<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0"
    xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
    xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
    xml:id="context-introduction">
  <title>Additional Capabilities of the
    <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename></title>

  <!-- MLP: Beverly to review paragraph and list -->

  <para>As was discussed in the chapter introduction, the
    <literal>org.springframework.beans.factory</literal> package provides basic
    functionality for managing and manipulating beans, including in a
    programmatic way. The <literal>org.springframework.context</literal> package
    adds the <ulink
    url="http://static.springframework.org/spring/docs/current/api/org/springframework/context/ApplicationContext.html"
    ><interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename></ulink> interface, which
    extends the <interfacename>BeanFactory</interfacename> interface, in
    addition to extending other interfaces to provide additional functionality
    in a more <emphasis>application framework-oriented style</emphasis>. Many
    people use the <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> in a
    completely declarative fashion, not even creating it programmatically, but
    instead relying on support classes such as
    <classname>ContextLoader</classname> to automatically instantiate an
    <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> as part of the normal
    startup process of a J2EE web application.</para>

  <para>To enhance <interfacename>BeanFactory</interfacename> functionality in a
    more framework-oriented style the context package also provides the
    following functionality:</para>

  <itemizedlist>
    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis>Access to messages in i18n-style</emphasis>, through the
        <interfacename>MessageSource</interfacename> interface.</para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis>Access to resources</emphasis>, such as URLs and files,
        through the <interfacename>ResourceLoader</interfacename>
        interface.</para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis>Event publication</emphasis> to beans implementing the
        <interfacename>ApplicationListener</interfacename> interface, through
        the use of the <interfacename>ApplicationEventPublisher</interfacename>
        interface.</para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis>Loading of multiple (hierarchical) contexts</emphasis>,
        allowing each to be focused on one particular layer, such as the web
        layer of an application, through the
        <interfacename>HierarchicalBeanFactory</interfacename> interface.</para>
    </listitem>
  </itemizedlist>

  <section id="context-functionality-messagesource">
    <title>Internationalization using
      <interfacename>MessageSource</interfacename></title>

    <!-- MLP: Beverly to review this paragraph -->

    <para>The <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> interface
      extends an interface called <interfacename>MessageSource</interfacename>,
      and therefore provides internationalization (i18n) functionality. Spring
      also provides the interface
      <classname>HierarchicalMessageSource</classname>, which can resolve
      messages hierarchically. Together these interfaces provide the foundation
      upon which Spring effects message resolution. The methods defined on these
      interfaces include:</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para><methodname>String getMessage(String code, Object[] args, String
          default, Locale loc)</methodname>: The basic method used to retrieve a
          message from the <interfacename>MessageSource</interfacename>. When no
          message is found for the specified locale, the default message is
          used. Any arguments passed in become replacement values, using the
          <interfacename>MessageFormat</interfacename> functionality provided by
          the standard library.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><methodname>String getMessage(String code, Object[] args, Locale
          loc)</methodname>: Essentially the same as the previous method, but
          with one difference: no default message can be specified; if the
          message cannot be found, a
          <classname>NoSuchMessageException</classname> is thrown.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para><methodname>String getMessage(MessageSourceResolvable resolvable,
          Locale locale)</methodname>: All properties used in the preceding
          methods are also wrapped in a class named
          <interfacename>MessageSourceResolvable</interfacename>, which you can
          use with this method.</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <para>When an <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> is loaded,
      it automatically searches for a
      <interfacename>MessageSource</interfacename> bean defined in the context.
      The bean must have the name <literal>messageSource</literal>. If such a
      bean is found, all calls to the preceding methods are delegated to the
      message source. If no message source is found, the
      <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> attempts to find a
      parent containing a bean with the same name. If it does, it uses that bean
      as the <interfacename>MessageSource</interfacename>. If the
      <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> cannot find any source
      for messages, an empty <classname>DelegatingMessageSource</classname> is
      instantiated in order to be able to accept calls to the methods defined
      above.</para>

    <para>Spring provides two <interfacename>MessageSource</interfacename>
      implementations, <classname>ResourceBundleMessageSource</classname> and
      <classname>StaticMessageSource</classname>. Both implement
      <interfacename>HierarchicalMessageSource</interfacename> in order to do
      nested messaging. The <classname>StaticMessageSource</classname> is rarely
      used but provides programmatic ways to add messages to the source. The
      <classname>ResourceBundleMessageSource</classname> is shown in the
      following example:</para>

