/*
 * Copyright 2002-2008 the original author or authors.
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

package org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation;

import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

/**
 * Marks a constructor, field, setter method or config method as to be
 * autowired by Spring's dependency injection facilities.
 *
 * <p>Only one constructor (at max) of any given bean class may carry this
 * annotation, indicating the constructor to autowire when used as a Spring
 * bean. Such a constructor does not have to be public.
 *
 * <p>Fields are injected right after construction of a bean, before any
 * config methods are invoked. Such a config field does not have to be public.
 *
 * <p>Config methods may have an arbitrary name and any number of arguments;
 * each of those arguments will be autowired with a matching bean in the
 * Spring container. Bean property setter methods are effectively just
 * a special case of such a general config method. Such config methods
 * do not have to be public.
 *
 * <p>In the case of multiple argument methods, the 'required' parameter is 
 * applicable for all arguments.
 *
 * <p>In case of a {@link java.util.Collection} or {@link java.util.Map}
 * dependency type, the container will autowire all beans matching the
 * declared value type. In case of a Map, the keys must be declared as
 * type String and will be resolved to the corresponding bean names.
 *
 * <p>Please do consult the javadoc for the {@link AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor}
 * class (which, by default, checks for the presence of this annotation).
 *
 * @author Juergen Hoeller
 * @author Mark Fisher
 * @since 2.5
 * @see AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor
 */
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target({ElementType.CONSTRUCTOR, ElementType.FIELD, ElementType.METHOD})
public @interface Autowired {

	/**
	 * Declares whether the annotated dependency is required.
	 * <p>Defaults to <code>true</code>.
	 */
	boolean required() default true;

}