Can spring framework override Annotation-based configuration with XML-based configuration?

Question

Can spring framework override Annotation-based configuration with XML-based configuration? I need to change a dependency of a bean which is already defined via annotations and i am not the author of the bean.

Answer 1

i did not know that spring can mix configurations. here is the detailed and very useful example.

Bean1 is the actual bean we're configuring.

package spring;

import javax.annotation.PostConstruct;
import javax.annotation.PreDestroy;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Qualifier;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
public class Bean1 {

    private String naber;

    @Autowired
    @Qualifier("FireImpl1")
    private Fire fire;

    @PostConstruct
    public void init() {
        System.out.println("init");
        getFire().fire();
    }

    @PreDestroy
    public void destroy() {
        System.out.println("destroy");
    }

    public void setNaber(String naber) {
        this.naber = naber;
    }

    public String getNaber() {
        return naber;
    }

    public void setFire(Fire fire) {
        this.fire = fire;
    }

    public Fire getFire() {
        return fire;
    }
}

Fire is dependency interface

package spring;

public interface Fire {

    public void fire();
}

and dummy implementation 1

package spring;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Qualifier;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
@Qualifier("FireImpl1")
public class FireImpl1 implements Fire {

    public void fire() {
        System.out.println(getClass());
    }
}

and dummy implementation 2

package spring;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Qualifier;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
@Qualifier("FireImpl2")
public class FireImpl2 implements Fire {

    public void fire() {
        System.out.println(getClass());
    }
}

config.xml

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p" xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
    xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context" xmlns:jee="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee"
    xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-2.5.xsd
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-2.5.xsd
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee/spring-jee-2.5.xsd
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-2.5.xsd">
    <context:component-scan base-package="spring" />
    <bean id="bean1" class="spring.Bean1">
        <property name="naber" value="nice" />
        <property name="fire" ref="fireImpl2" />
    </bean>
</beans>

and main class

package spring;

import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;

public class Spring {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        ClassPathXmlApplicationContext applicationContext = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("/spring/config.xml");
        applicationContext.registerShutdownHook();
        Bean1 bean = (Bean1) applicationContext.getBean("bean1");
        System.out.println(bean.getNaber());
    }
}

here is the output

init
class spring.FireImpl2
nice
destroy

Although annotation resolves dependency to FireImpl1, xml config overrided with FireImpl2. very nice.

Answer 2

This should be OK. A Spring bean context allows you to redefine beans, with "later" definitions overriding "earlier ones". This should apply to XML-defined beans as well as annotation-defined beans, even if they're mixed.

For example, if you have

@Configuration
public class MyAnnotatedConfig {
   @Bean 
   public Object beanA() {
      ...
   }
}

---

<bean class="com.xyz.MyAnnotatedConfig"/>

<bean id="beanA" class="com.xyz.BeanA"/>

In this case, the XML definition of beanA should take precedence.