inside your method body.
Once Spring is done analysing your classpath, or scanning the bean definitions, it will start instanciating your object.
It will therefor creates your bean accountRepository of type AccountRepository.
But Spring is "clever" and nice with us. Even if you couldn't write this code without your compiler yelling at you, Spring can still call your method.
To make sure, try writing this code :
AccountRepository accountRepository = new JdbcAccountRepository();
accountRepository.populateCache(); // Compiler error => the method is not found.
But it works for Spring... Magic.
My recommandation, but you might thinking the same now: If you have classes across many packages to answer different business case, then rely on #Configuration classes. #ComponentScan is great to kickstart your development, but reach its limit when your application grows...

You mix two different ways of spring bean declaration:
Using #Configuration classes. Spring finds all beans annotated with #Configuration and uses them as a reference to what beans should be created.
So if you follow this path of configuration - don't use #Repository on beans. Spring will detect it anyway
Using #Repository - other way around - you don't need to use #Configuration in this case. If you decide to use #Repository put #PostConstruct annotation on the method and spring will call it, in this case remove #Configuration altogether (or at least remove #Bean method that creates JdbcAccountRepository)

Annotate populateCache method with #PostConstruct and remove initMethod from #Bean. It will work.

Spring Boot Camel - Autowiring issues in Camel components

I am using Spring Boot 1.5.7 and Apache Camel 2.19.3, using Spring Boot AutoConfiguration provided by spring-boot-starter-camel
It is pretty basic Spring Boot and Camel initialized as in their tutorial, so we have a RouteBuilder component that does exactly that.
#Component
public class CIFRoutes extends RouteBuilder {
#Override
public void configure() throws Exception {
// build routes
}
}
We have a Configuration that defines some beans we need in our application
#Configuration
public class MyConfiguration {
#Bean
public void Map<String, Object> map() {
return new HashMap<>()
}
}
Finally, we have a custom InflightRepository implementation that should be scanned by auto-configuration and added to the CamelContext which basically works, but for some reason, the component doesn't get initialized properly. Means, its dependencies are not initialized but the bean is instantiated and injected in my Application.
#Component
public class MyCustomInflightRepository extends DefaultInflightRepository {
#Autowired
private Map<String, Object> map;
#Override
public void add(Exchange exchange) {
super.addExchange(exchange);
// ....
}
}
The problem now is that map remains (null), I also tried adding a #PostConstruct initializer method but it doesn't get called.
As far as I was able to reconstruct, it seems to be connected to premature in CamelAutoConfiguration where the CamelContext bean gets instantiated (done in private method afterPropertiesSet.
InflightRepository inflightRepository = getSingleBeanOfType(applicationContext, InflightRepository.class);
if (inflightRepository != null) {
LOG.info("Using custom InflightRepository: {}", inflightRepository);
camelContext.setInflightRepository(inflightRepository);
}
If MyCustomInflightRepository doesn't implement InflightRepository, the bean is initialized correctly, but indeed not recognized by Camel. When disabling auto-configuration, the bean's dependencies are injected.
So, either I'm doing the impossible by Spring standards or there's something fishy with the Camel component for Spring.

I'm a bit quick on resolving this (I wanted to post this two days ago already^^), but a colleague figured out what could be the problem.
When using CamelAutoConfiguration the InflightRepository bean (or practicially everything for which Camel tries to get a matching bean here), the context is accessed before property resolvers are fully initialized which leads to the bean being initialized (and cached in context) before any auto-wired properties can be resolved.
I'm not a Spring expert but this behavior is a bit problematic in my opinion because uninitialized beans are pulled into the CamelContext when you rely on Spring DI for your custom components.
To be sure, I'll raise this with the maintainers...
By the way, my simple solution was to manually setting the in-flight repository in context configuration (as suggested)
#Bean
public CamelContextConfiguration camelConfig() {
return new CamelContextConfiguration() {
#Override
public void beforeApplicationStart(CamelContext context) {
context.setInflightRepository(new MyCustomInflightRepository(/* Dependencies go here */ ));
}
#Override
public void afterApplicationStart(CamelContext camelContext) {
}
};
}
Also it seems to be an issue when use camel-http-starter in your project which isn't recommended, they claim it is deprecated.
So, either don't do DI (regardless if via property or constructor injection) for your camel-managed beans or skip that starter.