    <programlisting language="xml">&lt;beans&gt;
&lt;bean id="messageSource"
      class="org.springframework.context.support.ResourceBundleMessageSource"&gt;
  &lt;property name="basenames"&gt;
    &lt;list&gt;
      &lt;value&gt;format&lt;/value&gt;
      &lt;value&gt;exceptions&lt;/value&gt;
      &lt;value&gt;windows&lt;/value&gt;
    &lt;/list&gt;
  &lt;/property&gt;
&lt;/bean&gt;
&lt;/beans&gt;</programlisting>

    <para>In the example it is assumed you have three resource bundles defined
      in your classpath called <literal>format</literal>,
      <literal>exceptions</literal> and <literal>windows</literal>. Any request
      to resolve a message will be handled in the JDK standard way of resolving
      messages through ResourceBundles. For the purposes of the example, assume
      the contents of two of the above resource bundle files are...</para>

    <programlisting language="java"><lineannotation># in format.properties</lineannotation>
message=Alligators rock!</programlisting>

    <programlisting language="java"><lineannotation># in exceptions.properties</lineannotation>
argument.required=The '{0}' argument is required.</programlisting>

    <para>A program to execute the <classname>MessageSource</classname>
      functionality is shown in the next example. Remember that all
      <classname>ApplicationContext</classname> implementations are also
      <classname>MessageSource</classname> implementations and so can be cast to
      the <classname>MessageSource</classname> interface.</para>

    <programlisting language="java">public static void main(String[] args) {
  MessageSource resources = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("beans.xml");
  String message = resources.getMessage("message", null, "Default", null);
  System.out.println(message);
}</programlisting>

    <para>The resulting output from the above program will be...</para>

    <programlisting>Alligators rock!</programlisting>

    <para>So to summarize, the <classname>MessageSource</classname> is defined
      in a file called <literal>beans.xml</literal>, which exists at the root of
      your classpath. The <literal>messageSource</literal> bean definition
      refers to a number of resource bundles through its
      <literal>basenames</literal> property. The three files that are passed in
      the list to the <literal>basenames</literal> property exist as files at
      the root of your classpath and are called
      <literal>format.properties</literal>,
      <literal>exceptions.properties</literal>, and
      <literal>windows.properties</literal> respectively.</para>

    <para>The next example shows arguments passed to the message lookup; these
      arguments will be converted into Strings and inserted into placeholders in
      the lookup message.</para>

    <programlisting language="xml">&lt;beans&gt;

  <lineannotation>&lt;!-- this <interfacename>MessageSource</interfacename> is being used in a web application --&gt;</lineannotation>
  &lt;bean id="messageSource" class="org.springframework.context.support.ResourceBundleMessageSource"&gt;
      &lt;property name="basename" value="test-messages"/&gt;
  &lt;/bean&gt;

  <lineannotation>&lt;!-- lets inject the above <interfacename>MessageSource</interfacename> into this POJO --&gt;</lineannotation>
  &lt;bean id="example" class="com.foo.Example"&gt;
      &lt;property name="messages" ref="messageSource"/&gt;
  &lt;/bean&gt;

&lt;/beans&gt;</programlisting>

    <programlisting language="java">public class Example {

  private MessageSource messages;

  public void setMessages(MessageSource messages) {
      this.messages = messages;
  }

  public void execute() {
      String message = this.messages.getMessage("argument.required",
          new Object [] {"userDao"}, "Required", null);
      System.out.println(message);
  }

}</programlisting>

    <para>The resulting output from the invocation of the
      <methodname>execute()</methodname> method will be...</para>

    <programlisting>The userDao argument is required.</programlisting>

    <para>With regard to internationalization (i18n), Spring's various
      <classname>MessageResource</classname> implementations follow the same
      locale resolution and fallback rules as the standard JDK
      <classname>ResourceBundle</classname>. In short, and continuing with the
      example <literal>messageSource</literal> defined previously, if you want
      to resolve messages against the British (en-GB) locale, you would create
      files called <literal>format_en_GB.properties</literal>,
      <literal>exceptions_en_GB.properties</literal>, and
      <literal>windows_en_GB.properties</literal> respectively.</para>

    <para>Typically, locale resolution is managed by the surrounding environment
      of the application. In this example, the locale against which (British)
      messages will be resolved is specified manually.</para>

