Whats the consensus on Spring p namespace for Beans?

Question

It's been out for a while so I am wondering if people are using the p XML namespace within their Spring configuration files. Is it a helpful shortcut? Is it a good idea that ended up in the trash can?

Where does the Java community largely stand?

Answer 1

I've never used it, although remember reading about it when released, and rediscovered it's existence recently when browsing the spring reference docs, but even after that, I still find I write properites out in full.

It sounds like a good idea, but I can never remember the schema URL (since I usually copy and paste these from other spring contexts that don't use the p: namespace)

I'm using IDEA, so maybe that has some clever import/add namespace feature?

Answer 2

I use it in every single Spring project I've ever touched. I'd guess my current team has a codebase with at least 50 different Spring files and every one uses the p namespace. It's a lot less typing, and arguably more readable. For instance:

<bean id="fry" class="com.fox">
  <property name="leela" value="fracas" />
  <property name="hawking" ref="panucci" />
  <property name="bender">
    <ref local="uhura" />
  </property>
</bean>

Can much more easily be written as

<bean id="fry" class="com.fox"
  p:leela="fracas
  p:hawking-ref="panucci"
  p:bender="uhura" />

The only drawback is that you lose the ability to use the local semantic, though honestly I don't use it that often.

The Eclipse's Spring IDE supports the p-namespace and will autocomplete property names for beans. You can even modifier-click the property names to jump to their declarations and I believe the refactoring tools support changing property names too (even if they're in p-namespace notation).

Teammates may take a while to get used to it, but after they learn it they'll be thanking you for making the files that much more concise.