Spring: Apply @Autowired annotation on methods with arbitrary names

In my previous post, I explained how to inject a bean in constructor, setter methods. By using @Autowired annotation, you can also inject a bean to methods with arbitrary names and/or multiple arguments.

Exmaple

public class Book {

 @Autowired
 public void initBookAuthor(Author author) {
  System.out.println("initBookAuthor : Author is initialized");
  this.author = author;
 }

}

Find the complete working application.

Author.java

package com.sample.pojo;

public class Author {
 private String firstName;
 private String lastName;
 private String dateOfBirth;
 private String country;

 public String getFirstName() {
  return firstName;
 }

 public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
  this.firstName = firstName;
 }

 public String getLastName() {
  return lastName;
 }

 public void setLastName(String lastName) {
  this.lastName = lastName;
 }

 public String getDateOfBirth() {
  return dateOfBirth;
 }

 public void setDateOfBirth(String dateOfBirth) {
  this.dateOfBirth = dateOfBirth;
 }

 public String getCountry() {
  return country;
 }

 public void setCountry(String country) {
  this.country = country;
 }

 @Override
 public String toString() {
  StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
  builder.append("Author [firstName=").append(firstName).append(", lastName=").append(lastName)
    .append(", dateOfBirth=").append(dateOfBirth).append(", country=").append(country).append("]");
  return builder.toString();
 }

}

Book.java

package com.sample.pojo;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;

public class Book {
 private String title;
 private int noOfPages;
 private float price;
 private Author author;

 public Book() {
  System.out.println("Book Constructor called");
 }

 public void setTitle(String title) {
  this.title = title;
 }

 public void setNoOfPages(int noOfPages) {
  this.noOfPages = noOfPages;
 }

 public void setPrice(float price) {
  this.price = price;
 }

 @Autowired
 public void initBookAuthor(Author author) {
  System.out.println("initBookAuthor : Author is initialized");
  this.author = author;
 }

 @Override
 public String toString() {
  StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
  builder.append("Book [title=").append(title).append(", noOfPages=").append(noOfPages).append(", price=")
    .append(price).append(", author=").append(author).append("]");
  return builder.toString();
 }

}

myConfiguration.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" xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
 xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd">

 <context:annotation-config />

 <bean id="osho" class="com.sample.pojo.Author">
  <property name="firstName" value="Chandra Mohan" />
  <property name="lastName" value="Jain" />
  <property name="dateOfBirth" value="11 December 1931" />
  <property name="country" value="India" />
 </bean>

 <bean id="book1" class="com.sample.pojo.Book">
  <property name="title" value="Vedanta An Art of Dying" />
  <property name="noOfPages" value="164" />
  <property name="price" value="90" />
 </bean>

</beans>

HelloWorld.java

package com.sample.test;

import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;

import com.sample.pojo.Book;

public class HelloWorld {
 public static void main(String args[]) {
  ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(new String[] { "myConfiguration.xml" });

  Book book = context.getBean("book1", Book.class);

  System.out.println(book);

  ((ClassPathXmlApplicationContext) context).close();
 }
}

Output

Book Constructor called
initBookAuthor : Author is initialized
Book [title=Vedanta An Art of Dying, noOfPages=164, price=90.0, author=Author [firstName=Chandra Mohan, lastName=Jain, dateOfBirth=11 December 1931, country=India]]

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