    <programlisting><lineannotation># in exceptions_en_GB.properties</lineannotation>
argument.required=Ebagum lad, the '{0}' argument is required, I say, required.</programlisting>

    <programlisting language="java">public static void main(final String[] args) {
  MessageSource resources = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("beans.xml");
  String message = resources.getMessage("argument.required",
      new Object [] {"userDao"}, "Required", Locale.UK);
  System.out.println(message);
}</programlisting>

    <para>The resulting output from the running of the above program will
      be...</para>

    <programlisting>Ebagum lad, the 'userDao' argument is required, I say, required.</programlisting>

    <para>You can also use the <classname>MessageSourceAware</classname>
      interface to acquire a reference to any
      <classname>MessageSource</classname> that has been defined. Any bean that
      is defined in an <classname>ApplicationContext</classname> that implements
      the <classname>MessageSourceAware</classname> interface is injected with
      the application context's <classname>MessageSource</classname> when the
      bean is created and configured.</para>

    <note>
      <para><emphasis>As an alternative to
        <classname>ResourceBundleMessageSource</classname>, Spring provides a
        <classname>ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource</classname> class. This
        variant supports the same bundle file format but is more flexible than
        the standard JDK based
        <classname>ResourceBundleMessageSource</classname>
        implementation.</emphasis> In particular, it allows for reading files
        from any Spring resource location (not just from the classpath) and
        supports hot reloading of bundle property files (while efficiently
        caching them in between). Check out the
        <classname>ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource</classname> javadoc for
        details.</para>
    </note>
  </section>

  <section id="context-functionality-events">
    <title>Standard and Custom Events</title>

    <para>Event handling in the
      <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> is provided through the
      <classname>ApplicationEvent</classname> class and
      <interfacename>ApplicationListener</interfacename> interface. If a bean
      that implements the <interfacename>ApplicationListener</interfacename>
      interface is deployed into the context, every time an
      <classname>ApplicationEvent</classname> gets published to the
      <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename>, that bean is notified.
      Essentially, this is the standard <emphasis>Observer</emphasis> design
      pattern. Spring provides the following standard events:</para>

    <table id="beans-ctx-events-tbl">
      <title>Built-in Events</title>

      <tgroup cols="2">
        <colspec colname="c1" colwidth="2*"/>

        <colspec colname="c2" colwidth="5*"/>

        <thead>
          <row>
            <entry>Event</entry>

            <entry>Explanation</entry>
          </row>
        </thead>

        <tbody>
          <row>
            <entry><classname>ContextRefreshedEvent</classname></entry>

            <entry>Published when the
              <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> is initialized
              or refreshed, for example, using the
              <methodname>refresh()</methodname> method on the
              <interfacename>ConfigurableApplicationContext</interfacename>
              interface. "Initialized" here means that all beans are loaded,
              post-processor beans are detected and activated, singletons are
              pre-instantiated, and the
              <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> object is ready
              for use. As long as the context has not been closed, a refresh can
              be triggered multiple times, provided that the chosen
              <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> actually
              supports such "hot" refreshes. For example,
              <classname>XmlWebApplicationContext</classname> supports hot
              refreshes, but <classname>GenericApplicationContext</classname>
              does not.</entry>
          </row>

          <row>
            <entry><classname>ContextStartedEvent</classname></entry>

            <entry>Published when the
              <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> is started,
              using the <methodname>start()</methodname> method on the
              <interfacename>ConfigurableApplicationContext</interfacename>
              interface. "Started" here means that all
              <interfacename>Lifecycle</interfacename> beans receive an explicit
              start signal. Typically this signal is used to restart beans after
              an explicit stop, but it may also be used to start components that
              have not been configured for autostart , for example, components
              that have not already started on initialization.</entry>
          </row>

          <row>
            <entry><classname>ContextStoppedEvent</classname></entry>

            <entry>Published when the
              <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> is stopped,
              using the <methodname>stop()</methodname> method on the
              <interfacename>ConfigurableApplicationContext</interfacename>
              interface. "Stopped" here means that all
              <interfacename>Lifecycle</interfacename> beans receive an explicit
              stop signal. A stopped context may be restarted through a
              <methodname>start()</methodname> call.</entry>
          </row>

          <row>
            <entry><classname>ContextClosedEvent</classname></entry>

            <entry>Published when the
              <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> is closed, using
              the <methodname>close()</methodname> method on the
              <interfacename>ConfigurableApplicationContext</interfacename>
              interface. "Closed" here means that all singleton beans are
              destroyed. A closed context reaches its end of life; it cannot be
              refreshed or restarted.</entry>
          </row>

