How is Environment bean added in the Spring container?

Question

I'm learning about Spring MVC and Hibernate with Java configuration and I have this code:

@Configuration
@ComponentScan("com.dgs.springdemo")
@EnableWebMvc
@EnableTransactionManagement
@PropertySource({"classpath:persistence-mysql.properties"})
public class WebAppConfig implements WebMvcConfigurer {

    @Autowired
    private Environment env;

    private Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(getClass());

    @Bean
    public InternalResourceViewResolver viewResolver() {

        // create view resolver
        InternalResourceViewResolver viewResolver = new InternalResourceViewResolver();

        // set properties on view resolver
        viewResolver.setPrefix("/WEB-INF/view/");
        viewResolver.setSuffix(".jsp");

        return viewResolver;
    }

    @Bean
    public DataSource myDataSource() {

        // create connection pool
        ComboPooledDataSource myDataSource = new ComboPooledDataSource();

        // set the jdbc driver
        try {
            myDataSource.setDriverClass("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");       
        }
        catch (PropertyVetoException exc) {
            throw new RuntimeException(exc);
        }

        // for sanity's sake, let's log url and user ... just to make sure we are reading the data
        logger.info("jdbc.url=" + env.getProperty("jdbc.url"));
        logger.info("jdbc.user=" + env.getProperty("jdbc.user"));

        // set database connection props
        myDataSource.setJdbcUrl(env.getProperty("jdbc.url"));
        myDataSource.setUser(env.getProperty("jdbc.user"));
        myDataSource.setPassword(env.getProperty("jdbc.password"));

        // set connection pool props
        myDataSource.setInitialPoolSize(Integer.parseInt(env.getProperty("connection.pool.initialPoolSize")));
        myDataSource.setMinPoolSize(Integer.parseInt(env.getProperty("connection.pool.minPoolSize")));
        myDataSource.setMaxPoolSize(Integer.parseInt(env.getProperty("connection.pool.maxPoolSize")));      
        myDataSource.setMaxIdleTime(Integer.parseInt(env.getProperty("connection.pool.maxIdleTime")));

        return myDataSource;
    }

    private Properties getHibernateProperties() {

        // set hibernate properties
        Properties props = new Properties();

        props.setProperty("hibernate.dialect", env.getProperty("hibernate.dialect"));
        props.setProperty("hibernate.show_sql", env.getProperty("hibernate.show_sql"));

        return props;               
    }

    @Bean
    public LocalSessionFactoryBean sessionFactory(){

        // create session factorys
        LocalSessionFactoryBean sessionFactory = new LocalSessionFactoryBean();

        // set the properties
        sessionFactory.setDataSource(myDataSource());
        sessionFactory.setPackagesToScan(env.getProperty("hibernate.packagesToScan"));
        sessionFactory.setHibernateProperties(getHibernateProperties());

        return sessionFactory;
    }

    @Bean
    @Autowired
    public HibernateTransactionManager transactionManager(SessionFactory sessionFactory) {

        // setup transaction manager based on session factory
        HibernateTransactionManager txManager = new HibernateTransactionManager();
        txManager.setSessionFactory(sessionFactory);

        return txManager;
    }

}

I see that the Environment bean is injected in this class. And I want to know how is this bean added in the Spring container? Who added it?

This is the pom file:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>com.dgs</groupId>
  <artifactId>SpringMVCHibernateXML</artifactId>
  <packaging>war</packaging>
  <version>1.0</version>
  <name>SpringMVCHibernateXML Maven Webapp</name>
  <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
    <properties>
        <springframework.version>5.0.2.RELEASE</springframework.version>
        <hibernate.version>5.4.2.Final</hibernate.version>
        <mysql.connector.version>8.0.12</mysql.connector.version>
        <c3po.version>0.9.5.2</c3po.version>
        <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
    </properties>

  <dependencies>

        <!-- Spring MVC support -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
            <version>${springframework.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
          <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
          <artifactId>spring-tx</artifactId>
          <version>${springframework.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-orm</artifactId>
            <version>${springframework.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Hibernate Core -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
            <version>${hibernate.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Servlet, JSP and JSTL support -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
            <version>3.1.0</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
            <artifactId>javax.servlet.jsp-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.1</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
            <version>1.2</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- C3PO -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.mchange</groupId>
            <artifactId>c3p0</artifactId>
            <version>${c3po.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- MySQL -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>mysql</groupId>
            <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
            <version>${mysql.connector.version}</version>
        </dependency>

    <dependency>
      <groupId>junit</groupId>
      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
      <version>3.8.1</version>
      <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
  <build>
    <finalName>SpringMVCHibernateXML</finalName>

        <pluginManagement>
            <plugins>
                <plugin>
                    <!-- Add Maven coordinates (GAV) for: maven-war-plugin -->
                    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                    <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
                    <version>3.2.0</version>
                </plugin>
            </plugins>
        </pluginManagement>
  </build>
</project>

Also I don't understand why I cannot see this Evironment bean in the Spring container?