The problem is that a Map<String,Object> is too vague for Spring to be able to understand what you want; I think the default behavior is that it'll give you all beans keyed by name.
Instead, be more specific, or possibly provide the necessary parameters as constructor arguments and configure them explicitly in an #Bean method (it's a good idea to always use constructor injection anyway).

How to register custom converters in spring boot?

I writing application using spring-boot-starter-jdbc (v1.3.0).
The problem that I met: Instance of BeanPropertyRowMapper fails as it cannot convert from java.sql.Timestamp to java.time.LocalDateTime.
In order to copy this problem, I implemented
org.springframework.core.convert.converter.Converter for these types.
public class TimeStampToLocalDateTimeConverter implements Converter<Timestamp, LocalDateTime> {
#Override
public LocalDateTime convert(Timestamp s) {
return s.toLocalDateTime();
}
}
My question is: How do I make available TimeStampToLocalDateTimeConverter for BeanPropertyRowMapper.
More general question, how do I register my converters, in order to make them available system wide?
The following code bring us to NullPointerException on initialization stage:
private Set<Converter> getConverters() {
Set<Converter> converters = new HashSet<Converter>();
converters.add(new TimeStampToLocalDateTimeConverter());
converters.add(new LocalDateTimeToTimestampConverter());
return converters;
}
#Bean(name="conversionService")
public ConversionService getConversionService() {
ConversionServiceFactoryBean bean = new ConversionServiceFactoryBean();
bean.setConverters(getConverters());
bean.afterPropertiesSet();
return bean.getObject();
}
Thank you.

All custom conversion service has to be registered with the FormatterRegistry. Try creating a new configuration and register the conversion service by implementing the WebMvcConfigurer
#Configuration
public class WebConfig implements WebMvcConfigurer {
#Override
public void addFormatters(FormatterRegistry registry) {
registry.addConverter(new TimeStampToLocalDateTimeConverter());
}
}
Hope this works.

I'll copy my answer from https://stackoverflow.com/a/72781591/140707 since I think the two questions are similar (so the answer applies to both).
Existing answers didn't work for me:
Customizing via WebMvcConfigurerAdapter.addFormatters (or simply annotating the converter with #Component) only works in the WebMvc context and I want my custom converter to be available everywhere, including #Value injections on any bean.
Defining a ConversionService bean (via ConversionServiceFactoryBean #Bean or #Component) causes Spring Boot to replace the default ApplicationConversionService on the SpringApplication bean factory with the custom bean you've defined, which will probably be based on DefaultConversionService (in AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization). The problem is that Spring Boot adds some handy converters such as StringToDurationConverter to the standard set in DefaultConversionService, so by replacing it you lose those conversions. This may not be an issue for you if you don't use them, but it means that solution won't work for everyone.
I created the following #Configuration class which did the trick for me. It basically adds custom converters to the ConversionService instance used by Environment (which is then passed on to BeanFactory). This maintains as much backwards compatibility as possible while still adding your custom converter into the conversion services in use.
#Configuration
public class ConversionServiceConfiguration {
#Autowired
private ConfigurableEnvironment environment;
#PostConstruct
public void addCustomConverters() {
ConfigurableConversionService conversionService = environment.getConversionService();
conversionService.addConverter(new MyCustomConverter());
}
}
Obviously you can autowire a list of custom converters into this configuration class and loop over them to add them to the conversion service instead of the hard-coded way of doing it above, if you want the process to be more automatic.
To make sure this configuration class gets run before any beans are instantiated that might require the converter to have been added to the ConversionService, add it as a primary source in your spring application's run() call:
#SpringBootApplication
public class MySpringBootApplication {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SpringApplication.run(new Class<?>[] { MySpringBootApplication.class, ConversionServiceConfiguration.class }, args);
}
}
If you don't do this, it might work, or not, depending on the order in which your classes end up in the Spring Boot JAR, which determines the order in which they are scanned. (I found this out the hard way: it worked when compiling locally with an Oracle JDK, but not on our CI server which was using a Azul Zulu JDK.)
Note that for this to work in #WebMvcTests, I had to also combine this configuration class along with my Spring Boot application class into a #ContextConfiguration:
#WebMvcTest(controllers = MyController.class)
#ContextConfiguration(classes = { MySpringBootApplication.class, ConversionServiceConfiguration.class })
#TestPropertySource(properties = { /* ... properties to inject into beans, possibly using your custom converter ... */ })
class MyControllerTest {
// ...
}

