Spring syntax for setting a Class object?

Question

Is there a way to set a property in spring to, not an instance of a class, but the class object itself? i.e.

Rather than

<bean>    <property name="prototype" class="a.b.c.Foo">... 

giving you an instance of "Foo", something like:

<bean>   <property name="prototype" class="java.lang.Class" value="a.b.c.Foo.class"... 

edit: best (working) solution so far - use the normal instantiation and derive the class in the setter. In terms of solutions I think this we'd describe this as "cheating":

<bean class="Bar">    <property name="prototype" class="a.b.c.Foo">...   public class Bar{         public void setPrototype(Object o){                 this.prototypeClass=o.getClass(); 

edit: dtsazza's method works as well.

edit: pedromarce's method works as well.

Answer 1

<bean>    <property name="x">       <value type="java.lang.Class">a.b.c.Foo</value>    </property>  </bean> 

That should work.

Answer 2

You could certainly use the static factory method Class.forName(), if there's no more elegant syntax (and I don't believe there is):

<property name="x">    <bean class="java.lang.Class" factory-method="forName">       <constructor-arg value="a.b.c.Foo"/>    </bean> </property>