Here are all the beans from Spring container, and I cannot see the Environment bean:

org.springframework.context.annotation.internalConfigurationAnnotationProcessor : class org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassPostProcessor
org.springframework.context.annotation.internalAutowiredAnnotationProcessor : class org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor
org.springframework.context.annotation.internalRequiredAnnotationProcessor : class org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.RequiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor
org.springframework.context.annotation.internalCommonAnnotationProcessor : class org.springframework.context.annotation.CommonAnnotationBeanPostProcessor
org.springframework.context.annotation.internalPersistenceAnnotationProcessor : class org.springframework.orm.jpa.support.PersistenceAnnotationBeanPostProcessor
org.springframework.context.event.internalEventListenerProcessor : class org.springframework.context.event.EventListenerMethodProcessor
org.springframework.context.event.internalEventListenerFactory : class org.springframework.context.event.DefaultEventListenerFactory
webAppConfig : class com.dgs.springdemo.config.WebAppConfig$$EnhancerBySpringCGLIB$$b1e6ba9c
customerController : class com.dgs.springdemo.controller.CustomerController
org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.DelegatingWebMvcConfiguration : class org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.DelegatingWebMvcConfiguration$$EnhancerBySpringCGLIB$$9f4728e5
requestMappingHandlerMapping : class org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping
mvcPathMatcher : class org.springframework.util.AntPathMatcher
mvcUrlPathHelper : class org.springframework.web.util.UrlPathHelper
mvcContentNegotiationManager : class org.springframework.web.accept.ContentNegotiationManager
viewControllerHandlerMapping : class org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurationSupport$EmptyHandlerMapping
beanNameHandlerMapping : class org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.BeanNameUrlHandlerMapping
resourceHandlerMapping : class org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurationSupport$EmptyHandlerMapping
mvcResourceUrlProvider : class org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.ResourceUrlProvider
defaultServletHandlerMapping : class org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurationSupport$EmptyHandlerMapping
requestMappingHandlerAdapter : class org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter
mvcConversionService : class org.springframework.format.support.DefaultFormattingConversionService
mvcValidator : class org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurationSupport$NoOpValidator
mvcUriComponentsContributor : class org.springframework.web.method.support.CompositeUriComponentsContributor
httpRequestHandlerAdapter : class org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.HttpRequestHandlerAdapter
simpleControllerHandlerAdapter : class org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.SimpleControllerHandlerAdapter
handlerExceptionResolver : class org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.HandlerExceptionResolverComposite
mvcViewResolver : class org.springframework.web.servlet.view.ViewResolverComposite
mvcHandlerMappingIntrospector : class org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.HandlerMappingIntrospector
org.springframework.transaction.annotation.ProxyTransactionManagementConfiguration : class org.springframework.transaction.annotation.ProxyTransactionManagementConfiguration$$EnhancerBySpringCGLIB$$da8643af
org.springframework.transaction.config.internalTransactionAdvisor : class org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.BeanFactoryTransactionAttributeSourceAdvisor
transactionAttributeSource : class org.springframework.transaction.annotation.AnnotationTransactionAttributeSource
transactionInterceptor : class org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionInterceptor
org.springframework.transaction.config.internalTransactionalEventListenerFactory : class org.springframework.transaction.event.TransactionalEventListenerFactory
viewResolver : class org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver
myDataSource : class com.mchange.v2.c3p0.ComboPooledDataSource
sessionFactory : class org.hibernate.internal.SessionFactoryImpl
transactionManager : class org.springframework.orm.hibernate5.HibernateTransactionManager
org.springframework.aop.config.internalAutoProxyCreator : class org.springframework.aop.framework.autoproxy.InfrastructureAdvisorAutoProxyCreator

Answer 1

Environment is a framework level bean which precise type and creation depends on the Spring components being used.

You are using Spring Web so it will most likely be StandardServletEnvironment bean created by GenericWebApplicationContext.createEnvironment() method. This should be called when the servlet is initialized by the servlet container. Other setups will do it differently eg Spring Boot will created StandardEnvironment bean in SpringApplication.prepareEnvironment() private method.

If you want to understand how it's created in your particular setup you need to debug your application startup.