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brunoborges merged 2 commits into from
Feb 20, 2026
Merged

Add Spring XML bean config vs annotation-driven pattern (Enterprise category) #59

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Add Spring XML config vs annotations pattern in Enterprise category
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2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion content/enterprise/jdbc-resultset-vs-jpa-criteria.json
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
"description": "Widely available since Jakarta EE 8 / Java 11"
},
"prev": "enterprise/singleton-ejb-vs-cdi-application-scoped",
"next": null,
"next": "enterprise/spring-xml-config-vs-annotations",
"related": [
"enterprise/jdbc-vs-jpa",
"enterprise/jpa-vs-jakarta-data",
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54 changes: 54 additions & 0 deletions content/enterprise/spring-xml-config-vs-annotations.json
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@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
{
"id": 110,
"slug": "spring-xml-config-vs-annotations",
"title": "Spring XML Bean Config vs Annotation-Driven",
"category": "enterprise",
"difficulty": "intermediate",
"jdkVersion": "17",
"oldLabel": "Spring (XML)",
"modernLabel": "Spring Boot 3+",
"oldApproach": "XML Bean Definitions",
"modernApproach": "Annotation-Driven Beans",
"oldCode": "<!-- applicationContext.xml -->\n<beans xmlns=\"http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans\"\n xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\"\n xsi:schemaLocation=\"http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans\n http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd\">\n\n <bean id=\"userRepository\"\n class=\"com.example.UserRepository\">\n <property name=\"dataSource\" ref=\"dataSource\"/>\n </bean>\n\n <bean id=\"userService\"\n class=\"com.example.UserService\">\n <property name=\"repository\" ref=\"userRepository\"/>\n </bean>\n\n</beans>",
"modernCode": "@SpringBootApplication\npublic class Application {\n public static void main(String[] args) {\n SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);\n }\n}\n\n@Repository\npublic class UserRepository {\n private final JdbcTemplate jdbc;\n\n public UserRepository(JdbcTemplate jdbc) {\n this.jdbc = jdbc;\n }\n}\n\n@Service\npublic class UserService {\n private final UserRepository repository;\n\n public UserService(UserRepository repository) {\n this.repository = repository;\n }\n}",
"summary": "Replace verbose Spring XML bean definitions with concise annotation-driven configuration in Spring Boot.",
"explanation": "Traditional Spring applications wired beans through XML configuration files, declaring each class and its dependencies as verbose <bean> elements. While annotation support existed since Spring 2.5, XML remained the dominant approach until Spring Boot introduced auto-configuration. Spring Boot detects beans annotated with @Component, @Service, @Repository, and @Controller via classpath scanning, satisfies dependencies through constructor injection automatically, and configures infrastructure like DataSource from the classpath — eliminating all XML wiring files.",
"whyModernWins": [
{
"icon": "🚫",
"title": "No XML",
"desc": "@SpringBootApplication triggers component scanning and auto-configuration, eliminating all XML wiring files."
},
{
"icon": "💉",
"title": "Constructor injection",
"desc": "Spring injects dependencies through constructors automatically, making beans easier to test and reason about."
},
{
"icon": "⚡",
"title": "Auto-configuration",
"desc": "Spring Boot configures DataSource, JPA, and other infrastructure from the classpath with zero boilerplate."
}
],
"support": {
"state": "available",
"description": "Widely available since Spring Boot 1.0 (April 2014); Spring Boot 3 requires Java 17+"
},
"prev": "enterprise/jdbc-resultset-vs-jpa-criteria",
"next": null,
"related": [
"enterprise/ejb-vs-cdi",
"enterprise/jndi-lookup-vs-cdi-injection",
"enterprise/manual-transaction-vs-declarative"
],
"docs": [
{
"title": "Spring Framework — Annotation-based Container Configuration",
"href": "https://docs.spring.io/spring-framework/reference/core/beans/annotation-config.html"
},
{
"title": "Spring Boot — Auto-configuration",
"href": "https://docs.spring.io/spring-boot/reference/using/auto-configuration.html"
}
]
}