
[[resources]]
= Resources


[[resources-introduction]]
== Introduction
Java's standard `java.net.URL` class and standard handlers for various URL prefixes
unfortunately are not quite adequate enough for all access to low-level resources. For
example, there is no standardized `URL` implementation that may be used to access a
resource that needs to be obtained from the classpath, or relative to a
`ServletContext`. While it is possible to register new handlers for specialized `URL`
prefixes (similar to existing handlers for prefixes such as `http:`), this is generally
quite complicated, and the `URL` interface still lacks some desirable functionality,
such as a method to check for the existence of the resource being pointed to.


[[resources-resource]]
== The Resource interface

Spring's `Resource` interface is meant to be a more capable interface for abstracting
access to low-level resources.

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	public interface Resource extends InputStreamSource {

		boolean exists();

		boolean isOpen();

		URL getURL() throws IOException;

		File getFile() throws IOException;

		Resource createRelative(String relativePath) throws IOException;

		String getFilename();

		String getDescription();

	}
----

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	public interface InputStreamSource {

		InputStream getInputStream() throws IOException;

	}
----

Some of the most important methods from the `Resource` interface are:

* `getInputStream()`: locates and opens the resource, returning an `InputStream` for
  reading from the resource. It is expected that each invocation returns a fresh
  `InputStream`. It is the responsibility of the caller to close the stream.
* `exists()`: returns a `boolean` indicating whether this resource actually exists in
  physical form.
* `isOpen()`: returns a `boolean` indicating whether this resource represents a handle
  with an open stream. If `true`, the `InputStream` cannot be read multiple times, and
  must be read once only and then closed to avoid resource leaks. Will be `false` for
  all usual resource implementations, with the exception of `InputStreamResource`.
* `getDescription()`: returns a description for this resource, to be used for error
  output when working with the resource. This is often the fully qualified file name or
  the actual URL of the resource.

Other methods allow you to obtain an actual `URL` or `File` object representing the
resource (if the underlying implementation is compatible, and supports that
functionality).

The `Resource` abstraction is used extensively in Spring itself, as an argument type in
many method signatures when a resource is needed. Other methods in some Spring APIs
(such as the constructors to various `ApplicationContext` implementations), take a
`String` which in unadorned or simple form is used to create a `Resource` appropriate to
that context implementation, or via special prefixes on the `String` path, allow the
caller to specify that a specific `Resource` implementation must be created and used.

While the `Resource` interface is used a lot with Spring and by Spring, it's actually
very useful to use as a general utility class by itself in your own code, for access to
resources, even when your code doesn't know or care about any other parts of Spring.
While this couples your code to Spring, it really only couples it to this small set of
utility classes, which are serving as a more capable replacement for `URL`, and can be
considered equivalent to any other library you would use for this purpose.

It is important to note that the `Resource` abstraction does not replace functionality:
it wraps it where possible. For example, a `UrlResource` wraps a URL, and uses the
wrapped `URL` to do its work.




[[resources-implementations]]
== Built-in Resource implementations

There are a number of `Resource` implementations that come supplied straight out of the
box in Spring:



[[resources-implementations-urlresource]]
=== UrlResource

The `UrlResource` wraps a `java.net.URL`, and may be used to access any object that is
normally accessible via a URL, such as files, an HTTP target, an FTP target, etc. All
URLs have a standardized `String` representation, such that appropriate standardized
prefixes are used to indicate one URL type from another. This includes `file:` for
accessing filesystem paths, `http:` for accessing resources via the HTTP protocol,
`ftp:` for accessing resources via FTP, etc.

A `UrlResource` is created by Java code explicitly using the `UrlResource` constructor,
but will often be created implicitly when you call an API method which takes a `String`
argument which is meant to represent a path. For the latter case, a JavaBeans
`PropertyEditor` will ultimately decide which type of `Resource` to create. If the path
string contains a few well-known (to it, that is) prefixes such as `classpath:`, it will
create an appropriate specialized `Resource` for that prefix. However, if it doesn't
recognize the prefix, it will assume the this is just a standard URL string, and will
create a `UrlResource`.



[[resources-implementations-classpathresource]]
=== ClassPathResource

This class represents a resource which should be obtained from the classpath. This uses
either the thread context class loader, a given class loader, or a given class for
loading resources.

