[Springframework-developer] Import tag for XML bean definitions

[<jue...@we...>]

We've got an enhancements request in JIRA, currently for the 1.0.3 =
timeframe:
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http://opensource.atlassian.com/projects/spring/browse/SPR-137
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Essentially, it's about an <import> tag that allows to specify imports =
within an application context XML file rather than in an external =
"contextConfigLocation" setting - imports driven by the XML file itself =
rather than from the outside.
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<import file=3D'imported.xml'/>
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<beans>
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  ...
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</beans>

Something similar can already be achieved with XML entity includes, but =
those are arguably not very convenient to use. XWork has such an =
<import> tag, BTW; Mike Cannon-Brookes has already suggested this for =
Spring a couple of months ago too.
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I wouldn't mind adding such an option, although I still prefer external =
contextConfigLocations. It does have some effects on our =
XmlBeanDefinitionReader/Parser signatures, though, as a ResourceLoader =
is needed by the parser now for resolving those import locations. This =
indicates that it might be better to introduce this for 1.1 rather than =
for 1.0.3, I guess.=20
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Thoughts?
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Juergen