1. Overview
Spring comes with a set of @Enable annotations that make it easier for developers to configure a Spring application. These annotations are used in conjunction with the @Configuration annotation.
In this article we will be looking at some these annotations:
- @EnableWebMvc
- @EnableCaching
- @EnableScheduling
- @EnableAsync
- @EnableWebSocket
- @EnableJpaRepositories
- @EnableTransactionManagement
- @EnableJpaAuditing
2. @EnableWebMvc
The @EnableWebMvc annotation is used for enabling Spring MVC in an application and works by importing the Spring MVC Configuration from WebMvcConfigurationSupport.
The XML equivalent with similar functionality is <mvc:annotation-driven/>.
The configuration can be customized by the @Configuration class implementing the WebMvcConfigurer:
@Configuration
@EnableWebMvc
public class SpringMvcConfig implements WebMvcConfigurer {
@Override
public void configureMessageConverters(
List<HttpMessageConverter<?>> converters) {
converters.add(new MyHttpMessageConverter());
}
// ...
}
3. @EnableCaching
The @EnableCaching annotation enables annotation-driven cache management capability within the application and allows us to use the @Cacheable and @CacheEvict annotations in our application.
The XML equivalent with similar functionality is the <cache:*> namespace:
@Configuration
@EnableCaching
public class CacheConfig {
@Bean
public CacheManager cacheManager() {
SimpleCacheManager cacheManager = new SimpleCacheManager();
cacheManager.setCaches(
Arrays.asList(new ConcurrentMapCache("default")));
return cacheManager;
}
}
This annotation also has the following options:
- mode — indicates how caching advice should be applied
- order — indicates the ordering of the execution caching advisor when applied at a specific joinpoint
- proxyTargetClass — indicates whether subclass-based (CGLIB) proxies are to be created as opposed to standard Java interface-based proxies
This configuration again can be customized by the @Configuration class implementing the CachingConfigurerSupport class:
@Configuration
@EnableCaching
public class CacheConfig extends CachingConfigurerSupport {
@Bean
@Override
public CacheManager cacheManager() {
SimpleCacheManager cacheManager = new SimpleCacheManager();
cacheManager.setCaches(
Arrays.asList(new ConcurrentMapCache("default")));
return cacheManager;
}
@Bean
@Override
public KeyGenerator keyGenerator() {
return new MyKeyGenerator();
}
}
For more on using Spring caching you can refer to this article.
4. @EnableScheduling
The @EnableScheduling annotation enables scheduled task capabilities and allows us to use @Scheduled annotations in the application. The XML equivalent with similar functionality is the <task:*> namespace using the scheduler attribute.
This configuration again can be customized by the @Configuration class implementing the SchedulingConfigurer class:
@Configuration
@EnableScheduling
public class SchedulingConfig implements SchedulingConfigurer {
@Override
public void configureTasks(
ScheduledTaskRegistrar taskRegistrar) {
taskRegistrar.setScheduler(taskExecutor());
}
@Bean(destroyMethod = "shutdown")
public Executor taskExecutor() {
return Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(100);
}
}
For more on using Spring scheduling, you can refer to this article.
5. @EnableAsync
The @EnableAsync annotation enables asynchronous processing in our application. The XML equivalent with similar functionality is the <task:*> namespace using the executor attribute.
@Configuration
@EnableAync
public class AsyncConfig { ... }
For more on using Spring async, you can refer to this article.
6. @EnableWebSocket
The @EnableWebSocket annotation is used to configure the processing of web socket requests. Customization can be done by implementing the WebSocketConfigurer class:
@Configuration
@EnableWebSocket
public class MyConfiguration implements WebSocketConfigurer {
@Override
public void registerWebSocketHandlers(WebSocketHandlerRegistry registry) {
registry.addHandler(echoWebSocketHandler(), "/echo").withSockJS();
}
@Bean
public WebSocketHandler echoWebSocketHandler() {
return new EchoWebSocketHandler();
}
}
For more on using Spring Websockets, you can refer to this article.
7. @EnableJpaRepositories
The @EnableJpaRepositories annotation enables Spring Data JPA repositories by scanning the package of the annotated configuration class for repositories.
@Configuration
@EnableJpaRepositories
public class JpaConfig { ... }
Some options available for this annotation are:
- value — alias for the basePackages() attribute
- basePackages — base packages to scan for annotated components
- enableDefaultTransactions — configures whether or not to enable default transactions for Spring Data JPA repositories
- entityManagerFactoryRef — configures the name of the EntityManagerFactory bean definition to be used
8. @EnableTransactionManagement
The @EnableTransactionManagement annotation enables Spring’s annotation-driven transaction management capability. The XML equivalent is the <tx:*> namespace.
@Configuration
@EnableTransactionManagement
public class JpaConfig { ... }
For more on using Spring Transaction Management, you can refer to this article.
9. @EnableJpaAuditing
The @EnableJpaAuditing annotation enables auditing on your JPA entities.
@Configuration
@EnableJpaAuditing
public class JpaConfig {
@Bean
public AuditorAware<AuditableUser> auditorProvider() {
return new AuditorAwareImpl();
}
}
For more on using Spring Web Sockets, you can refer to this article.
10. Conclusion
In this quick article, we looked at some @Enable Spring annotations and how they can be used to help us configure a Spring Application.
