Overriding Spring bean

Question

I have the following scenario:

1. Spring project A with multiple bean configurations, including a bean named "searchHelper":
   <bean name="searchHelper" class="com.test.SearchHelperImpl"/>
   where SearchHelperImpl implements "SearchHelper" interface
2. Spring project B depends on A with a custom SearchHelperBImpl

What I was thinking of making is just copying the whole configuration into the new project and changing what needs to be changed, but that's not convenient and there must be an easier way of doing this.

My question is, how do I override the definition of the "searchHelper" bean to use SearchHelperBImpl instead of SearchHelperImpl? I want to use the same bean name in order for everything that uses this name to use the new implementation. I am using Spring 3.2.2

Thanks

Answer 1

You should be able to utilize the primary xml attribute on your bean element.

<bean name="searchHelper" primary="true" class="com.test.SearchHelperBImpl"/>

Alternatively, if you are using JavaConfig, you can utilize the @Primary annotation.

@Primary
@Bean
public SearchHelper searchHelper() {
    return new SearchHelperBImpl();
}