ClassPathXmlApplicationContext and FileSystemXmlApplicationContext

Spring provides various ApplicationContext implementations to load spring configuration file. Here is some most commonly used classes.

1. ClassPathXmlApplicationContext : It loads context information from an XML file which is present in classpath.

The sample code for loading context information from classpath:

ApplicationContext classpathCtx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("helloWorld.xml");
HelloWorld helloBean = (HelloWorld) classpathCtx.getBean("helloWorld");

2. FileSystemXmlApplicationContext : It loads context information from an XML file which is present in the file system.

FileSystemXmlApplicationContext fileCtx = new FileSystemXmlApplicationContext("C:\\helloWorldFile.xml");
HelloWorld helloBean = (HelloWorld) fileCtx.getBean("helloWorld");

An example:

Application directory structure: The application has directory structure like picture beloew where lib folder contains all jar files required for spring and net/roseindia folder contains our application class files HellowWorld and HelloWorldMain.

HellowWorld.java

package net.roseindia;

public class HelloWorld {
public void sayHello(){
System.out.println("Hi........");
}
}

helloWorld.xml:

Declare the above class as bean in spring context file as below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

<bean id="helloWorld" class="net.roseindia.HelloWorld" />

</beans>

HelloWorldMain.java:

This class demonstrates loading the application context file which is present in classpath ( C:\Spring3\helloWorld.xml) and loading if you have the context file in some place in file system (C:\helloWorldFile.xml).

package net.roseindia;

import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.FileSystemXmlApplicationContext;

public class HelloWorldMain {

public static void main(String[] args) {

HelloWorld helloBean = null;

ApplicationContext classpathCtx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("helloWorld.xml");
helloBean = (HelloWorld) classpathCtx.getBean("helloWorld");
helloBean.sayHello();

FileSystemXmlApplicationContext fileCtx = new FileSystemXmlApplicationContext("C:\\helloWorldFile.xml");
helloBean = (HelloWorld) fileCtx.getBean("helloWorld");
helloBean.sayHello();
}
}

Output:

Set the classpath, compile the java files and run the HelloWorldMain.class file. You will see the output as below:

C:\Spring3>set classpath=%classpath%;C:\Spring3\lib\*;

C:\Spring3>javac C:\Spring3\net\roseindia\*.java

C:\Spring3>java net.roseindia.HelloWorldMain
Apr 1, 2011 5:53:59 PM org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationCo
ntext prepareRefresh
INFO: Refreshing org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationCont
ext@4413ee: startup date [Fri Apr 01 17:53:59 GMT+05:30 2011]; root of context h
ierarchy
Apr 1, 2011 5:53:59 PM org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionRe
ader loadBeanDefinitions
INFO: Loading XML bean definitions from class path resource [helloWorld.xml]
Apr 1, 2011 5:53:59 PM org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListable
BeanFactory preInstantiateSingletons
INFO: Pre-instantiating singletons in org.springframework.beans.factory.support.
DefaultListableBeanFactory@13d28e3: defining beans [helloWorld]; root of factory
hierarchy
Hi........
Apr 1, 2011 5:53:59 PM org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationCo
ntext prepareRefresh
INFO: Refreshing org.springframework.context.support.FileSystemXmlApplicationCon
text@32784a: startup date [Fri Apr 01 17:53:59 GMT+05:30 2011]; root of context
hierarchy
Apr 1, 2011 5:53:59 PM org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionRe
ader loadBeanDefinitions
INFO: Loading XML bean definitions from file [C:\helloWorldFile.xml]
Apr 1, 2011 5:54:00 PM org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListable
BeanFactory preInstantiateSingletons
INFO: Pre-instantiating singletons in org.springframework.beans.factory.support.
DefaultListableBeanFactory@feb48: defining beans [helloWorld]; root of factory h
ierarchy
Hi........

C:\Spring3>

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