Question

I would like to get inner bean by it’s name. Is it possible with Spring API?

Right now I’m using such Spring 2.5 API

ConfigurableApplicationContext.getBean(String paramString)

Example of XML:

<bean id="parent" parent="t_Parent">
    <property name="items">
        <bean id="child" parent="t_Child">
            <property name="ABC" value="test"/>
        </bean>
    </property>
</bean>

I would like to get inner (t_Child) bean by id “child”. E.g. ConfigurableApplicationContext.getBean(“child”). Spring can’t find such bean (because it’s inner). At the same time .getBean(“parent”) works fine.

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

You can’t.

From the docs:

A element inside the or elements is used to define a so-called inner bean. An inner bean definition does not need to have any id or name defined, and it is best not to even specify any id or name value because the id or name value simply will be ignored by the container.

If you need it like that, define it as a regular bean.