difference between @Component and @Configuration in Spring 3

java spring spring-3
Anand picture Anand · Aug 10, 2012 · Viewed 31.5k times · Source

I came across two annotations provided by Spring 3 (@Component and @Configuration) I am a bit confused between these.
Here is what I read about @Component

Put this “context:component” in bean configuration file, it means, enable auto scanning feature in Spring. The base-package is indicate where are your components stored, Spring will scan this folder and find out the bean (annotated with @Component) and register it in Spring container.

So I am wondering what is the use of @Configuration then if @Controller will register my beans without the need to declare them in spring configuration xml file

Answer

Javaboy picture Javaboy · Jan 17, 2015

From Book Pro Spring Integration

@Configuration classes are just like regular @Components classes, except that methods annotated with @Bean are used to factory beans. Note that a @Component with @Bean annotated methods works the same way, except that scopes are not respected and the @Bean methods are re-invoked (no caching in play), so @Configuration is preferred, even though it requires CGLIB

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