How-to: Use the API project with the Spring framework

The content of the API project can configured with Spring in two ways:

  • Use Spring configuration file from the API project.
  • Define the beans manually.

Use Spring configuration file from the API project

The API project contains a Spring configuration file which can be imported into a Spring configuration file which wishes to use the classes in the API project.

To use the Spring configuration file from the API project, add an import tag which imports the file com.alpha.pineapple.api-config.xml into the bean definitions:

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

        <!-- import pineapple-command-api bean definitions. -->
        <import resource="com.alpha.pineapple.api-config.xml"/>
                                
        <!-- all remaining bean definitions. -->
                    
</beans>

Content of the com.alpha.pineapple.api-config.xml file

Currently the com.alpha.pineapple.api-config.xml contains the definition of these beans:

  • apiMessageProvider which is an prototype instance of the message provider for internal by the objects in the API project.
  • propertyGetter which is an prototype instance of the ResourcePropertyGetter.

Define the beans manually

Some classes are not suitable for a general (reusable) bean definition in com.alpha.pineapple.api-config.xml. Examples are:

  • ExecutionResultImpl which is created by instances of ExecutionResultImpl.
  • PropertyFileMessageProviderImpl which need to configured individually for each usage in a project with a property file containing I18N messages.

To enable usage of the classes in the API project, add these bean definition to the Spring application context in the project where the API project should be used from:

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

        <!-- define message provider for internationalization  -->
        <bean id="messageProvider" class="com.alpha.pineapple.i18n.PropertyFileMessageProviderImpl">
        <property name="basename" value="com.alpha.pineapple.xzy-messages"/>
        </bean> 
                            
</beans>