How to get ApplicationContext in Spring Boot

July 12, 2020

The ApplicationContext is the main interface that provides configuration for an application. We can get ApplicationContext in Spring Boot.

The maven dependency and application.properties file.

maven dependency.

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
	<groupId>modifying</groupId>
	<artifactId>modifying</artifactId>
	<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
	<name>modifying</name>

	<parent>
		<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
		<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
		<version>2.0.2.RELEASE</version>
	</parent>
	<dependencies>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
		</dependency>
	</dependencies>
</project>

application.properties

server.port = 9091
spring.application.name = applicationcontextexample

Table of Contents

Get ApplicationContext using @Autowire annotation.

We can get the ApplicationContext, injecting it using @Autowired.

@Autowired
private ApplicationContext applicationContext;

Let’s see an example.

package com.javatute.main;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.CommandLineRunner;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;

@SpringBootApplication
@ComponentScan(basePackages = "com.javatute.*")
public class SpringMain implements CommandLineRunner {

	@Autowired
	private ApplicationContext applicationContext;

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		SpringApplication.run(SpringMain.class, args);
	}
	@Override
	public void run(String... args) throws Exception {
		System.out.println("applicationContext  " + applicationContext);
		System.out.println("Application strat up date is:  " + applicationContext.getStartupDate());
		System.out.println("Total bean definition count:  " + applicationContext.getBeanDefinitionCount());
		System.out.println("ApplicationContext Id is:  " + applicationContext.getId());
	}
}

Output on console is –

applicationContext: org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.context.AnnotationConfigServletWebServerApplicationContext@6328d34a: startup date [Sun Jun 28 13:04:03 IST 2020]; root of context hierarchy
Application strat up date is: 1593329643442
Total bean definition count: 120
ApplicationContext Id is: applicationcontextexample

Get ApplicationContext using SpringApplication.run() method.

ApplicationContext applicationContext = SpringApplication.run(SpringMain.class, args);

package com.javatute.main;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;

@SpringBootApplication
@ComponentScan(basePackages = "com.javatute.*")
public class SpringMain {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		ApplicationContext applicationContext = SpringApplication.run(SpringMain.class, args);
		System.out.println("applicationContext  " + applicationContext);
		System.out.println("Application Name is:    " + applicationContext.getApplicationName());
		System.out.println("Application strat up date is:  " + applicationContext.getStartupDate());
		System.out.println("Total bean definition count:  " + applicationContext.getBeanDefinitionCount());
		System.out.println("Application Display Name is:   " + applicationContext.getDisplayName());
		System.out.println("ApplicationContext Id is:  " + applicationContext.getId());
	}
}

Output is –

Get ApplicationContext Using the ApplicationContextAware interface.

Directory Structure.

How to get ApplicationContext in Spring Boot

ApplicationContextInitializer.java

package com.javatute.main;

import org.springframework.beans.BeansException;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextAware;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
public class ApplicationContextInitializer implements ApplicationContextAware {

	private ApplicationContext applicationContext;

	@Override
	public void setApplicationContext(ApplicationContext applicationContext) throws BeansException {
		this.applicationContext = applicationContext;

	}	
	public ApplicationContext getApplicationContext(){
		return applicationContext;
		
	}
}

package com.javatute.main;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.CommandLineRunner;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;

@SpringBootApplication
@ComponentScan(basePackages = "com.javatute.*")
public class SpringMain implements CommandLineRunner{
	
	@Autowired
	ApplicationContextInitializer applicationContextInitializer;
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		SpringApplication.run(SpringMain.class, args);

	}
	@Override
	public void run(String... args) throws Exception {
		ApplicationContext applicationContext = applicationContextInitializer.getApplicationContext();
		System.out.println("applicationContext  " + applicationContext);
		System.out.println("Application strat up date is:  " + applicationContext.getStartupDate());
		System.out.println("Total bean definition count:  " + applicationContext.getBeanDefinitionCount());
		System.out.println("ApplicationContext Id is:  " + applicationContext.getId());
		
	}
}

The output would be the same.

Some more examples of ApplicationContext using Spring Boot.

ApplicationContext interface is available in org.springframework.context package.

Using ApplicationContext we can get Bean factory methods to access application components. Since ApplicatioContext extends the ListableBeanFactory interface and further ListableBeanFactory interface extends the BeanFactory interface.

Example to get the bean from ApplicationContext using getBean() method.

AppConfig.java

package com.javatute.main;

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {
	
	@Bean
	public Student student(){
		return new Student("Chacha Chaudhry");
	}	
}

Student.java

package com.javatute.main;

public class Student {
	private String name;

	Student(String name) {
		this.name = name;
	}

	public String getName() {
		return name;
	}

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

}

SpringMain.java

package com.javatute.main;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;

@SpringBootApplication
@ComponentScan(basePackages = "com.javatute.*")
public class SpringMain{
	
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		ApplicationContext applicationContext = SpringApplication.run(SpringMain.class, args);
		Student student = (Student)applicationContext.getBean("student");
		System.out.println("Student name is: "+student.getName());		
	}
}

Output is –

Student name is: Chacha Chaudhry

Note – In the above example, we can pass Student.class instead of the “student” as a String.

Student student = (Student)applicationContext.getBean(Student.class);

We can also get a BeanFactory reference using ApplicationContext.

@SpringBootApplication
@ComponentScan(basePackages = "com.javatute.*")
public class SpringMain{
	
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		ApplicationContext applicationContext = SpringApplication.run(SpringMain.class, args);
		BeanFactory beanFactory = applicationContext.getParentBeanFactory();
		// To-DO	
	}
}

Use of ApplicationContext.

It provides Bean factory methods for accessing application components.
It allows loading file resources in a generic way and publishes events to registered listeners
The ability to resolve messages, supporting internationalization.

That’s all about How to get ApplicationContext in Spring Boot.

Download source code from github.