Using Spring IoC to set up enum values

OK, it's quite fiddly, but it CAN be done.

It's true that Spring cannot instantiate enums. But that's not a problem - Spring can also use factory methods.

This is the key component:

public class EnumAutowiringBeanFactoryPostProcessor implements BeanFactoryPostProcessor {

    private final List<Class<? extends Enum>> enumClasses = new ArrayList<>();

    public EnumAutowiringBeanFactoryPostProcessor(Class<? extends Enum>... enumClasses) {
        Collections.addAll(this.enumClasses, enumClasses);
    }

    @Override
    public void postProcessBeanFactory(ConfigurableListableBeanFactory beanFactory) throws BeansException {
        for (Class<? extends Enum> enumClass : enumClasses) {
            for (Enum enumVal : enumClass.getEnumConstants()) {
                BeanDefinition def = new AnnotatedGenericBeanDefinition(enumClass);
                def.setBeanClassName(enumClass.getName());
                def.setFactoryMethodName("valueOf");
                def.getConstructorArgumentValues().addGenericArgumentValue(enumVal.name());
                ((BeanDefinitionRegistry) beanFactory).registerBeanDefinition(enumClass.getName() + "." + enumVal.name(), def);
            }
        }
    }
}

Then the following test class shows that it works:

@Test
public class AutowiringEnumTest {

    public void shouldAutowireEnum() {
        new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(MyConig.class);

        assertEquals(AutowiredEnum.ONE.myClass.field, "fooBar");
        assertEquals(AutowiredEnum.TWO.myClass.field, "fooBar");
        assertEquals(AutowiredEnum.THREE.myClass.field, "fooBar");
    }

    @Configuration
    public static class MyConig {

        @Bean
        public MyClass myObject() {
            return new MyClass("fooBar");
        }

        @Bean
        public BeanFactoryPostProcessor postProcessor() {
            return new EnumAutowiringBeanFactoryPostProcessor(AutowiredEnum.class);
        }
    }

    public enum AutowiredEnum {
        ONE,
        TWO,
        THREE;

        @Resource
        private MyClass myClass;

    }

    public static class MyClass {

        private final String field;

        public MyClass(String field) {
            this.field = field;
        }
   }

}

I don't think it can be done from Spring's ApplicationContext configuration. But, do you really need it done by Spring, or can you settle for simple externalization using ResourceBundle; like this:

public enum Car
{
    NANO,
    MERCEDES,
    FERRARI;

    public final String cost;
    public final String madeIn;

    Car()
    {
            this.cost = BUNDLE.getString("Car." + name() + ".cost");
            this.madeIn = BUNDLE.getString("Car." + name() + ".madeIn");
    }

    private static final ResourceBundle BUNDLE = ResourceBundle.getBundle(...);

}

In the properties file, one for each specific locale, enter the keys describing the possible internal enum values:

Car.NANO.cost=Very cheap
Car.NANO.madeIn=India
Car.MERCEDES.cost=Expensive
...

The only drawback of this approach is having to repeat the name of enum fields (cost, madeIn) in Java code as strings. Edit: And on the plus side, you can stack all properties of all enums into one properties file per language/locale.

Do you mean setting up the enum itself?

I don't think that's possible. You cannot instantiate enums because they have a static nature. So I think that Spring IoC can't create enums as well.

On the other hand, if you need to set initialize something with a enum please check out the Spring IoC chapter. (search for enum) There's a simple example that you can use.

Why not provide a setter (or constructor argument) that takes a String, and simply call Enum.valueOf(String s) to convert from a String to an enum. Note an exception will get thrown if this fails, and your Spring initialisation will bail out.