Spring and Java Thread example

Here are 3 examples to show you how to do “threading” in Spring. See the code for self-explanatory.

1. Spring + Java Threads example

Create a simple Java thread by extending Thread, and managed by Spring’s container via @Component. The bean scope must be “prototype“, so that each request will return a new instance, to run each individual thread.

PrintThread.java

package com.mkyong.thread;
 
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Scope;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
 
@Component
@Scope("prototype")
public class PrintThread extends Thread{
 
	@Override
	public void run() {
 
		System.out.println(getName() + " is running");
		try {
			Thread.sleep(5000);
		} catch (InterruptedException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
		System.out.println(getName() + " is running");
	}
 
}

AppConfig.java

package com.mkyong.config;
 
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
 
@Configuration
@ComponentScan(basePackages="com.mkyong.thread")
public class AppConfig{
}

App.java

package com.mkyong;
 
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext;
 
import com.mkyong.config.AppConfig;
import com.mkyong.thread.PrintThread;
 
public class App 
{
    public static void main( String[] args )
    {
 
    	ApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(AppConfig.class);
 
    	PrintThread printThread1 = (PrintThread) ctx.getBean("printThread");
    	printThread1.setName("Thread 1");
 
    	PrintThread printThread2 = (PrintThread) ctx.getBean("printThread");
    	printThread2.setName("Thread 2");
 
    	PrintThread printThread3 = (PrintThread) ctx.getBean("printThread");
    	printThread3.setName("Thread 3");
 
    	PrintThread printThread4 = (PrintThread) ctx.getBean("printThread");
    	printThread4.setName("Thread 4");
 
    	PrintThread printThread5 = (PrintThread) ctx.getBean("printThread");
    	printThread5.setName("Thread 5");
 
    	printThread1.start();
    	printThread2.start();
    	printThread3.start();
    	printThread4.start();
    	printThread5.start();
 
    }
}

Output – The order will be vary each time, this is thread :)

Thread 3 is running
Thread 2 is running
Thread 1 is running
Thread 5 is running
Thread 4 is running
Thread 2 is running
Thread 4 is running
Thread 5 is running
Thread 3 is running
Thread 1 is running

2. Spring Thread Pool + Spring non-managed bean example

Uses Spring’s ThreadPoolTaskExecutor to create a thread pool. The executing thread is not necessary managed by Spring container.

PrintThread.java – This thread is not managed by Spring, NO @Component

package com.mkyong.thread;
 
public class PrintTask implements Runnable{
 
	String name;
 
	public PrintTask(String name){
		this.name = name;
	}
 
	@Override
	public void run() {
 
		System.out.println(name + " is running");
 
		try {
			Thread.sleep(5000);
		} catch (InterruptedException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
 
		System.out.println(name + " is running");
	}
 
}

Spring-Config.xml – ThreadPoolTaskExecutor in XML file

<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-3.1.xsd
	http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
	http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.1.xsd">
 
	<bean id="taskExecutor"
		class="org.springframework.scheduling.concurrent.ThreadPoolTaskExecutor">
		<property name="corePoolSize" value="5" />
		<property name="maxPoolSize" value="10" />
		<property name="WaitForTasksToCompleteOnShutdown" value="true" />
	</bean>
 
</beans>

App.java

package com.mkyong;
 
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.scheduling.concurrent.ThreadPoolTaskExecutor;
 
import com.mkyong.thread.PrintTask;
 
public class App {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
 
    ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("Spring-Config.xml");
    ThreadPoolTaskExecutor taskExecutor = (ThreadPoolTaskExecutor) context.getBean("taskExecutor");
    taskExecutor.execute(new PrintTask("Thread 1"));
    taskExecutor.execute(new PrintTask("Thread 2"));
    taskExecutor.execute(new PrintTask("Thread 3"));
    taskExecutor.execute(new PrintTask("Thread 4"));
    taskExecutor.execute(new PrintTask("Thread 5"));
 
	//check active thread, if zero then shut down the thread pool
	for (;;) {
		int count = taskExecutor.getActiveCount();
		System.out.println("Active Threads : " + count);
		try {
			Thread.sleep(1000);
		} catch (InterruptedException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
		if (count == 0) {
			taskExecutor.shutdown();
			break;
		}
	}
 
    }
}

Output – The order will be vary each time.

Thread 1 is running
Thread 2 is running
Thread 3 is running
Thread 4 is running
Active Threads : 4
Thread 5 is running
Active Threads : 5
Active Threads : 5
Active Threads : 5
Active Threads : 5
Thread 2 is running
Thread 1 is running
Thread 3 is running
Thread 4 is running
Thread 5 is running
Active Threads : 0

3. Spring Thread Pool + Spring managed bean example

This example is using ThreadPoolTaskExecutor again, and declares the thread as Spring managed bean via @Component.

The below PrintTask2 is Spring managed bean, you can @Autowired any required beans easily.

PrintTask2.java

package com.mkyong.thread;
 
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Scope;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
 
@Component
@Scope("prototype")
public class PrintTask2 implements Runnable{
 
	String name;
 
	public void setName(String name){
		this.name = name;
	}
 
	@Override
	public void run() {
 
		System.out.println(name + " is running");
 
		try {
			Thread.sleep(5000);
		} catch (InterruptedException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
 
		System.out.println(name + " is running");
 
	}
 
}

AppConfig.java – ThreadPoolTaskExecutor in Spring configuration file

package com.mkyong.config;
 
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.scheduling.concurrent.ThreadPoolTaskExecutor;
 
@Configuration
@ComponentScan(basePackages = "com.mkyong.thread")
public class AppConfig {
 
	@Bean
	public ThreadPoolTaskExecutor taskExecutor() {
		ThreadPoolTaskExecutor pool = new ThreadPoolTaskExecutor();
		pool.setCorePoolSize(5);
		pool.setMaxPoolSize(10);
		pool.setWaitForTasksToCompleteOnShutdown(true);
		return pool;
	}
 
}

App.java

package com.mkyong;
 
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.scheduling.concurrent.ThreadPoolTaskExecutor;
 
import com.mkyong.config.AppConfig;
import com.mkyong.thread.PrintTask2;
 
public class App {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
 
    ApplicationContext context = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(AppConfig.class);
    ThreadPoolTaskExecutor taskExecutor = (ThreadPoolTaskExecutor) context.getBean("taskExecutor");
 
    PrintTask2 printTask1 = (PrintTask2) context.getBean("printTask2");
    printTask1.setName("Thread 1");
    taskExecutor.execute(printTask1);
 
    PrintTask2 printTask2 = (PrintTask2) context.getBean("printTask2");
    printTask2.setName("Thread 2");
    taskExecutor.execute(printTask2);
 
    PrintTask2 printTask3 = (PrintTask2) context.getBean("printTask2");
    printTask3.setName("Thread 3");
    taskExecutor.execute(printTask3);
 
	for (;;) {
		int count = taskExecutor.getActiveCount();
		System.out.println("Active Threads : " + count);
		try {
			Thread.sleep(1000);
		} catch (InterruptedException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
		if (count == 0) {
			taskExecutor.shutdown();
			break;
		}
	}
 
   }
}

Output – The order will be vary each time.

Thread 1 is running
Thread 2 is running
Thread 3 is running
Active Threads : 2
Active Threads : 3
Active Threads : 3
Active Threads : 3
Active Threads : 3
Thread 1 is running
Thread 3 is running
Thread 2 is running
Active Threads : 0