BeanFactory

Class Overview

The BeanFactory class allows the user to create both MicroStrategy beans and custom beans. It is used by the MicroStrategy Web application to create beans specified in the page configuration files.

Clients create beans using the newBean method, which takes a bean type name and retuns an instance of the corresponding bean class. To map a bean name to a bean class, the factory uses a set of bean mappings and an ordered list of packages. A bean mapping maps a bean name (ex: "ReportBean") to a fully qualified classname. The package list provides a set of packages that will be searched in the event that a given bean name isn't explicitly mapped to a class.

Specifically, the logic for creating a bean based on the type name is as follows:

• If the bean name is explicitly mapped to a class, instantiate and return an instance of the mapped-to class.
• Otherwise, search the package list in order. For each package:
  • If there is a package-level factory associated with the package, attempt to create the bean by delegating to the factory (a LocalBeanFactory instance).
  • Otherwise, search the package for a class with a name of the form "<bean name> + Impl". If such a class exists, instantiate and return a new instance.
• If the bean name was not explictly mapped and a corresponding class could not be found in any of the packages in the list, throw a BeanNotFoundException.

The list of mappings and packages is populated from an XML configuration file, beanFactoryConfig.xml. Users can use the customization infrastructure to augment or modify the set of mappings and packages. A custom beanFactoryConfig.xml might look like this:

 <beanfactory-config>
     <bean-mappings>
         <bean-mapping bean-name="Bean1" bean-class="test.pkg1.Bean1"/>
     </bean-mappings>
     <bean-packages>
         <bean-package package-name="misc.dummypkg2"/>
         <bean-package package-name="misc.dummypkg4" local-factory="DummyPkg4Factory"/>
     </bean-packages>
 </beanfactory-config>
 

The XML above adds one new mapping, from "Bean1" to test.pkg1.Bean1, to those that already exist. It also appends two packages to the list of packages to search. To create beans in the second package, misc.dummypkg4, the BeanFactory will delegate to an instance of that package's factory, misc.dummypkg4.DummyPkg4Factory.

A package-level bean factory class specified via the local-factory attribute must meet the following requirements:

1. It must implement the LocalBeanFactory interface. (See AbstractLocalBeanFactory for a default implementation of this interface.)
2. It must contain a method,
   public static <return-type> getInstance();
   that returns an instance of the factory class.
3. The newBean method implementation must be thread-safe.

See the documentation for more information on customizing beanFactoryConfig.xml.

Note: BeanFactory is a singleton, so any instance-level setters take effect globally.

Summary

Nested Classes
class	BeanFactory.BeanFactoryInfo
class	BeanFactory.BeanMappingInfo
class	BeanFactory.BeanMappingInfoList
class	BeanFactory.BeanPackageInfo
class	BeanFactory.BeanPackageInfoList

Public Methods
String	getConfigurationPath() Get the path for the BeanFactory configuration file.
static BeanFactory	getInstance() Return a BeanFactory instance.
WebComponent	newBean(String beanName) Create a bean based on the bean type name.
void	setConfigurationPath(String configPath) Specify the path for the application's beanFactoryConfig.xml file, relative to the root of the application.
void	update(Observable o, Object arg) Exposed so that this class can update its state when customizations change.

[Expand] Inherited Methods
From class java.lang.Object Object clone() boolean equals(Object arg0) void finalize() final Class<?> getClass() int hashCode() final void notify() final void notifyAll() String toString() final void wait(long arg0, int arg1) final void wait(long arg0) final void wait()
From interface java.util.Observer abstract void update(Observable arg0, Object arg1)