This `Resource` implementation supports resolution as `java.io.File` if the class path
resource resides in the file system, but not for classpath resources which reside in a
jar and have not been expanded (by the servlet engine, or whatever the environment is)
to the filesystem. To address this the various `Resource` implementations always support
resolution as a `java.net.URL`.

A `ClassPathResource` is created by Java code explicitly using the `ClassPathResource`
constructor, but will often be created implicitly when you call an API method which
takes a `String` argument which is meant to represent a path. For the latter case, a
JavaBeans `PropertyEditor` will recognize the special prefix `classpath:` on the string
path, and create a `ClassPathResource` in that case.



[[resources-implementations-filesystemresource]]
=== FileSystemResource

This is a `Resource` implementation for `java.io.File` handles. It obviously supports
resolution as a `File`, and as a `URL`.



[[resources-implementations-servletcontextresource]]
=== ServletContextResource

This is a `Resource` implementation for `ServletContext` resources, interpreting
relative paths within the relevant web application's root directory.

This always supports stream access and URL access, but only allows `java.io.File` access
when the web application archive is expanded and the resource is physically on the
filesystem. Whether or not it's expanded and on the filesystem like this, or accessed
directly from the JAR or somewhere else like a DB (it's conceivable) is actually
dependent on the Servlet container.



[[resources-implementations-inputstreamresource]]
=== InputStreamResource

A `Resource` implementation for a given `InputStream`. This should only be used if no
specific `Resource` implementation is applicable. In particular, prefer
`ByteArrayResource` or any of the file-based `Resource` implementations where possible.

In contrast to other `Resource` implementations, this is a descriptor for an __already__
opened resource - therefore returning `true` from `isOpen()`. Do not use it if you need
to keep the resource descriptor somewhere, or if you need to read a stream multiple
times.



[[resources-implementations-bytearrayresource]]
=== ByteArrayResource

This is a `Resource` implementation for a given byte array. It creates a
`ByteArrayInputStream` for the given byte array.

It's useful for loading content from any given byte array, without having to resort to a
single-use `InputStreamResource`.




[[resources-resourceloader]]
== The ResourceLoader

The `ResourceLoader` interface is meant to be implemented by objects that can return
(i.e. load) `Resource` instances.

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	public interface ResourceLoader {

		Resource getResource(String location);

	}
----

All application contexts implement the `ResourceLoader` interface, and therefore all
application contexts may be used to obtain `Resource` instances.

When you call `getResource()` on a specific application context, and the location path
specified doesn't have a specific prefix, you will get back a `Resource` type that is
appropriate to that particular application context. For example, assume the following
snippet of code was executed against a `ClassPathXmlApplicationContext` instance:

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	Resource template = ctx.getResource("some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt");
----

What would be returned would be a `ClassPathResource`; if the same method was executed
against a `FileSystemXmlApplicationContext` instance, you'd get back a
`FileSystemResource`. For a `WebApplicationContext`, you'd get back a
`ServletContextResource`, and so on.

As such, you can load resources in a fashion appropriate to the particular application
context.

On the other hand, you may also force `ClassPathResource` to be used, regardless of the
application context type, by specifying the special `classpath:` prefix:

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	Resource template = ctx.getResource("classpath:some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt");
----

Similarly, one can force a `UrlResource` to be used by specifying any of the standard
`java.net.URL` prefixes:

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	Resource template = ctx.getResource("file:///some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt");
----

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	Resource template = ctx.getResource("http://myhost.com/resource/path/myTemplate.txt");
----

The following table summarizes the strategy for converting ``String``s to ``Resource``s:

[[resources-resource-strings]]
.Resource strings
|===
| Prefix| Example| Explanation

| classpath:
| `classpath:com/myapp/config.xml`
| Loaded from the classpath.

| file:
| `file:///data/config.xml`
| Loaded as a `URL`, from the filesystem. footnote:[But see also
  pass:specialcharacters,macros[<<resources-filesystemresource-caveats>>].]

| http:
| `http://myserver/logo.png`
| Loaded as a `URL`.

| (none)
| `/data/config.xml`
| Depends on the underlying `ApplicationContext`.
|===




[[resources-resourceloaderaware]]
== The ResourceLoaderAware interface

The `ResourceLoaderAware` interface is a special marker interface, identifying objects
that expect to be provided with a `ResourceLoader` reference.

