Can you use @Autowired with static fields?

Question

Is there some way to use @Autowired with static fields. If not, are there some other ways to do this?

Answer 1

You can achieve this using XML notation and the MethodInvokingFactoryBean. For an example look here.

private static StaticBean staticBean;

public void setStaticBean(StaticBean staticBean) {
   StaticBean.staticBean = staticBean;
}

You should aim to use spring injection where possible as this is the recommended approach but this is not always possible as I'm sure you can imagine as not everything can be pulled from the spring container or you maybe dealing with legacy systems.

Note testing can also be more difficult with this approach.