          <row>
            <entry><classname>RequestHandledEvent</classname></entry>

            <entry>A web-specific event telling all beans that an HTTP request
              has been serviced. This event is published
              <emphasis>after</emphasis> the request is complete. This event is
              only applicable to web applications using Spring's
              <classname>DispatcherServlet</classname>.</entry>
          </row>
        </tbody>
      </tgroup>
    </table>

    <para>You can also create and publish your own custom events. This example
      demonstrates a simple class that extends Spring's
      <classname>ApplicationEvent</classname> base class:</para>

    <programlisting language="java">public class BlackListEvent extends ApplicationEvent {
  private final String address;
  private final String test;

  public BlackListEvent(Object source, String address, String test) {
      super(source);
      this.address = address;
      this.test = test;
  }

  <lineannotation>// accessor and other methods...</lineannotation>
}</programlisting>

    <para>To publish a custom <classname>ApplicationEvent</classname>, call the
      <methodname>publishEvent()</methodname> method on an
      <interfacename>ApplicationEventPublisher</interfacename>. Typically this
      is done by creating a class that implements
      <interfacename>ApplicationEventPublisherAware</interfacename> and
      registering it as a Spring bean. The following example demonstrates such a
      class:</para>

    <programlisting language="java"><![CDATA[public class EmailService implements ApplicationEventPublisherAware {

  private List<String> blackList;
  private ApplicationEventPublisher publisher;

  public void setBlackList(List<String> blackList) {
      this.blackList = blackList;
  }

  public void setApplicationEventPublisher(ApplicationEventPublisher publisher) {
      this.publisher = publisher;
  }

  public void sendEmail(String address, String text) {
      if (blackList.contains(address)) {
          BlackListEvent event = new BlackListEvent(this, address, text);
          publisher.publishEvent(event);
          return;
      }
      ]]><lineannotation>// send email...</lineannotation><![CDATA[
  }
}]]></programlisting>

    <para>At configuration time, the Spring container will detect that
      <classname>EmailService</classname> implements
      <interfacename>ApplicationEventPublisherAware</interfacename> and will
      automatically call
      <methodname>setApplicationEventPublisher()</methodname>. In reality, the
      parameter passed in will be the Spring container itself; you're simply
      interacting with the application context via its
      <interfacename>ApplicationEventPublisher</interfacename> interface.</para>

    <para>To receive the custom <classname>ApplicationEvent</classname>, create
      a class that implements <interfacename>ApplicationListener</interfacename>
      and register it as a Spring bean. The following example demonstrates such
      a class:</para>

    <programlisting language="java"><![CDATA[public class BlackListNotifier implements ApplicationListener<BlackListEvent> {

  private String notificationAddress;

  public void setNotificationAddress(String notificationAddress) {
      this.notificationAddress = notificationAddress;
  }

  public void onApplicationEvent(BlackListEvent event) {
]]><lineannotation>        // notify appropriate parties via notificationAddress...</lineannotation><![CDATA[
  }
}]]></programlisting>

    <para>Notice that <interfacename>ApplicationListener</interfacename> is
      generically parameterized with the type of your custom event,
      <classname>BlackListEvent</classname>. This means that the
      <methodname>onApplicationEvent()</methodname> method can remain type-safe,
      avoiding any need for downcasting. You may register as many event
      listeners as you wish, but note that by default event listeners receive
      events synchronously. This means the
      <methodname>publishEvent()</methodname> method blocks until all listeners
      have finished processing the event. One advantage of this synchronous and
      single-threaded approach is that when a listener receives an event, it
      operates inside the transaction context of the publisher if a transaction
      context is available. If another strategy for event publication becomes
      necessary, refer to the JavaDoc for Spring's
      <interfacename>ApplicationEventMulticaster</interfacename>
      interface.</para>

    <para>The following example shows the bean definitions used to
      register and configure each of the classes above:</para>
    <programlisting language="xml"><![CDATA[<bean id="emailService" class="example.EmailService">
  <property name="blackList">
      <list>
          <value>known.spammer@example.org</value>
          <value>known.hacker@example.org</value>
          <value>john.doe@example.org</value>
      </list>
  </property>
</bean>

<bean id="blackListNotifier" class="example.BlackListNotifier">
  <property name="notificationAddress" value="blacklist@example.org"/>
</bean>]]></programlisting>