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	public interface ResourceLoaderAware {

		void setResourceLoader(ResourceLoader resourceLoader);
	}
----

When a class implements `ResourceLoaderAware` and is deployed into an application
context (as a Spring-managed bean), it is recognized as `ResourceLoaderAware` by the
application context. The application context will then invoke the
`setResourceLoader(ResourceLoader)`, supplying itself as the argument (remember, all
application contexts in Spring implement the `ResourceLoader` interface).

Of course, since an `ApplicationContext` is a `ResourceLoader`, the bean could also
implement the `ApplicationContextAware` interface and use the supplied application
context directly to load resources, but in general, it's better to use the specialized
`ResourceLoader` interface if that's all that's needed. The code would just be coupled
to the resource loading interface, which can be considered a utility interface, and not
the whole Spring `ApplicationContext` interface.

As of Spring 2.5, you can rely upon autowiring of the `ResourceLoader` as an alternative
to implementing the `ResourceLoaderAware` interface. The "traditional" `constructor` and
`byType` autowiring modes (as described in <<beans-factory-autowire>>) are now capable
of providing a dependency of type `ResourceLoader` for either a constructor argument or
setter method parameter respectively. For more flexibility (including the ability to
autowire fields and multiple parameter methods), consider using the new annotation-based
autowiring features. In that case, the `ResourceLoader` will be autowired into a field,
constructor argument, or method parameter that is expecting the `ResourceLoader` type as
long as the field, constructor, or method in question carries the `@Autowired`
annotation. For more information, see <<beans-autowired-annotation>>.




[[resources-as-dependencies]]
== Resources as dependencies

If the bean itself is going to determine and supply the resource path through some sort
of dynamic process, it probably makes sense for the bean to use the `ResourceLoader`
interface to load resources. Consider as an example the loading of a template of some
sort, where the specific resource that is needed depends on the role of the user. If the
resources are static, it makes sense to eliminate the use of the `ResourceLoader`
interface completely, and just have the bean expose the `Resource` properties it needs,
and expect that they will be injected into it.

What makes it trivial to then inject these properties, is that all application contexts
register and use a special JavaBeans `PropertyEditor` which can convert `String` paths
to `Resource` objects. So if `myBean` has a template property of type `Resource`, it can
be configured with a simple string for that resource, as follows:

[source,xml,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	<bean id="myBean" class="...">
		<property name="template" value="some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt"/>
	</bean>
----

Note that the resource path has no prefix, so because the application context itself is
going to be used as the `ResourceLoader`, the resource itself will be loaded via a
`ClassPathResource`, `FileSystemResource`, or `ServletContextResource` (as appropriate)
depending on the exact type of the context.

If there is a need to force a specific `Resource` type to be used, then a prefix may be
used. The following two examples show how to force a `ClassPathResource` and a
`UrlResource` (the latter being used to access a filesystem file).

[source,xml,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	<property name="template" value="classpath:some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt">
----

[source,xml,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	<property name="template" value="file:///some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt"/>
----




[[resources-app-ctx]]
== Application contexts and Resource paths



[[resources-app-ctx-construction]]
=== Constructing application contexts
An application context constructor (for a specific application context type) generally
takes a string or array of strings as the location path(s) of the resource(s) such as
XML files that make up the definition of the context.

When such a location path doesn't have a prefix, the specific `Resource` type built from
that path and used to load the bean definitions, depends on and is appropriate to the
specific application context. For example, if you create a
`ClassPathXmlApplicationContext` as follows:

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	ApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("conf/appContext.xml");
----

The bean definitions will be loaded from the classpath, as a `ClassPathResource` will be
used. But if you create a `FileSystemXmlApplicationContext` as follows:

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	ApplicationContext ctx =
		new FileSystemXmlApplicationContext("conf/appContext.xml");
----

The bean definition will be loaded from a filesystem location, in this case relative to
the current working directory.

Note that the use of the special classpath prefix or a standard URL prefix on the
location path will override the default type of `Resource` created to load the
definition. So this `FileSystemXmlApplicationContext`...

