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Lazy load spring auto configuration

I have dependency in my spring boot project which fetches values of some properties using Spring's EnvironmentPostProcessor.
Now these properties are database credentials and not everyone has access to the credential since there is no dev environment for the db in question. I just want to change the configuration that the credentials don't get fetched on dev or local environment on application startup as that would result in a error and the application will fail to start.
Class A implements EnvironmentPostProcessor{}
I tried to use #Lazy annotation on the Class Annoteted with #ConfigurationProperties. I also tried using my own BeanFactoryPostProcessor (with #Order(HighestPrecedence) to programmatically set the A to lazy load, but it gets called before my BeanFactoryPostProcessor's postProcessBeanFactory method.
Is what I'm trying to achieve possible and am I going about it the wrong way?

#Lazy is only to be used with #Bean or #Component (Or any #Component-based annotations ex. #Service)
Take note: You can also add it to a #Configuration class, but that just means that all Beans in the class are annotated with #Lazy
#Lazy is a bit of a weird annotation in general; it should be seen as an IF possible then lazy load. If some other bean needs the lazy bean, the lazy bean will be initialized. (It's like the Pirate code, more of a guideline than an enforced rule)
Finally, marking #ConfigurationProperties with #Lazy seems a bit odd. As Spring will need these Configuration property "beans" to create the Spring Context.
However, the common use case for #Lazy is a failing database connection, preventing the application from starting. See the question if that is what you are running into.
Summary:
You can configure your repositories to be lazy-loaded with:
spring.data.jpa.repositories.bootstrap-mode=lazy
Last remark (Me just guessing)
If you wish to change properties once your application is already running, I would look at the following tutorial. It goes into manually reloading configuration and also #RefreshScope.

According to documentation EnvironmentPostProcessors must be registered via META-INF/spring.factories:
Allows for customization of the application's Environment prior to the
application context being refreshed. EnvironmentPostProcessor
implementations have to be registered in META-INF/spring.factories,
using the fully qualified name of this class as the key.
Implementations may implement the Ordered interface or use an #Order
annotation if they wish to be invoked in specific order.

I am build a common jar to be used by both spring boot and a J2EE application

I have a common project I'd like to import to both a spring boot application and a J2EE application. One of the Objects is a set of attributes set from parameters. In spring boot I'd like to use #Value to set them, for the non-spring platform I have to load the properties with code. I'd like to use the same object for both environments since it's use is pervasive. My attempts to use builders have failed because they inevitably get instantiated before the spring objects.
Who's done this?
Thanks in advance

I'd hoped for something more elegant but maybe I'm spoiled by Spring Boot. I had to replace the #Autowired parameters class with a builder that implements ApplicationContextAware. The setApplicationContext method will instantiate the parameters object if it gets executed (the builder class was loaded by Spring and is aware) or by the simple retrieval of parameters for a non-spring environment.

Getting bean descriptions from a spring application context xml without initializing the beans?

Is there a decent way to read a spring application context from xml without initializing the beans right away, so they can be mocked or not, before they are actually created?
Yes, I know about lazy-init, but the actual applicationContext.xml is taboo for me.
The situation is that I have to create some JUnit tests on an application which has been created in a way that puts some difficulties in the way:
the configuration file must not be altered, nor the code that is to be tested
there are a lot of beans, some of them rather complex and hard to mock
part of the test is to use as many of the beans un-mocked as possible
some of the beans implement InitializingBean, verifying the environment on initialization and throw errors when Jenkins tries to build.
new FileSystemXmlApplicationContext("config.xml") immediately initializes the beans and throws errors if not in an appropriate environment.
What I have tried:
I have tried Powermock whenNew to mock the offending beans but to do that I would have to know the class which actually creates the beans. As this class belongs to the spring framework, it may change with future versions. When using #PrepareEverythingForTest it results in an StackOverflow exception. The application is real life, not a small piece of code from some tutorial.
I also searched for something like ForceLazyFileSystemXmlApplicationContext but didn't find anything.
Pleas don't start nagging about bad design, I know about that.

