Spring: Getting FactoryBean object instead of FactoryBean.getObject()

Question

Short question: If I have class that impelemnts FactoryBean interface, how can I get from FactoryBean object itself instead of FactoryBean.getObject()?

Answer 1

It's the & (ampersand), not the At-symbol, see Spring Framework documentation: Customizing instantiation logic using FactoryBeans

<property name="factoryBean" ref="&amp;theFactoryBean" />

Answer 2

You can get the factory bean itself using the & syntax in the spring config:

<property name="factoryBean" ref="&theFactoryBean" />

as opposed to:

<property name="createdBean" ref="theFactoryBean" />