    <para>Putting it all together, when the <methodname>sendEmail()</methodname>
      method of the <literal>emailService</literal> bean is called, if there are
      any emails that should be blacklisted, a custom event of type
      <classname>BlackListEvent</classname> is published. The
      <literal>blackListNotifier</literal> bean is registered as an
      <interfacename>ApplicationListener</interfacename> and thus receives the
      <classname>BlackListEvent</classname>, at which point it can notify
      appropriate parties.</para>

    <note>
      <para>Spring's eventing mechanism is designed for simple communication
        between Spring beans within the same application context. However, for
        more sophisticated enterprise integration needs, the
        separately-maintained <ulink
        url="http://springsource.org/spring-integration">Spring
        Integration</ulink> project provides complete support for building
        lightweight, <ulink url="http://www.enterpriseintegrationpatterns.com"
        >pattern-oriented</ulink>, event-driven architectures that build upon
        the well-known Spring programming model.</para>
    </note>
  </section>

  <section id="context-functionality-resources">
    <title>Convenient access to low-level resources</title>

    <para>For optimal usage and understanding of application contexts, users
      should generally familiarize themselves with Spring's
      <interfacename>Resource</interfacename> abstraction, as described in the
      chapter <xref linkend="resources"/>.</para>

    <para>An application context is a
      <interfacename>ResourceLoader</interfacename>, which can be used to load
      <interfacename>Resource</interfacename>s. A
      <interfacename>Resource</interfacename> is essentially a more feature rich
      version of the JDK class <literal>java.net.URL</literal>, in fact, the
      implementations of the <interfacename>Resource</interfacename> wrap an
      instance of <literal>java.net.URL</literal> where appropriate. A
      <interfacename>Resource</interfacename> can obtain low-level resources
      from almost any location in a transparent fashion, including from the
      classpath, a filesystem location, anywhere describable with a standard
      URL, and some other variations. If the resource location string is a
      simple path without any special prefixes, where those resources come from
      is specific and appropriate to the actual application context type.</para>

    <para>You can configure a bean deployed into the application context to
      implement the special callback interface,
      <interfacename>ResourceLoaderAware</interfacename>, to be automatically
      called back at initialization time with the application context itself
      passed in as the <interfacename>ResourceLoader</interfacename>. You can
      also expose properties of type <interfacename>Resource</interfacename>, to
      be used to access static resources; they will be injected into it like any
      other properties. You can specify those
      <interfacename>Resource</interfacename> properties as simple String paths,
      and rely on a special JavaBean
      <interfacename>PropertyEditor</interfacename> that is automatically
      registered by the context, to convert those text strings to actual
      <interfacename>Resource</interfacename> objects when the bean is
      deployed.</para>

    <para>The location path or paths supplied to an
      <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> constructor are actually
      resource strings, and in simple form are treated appropriately to the
      specific context implementation.
      <classname>ClassPathXmlApplicationContext</classname> treats a simple
      location path as a classpath location. You can also use location paths
      (resource strings) with special prefixes to force loading of definitions
      from the classpath or a URL, regardless of the actual context type.</para>
  </section>

  <section id="context-create">
    <title>Convenient <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename>
      instantiation for web applications</title>

    <para>You can create <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename>
      instances declaratively by using, for example, a
      <classname>ContextLoader</classname>. Of course you can also create
      <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> instances
      programmatically by using one of the
      <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename> implementations.</para>

    <para>The <classname>ContextLoader</classname> mechanism comes in two
      flavors: the <classname>ContextLoaderListener</classname> and the
      <classname>ContextLoaderServlet</classname>. They have the same
      functionality but differ in that the listener version is not reliable in
      Servlet 2.3 containers. In the Servlet 2.4 specification, Servlet context
      listeners must execute immediately after the Servlet context for the web
      application is created and is available to service the first request (and
      also when the Servlet context is about to be shut down). As such a Servlet
      context listener is an ideal place to initialize the Spring
      <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename>. All things being equal,
      you should probably prefer <classname>ContextLoaderListener</classname>;
      for more information on compatibility, have a look at the Javadoc for the
      <classname>ContextLoaderServlet</classname>.</para>

    <para>You can register an <interfacename>ApplicationContext</interfacename>
      using the <classname>ContextLoaderListener</classname> as follows:</para>

