Fine grained Spring autowiring not working (@Autowired with additional custom annotation)

Question

I'm trying to implement fine grained @Autowired configuration using basically the example from the spring documentation at: http://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/3.2.0.RELEASE/spring-framework-reference/html/beans.html#beans-autowired-annotation-qualifiers.

Given the following testcase:

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration(classes=ExampleConfiguration.class)
public class ExampleTest {

    @Autowired @ExampleQualifier(key="x")
    private ExampleBean beanWithQualifierKeyX;

    @Test
    public void test() {
        System.out.println(this.beanWithQualifierKeyX);
    }

}

and the following configuration:

@Configuration
public class ExampleConfiguration {

    @Bean
    @ExampleQualifier(key = "x")
    public ExampleBean exampleBean1() {
        return new ExampleBean();
    }

    @Bean
    @ExampleQualifier(key = "y")
    public ExampleBean exampleBean2() {
        return new ExampleBean();
    }

    @Bean
    public ExampleBean exampleBean3() {
        return new ExampleBean();
    }

}

with the custom qualifier annoation:

@Qualifier
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public @interface ExampleQualifier {

    String key();

}

What I would expect is the following: The property beanWithQualifierKeyX should be autowired using the first bean from the configuration class. Both the annotation on the configuration and the annotation on the property have the key="x" setting so this should be the only match. As far as I can see this is almost the same as MovieQualifier annotation from the Spring example documentation.

However, when I execute the test I get the following error:

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: 
Could not autowire field: private xxx.ExampleBean xxx.ExampleTest.beanWithQualifierKeyX; 

nested exception is

org.springframework.beans.factory.NoSuchBeanDefinitionException: 
No unique bean of type [xxx.ExampleBean] is defined: 
expected single matching bean but found 2: [exampleBean1, exampleBean2]

It looks like Spring does perform a match against the annotation (since both exampleBean1 and exampleBean2 are annotated) but doesn't take into account the value for the key of the annotation - otherwise x would be a perfect match.

Did I miss something in the configuration process or why is there no match?

The Spring version I'm using is 3.2.0.RELEASE

In your custom qualifier I miss the @Target annotation and I'm not sure but instead of key try value. — M. Deinum
I tried both approaches - adding @Target (field and method) as well as using value instead of key - same result, the error still persists. — Christian Seifert
Have you tried injecting it into something else as a testcase? I'm wondering if this is a general issue or only a test thing. — M. Deinum
Tested it localy works like a charm (used the latest 3.2.x release). Tested it again with 3.2.0 and it fails. So looks like an issue in 3.2.0. Upgrade spring version to the latest 3.2.x release. — M. Deinum
Note that it also works if you use @javax.inject.Qualifier in 3.2.0. — Sotirios Delimanolis

Ralph Ralph · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-14T15:54:17

There is/was an bug in Spring 3.2.0 Autowiring with @Qualifier and @Qualifier meta annotation fails in Spring 3.2 (fixed in 3.2.1)

Its description sound exactly like your problem.

So update to 3.2.1

Fine grained Spring autowiring not working (@Autowired with additional custom annotation)

1 Answers