TestContext/ContextConfiguration: inherit loader, not just locations. [SPR-5916]

[spring-projects-issues]

Jason Novak opened SPR-5916 and commented

TestContext supports inheritance of @ContextConfiguration's "locations", but not "loader". This is unfortunate because I use a special ContextLoader to override bean definitions.

Suppose I have 2 test classes:

@ContextConfiguration(loader = FooContextLoader.class, locations = { "Parent.xml" })
public abstract class AbstractParentTest { ... };

@ContextConfiguration // implicitly loads default location.
public class ConcreteChildTest extends AbstractParentTest { ... };

I want ConcreteChildTest to load beans from both Parent.xml and the default location(s), and inherit the ContextLoader from AbstractParentTest.

If I specify a custom loader in AbstractParentTest, it only takes effect if I remove the @ContextConfiguration attribute from ConcreteChildTest.

But if I remove the @ContextConfiguration attribute from ConcreteChildTest, Spring will only load beans from Parent.xml, ignoring the child's default location. =)

---

Affects: 2.5.6

Referenced from: commits fc79d98, b2c723a, ba27c29

[spring-projects-issues]

Sam Brannen commented

Thanks for pointing this out Jason.

ContextLoader class is now inherited from class hierarchy if not specified explicitly via @ContextConfiguration's loader attribute on the current test class.

[spring-projects-issues]

Marek Hudik commented

@ContextConfiration gets not inherited.

I have abstract test defined like:

@ContextConfiguration(loader = WebTestContextLoader.class, locations = { "classpath:spring-test-application.xml"})
public abstract class AbstractServletTest extends AbstractTransactionalTestNGSpringContextTests {
...

and it's child

public class TradeImportServletTest extends AbstractServletTest {
...

In this case (no @ContextConfiguration annotation) a loader is not inherited.

The same happens for following definition

@ContextConfiguration
public class TradeImportServletTest extends AbstractServletTest {
...

It works only if I repeat ContextConfiguration in child class like:

@ContextConfiguration(loader = WebTestContextLoader.class, locations = { "classpath:spring-test-application.xml"})
public class TradeImportServletTest extends AbstractServletTest {

[spring-projects-issues]

Marek Hudik commented

I use Spring 3.0.5.RELEASE.

[spring-projects-issues]

Chris Beams commented

Marek, if you're still seeing this behavior against the latest version of Spring (3.1.1 or 3.2.0.M1 at time of writing), please log a new issue against the Test component and mention this issue ID when doing so. Thanks!