HELP accessing Class Path Xml ApplicationContext in aar file

[Darvesh Niz]

Hi All,
i am using axis and my webservice is packaged as an aar file inside my axis archive. Right now i am using a startup servlet class SpringInit which implements ServiceLifeCycle and i initilize the ClassPathXmlApplicationContext when the startup method is called when the services are initialized. This is a pretty standard way of doing it as mentioned in teh axis documentation and mentoined below.

       public void startUp(ConfigurationContext ignore, AxisService service) {
try {
            logger.debug("Starting spring INIT method ...");
            ClassLoader classLoader = service.getClassLoader();
            ClassPathXmlApplicationContext appCtx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(new String[] {"applicationContext.xml"}, false);
            appCtx.setClassLoader(classLoader);
            appCtx.refresh();
            logger.debug("now init project application constant with appCtx ...");
            
            
            //log4j setup
            URL fileUrl = classLoader.getResource(Constants.LOG4J_CONFIG_FILE);
            if(Constants.LOG4J_CONFIG_FILE.endsWith("xml")) {
                    DOMConfigurator.configure(fileUrl);
                } else {
                    PropertyConfigurator.configure(fileUrl);
            }
            
            if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) {
                       logger.debug("\n\nstartUp() set spring classloader via axisService.getClassLoader() ... ");
            }
            logger.debug("Exiting spring init method");
 
        } catch (Exception e) {
    logger.error("Error in SPRINGINIT", e);
        }
 
    } 

Now the issue is how can i get hold of application context in my webservice code for example generally in a normal spring app we put spring context file under WEB-INF classes folder and use singleton class such as mentioned below

  public class ProjectApplicationContext {
    
    /** Creates a new instance of ProjectApplicationContext */
    public ProjectApplicationContext() {
    }
   
    private static ProjectApplicationContext _instance = new ProjectApplicationContext();
 
    private ApplicationContext applicationContext = null;
 

    public static ProjectApplicationContext getInstace() {
        return _instance;
    }
 
    public ApplicationContext getApplicationContext() {
        if(applicationContext == null) {
            applicationContext = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("applicationContext.xml");
        }
        return applicationContext;
    }    
}  

If i try this code in my webservice it says applicationContext.xml file not found which is correct sicne the aar file is not packaged as regular J2ee spec. The classpathpahtxml context has to initialized using the axisSerive class loader.
Could any body tell me whats the best practice of getting hold of the application context in the webserivce code.

FYI, as of now in order for my code to work i have a static variable and i have set that varibale when the starup method initilaized the class path xml context.
Hence my new startup method has this extra code where i set teh static variable applicationContext of ProjectApplicationContext Class like this

ProjectApplicationContext.applicationContext = appCtx;

Is this correct or totally against teh code best practices and land me in trouble. Please let me knwo


Thanks
Rashid

[Darvesh Niz]

Any body please have any update on this

Thanks

[Darvesh Niz]

I will appreciate if anybody can give some input on this.
Rashid