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	ApplicationContext ctx =
		new FileSystemXmlApplicationContext("classpath:conf/appContext.xml");
----

... will actually load its bean definitions from the classpath. However, it is still a
`FileSystemXmlApplicationContext`. If it is subsequently used as a `ResourceLoader`, any
unprefixed paths will still be treated as filesystem paths.


[[resources-app-ctx-classpathxml]]
==== Constructing ClassPathXmlApplicationContext instances - shortcuts

The `ClassPathXmlApplicationContext` exposes a number of constructors to enable
convenient instantiation. The basic idea is that one supplies merely a string array
containing just the filenames of the XML files themselves (without the leading path
information), and one __also__ supplies a `Class`; the `ClassPathXmlApplicationContext`
will derive the path information from the supplied class.

An example will hopefully make this clear. Consider a directory layout that looks like
this:

[literal]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
com/
  foo/
	services.xml
	daos.xml
    MessengerService.class
----

A `ClassPathXmlApplicationContext` instance composed of the beans defined in the
`'services.xml'` and `'daos.xml'` could be instantiated like so...

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	ApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(
		new String[] {"services.xml", "daos.xml"}, MessengerService.class);
----

Please do consult the `ClassPathXmlApplicationContext` javadocs for details
on the various constructors.



[[resources-app-ctx-wildcards-in-resource-paths]]
=== Wildcards in application context constructor resource paths
The resource paths in application context constructor values may be a simple path (as
shown above) which has a one-to-one mapping to a target Resource, or alternately may
contain the special "classpath*:" prefix and/or internal Ant-style regular expressions
(matched using Spring's `PathMatcher` utility). Both of the latter are effectively
wildcards

One use for this mechanism is when doing component-style application assembly. All
components can 'publish' context definition fragments to a well-known location path, and
when the final application context is created using the same path prefixed via
`classpath*:`, all component fragments will be picked up automatically.

Note that this wildcarding is specific to use of resource paths in application context
constructors (or when using the `PathMatcher` utility class hierarchy directly), and is
resolved at construction time. It has nothing to do with the `Resource` type itself.
It's not possible to use the `classpath*:` prefix to construct an actual `Resource`, as
a resource points to just one resource at a time.


[[resources-app-ctx-ant-patterns-in-paths]]
==== Ant-style Patterns
When the path location contains an Ant-style pattern, for example:

[literal]
[subs="verbatim"]
----
/WEB-INF/*-context.xml
  com/mycompany/**/applicationContext.xml
  file:C:/some/path/*-context.xml
  classpath:com/mycompany/**/applicationContext.xml
----

The resolver follows a more complex but defined procedure to try to resolve the
wildcard. It produces a Resource for the path up to the last non-wildcard segment and
obtains a URL from it. If this URL is not a `jar:` URL or container-specific variant
(e.g. `zip:` in WebLogic, `wsjar` in WebSphere, etc.), then a `java.io.File` is
obtained from it and used to resolve the wildcard by traversing the filesystem. In the
case of a jar URL, the resolver either gets a `java.net.JarURLConnection` from it or
manually parses the jar URL and then traverses the contents of the jar file to resolve
the wildcards.

[[resources-app-ctx-portability]]
===== Implications on portability
If the specified path is already a file URL (either explicitly, or implicitly because
the base `ResourceLoader` is a filesystem one, then wildcarding is guaranteed to work in
a completely portable fashion.

If the specified path is a classpath location, then the resolver must obtain the last
non-wildcard path segment URL via a `Classloader.getResource()` call. Since this is just
a node of the path (not the file at the end) it is actually undefined (in the
`ClassLoader` javadocs) exactly what sort of a URL is returned in this case. In
practice, it is always a `java.io.File` representing the directory, where the classpath
resource resolves to a filesystem location, or a jar URL of some sort, where the
classpath resource resolves to a jar location. Still, there is a portability concern on
this operation.

If a jar URL is obtained for the last non-wildcard segment, the resolver must be able to
get a `java.net.JarURLConnection` from it, or manually parse the jar URL, to be able to
walk the contents of the jar, and resolve the wildcard. This will work in most
environments, but will fail in others, and it is strongly recommended that the wildcard
resolution of resources coming from jars be thoroughly tested in your specific
environment before you rely on it.


