On recent post I demonstrated a way to resolve circular dependency error.
However, sometimes, even the mentioned solution is not enough and redesign is not possible.
I would like to suggest a solution of Dependency Injection which will be as much loyal as possible to the Spring IoC way and will help to overcome the circular dependency error.
This means that we will have a single class that will have a reference to all the classes which need to be injected and will be responsible for the injection.
I'll try to walk you through the steps.
Assuming we have the following service classes which cause the circular error:
@Service
public class ServiceA{
@Autowire
ServiceB serviceB;
@Autowire
ServiceC serviceC;
}
@Service
public class ServiceB{
@Autowire
ServiceA serviceA;
@Autowire
ServiceC serviceC;
}
First step is to remove the @Autowire annotations, so we will move the wiring responsibility out of Spring hands.
Second step is to create a class which will hold a reference to all the classes to inject.
Such as:
@Component
public class BeansManager{
@Autowire
private ServiceA serviceA;
@Autowire
private ServiceB serviceB;
@Autowire
private ServiceC serviceC;
get...
set...
}
Third step is to create an interface name Injectable with method inject.
public interface Injectable{
public void inject(BeansManager beansManager);
}
Forth step is to set each service class/interface to implement the injectable interface.
e.g. :
@Service
public class ServiceA implements Injectable{
ServiceB serviceB;
ServiceC serviceC;
//method to inject all the beans which were previously were injected by Spring
public void inject(BeansManager beansManager){
this.serviceB = beansManager.getServiceB();
this.serviceC = beansManager.getServiceC();
}
}
Fifth and final step is to set the BeansManager to be ready for the injection.
But take a moment to think -
It's obvious that we need a reference of all the classes which need to be injected in the BeansManager, however, how can we make sure that the following sequence is maintained:
1. All Service classes are initiated
2. BeansManager is initiated with all the services injected by Spring
3. After BeansManager initiated and exist in its steady state, call all the service classes which need injection and inject the relevant service.
Step 3 can be achieved by a method which executed after constructor finished (via @PostConstruct annotation), however the big question here is how to make sure the BeansManager is initiated last? (after all the relevant services are initiated)
The trick is to have @Autowire on the Injectable set. This way Spring will make sure that:
a. All the injectable classes are subscribed to the BeansManager for the injection
b. The BeansManager will be initiated last (after all injectable services are initiated)
public class BeansManager
//This line will guarantee the BeansManager class will be injected last
@Autowired
private Set<Injectable> injectables = new HashSet();
//This method will make sure all the injectable classes will get the BeansManager in its steady state,
//where it's class members are ready to be set
@PostConstruct
private void inject() {
for (Injectable injectableItem : injectables) {
injectableItem.inject(this);
}
}
}
Make sure you understand all the magic that happened in the fifth step, it's really cool.
Note:
If you think on a way to implement even more generic mechanism that will achieve the same, please drop me a note.
Good luck!
acknowledgement:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7066683/is-it-possible-to-guarantee-the-order-in-which-postconstruct-methods-are-invoke