You can write your own applicationContext for your testing purpose. There you need to write your own BeanFactory. In that factory you can replace some of beans with mocks.

I just remembered about an option. Evaluate if you can use spring profiles. It will allow to choose a different implementation based on profiles.
Example:
<!-- This is the default myBean -->
<beans>
<bean id="myBean" class="mypackage.MyBean" />
</beans>
<!-- This is the mocked myBean for testing purposes, it will take place when testingProfile is active -->
<beans profile="testingProfile">
<bean id="myBean" class="mypackage.MyBeanMock" />
</beans>
You can indicate which profile to use via properties or environment variables. Example, if you are using maven in your project you could run the tests as:
mvn test -Dspring.profiles.active="testingProfile"
Take a look at:
http://www.baeldung.com/spring-profiles
https://spring.io/blog/2011/02/11/spring-framework-3-1-m1-released/

Can I inject properties to third-party beans?

Suppose I have classes, which were instantiated not by Spring. For example, they can be instantiated by deserializer or by JavaFX.
Can I code these classes in the same way I code Spring beans and inject properties into them later?
Actually, I would like a routine, which would scan class with reflection, find all #Autowired annotations in it and inject values from application context?
Will this happen, if I call applicationContext.getBeanFactory().registerSingleton("myName", myBean)? Note, that I would no limit myself with singletons.

If beans are not instantiated by Spring, then you cannot ask Spring to inject dependencies or advise them.
This is a common mistake I see Spring neophytes make. They call new to instantiate a bean with annotations and can't understand why their dependencies aren't injected.
Spring will handle all the beans you instantiate with the bean factory. You are on your own with all others created using new.

Can I dynamically load additional Spring configuration files into an existing WebApplicationContext?

Upon starting my webapp within Tomcat 6.0.18, I bootstrap Spring with only what is necessary to initialize the system -- namely, for now, database migrations. I do not want any part of the system to load until the migrations have successfully completed. This prevents the other beans from having to wait on the migrations to complete before operating, or even instantiating.
I have a startup-appcontext.xml configured with a dbMigrationDAO, a startupManager which is a ThreadPoolExecutor, and lastly, a FullSystemLauch bean. I pass a list of configuration locations to the FullSystemLaunch bean via setter injection. The FullSystemLaunch bean implements ServletContextAware, gets a reference to the current WebApplicationContext and thus I can have a ConfigurableListableBeanFactory. Unfortunately, this bean factory isConfigurationFrozen() returns true, so by calling beanFactory.setConfigLocations(configLocations) has no effect.
Can I accomplish this or is Spring preventing me from doing so because it's a bit out of the ordinary? It seems reasonable if understood, but also a bit dangerous. And yes, I'm willing to blow away the current context b/c the currently loaded Singletons are not needed once initialization is complete.
Thank you for the help.

My opinion would be to allow Spring to initialise your beans is it sees fit - in the order of their declared dependencies.
If you need database migrations there are a couple of patterns to have them run first:
if you're using Hibernate/JPA make your sessionFactory/persistenceManager depend-on the migration beans;
if you're using plain JDBC create a wrapper DataSource and in its init-method invoke the migrations ( code sample)
The advantage is clear: simplicity.

You could use the existing context as parent context for the other contexts, although I doubt that you could replace the existing WebApplicationContext.
If you use EAR - WAR packaging, you get this out-of-the-box (sort of) by loading an application context from the EAR and then adding one in the WAR.
Not sure whether this is applicable in your situation.

Could lazy-initialization be an alternative for what you are trying to achieve?

Possible XmlBeanDefinitionReader can help you?

you can upcat the WebApplicatonContext to ConfigurableWebApplicationContext
then use the setConfigurations method.
dont forget refresh;

There was the same task and I created two contexts: startUpContext.xml and applicationContext.xml. In startUpContext.xml there is a bean, which triggers loading of appliationContext.xml. (application context location is configured in startUpContext.xml as a property of a trigger). And finally the trigger replaces locations of the current context and refreshes it:
applicationContext.setConfigLocations(locations);
applicationContext.refresh();
(startUpContext.xml is loaded with a standard spring context loader listener)