Spring - When should I consider loading another context in same JVM?

Question

I was just thinking that when should I actually consider loading more than one application contexts in Spring? All so far I have been merging the context files with <include> such that only one application context loads up.

Do you have an idea about when to go for more than one application contexts in the same JVM?

Answer 1

When you need to use hierarchical contexts, for example - like Spring MVC does. Your "web" context is loaded separately from your "main" context, so stuff defined in "main" context (services / DAOs / etc) is available to "web" but not the other way around.