Spring: Component Scan Selected Classes

PROBLEM

Let’s assume we have a package with the following classes where each class is either annotated with Spring’s @Service, @Component, @Controller or @Repository.

app
├── A.groovy
├── B.groovy
├── C.groovy
├── D.groovy
└── E.groovy

When writing unit test, we want Spring to component scan class A and class B.

SOLUTION

Before we begin, we configure Log4j to log Spring in debug level.

<logger name="org.springframework">
    <level value="debug"/>
</logger>

Step 1

If we configure the test class like this…

@ContextConfiguration
class ASpec extends Specification {
    @Configuration
    @ComponentScan(
            basePackageClasses = [A]
	)
    static class TestConfig {
    }

    def "..."() {
        // ...
    }
}

It will scan all Spring components that reside in the same package as class A.

Debugging log:-

[DEBUG] [ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner] [findCandidateComponents:294] - Identified candidate component class: file [/path/target/classes/app/A.class]
[DEBUG] [ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner] [findCandidateComponents:294] - Identified candidate component class: file [/path/target/classes/app/B.class]
[DEBUG] [ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner] [findCandidateComponents:294] - Identified candidate component class: file [/path/target/classes/app/C.class]
[DEBUG] [ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner] [findCandidateComponents:294] - Identified candidate component class: file [/path/target/classes/app/D.class]
[DEBUG] [ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner] [findCandidateComponents:294] - Identified candidate component class: file [/path/target/classes/app/E.class]

Step 2

We can set includeFilters to include just class A and class B…

@ContextConfiguration
class ASpec extends Specification {
    @Configuration
    @ComponentScan(
            basePackageClasses = [A],
            includeFilters = [@ComponentScan.Filter(type = FilterType.ASSIGNABLE_TYPE, value = [A, B])]
	)
    static class TestConfig {
    }

    def "..."() {
        // ...
    }
}

… but it doesn’t do anything.

Debugging log:-

[DEBUG] [ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner] [findCandidateComponents:294] - Identified candidate component class: file [/path/target/classes/app/A.class]
[DEBUG] [ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner] [findCandidateComponents:294] - Identified candidate component class: file [/path/target/classes/app/B.class]
[DEBUG] [ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner] [findCandidateComponents:294] - Identified candidate component class: file [/path/target/classes/app/C.class]
[DEBUG] [ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner] [findCandidateComponents:294] - Identified candidate component class: file [/path/target/classes/app/D.class]
[DEBUG] [ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner] [findCandidateComponents:294] - Identified candidate component class: file [/path/target/classes/app/E.class]

Step 3

To fix this, we set useDefaultFilters to false to disable any automatic detection of classes annotated with Spring’s @Service, @Component, @Controller or @Repository.

@ContextConfiguration
class ASpec extends Specification {
    @Configuration
    @ComponentScan(
            basePackageClasses = [A],
            useDefaultFilters = false,
            includeFilters = [@ComponentScan.Filter(type = FilterType.ASSIGNABLE_TYPE, value = [A, B])]
    )
    static class TestConfig {
    }

    def "..."() {
        // ...
    }
}

Now, we get the intended behavior.

Debugging log:-

[DEBUG] [ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner] [findCandidateComponents:294] - Identified candidate component class: file [/path/target/classes/app/A.class]
[DEBUG] [ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner] [findCandidateComponents:294] - Identified candidate component class: file [/path/target/classes/app/B.class]