How to call a method after bean initialization is complete?

Question

To expand on the @PostConstruct suggestion in other answers, this really is the best solution, in my opinion.

• It keeps your code decoupled from the Spring API (@PostConstruct is in javax.*)
• It explicitly annotates your init method as something that needs to be called to initialize the bean
• You don't need to remember to add the init-method attribute to your spring bean definition, spring will automatically call the method (assuming you register the annotation-config option somewhere else in the context, anyway).

You can use something like:

<beans>
    <bean id="myBean" class="..." init-method="init"/>
</beans>

This will call the "init" method when the bean is instantiated.

There are three different approaches to consider, as described in the reference

Use init-method attribute

Pros:

• Does not require bean to implement an interface.

Cons:

• No immediate indication this method is required after construction to ensure the bean is correctly configured.

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Implement InitializingBean

Pros:

• No need to specify init-method, or turn on component scanning / annotation processing.
• Appropriate for beans supplied with a library, where we don't want the application using this library to concern itself with bean lifecycle.

Cons:

• More invasive than the init-method approach.

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Use JSR-250 @PostConstruct lifecyle annotation

Pros:

• Useful when using component scanning to autodetect beans.
• Makes it clear that a specific method is to be used for initialisation. Intent is closer to the code.

Cons:

• Initialisation no longer centrally specified in configuration.
• You must remember to turn on annotation processing (which can sometimes be forgotten)

Have you tried implementing InitializingBean? It sounds like exactly what you're after.

The downside is that your bean becomes Spring-aware, but in most applications that's not so bad.

You could deploy a custom BeanPostProcessor in your application context to do it. Or if you don't mind implementing a Spring interface in your bean, you could use the InitializingBean interface or the "init-method" directive (same link).