July, 2011
Spring 3.0 – BeanFactory vs ApplicationContext
ApplicationContext is much the same as a BeanFactory. Both load bean definitions, wire beans together, and dispense beans upon request. But there are differences, ApplicationContext extends BeanFactory by providing additional features, see below the differences. BeanFactory: An Interface that implements Factory-Pattern A bean factory “lazily loads” all beans, deferring bean creation until the getBean() method is called. [...]