I suggest to use #Autowired and the related dependency injection mechanism of spring to use a single ConversionService instance throughout your application. The ConversionService will be instantiated within the configuration.
All Converters to be available application wide receive an annotation (e.g. #AutoRegistered). On application start a #Component FormatterRegistrar (Type name itself is a bit misleading, yes it is "...Registrar" as it does the registering. And #Component as it is fully spring managed and requires dependency injection) will receive #AutoRegistered List of all annotated Converters.
See this thread for concrete implementation details. We use this mechanism within our project and it works out like a charm.

org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurer or any on its implementation is one stop place for any kind of customization in spring boot project. It prvoides various methods, for your Converter requirement.
Just create a new Converter by extending org.springframework.core.convert.converter.Converter<S, T>. Then register it with Spring by your class overriding method org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurer.addFormatters(FormatterRegistry)
Note there are Other types of Converter also which basically starts from ConditionalConverter.

Trying adding
#Converter(autoApply = true)
Its needs to be placed over the convertor class. This works for me in case of Convertor needed for Localdate for interacting to DB.
#Converter(autoApply = true)
public class LocalDateAttributeConverter implements AttributeConverter<LocalDate, Date> {
#Override
public Date convertToDatabaseColumn(LocalDate locDate) {
return (locDate == null ? null : Date.valueOf(locDate));
}
#Override
public LocalDate convertToEntityAttribute(Date sqlDate) {
return (sqlDate == null ? null : sqlDate.toLocalDate());
}
}
This is now applied automatically while interacting with DB.

Is it possible to write a Guice-like module in Spring Framework with Java configuration?

I was wondering if there was a sort of compromise that allowed you to emulate/leverage the Google Guice style EDSL way of writing modules which binds interfaces to implementations in Spring.
For example, say I had a Google Guice Module that looked like this:
public class BillingModule extends AbstractModule {
protected void configure() {
bind(BillingService.class).to(RealBillingService.class);
}
}
This binds the BillingService interface to the RealBillingService implementation.
One way that I think I can do utilizing Spring's Java configuration class is something that looks like this
#Configuration
public class BillingConfiguration {
#Bean
public BillingService getRealBillingService() {
return new RealBillingService();
}
}
I was wondering if there was a better way to do this or if this broke down with increasingly complex usage.
I really like Google Guice and how it does Dependency Injection but that's kind of all it does. Spring does a lot more (yes, its dependency injection mechanism is still not 'as-nice' as Guice) but undeniably has some great projects that we would like to utilize like Spring Data, Spring Data REST, etc. which eliminate the need for writing a ton of boilerplate code.

The way to do this is to use #Profile to include different implementations of the same interface.
A simple example would be DataSource. This can however easily be extended to any other interfaces with multiple implementations.
As an example:
#Configuration
public class LocalDataConfig {
#Bean
public DataSource dataSource() {
return new EmbeddedDatabaseBuilder()
.setType(EmbeddedDatabaseType.HSQL)
.addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/schema.sql")
.addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/test-data.sql")
.build();
}
}
and then for use in production:
#Configuration
#Profile("production")
public class JndiDataConfig {
#Bean
public DataSource dataSource() throws Exception {
Context ctx = new InitialContext();
return (DataSource) ctx.lookup("java:comp/env/jdbc/datasource");
}
}
Then all you need to do is declare which profiles are active when you start your application context and #Inject/#Autowire DataSource where you need it.

I've used both Guice and Spring a fair bit. As far as I know, the spring usage you show in the question is the only way to achieve the same as the binding in Guice with Spring. If you need to inject dependencies you can always include those as arguments to the #Bean method and have spring inject them for you.
It's definitely not as clean but it works the same way. One key thing to watch out for is that the default scope in spring is Singleton rather than a new instance every time (spring calls this scope prototype)