Component Scan in Spring

In this tutorial we will explain what is Component Scanning in Spring and how to use @ComponentScan annotation in Spring and Spring Boot applications.

1. What is component scan?

The process of discovering Spring Components within classpath of the application is called Component Scanning in Spring. Later spring will use them to add in application context.

The classes annotated with @Component, @Controller, @Service, @Repository, @Configuration, @RestController etc will be treated as Spring Components.

2. @ComponentScan annotation

@ComponentScan annotation tells Spring that where to look for Spring Components explicitly. @ComponentScan annotation is used with @Configuration annotation.

3. Using @ComonentScan without attribute

@ComonentScan without attribute tells that Spring to discover components in current package and within it’s sub packages. Let’s have look at following example, component classes available in reptiles base package and in crocodles, snakes sub-packages, they are annotated with @Component.

@ComponentScan
@Configuration
public class ComponentScanNoAttributeConfig {

}

Testing :

public class ComponentScanNoAttributeConfigTest {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		ApplicationContext ctxt = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(ComponentScanNoAttributeConfig.class);

		String[] springComponents = ctxt.getBeanDefinitionNames();

		for (String bean : springComponents)
			System.out.println(bean);
	}
}

If you run above program, you will see following classes are available in application context.

componentScanNoAttributeConfig
crocodle
snake
turtle
dwarfCrocodle
nileCrocodle
orinocoCrocodle
siameseCrocodle
blackMamba
capeCobra
easternGreenMamba
egyptianCobra
equatorialCobra
monocledCobra

4. Using @ComponentScan in Spring Boot

In Spring Boot application we use @SpringBootApplication annotation to start the application. But it’s combination of @Configuration, @EnableAutoConfiguration and @ComponentScan annotations. In Spring Boot applications, component scanning happen implicitly.

Let’s create SpringBootApp class in reptiles package and configure @SpringBootApplication.

@SpringBootApplication
public class SpringBootApp {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		ConfigurableApplicationContext ctxt = SpringApplication.run(SpringBootApp.class, args);

		String[] beans = ctxt.getBeanDefinitionNames();
		
		for(String bean : beans)
			System.out.println(bean);
	}
}

Disable ComponentScanNoAttributeConfig and run the above program, you will see following spring beans in application context.

crocodle
snake
turtle
dwarfCrocodle
nileCrocodle
orinocoCrocodle
siameseCrocodle
blackMamba
capeCobra
easternGreenMamba
egyptianCobra
equatorialCobra
monocledCobra

... other spring internal beans

5. @ComonentScan with attribute

We can tell Spring to which packages to scan specifically by using basePackages attribute. Let’s see few examples.

Following are the complete list of Components available in the sample project.

5.1. Scanning Base Packages using @ComonentScan

Following example demonstrates how to scan components only within reptiles and its sub packages specifically.

@Configuration
@ComponentScan(basePackages = "com.javabydeveloper.spring.bean.animal.reptiles")
public class ReptilesConfig {

}

Testing:

public class ReptilesConfigDemo {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
    	ApplicationContext ctxt = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(ReptilesConfig.class);
        
        String[] springComponents = ctxt.getBeanDefinitionNames();
        
        for(String bean : springComponents)
        	System.out.println(bean);  
    }
}

Results:

reptilesConfig
crocodle
snake
turtle
dwarfCrocodle
nileCrocodle
orinocoCrocodle
siameseCrocodle
blackMamba
capeCobra
easternGreenMamba
egyptianCobra
equatorialCobra
monocledCobra

5.2. Scanning Multiple Packages

We can specify multiple packages using basePackages attribute. Let’s see an example.

@Configuration
@ComponentScan(basePackages = {"com.javabydeveloper.spring.bean.animal.amphibians", 
		"com.javabydeveloper.spring.bean.animal.reptiles.crocodles"})
public class ScanMultiplePackageConfig {

}

Testing:

public class ScanMultiplePackageConfigDemo {
	 public static void main(String[] args) {
	    	ApplicationContext ctxt = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(ScanMultiplePackageConfig.class);
	        
	        String[] springComponents = ctxt.getBeanDefinitionNames();
	        
	        for(String bean : springComponents)
	        	System.out.println(bean);  
	    }
}

Results:

scanMultiplePackageConfig
frog
newt
toad
dwarfCrocodle
nileCrocodle
orinocoCrocodle
siameseCrocodle

5.3. Using basePackageClasses attribute

basePackageClasses is type-safe alternative to basePackages for specifying the packages to scan for annotated components. The package of each class specified will be scanned. In following example BlackMamba belongs to snakes package and Frog belongs to amphibians package.

@Configuration
@ComponentScan(basePackageClasses = {BlackMamba.class, Frog.class})
public class ScanBasePackageClassesConfig {

}

Testing:

public class ScanBasePackageClassesConfigDemo {
	 public static void main(String[] args) {
	    	ApplicationContext ctxt = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(ScanBasePackageClassesConfig.class);
	        
	        String[] springComponents = ctxt.getBeanDefinitionNames();
	        
	        for(String bean : springComponents)
	        	System.out.println(bean);  
	    }
}

Results:

blackMamba
capeCobra
easternGreenMamba
egyptianCobra
equatorialCobra
monocledCobra
frog
newt
toad

6. Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have learned what is component scan in Spring and how to discover components using @ComponentScan annotation.

You can get source code at our GitHub repository.

7. References

1. Spring Reference Document
2. Spring Java Document

Other Related Tutorials:

1. Spring @Autowired
2. Spring @Lazy
3. Spring Boot XML Configuration
4. Spring Injecting Collection
5. Spring @Order
6. Spring @Primary
7. Spring @Import
8. Spring @ComponentScan Filter Types