xml - Spring Configuration

Question

I've been reading up on Spring and it keeps talking about the spring configuration data you need, but where do you put this xml file? and what do you save it as? I can't seem to find this information anywhere.

Answer 1

More importantly than where, the question should be for you: what exactly is this 'configuration data'?

From the docs:

the Spring IoC container consumes a form of configuration metadata; this configuration metadata represents how you as an application developer tell the Spring container to instantiate, configure, and assemble the objects in your application.

Configuration metadata is traditionally supplied in a simple and intuitive XML format, which is what most of this chapter uses to convey key concepts and features of the Spring IoC container.

However, you can also use annotations or Java-based configuration to provide the configuration metadata for your POJOs.

In Spring, the objects that form the backbone of your application and that are managed by the Spring IoC container are called beans. A bean is an object that is instantiated, assembled, and otherwise managed by a Spring IoC container. Otherwise, a bean is simply one of many objects in your application. Beans, and the dependencies among them, are reflected in the configuration metadata used by a container.

As Tnem already mentioned, here you can find how to instantiate a container in different scenarios.

And what is this IoC container?

IoC (inversion of control) and DI (dependency injection) are terms coined by Martin Fowler, regarding Spring see the first section of the docs.

I encourage you to read the whole reference if you want to get into development with Spring.