java - Accessing spring beans in static method

Question

I have a Util class with static methods. Inside my Util class, I want to use spring beans so I included them in my util class. As far as I know it's not a good practice to use spring beans as static fields. But is there any way to access spring beans in a static method?

My example:

public class TestUtils {

   private static TestBean testBean;

   public void setTestBean(TestBean testBean) {
     TestUtils.testBean = testBean;
   }

  public static String getBeanDetails() {
    return beanName = testBean.getDetails();
  }
}

I have seen in many forums that this is not a best practice. Can someone show me how I can handle this type of scenario?

My configuration file:

<bean id="testUtils" class="com.test.TestUtils">
 <property name="testBean" ref="testBean" />
</bean>

Answer 1

My approach is for the bean one wishes to access to implement InitializingBean or use @PostConstruct, and containing a static reference to itself.

For example:

@Service
public class MyBean implements InitializingBean {
    private static MyBean instance;

    @Override
    public void afterPropertiesSet() throws Exception {
        instance = this;
    }

    public static MyBean get() {
        return instance;
    }
}

Usage in your static class would therefore just be:

MyBean myBean = MyBean.get();

This way, no XML configuration is required, you don't need to pass the bean in as a constructor argument, and the caller doesn't need to know or care that the bean is wired up using Spring (i.e., no need for messy ApplicationContext variables).