The Bean and the Container

Spring container and the objects it manages, called beans. ApplicationContext is the interface you will use constantly, and knowing how it relates to BeanFactory explains why Spring applications fail fast at startup. It covers what makes an object a bean, component scanning, the two container interfaces and how they differ, and the five phases of a bean's life. It leaves out writing your own BeanPostProcessor and working with more than one context, for which the Spring reference documentation is the place to go.