What are advantages of using @ContextHierarchy over pure @ContextConfiguration

Question

Hi I don't understand what advantages give me usage of @ContextHierarchy like below:

@ContextHierarchy({
  @ContextConfiguration("/test-db-setup-context.xml"),
  @ContextConfiguration("FirstTest-context.xml")
})
@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
public class FirstTest {
 ...
}

@ContextHierarchy({
  @ContextConfiguration("/test-db-setup-context.xml"),
  @ContextConfiguration("SecondTest-context.xml")
})
@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
public class SecondTest {
 ...
}

over usage of single @ContextConfiguration with locations argument, like below:

@ContextConfiguration(locations = {"classpath:test-db-setup-context.xml", "FirstTest-context.xml", "SecondTest-context.xml" })

In each case, application contexts are shared across diffrent junit test classes.

Answer 1

The difference is that beans in each context within the context hierarchy can't see beans in the other the context. So you can isolate different parts of your item under test.