[Springframework-developer] Explicit reference to bean in parent context

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

There is an interesting feature request in our JIRA:

http://opensource.atlassian.com/projects/spring/browse/SPR-166

Basically, a bean should be able to reference a bean of the same name in =
the parent context, for example to proxy it.
=20
Currently, a reference to the same bean name will lead to a self =
reference. I'm not keen on changing this, as there might be valid use =
cases for such a configuration.
=20
I quite like Damon's suggestion: introduce a "parent" attribute for the =
<ref> tag, as alternative to "bean" and "local". Such a reference =
explicity refers to a bean in the parent context rather than in the =
current one.
=20
I've already implemented this: was straightforward to do, with =
RuntimeBeanReference having an optional "toParent" flag now.
=20
As this is fully backward-compatible and a nice (though probably rarely =
used) enhancement, I don't mind including this in 1.0.3. Opinions?
=20
Juergen