Main Tutorials

Spring dependency checking with @Required Annotation

Spring’s dependency checking in bean configuration file is used to make sure all properties of a certain types (primitive, collection or object) have been set. In most scenarios, you just need to make sure a particular property has been set, but not all properties..

For this case, you need @Required annotation, see following example :

@Required example

A Customer object, apply @Required in setPerson() method to make sure the person property has been set.


package com.mkyong.common;

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

public class Customer 
{
	private Person person;
	private int type;
	private String action;
	
	public Person getPerson() {
		return person;
	}
	@Required
	public void setPerson(Person person) {
		this.person = person;
	}
}

Simply apply the @Required annotation will not enforce the property checking, you also need to register an RequiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor to aware of the @Required annotation in bean configuration file.

The RequiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor can be enabled in two ways.

1. Include <context:annotation-config />

Add Spring context and <context:annotation-config /> in bean configuration file.


<beans 
	...
	xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
	...
	http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
	http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-2.5.xsd">
	...
	<context:annotation-config />
	...
</beans>

Full example,


<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-2.5.xsd
	http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
	http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-2.5.xsd">

	<context:annotation-config />

	<bean id="CustomerBean" class="com.mkyong.common.Customer">
		<property name="action" value="buy" />
		<property name="type" value="1" />
	</bean>

	<bean id="PersonBean" class="com.mkyong.common.Person">
		<property name="name" value="mkyong" />
		<property name="address" value="address ABC" />
		<property name="age" value="29" />
	</bean>
	
</beans>
2. Include RequiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor

Include ‘RequiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor’ directly in bean configuration file.


<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
	http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd">

<bean 
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.RequiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor"/>
	
	<bean id="CustomerBean" class="com.mkyong.common.Customer">
		<property name="action" value="buy" />
		<property name="type" value="1" />
	</bean>

	<bean id="PersonBean" class="com.mkyong.common.Person">
		<property name="name" value="mkyong" />
		<property name="address" value="address ABC" />
		<property name="age" value="29" />
	</bean>
	
</beans>

If you run it , the following error message will be throw, because person property is unset.


org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanInitializationException: 
	Property 'person' is required for bean 'CustomerBean'

Conclusion

Try @Required annotation, it is more flexible than dependency checking in XML file, because it can apply to a particular property only.

Custom @Required
Please read this article about how to create a new custom @Required-style annotation.

Reference

  1. http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/2.5.x/reference/metadata.html#metadata-annotations-required

About Author

author image
Founder of Mkyong.com, love Java and open source stuff. Follow him on Twitter. If you like my tutorials, consider make a donation to these charities.

Comments

Subscribe
Notify of
8 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Prabhat
7 years ago

Why @Required Annotation using Java Configuration doesn’t throw an error if required value is not set.
public class Student {
public String name;

public String getName() {
return name;
}

@Required
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;

}

}

@Configuration
public class BeanDefination {
@Bean
public Student student() {
Student s = new Student();
// s.setName(“Shiva”);
return s;
}

}

public class TestDemo {

public static void main(String[] args) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
AnnotationConfigApplicationContext factory = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext();
factory.register(BeanDefination.class);
factory.refresh();
Student student = (Student) factory.getBean(Student.class);
System.out.println(student.getName());
}

}

duo
11 years ago

How do you do this without using xml?

Lekhraj Dinkar
5 years ago

@autowire(required=true)

@required

Both are same?

Sarneet Sethi
8 years ago

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

inei.me
10 years ago

Wow that was odd. I just wrote an really long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that
over again. Anyway, just wanted to say great blog!

bayilik
13 years ago

We started to a program as Bayilik Franchise Program. This infos gave help us for develop our program. We will send our program for your ideas.

letterheads
14 years ago

Great post! I’m doing a lot of research on this at the moment and your blog is the best resource. Thanks again!

Mike
8 years ago

testing the comments… just for fun…