Is there a way to @Autowire a bean that requires constructor arguments?

Solution 1:

You need the @Value annotation.

A common use case is to assign default field values using "#{systemProperties.myProp}" style expressions.

public class SimpleMovieLister {

  private MovieFinder movieFinder;
  private String defaultLocale;

  @Autowired
  public void configure(MovieFinder movieFinder, 
                        @Value("#{ systemProperties['user.region'] }") String defaultLocale) {
      this.movieFinder = movieFinder;
      this.defaultLocale = defaultLocale;
  }

  // ...
}

See: Expression Language > Annotation Configuration

To be more clear: in your scenario, you'd wire two classes, MybeanService and MyConstructorClass, something like this:

@Component
public class MyBeanService implements BeanService{
    @Autowired
    public MybeanService(MyConstructorClass foo){
        // do something with foo
    }
}

@Component
public class MyConstructorClass{
    public MyConstructorClass(@Value("#{some expression here}") String value){
         // do something with value
    }
}

Update: if you need several different instances of MyConstructorClass with different values, you should use Qualifier annotations

Solution 2:

Well, from time to time I run into the same question. As far as I know, one cannot do that when one wants to add dynamic parameters to the constructor. However, the factory pattern may help.

public interface MyBean {
    // here be my fancy stuff
}

public interface MyBeanFactory {
    public MyBean getMyBean(/* bean parameters */);
}

@Component
public class MyBeanFactoryImpl implements MyBeanFactory {
    @Autowired
    WhateverIWantToInject somethingInjected;

    public MyBean getMyBean(/* params */) {
        return new MyBeanImpl(/* params */);
    }

    private class MyBeanImpl implements MyBean {
        public MyBeanImpl(/* params */) {
            // let's do whatever one has to
        }
    }
}

@Component
public class MyConsumerClass {
    @Autowired
    private MyBeanFactory beanFactory;

    public void myMethod() {
        // here one has to prepare the parameters
        MyBean bean = beanFactory.getMyBean(/* params */);
    }
}

Now, MyBean is not a spring bean per se, but it is close enough. Dependency Injection works, although I inject the factory and not the bean itself - one has to inject a new factory on top of his own new MyBean implementation if one wants to replace it.

Further, MyBean has access to other beans - because it may have access to the factory's autowired stuff.

And one might apparently want to add some logic to the getMyBean function, which is extra effort I allow, but unfortunately I have no better solution. Since the problem usually is that the dynamic parameters come from an external source, like a database, or user interaction, therefore I must instantiate that bean only in mid-run, only when that info is readily available, so the Factory should be quite adequate.