    <programlisting language="xml">&lt;context-param&gt;
&lt;param-name&gt;contextConfigLocation&lt;/param-name&gt;
&lt;param-value&gt;/WEB-INF/daoContext.xml /WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml&lt;/param-value&gt;
&lt;/context-param&gt;

&lt;listener&gt;
&lt;listener-class&gt;org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener&lt;/listener-class&gt;
&lt;/listener&gt;

<lineannotation>&lt;!-- or use the <classname>ContextLoaderServlet</classname> instead of the above listener</lineannotation><emphasis>
&lt;servlet&gt;
&lt;servlet-name&gt;context&lt;/servlet-name&gt;
&lt;servlet-class&gt;org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderServlet&lt;/servlet-class&gt;
&lt;load-on-startup&gt;1&lt;/load-on-startup&gt;
&lt;/servlet&gt;
--</emphasis>&gt;</programlisting>

    <para>The listener inspects the <literal>contextConfigLocation</literal>
      parameter. If the parameter does not exist, the listener uses
      <literal>/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml</literal> as a default. When the
      parameter <emphasis>does</emphasis> exist, the listener separates the
      String by using predefined delimiters (comma, semicolon and whitespace)
      and uses the values as locations where application contexts will be
      searched. Ant-style path patterns are supported as well. Examples are
      <literal>/WEB-INF/*Context.xml</literal> for all files with names ending
      with "Context.xml", residing in the "WEB-INF" directory, and
      <literal>/WEB-INF/**/*Context.xml</literal>, for all such files in any
      subdirectory of "WEB-INF".</para>

    <para>You can use <classname>ContextLoaderServlet</classname> instead of
      <classname>ContextLoaderListener</classname>. The Servlet uses the
      <literal>contextConfigLocation</literal> parameter just as the listener
      does.</para>
  </section>

  <section id="context-deploy-rar">
    <title>Deploying a Spring ApplicationContext as a J2EE RAR file</title>

    <para>In Spring 2.5 and later, it is possible to deploy a Spring
      ApplicationContext as a RAR file, encapsulating the context and all of its
      required bean classes and library JARs in a J2EE RAR deployment unit. This
      is the equivalent of bootstrapping a standalone ApplicationContext, just
      hosted in J2EE environment, being able to access the J2EE servers
      facilities. RAR deployment is a more natural alternative to scenario of
      deploying a headless WAR file, in effect, a WAR file without any HTTP
      entry points that is used only for bootstrapping a Spring
      ApplicationContext in a J2EE environment.</para>

    <para>RAR deployment is ideal for application contexts that do not need HTTP
      entry points but rather consist only of message endpoints and scheduled
      jobs. Beans in such a context can use application server resources such as
      the JTA transaction manager and JNDI-bound JDBC DataSources and JMS
      ConnectionFactory instances, and may also register with the platform's JMX
      server - all through Spring's standard transaction management and JNDI and
      JMX support facilities. Application components can also interact with the
      application server's JCA WorkManager through Spring's
      <interfacename>TaskExecutor</interfacename> abstraction.</para>

    <para>Check out the JavaDoc of the <ulink
      url="http://static.springframework.org/spring/docs/current/api/org/springframework/jca/context/SpringContextResourceAdapter.html"
      >SpringContextResourceAdapter</ulink> class for the configuration details
      involved in RAR deployment.</para>

    <para><emphasis>For a simple deployment of a Spring ApplicationContext as a
      J2EE RAR file:</emphasis> package all application classes into a RAR file,
      which is a standard JAR file with a different file extension. Add all
      required library JARs into the root of the RAR archive. Add a
      "META-INF/ra.xml" deployment descriptor (as shown in
      <classname>SpringContextResourceAdapter</classname>s JavaDoc) and the
      corresponding Spring XML bean definition file(s) (typically
      "META-INF/applicationContext.xml"), and drop the resulting RAR file into
      your application server's deployment directory.</para>

    <note>
      <para>Such RAR deployment units are usually self-contained; they do not
        expose components to the outside world, not even to other modules of the
        same application. Interaction with a RAR-based ApplicationContext
        usually occurs through JMS destinations that it shares with other
        modules. A RAR-based ApplicationContext may also, for example, schedule
        some jobs, reacting to new files in the file system (or the like). If it
        needs to allow synchronous access from the outside, it could for example
        export RMI endpoints, which of course may be used by other application
        modules on the same machine.</para>
    </note>
  </section>
</section>
