How does ApplicationContextAware work in Spring?

Question

In spring, if a bean implements ApplicationContextAware, then it is able to access the applicationContext. Therefore it is able to get other beans.

Answer 1

Spring source code to explain how ApplicationContextAware work
when you use ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("applicationContext.xml");
In AbstractApplicationContext class,the refresh() method have the following code:

// Prepare the bean factory for use in this context.
prepareBeanFactory(beanFactory);

enter this method,beanFactory.addBeanPostProcessor(new ApplicationContextAwareProcessor(this)); will add ApplicationContextAwareProcessor to AbstractrBeanFactory.

protected void prepareBeanFactory(ConfigurableListableBeanFactory beanFactory) {
        // Tell the internal bean factory to use the context's class loader etc.
        beanFactory.setBeanClassLoader(getClassLoader());
        beanFactory.setBeanExpressionResolver(new StandardBeanExpressionResolver(beanFactory.getBeanClassLoader()));
        beanFactory.addPropertyEditorRegistrar(new ResourceEditorRegistrar(this, getEnvironment()));
        // Configure the bean factory with context callbacks.
        beanFactory.addBeanPostProcessor(new ApplicationContextAwareProcessor(this));
...........

When spring initialize bean in AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory, in method initializeBean,call applyBeanPostProcessorsBeforeInitialization to implement the bean post process. the process include inject the applicationContext.

@Override
    public Object applyBeanPostProcessorsBeforeInitialization(Object existingBean, String beanName)
            throws BeansException {
        Object result = existingBean;
        for (BeanPostProcessor beanProcessor : getBeanPostProcessors()) {
            result = beanProcessor.postProcessBeforeInitialization(result, beanName);
            if (result == null) {
                return result;
            }
        }
        return result;
    }

when BeanPostProcessor implement Objectto execute the postProcessBeforeInitialization method,for example ApplicationContextAwareProcessor that added before.

private void invokeAwareInterfaces(Object bean) {
        if (bean instanceof Aware) {
            if (bean instanceof EnvironmentAware) {
                ((EnvironmentAware) bean).setEnvironment(this.applicationContext.getEnvironment());
            }
            if (bean instanceof EmbeddedValueResolverAware) {
                ((EmbeddedValueResolverAware) bean).setEmbeddedValueResolver(
                        new EmbeddedValueResolver(this.applicationContext.getBeanFactory()));
            }
            if (bean instanceof ResourceLoaderAware) {
                ((ResourceLoaderAware) bean).setResourceLoader(this.applicationContext);
            }
            if (bean instanceof ApplicationEventPublisherAware) {
                ((ApplicationEventPublisherAware) bean).setApplicationEventPublisher(this.applicationContext);
            }
            if (bean instanceof MessageSourceAware) {
                ((MessageSourceAware) bean).setMessageSource(this.applicationContext);
            }
            if (bean instanceof ApplicationContextAware) {
                ((ApplicationContextAware) bean).setApplicationContext(this.applicationContext);
            }
        }
    }