[Springframework-developer] MethodCallFactoryBean added

[Colin S. <col...@ex...>]

As per a previous message, I have added a new FactoryBean implementation 
called MethodCallFactoryBean. It's a factory bean which will return the 
result of a method call, either on a static class method as specified 
via a fully qualified method name
     package1.package2.package3.ClassName.MethodName
or alternately the result of a method call on a ref bean in the context.

The factory bean has an internal singleton property, which is true by 
default. In this case, the method is only called the first time, and 
subsequent invocations of getObject() on the factory will return the 
exact same result. If the singleton property is set to false, then the 
target method will be invoked on each call to getObject() on the bean.

The following is an example of using the new factory bean to get at a 
system property:

 <bean id="sysProps" 
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.MethodCallFactoryBean">
   <property 
name="staticMethod"><value>java.lang.System.getProperties</value></property> 

 </bean>
 <bean id="javaVersion" 
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.MethodCallFactoryBean">
   <property name="target"><ref local='sysProps'/></property>
   <property name="targetMethod"><value>getProperty</value></property>
   <property name="args">
     <list>
       <value>|java.version|</value>
     </list>
   </property>
 </bean>

I just realized that most of Spring refers to method invocations, not 
method calls. Would people prefer that this class be called 
MethodInvocationFactoryBean instead?

Does anybody think the default value for the singleton property should 
be false instead of true? My feeling is that most of the time this will 
be used to call factories, so you would not want to do a method call on 
each getBean() call...

Regards,
Colin