[java] Loading context in Spring using web.xml

Is there a way that a context can be loaded using web.xml in a Spring MVC application?

You can also load the context while defining the servlet itself (WebApplicationContext)

  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>admin</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
      <param-value>
                /WEB-INF/spring/*.xml
            </param-value>
    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
  </servlet>
  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>admin</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>

rather than (ApplicationContext)

<context-param>
    <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
    <param-value>/WEB-INF/applicationContext*.xml</param-value>
</context-param>

<listener>
   <listener-class>
        org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
   </listener-class>
</listener> 

or can do both together.

Drawback of just using WebApplicationContext is that it will load context only for this particular Spring entry point (DispatcherServlet) where as with above mentioned methods context will be loaded for multiple entry points (Eg. Webservice Servlet, REST servlet etc)

Context loaded by ContextLoaderListener will infact be a parent context to that loaded specifically for DisplacherServlet . So basically you can load all your business service, data access or repository beans in application context and separate out your controller, view resolver beans to WebApplicationContext.

You can also specify context location relatively to current classpath, which may be preferable

<context-param>
    <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
    <param-value>classpath*:applicationContext*.xml</param-value>
</context-param>

<listener>
    <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
</listener>