Can I replace a Spring bean definition at runtime?

Question

Consider the following scenario. I have a Spring application context with a bean whose properties should be configurable, think DataSource or MailSender

Answer 1

Or you could use the approach from this similar question and hence also my solution:

The approach is to have beans that are configured via property files and the solution is to either

• refresh the entire applicationContext (automatically using a scheduled task or manually using JMX) when properties have changed or
• use a dedicated property provider object to access all properties. This property provider will keep checking the properties files for modification. For beans where prototype-based property lookup is impossible, register a custom event that your property provider will fire when it finds an updated property file. Your beans with complicated lifecycles will need to listen for that event and refresh themselves.