Re: [Springframework-developer] Reworked root/child bean definition concept

[Tom T. <tom...@pr...>]

Hello Juergen,

> parent can even omit the bean class completely, simply specifying common
> properties for children:
> 
>   <bean id="inheritedTestBeanWithoutClass">
>     <property name="name"><value>parent</value></property>
>     <property name="age"><value>1</value></property>
>   </bean>
> 
>   <bean id="inheritsWithClass"
>   class="org.springframework.beans.DerivedTestBean"
>       parent="inheritedTestBeanWithoutClass" init-method="initialize">
>     <property name="name"><value>override</value></property>
>     <!-- age should inherit value of 1 from parent -->
>   </bean>
> 
> Of course, such a parent bean cannot get instantiated on its own: It's
> just a template that serves as parent definition for children.
> preInstantiateSingletons will ignore such beans without class and parent
> completely.

I've accidentally noticed that this doesn't work when using a
PropertiesBeanDefinitionReader.

This bean definition file:

inheritedTestBeanWithoutClass.name = parent
inheritedTestBeanWithoutClass.age = 1

inheritsWithClass.class = org.springframework.beans.DerivedTestBean
inheritsWithClass.parent = inheritedTestBeanWithoutClass
inheritsWithClass.init-method = initialize
inheritsWithClass.name = override
# age should inherit value of 1 from parent

results in this exception:

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Error
registering bean with name 'inheritedTestBeanWithoutClass' defined in
file [...]: Either 'class' or 'parent' is required
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.PropertiesBeanDefinitionReader.registerBeanDefinition(PropertiesBeanDefinitionReader.java:368)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.PropertiesBeanDefinitionReader.registerBeanDefinitions(PropertiesBeanDefinitionReader.java:269)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.PropertiesBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(PropertiesBeanDefinitionReader.java:159)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.PropertiesBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(PropertiesBeanDefinitionReader.java:140)

The same configuration in xml does work when using an
XmlBeanDefinitionReader.

Kind regards,
Tom.