What is the difference between using BeanFactory and ApplicationContext in Spring Framework?

BeanFactory and ApplicationContext are two main container interfaces in the Spring Framework, but they differ in functionality:

• BeanFactory is a basic container that provides fundamental management of bean lifecycle and their creation on demand (lazy loading). It does not support many advanced features.

• ApplicationContext extends BeanFactory and adds additional features such as:

  • Support for internationalization (i18n)
  • Application event handling
  • Support for autowiring
  • Resource loading (files, classpath)
  • Eager loading of singletons

In most cases, it is recommended to use ApplicationContext, as it offers a richer set of features and conveniences for developing Spring applications.

Example:

ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("beans.xml");
MyBean bean = context.getBean(MyBean.class);