Annotation-specified bean name conflicts with exis

Question

I'm having a problem with some Spring bean definitions. I have a couple of context xml files that are being loaded by my main() method, and both of them contain almost exclusively a tag. When my main method starts up, I get this error from Spring:

Caused by: org.springframework.context.annotation.ConflictingBeanDefinitionException: Annotation-specified bean name 'converterDAO' for bean class [my.package.InMemoryConverterDaoImpl] conflicts with existing, non-compatible bean definition of same name and class [my.other.package.StaticConverterDAOImpl]

Both DAO classes are annotated this way:

@Repository("converterDAO")
public class StaticConverterDAOImpl implements ConverterDAO {
...
}

The in-memory dao also has the @Repository("converterDAO") annotation. The dao is referenced in other classes like this:

...
private @Autowired @Qualifier("converterDAO") ConverterDAO converterDAO;
...

I want one DAO to override the definition of the other one, which as I always understood it was one of the principal reasons to use a DI framework in the first place. I've been doing this with xml definitions for years and never had any problems. But not so with component scans and annotated bean definitions? And what does Spring mean when it says they are not "compatible"? They implement the same interface, and they are autowired into fields that are of that interface type. Why the heck are they not compatible?

Can someone provide me with a way for one annotated, component-scanned bean to override another?

-Mike

Answer 1

If none of the other answers fix your problem and it started occurring after change any configuration direct or indirectly (via git pull / merge / rebase) and your project is a Maven project:

mvn clean

Hope this fixes your problem. Or someones

Answer 2

I also had a similar problem. I built the project again and the issue was resolved.

The reason is, there are already defined sequences for the Annotation-specified bean names, in a file. When we do a change on that bean name and try to run the application Spring cannot identify which one to pick. That is why it shows this error.

In my case, I removed the previous bean class from the project and added the same bean name to a new bean class. So Spring has the previous definition for the removed bean class in a file and that conflicts with the newly added class while compiling. So if you do a 'build clean', previous definitions for bean classes will be removed and compilation will success.

Answer 3

I had a similar issue with Spring 4.x using @RestController. Two different packages had a class with the same name...

package com.x.catalog

@RestController
public class TextureController {
...

package com.x.cms
@RestController
public class TextureController {
...

The fix was easy...

package com.x.catalog

@RestController("CatalogTextureController")
public class TextureController {
...

package com.x.cms
@RestController("CMSTextureController")
public class TextureController {
...

The problem seems to be that the annotation gets autowired and takes the class name by default. Giving it an explicit name in the @RestController annotation allows you to keep the class names.

Answer 4

I had a similar problem, and it was because one of my beans had been moved to another directory recently. I needed to do a "build clean" by deleting the build/classes/java directory and the problem went away. (The error message had the two different file paths conflicting with each other, although I knew one should not actually exist anymore.)

Answer 5

In an XML file, there is a sequence of declarations, and you may override a previous definition with a newer one. When you use annotations, there is no notion of before or after. All the beans are at the same level. You defined two beans with the same name, and Spring doesn't know which one it should choose.

Give them a different name (staticConverterDAO, inMemoryConverterDAO for example), create an alias in the Spring XML file (theConverterDAO for example), and use this alias when injecting the converter:

@Autowired @Qualifier("theConverterDAO")

Answer 6

Explanation internal working on this error

You are getting this error because after instantiation the container is trying to assign same object to both classes as class name is same irrespective of different packages......thats why error says non compatible bean definition of same name ..

Actually how it works internally is--->>>>.

pkg test1; …. @RestController class Test{}

pkg test2; …. @RestController class Test{}

First container will get class Test and @RestController indicates it to instantiate as…test = new Test(); and it won’t instantiate twice After instantiating container will provide a reference variable test(same as class name) to both the classes and while it provide test reference To second class it gets non compatible bean definition of same name ……

Solution—>>>>

Assign a refrence name to both rest controller so that container won’t instantiate with default name and instantiate saperately for both classes irrespective Of same name

For example——>>>

pkg test1; …. @RestController(“test1”) class Test{}

pkg test2; …. @RestController(“test2”) class Test{}

Note:The same will work with @Controller,@Service,@Repository etc..

Note: if you are creating reference variable at class level then you can also annotate it with @Qualifier("specific refrence name") for example @Autowired @Qualifier("test1") Test test;