Loading an object in ServletContext (application scope)

Question

I would like to put two small constant objects (one TreeMap and one ArrayList) somewhere in the ServletContext of a Struts2 webapp (running under Tomcat 6), such that those objects may be accessible from any JSP, through the Application Scope.

Under Struts1, I would have used one of those startup "plug-ins" (defined in struts-config.xml). Is there an equivalent way of achieving the same result with Struts2?

Alternatively (and maybe even better), since my webapp uses Spring configured in Tomcat with Spring's ContextLoaderListener, can I rely on Spring instead? For instance by creating a bean that declares some appropriate "ApplicationAware" interface...

Answer 1

If this was my application (and we're using a fairly similar architecture), I'd inject a singleton spring bean into the base class of my struts2 controller class, but all my jsp's have controllers and all share a common base class.

Answer 2

Take 2: Implement the ServletContextAware interface on one of your spring beans and just do the necessary modifications to the context. If necessary do it in a @PostConstruct annotated method because then your bean is complete at the time you update the servletcontext.

Answer 3

Take 3: You might want to check out Spring Servlet Context scope