Java Spring Recreate specific Bean

Question

I want to re-create (new Object) a specific bean at Runtime (no restarting the server) upon some DB changes. This is how it looks -

@Component
public class          


        

Answer 1

We have the same use-case. As already mentioned one of the main issues with re-creating a bean during runtime is how to updating the references that have already been injected. This presents the main challenge.

To work around this issue I’ve used Java’s AtomicReference<> class. Instead of injecting the bean directly, I’ve wrapped it as an AtomicReference and then inject that. Because the object wrapped by the AtomicReference can be reset in a thread safe manner, I am able to use this to change the underlying object when a database change is detected. Below is an example config / usage of this pattern:

@Configuration
public class KafkaConfiguration {

    private static final String KAFKA_SERVER_LIST = "kafka.server.list";
    private static AtomicReference serverList;

    @Resource
    MyService myService;

    @PostConstruct
    public void init() {
        serverList = new AtomicReference<>(myService.getPropertyValue(KAFKA_SERVER_LIST));
    }

    // Just a helper method to check if the value for the server list has changed
    // Not a big fan of the static usage but needed a way to compare the old / new values
    public static boolean isRefreshNeeded() {

        MyService service = Registry.getApplicationContext().getBean("myService", MyService.class);    
        String newServerList = service.getPropertyValue(KAFKA_SERVER_LIST);

        // Arguably serverList does not need to be Atomic for this usage as this is executed
        // on a single thread
        if (!StringUtils.equals(serverList.get(), newServerList)) {
            serverList.set(newServerList);
            return true;
        }

        return false;
    }

    public ProducerFactory kafkaProducerFactory() {

        Map configProps = new HashMap<>();
        configProps.put(ProducerConfig.CLIENT_ID_CONFIG, "...");

        // Here we are pulling the value for the serverList that has been set
        // see the init() and isRefreshNeeded() methods above
        configProps.put(ProducerConfig.BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS_CONFIG, serverList.get());

        configProps.put(ProducerConfig.KEY_SERIALIZER_CLASS_CONFIG, StringSerializer.class);
        configProps.put(ProducerConfig.VALUE_SERIALIZER_CLASS_CONFIG, StringSerializer.class);
        return new DefaultKafkaProducerFactory<>(configProps);
    }

    @Bean
    @Lazy
    public AtomicReference> kafkaTemplate() {

        KafkaTemplate template = new KafkaTemplate<>(kafkaProducerFactory());
        AtomicReference> ref = new AtomicReference<>(template);
        return ref;
    }
}

I then inject the bean where needed, e.g.

public MyClass1 {

    @Resource 
    AtomicReference> kafkaTemplate;
    ...
}

public MyClass2 {

    @Resource 
    AtomicReference> kafkaTemplate;
    ...
}

In a separate class I run a scheduler thread that is started when the application context is started. The class looks something like this:

class Manager implements Runnable {

    private ScheduledExecutorService scheduler;

    public void start() {
        scheduler = Executors.newSingleThreadScheduledExecutor();
        scheduler.scheduleAtFixedRate(this, 0, 120, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
    }

    public void stop() {
        scheduler.shutdownNow();
    }

    @Override
    public void run() {

        try {
            if (KafkaConfiguration.isRefreshNeeded()) {

                AtomicReference> kafkaTemplate = 
                    (AtomicReference>) Registry.getApplicationContext().getBean("kafkaTemplate");

                // Get new instance here.  This will have the new value for the server list
                // that was "refreshed"
                KafkaConfiguration config = new KafkaConfiguration();

                // The set here replaces the wrapped objet in a thread safe manner with the new bean
                // and thus all injected instances now use the newly created object
                kafkaTemplate.set(config.kafkaTemplate().get());
            }

        } catch (Exception e){

        } finally {

        }
    }
}

I am still on the fence if this is something I would advocate doing as it does have a slight smell to it. But in limited and careful usage it does provide an alternate approach to the stated use-case. Please be aware that from a Kafka standpoint this code example will leave the old producer open. In reality one would need to properly do a flush() call on the old producer to close it. But that's not what the example is meant to demonstrate.