Application context
A Spring application context is a container that creates, configures, manages, and exposes application components and their dependencies.
Spring in Action, Sixth Edition
A Spring container that creates, configures, and manages an application's beans, dependencies, and runtime configuration.
- How it is used
- Coordinates bean creation and dependency wiring for an application, including web infrastructure configured by Spring Boot.
- How deep it goes
- Defines the container, illustrates constructor injection and Java bean declarations, and describes autoconfiguration without detailing container internals.
- Examples
- Uses an inventory-service dependency, Java bean configuration, a Spring Boot bootstrap class, and a context-loading test.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via Spring Boot to register beans, start an application, and check that its context loads.
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Kafka Streams in Action, Second Edition
A Spring application context is a container-managed registry of application objects and their configuration.
- How it is used
- Bootstraps and wires a non-web Spring Kafka application from configuration, components, dependencies, and listener declarations.
- How deep it goes
- Explains creation, scanning, injection, and listener wrapping, but stops short of container internals.
- Examples
- Uses a loan-processing application with annotated processors, injected KafkaTemplate, and approval, rejection, and quality-assurance topics.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure a Spring Kafka application by starting its context and wiring annotated components and listeners.
Read how Kafka Streams in Action, Second Edition explains application context →
Related concepts
- Spring beanhas part · A Spring bean is an object instantiated, configured, and managed by the Spring application context.
- Spring TestContext Frameworkused by · The Spring TestContext Framework is a testing framework that manages application contexts and integrates Spring configuration and lifecycle support with test execution.
- @Autowiredused by · @Autowired is a Spring annotation that marks a constructor, field, or method as a point for dependency injection.
- @SpringBootTestconfigured by · @SpringBootTest is a Spring Boot testing annotation that loads an application context with Spring Boot support for integration testing.
- Spring Bootconfigured by · Spring Boot is an open-source framework in the Spring ecosystem for building stand-alone, production-ready applications with convention-based configuration and auto-configuration.
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