What is the purpose of ApplicationContext in Spring?

The following article explains the purpose of ApplicationContext in Spring.

In Spring, ApplicationContext is the interface for an advanced container that provides many features beyond the basic functionality of the BeanFactory. In fact, the ApplicationContext provides a way to access the Spring container and all its components, which are defined as beans in the container. The following list shows some of the purposes of ApplicationContext in Spring.

Dependency Injection. The ApplicationContext is responsible for creating and managing beans in the container, including performing dependency injection. Actually, it injects the dependencies of each bean and resolves any required properties.
Configuration. Likewise, it is also responsible for reading the configuration files and annotations and generating the appropriate beans. Also, it supports various configuration mechanisms, including XML files, Java annotations, and Java code.
Event Handling. Similarly, the ApplicationContext allows beans to publish events and handle them. Also, it supports the Observer design pattern, where objects can register to be notified of changes to an object’s state.
Resource Management. Also, it is responsible for managing resources such as files, URLs, and databases. In fact, it provides convenient APIs for accessing these resources and managing their lifecycle.
Internationalization. Furthermore, the ApplicationContext provides internationalization support through its message source mechanism. Therefore, it allows applications to easily support multiple languages by providing localized messages for different locales.

In general, the ApplicationContext in Spring provides a comprehensive and flexible environment for managing and configuring beans, as well as supporting other features such as event handling and resource management. Hence, it is a key component in developing Spring applications.

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