Setting and Understanding Spring Bean Scopes

How we can set the spring bean scope. And what supported scopes does it have?

In Spring, the scope of a bean defines the lifecycle and visibility of that bean within the application context. You can set the scope of a Spring bean using the @Scope annotation or by defining it in the XML configuration.

Setting Bean Scope

1. Using Annotations: You can use the @Scope annotation along with the @Component, @Service, @Repository, or @Controller annotations to define the scope of a bean.

   import org.springframework.context.annotation.Scope;
   import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
   
   @Component
   @Scope("singleton") // Default scope
   public class MyBean {
       // Bean implementation
   }
   

   Common scopes include:

   • singleton: A single instance of the bean is created and shared across the application context.
   • prototype: A new instance of the bean is created each time it is requested.

2. Using XML Configuration: If you are using XML configuration, you can set the scope in the <bean> tag.

   <bean id="myBean" class="com.example.MyBean" scope="singleton"/>
   

Supported Scopes

Spring supports several scopes, which can vary depending on whether you are using Spring's web context or a standard application context:

1. Singleton:

   • Scope: singleton
   • Description: A single instance of the bean is created and shared across the entire Spring container. This is the default scope.

2. Prototype:

   • Scope: prototype
   • Description: A new instance of the bean is created each time it is requested from the container.

3. Request (Web context only):

   • Scope: request
   • Description: A new instance of the bean is created for each HTTP request. This scope is only available in a web-aware Spring ApplicationContext.

4. Session (Web context only):

   • Scope: session
   • Description: A new instance of the bean is created for each HTTP session. This scope is also only available in a web-aware Spring ApplicationContext.

5. Global Session (Web context only):

   • Scope: globalSession
   • Description: A new instance of the bean is created for each global HTTP session. This is typically used in portlet-based applications.

6. Application (Spring 5.0 and later):

   • Scope: application
   • Description: A single instance of the bean is created for the lifecycle of a Spring ApplicationContext.

Example of Different Scopes

Here’s an example of how to define different scopes using annotations:

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Scope;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
@Scope("singleton")
public class SingletonBean {
    // Singleton bean implementation
}

@Component
@Scope("prototype")
public class PrototypeBean {
    // Prototype bean implementation
}

@Component
@Scope("request")
public class RequestScopedBean {
    // Request-scoped bean implementation
}

@Component
@Scope("session")
public class SessionScopedBean {
    // Session-scoped bean implementation
}

Conclusion

Setting the scope of a Spring bean is essential for managing its lifecycle and ensuring that it behaves as expected in your application. Depending on your application's requirements, you can choose the appropriate scope from the supported options.