Populating a spring bean using a constructor-arg field

Question

How can i inject a properties file containing a Map to be used as additional constructor arg using the field.

With a Map being loaded from a properties file

the bean is currently setup using:

<bean id="graphDbService" class="org.neo4j.kernel.EmbeddedGraphDatabase"
     init-method="enableRemoteShell" destroy-method="shutdown">

     <constructor-arg index="0" value= "data/neo4j-db"/>
         <constructor-arg index="1" value=?  />
</bean>

Java Equivalent:

Map<String,String> configuration =  EmbeddedGraphDatabase.loadConfigurations( "neo4j_config.props" );
GraphDatabaseService graphDb = new EmbeddedGraphDatabase( "data/neo4j-db", configuration );

Thanks

Answer 1

Something like this:

<bean id="configuration" class="org.neo4j.kernel.EmbeddedGraphDatabase" 
      factory-method="loadConfigurations">
   <constructor-arg value="neo4j_config.props"/>
</bean>

<bean id="graphDbService" class="org.neo4j.kernel.EmbeddedGraphDatabase"
     init-method="enableRemoteShell" destroy-method="shutdown">

     <constructor-arg index="0" value="data/neo4j-db"/>
     <constructor-arg index="1" ref="configuration"  />
</bean>

This takes advantage of the ability to create beans using arbitrary static factory methods, in this case using loadConfigurations() as a factory method to create the configuration bean, which is then injected into the proper constructor of EmbeddedGraphDatabase.