[[resources-classpath-wildcards]]
==== The Classpath*: portability classpath*: prefix

When constructing an XML-based application context, a location string may use the
special `classpath*:` prefix:

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	ApplicationContext ctx =
		new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("classpath*:conf/appContext.xml");
----

This special prefix specifies that all classpath resources that match the given name
must be obtained (internally, this essentially happens via a
`ClassLoader.getResources(...)` call), and then merged to form the final application
context definition.

[NOTE]
====
The wildcard classpath relies on the `getResources()` method of the underlying
classloader. As most application servers nowadays supply their own classloader
implementation, the behavior might differ especially when dealing with jar files. A
simple test to check if `classpath*` works is to use the classloader to load a file from
within a jar on the classpath:
`getClass().getClassLoader().getResources("<someFileInsideTheJar>")`. Try this test with
files that have the same name but are placed inside two different locations. In case an
inappropriate result is returned, check the application server documentation for
settings that might affect the classloader behavior.
====

The `classpath*:` prefix can also be combined with a `PathMatcher` pattern in the
rest of the location path, for example `classpath*:META-INF/*-beans.xml`. In this
case, the resolution strategy is fairly simple: a `ClassLoader.getResources()` call is
used on the last non-wildcard path segment to get all the matching resources in the
class loader hierarchy, and then off each resource the same PathMatcher resolution
strategy described above is used for the wildcard subpath.


[[resources-wildcards-in-path-other-stuff]]
==== Other notes relating to wildcards
Please note that `classpath*:` when combined with Ant-style patterns will only work
reliably with at least one root directory before the pattern starts, unless the actual
target files reside in the file system. This means that a pattern like
`classpath*:*.xml` will not retrieve files from the root of jar files but rather only
from the root of expanded directories. This originates from a limitation in the JDK's
`ClassLoader.getResources()` method which only returns file system locations for a
passed-in empty string (indicating potential roots to search).

Ant-style patterns with `classpath:` resources are not guaranteed to find matching
resources if the root package to search is available in multiple class path locations.
This is because a resource such as

[literal]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
com/mycompany/package1/service-context.xml
----

may be in only one location, but when a path such as

[literal]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
classpath:com/mycompany/**/service-context.xml
----

is used to try to resolve it, the resolver will work off the (first) URL returned by
`getResource("com/mycompany")`;. If this base package node exists in multiple
classloader locations, the actual end resource may not be underneath. Therefore,
preferably, use " `classpath*:`" with the same Ant-style pattern in such a case, which
will search all class path locations that contain the root package.



[[resources-filesystemresource-caveats]]
=== FileSystemResource caveats

A `FileSystemResource` that is not attached to a `FileSystemApplicationContext` (that
is, a `FileSystemApplicationContext` is not the actual `ResourceLoader`) will treat
absolute vs. relative paths as you would expect. Relative paths are relative to the
current working directory, while absolute paths are relative to the root of the
filesystem.

For backwards compatibility (historical) reasons however, this changes when the
`FileSystemApplicationContext` is the `ResourceLoader`. The
`FileSystemApplicationContext` simply forces all attached `FileSystemResource` instances
to treat all location paths as relative, whether they start with a leading slash or not.
In practice, this means the following are equivalent:

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	ApplicationContext ctx =
		new FileSystemXmlApplicationContext("conf/context.xml");
----

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	ApplicationContext ctx =
		new FileSystemXmlApplicationContext("/conf/context.xml");
----

As are the following: (Even though it would make sense for them to be different, as one
case is relative and the other absolute.)

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	FileSystemXmlApplicationContext ctx = ...;
	ctx.getResource("some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt");
----

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	FileSystemXmlApplicationContext ctx = ...;
	ctx.getResource("/some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt");
----

In practice, if true absolute filesystem paths are needed, it is better to forgo the use
of absolute paths with `FileSystemResource` / `FileSystemXmlApplicationContext`, and
just force the use of a `UrlResource`, by using the `file:` URL prefix.

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	// actual context type doesn't matter, the Resource will always be UrlResource
	ctx.getResource("file:///some/resource/path/myTemplate.txt");
----

[source,java,indent=0]
[subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	// force this FileSystemXmlApplicationContext to load its definition via a UrlResource
	ApplicationContext ctx =
		new FileSystemXmlApplicationContext("file:///conf/context.xml");
----

