Preferred Way of IOC Contaner Configuration?

[raj malhotra]

Hi ,

I want to learn Spring Framework. I want to know which is the preferred way of configuring IOC Container:-
1. XML based Metadata
2. Annotation based Configuration
3. Java based Configuration

I want to use the configuration later on in Enterprise application development.


Thanks,
Raj

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Raj,
"It depends". There isn't one best way. Sorry.

Personally, I like annotations best. I think you should try multiple ways and see what you prefer. Or ask your teammates (if this isn't isn't just for practice) since this is a project decision.

[raj malhotra]

Thanks Jeanne,

Ok i got it. Does Annotation based configuration, as versatile as XML based Metadata?

Regards,
Raj

[Martin Bechtle]

I like to use Spring Boot so that everything is just annotation based, plus a little bit of configuration in application.properties.
When needed, I do some JavaConfig to override Spring Boot's stuff or add new stuff.

I find annotations are really a great invention! And yes this kind of Spring configuration is versatile and you get errors at compile time, which is time saving. Plus, when doing JavaConfig you also get autocomplete from your IDE, so you even save more time in regards to XML config.