Spring AOP advice not getting excuted

Question

I am new to Spring AOP and facing some issues in its implementation.

I am trying to implement logging as advice. But advice is not getting executed.

Following is the files I am using.

LoggingAspect.java

package com.demo.conference.aspects;

@Aspect
@Component
public class LoggingAspect {
@Pointcut("execution(* com.demo.conference.daoImpl.ConferenceDAOImpl.*(..))")
public void point(){}


@Pointcut("execution(public * *(..))") //this should work for the public pointcut
private void anyPublicOperation() {}

@Before("anyPublicOperation()")
public void log(){
    System.out.println("--------------------->Aspect execuetd");

}
}

dispatcher-servlet.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc" 
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd">

   <context:annotation-config/>
   <mvc:annotation-driven />
   <context:component-scan base-package="com.demo.conference"/>

 <bean id="hibernateTemplate"      class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTemplate">
    <property name="sessionFactory">
        <ref bean="sessionFactory"/>
    </property>
</bean>
</beans>

applicationContext.xml // For AOP related config

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop 
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-3.0.xsd">


   <context:component-scan base-package="com.demo.conference.aspects"/>
   <aop:aspectj-autoproxy/>

</beans>

web.xml

<servlet>
    <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>

</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

  <context-param>
    <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
    <param-value>/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml</param-value>
  </context-param>
    <listener>
          <listener-class>
          org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
        </listener-class>
     </listener>

</web-app>

pom.xml

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.8.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
 <dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.0.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-aop</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.0.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>cglib</groupId>
    <artifactId>cglib</artifactId>
    <version>2.2.2</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
    <artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
    <version>1.6.11</version>
</dependency>                    
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
    <artifactId>aspectjweaver</artifactId>
    <version>1.6.11</version>
</dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-beans</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.8.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.8.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.8.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>

Firstly i was putting all xml configurations in single file(in dispatcher-servlet.xml), then it was throwing exception NoSuchBeanDefined.

Then i found in some post to declare AOP related config in seperate file. I did so.(If any one can explain the reason behind creating seperate files) Now there is not any exception but Advice is not getting executed.

Updated

package com.demo.conference.daoImpl;
@Component
@Repository
public class ConferenceDAOImpl implements ConferenceDAO {

@Autowired
private HibernateTemplate hibernateTemplate;

/**
 * Method to list all the conferences
 * @return list of conferences
 */
public List<Conference> listConference() {
    System.out.println("***ConferenceDAOImpl : listConference");
    System.out.println("Before fetching conferences");
    List<Conference> conferenceList = hibernateTemplate.find("from "+ Conference.class.getName());

    return conferenceList;
}
} 

Answer 1

In dispatcher-servlet.xml change the component scan to com.demo.conference.serviceControllers and in applicationContext.xml change the component scan to com.demo.conference.

HibernateTemplate and other beans which are not web related shouldn't be placed in dispatcher-servlet.xml. These should be in applicationContext.xml. In dispatcher-servlet.xml you should have controllers, view resolvers and other beans related to web part only. Move any other beans to applicationContext.xml and configure the component-scans as I mentioned: in dispatcher-servlet.xml use com.demo.conference.serviceControllers, in applicationContext.xml use com.demo.conference.

The story is like this: beans in dispatcher-servlet.xml form an application context which has as a parent the application context formed by beans in applicationContext.xml. When a bean is needed by something in dispatcher-servlet context it is searched in the containing context, if it's not found it is searched in parent contexts. So, every bean defined in applicationContext.xml should be easily accessible by beans in dispatcher-servlet context. But not vice-versa. Beans in applicationContext cannot access beans in dispatcher-servlet.

Also, use @Autowired with the interfaces, not the concrete class: @Autowired private ConferenceDAO dao; and @Autowired private ConferenceService service; and restrict the range of your pointcut (use point() instead and comment anyPublicOperation())! Beans like HibernateTemplate are advised, as well, and Spring is creating a proxy for it. If you are injecting HibernateTemplate which is a concrete class in your own classes, the proxy which is created is a JDK proxy (which implements an interface) whereas @Autowired expects an instance of HibernateTemplate.