Difference between using bean id and name in Spring configuration file

Question

Is there any difference between using an id attribute and name attribute on a element in a Spring configuration file?

Answer 1

Either one would work. It depends on your needs:
If your bean identifier contains special character(s) for example (/viewSummary.html), it wont be allowed as the bean id, because it's not a valid XML ID. In such cases you could skip defining the bean id and supply the bean name instead.
The name attribute also helps in defining aliases for your bean, since it allows specifying multiple identifiers for a given bean.