AbstractApplicationContext vs ApplicationContext

Question

what is the difference between AbstractApplicationContext and ApplicationContext ? can we call

context.registerShutdownHook()  

using ApplicationContext?

I saw this while going through a sample code -

public static void main(String[] args) {
    AbstractApplicationContext context =new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("Beans.xml");
    context.registerShutdownHook();
}

Answer 1

registerShutdownHook() gracefully shutdowns bean and preform finalization like calling the destroy methods. This is the method declared in the interface ConfigurableApplicationContext which is implemented by AbstractApplicationContext,and it is not implemented by ApplicationContext.So the invokation of registerShutdownHook() only possible from the AbstractApplicationContext's object