Spring scope references as enums? [duplicate]

Question

Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't there any class that provides Scope.PROTOTYPE, Scope.SINGLETON static references?

Or do I always have to use non-typesafe strings as scopes?

@Scope("prototype")
@Scope("singleton")

Answer 1

According to the Scope's documentation, the value element is of type String, not some enum constant. Hence we're searching for a class, where the possible values for the value element are exposed.

BeanDefinition is the class you're looking for. It provides several public static String fields, but you might be interested in these two:

SCOPE_SINGLETON
SCOPE_PROTOTYPE

And for example, they can be used like:

@Scope(value = BeanDefinition.SCOPE_PROTOTYPE)

I would advice for re-using them, instead of setting Strings literals all the time, as you might do some typo.

Answer 2

Constants that you can use to avoid literal Strings are:

ConfigurableBeanFactory.SCOPE_SINGLETON 
ConfigurableBeanFactory.SCOPE_PROTOTYPE
WebApplicationContext.SCOPE_REQUEST
WebApplicationContext.SCOPE_SESSION

source: http://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/javadoc-api/org/springframework/context/annotation/Scope.html