Spring - Bean Definition Inheritance

A bean definition can contain a lot of configuration information, including constructor arguments, property values,

And container-specific information such as initialization method, static factory method name, and so on.

A child bean definition inherits configuration data from a parent definition. The child definition can override some values, or add others, as needed.

Spring Bean definition inheritance has nothing to do with Java class inheritance but inheritance concept is same.

You can define a parent bean definition as a template and other child beans can inherit required configuration from the parent bean.

When you use XML-based configuration metadata, you indicate a child bean definition by using the parent attribute, specifying the parent bean as the value of this attribute.

Spring - Bean Definition Inheritance Example

HelloWorld.java

package com.jtc;
public class HelloWorld {
private String message1;
private String message2;
public void setMessage1(String message){
this.message1 = message;
}
public void setMessage2(String message){
this.message2 = message;
}
public void getMessage1(){
System.out.println("World Message1 : " + message1);
}
public void getMessage2(){
System.out.println("World Message2 : " + message2);
}
}

InitHelloWorld.java

package com.jtc;
public class InitHelloWorld {
private String message1;
private String message2;
private String message3;
public void setMessage1(String message){
this.message1 = message;
}
public void setMessage2(String message){
this.message2 = message;
}
public void setMessage3(String message){
this.message3 = message;
}
public void getMessage1(){
System.out.println("India Message1 : " + message1);
}
public void getMessage2(){
System.out.println("India Message2 : " + message2);
}
public void getMessage3(){
System.out.println("India Message3 : " + message3);
}
}

MainApp.java

package com.jtc;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;
public class MainApp {
public static void main(String[] args) {
ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("Beans.xml");
HelloWorld objA = (HelloWorld) context.getBean("helloWorld");
objA.getMessage1();
objA.getMessage2();
InitHelloWorld objB = (InitHelloWorld) context.getBean("helloIndia");
objB.getMessage1();
objB.getMessage2();
objB.getMessage3();
}
}

Beans.xml

<?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">

   <bean id="helloWorld" class="com.jtc.HelloWorld">
      <property name="message1" value="Hello World!"/>
      <property name="message2" value="Hello Second World!"/>
   </bean>

   <bean id="helloIndia" class="com.jtc.HelloIndia" parent="helloWorld">
      <property name="message1" value="Hello India!"/>
      <property name="message3" value="Namaste India!"/>
   </bean>

</beans>

</beans>

Add Below Libraries

commons-logging-1.1.1
spring-aop-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-aspects-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-beans-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-context-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-context-support-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-core-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-expression-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-instrument-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-instrument-tomcat-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-jdbc-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-jms-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-messaging-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-orm-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-oxm-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-test-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-tx-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-web-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-webmvc-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-webmvc-portlet-4.1.6.RELEASE
spring-websocket-4.1.6.RELEASE

Bean Definition Template:

You can create a Bean definition template which can be used by other child bean definitions without putting much effort.

While defining a Bean Definition Template, you should not specify class attribute and should specify abstract attribute with a value of true as shown below:

Beans.xml

<?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">

   <bean id="beanTeamplate" abstract="true">
      <property name="message1" value="Hello World!"/>
      <property name="message2" value="Hello Second World!"/>
      <property name="message3" value="Namaste India!"/>
   </bean>

   <bean id="helloIndia" class="com.jtc.HelloIndia" parent="beanTeamplate">
      <property name="message1" value="Hello India!"/>
      <property name="message3" value="Namaste India!"/>
   </bean>

</beans>

OutPut

World Message1 : Hello World!
World Message2 : Hello Second World!
India Message1 : Hello India!
India Message2 : Hello Second World!
India Message3 : Namaste India!

Note:

The parent bean cannot be instantiated on its own because it is incomplete, and it is also explicitly marked as abstract.
When a definition is abstract like this, it is usable only as a pure template bean definition that serves as a parent definition for child definitions.

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Spring - Bean Definition Inheritance

Spring - Bean Definition Inheritance Example

Bean Definition Template:

Note: