Regression: custom composed @Profile annotation without runtime retention no longer supported with component scanning

[pavelspicak]

Affects: Spring 5.2

---

If I create custom @Profile annotation such as this:

@Profile("sapConnector")
public @interface SapConnectorProfile {
}

and then annotate some bean with @SapConnectorProfile and set the property spring.profiles.active=demoConnector, the bean is still loaded.

If I use @Profile("sapConnector") directly on the bean, the bean is not loaded.

My original question on stack overflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58554912/custom-spring-profile-annotation

[sbrannen]

@pavelspicak, did you declare your custom annotation with runtime retention as follows?

@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Profile("sapConnector")
public @interface SapConnectorProfile {
}

[sbrannen]

Also, how is the component annotated with @SapConnectorProfile registered in the ApplicationContext?

Is that via component scanning, @Bean method registration, or some other means?

[kingtran2112]

Hi, I get a similar problem with my composed annotation contains @Component and @javax.enterprise.inject.Stereotype. But Spring cannot scan it anymore. I just saw it was mentioned in the upgrading document as a side effect but is my problem on purpose?

[pavelspicak]

Hello,

you are right @sbrannen. I was missing @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME). It was not necessary in Spring 4.

With @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME) it works again.

Thank you very much.

[kingtran2112]

It works for me also but I curious why it needs the annotation for version 5.2 since before it wasn't?

[sbrannen]

@pavelspicak and @kingtran2112, thanks for the feedback. Glad to hear that it works now for you.

Please note, however, that @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME) is required for any annotation in Java if the annotation needs to be found at runtime. Spring always evaluates annotations at runtime. Thus it has always been required for use with Spring.

In light of that, it is not possible that it worked before Spring Framework 5.2 without @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME).

[pavelspicak]

I am sorry but you are not right with "In light of that, it is not possible that it worked before Spring Framework 5.2 without @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)."

I have created a small app with Spring Boot version 1.5.22.RELEASE and even when @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME) is commented then DevComponent class is not created, when spring.profiles.active=test is set. But in the Spring Boot 2.2.0.RELEASE it loads both DevComponent and TestComponent.

You can take a look here: https://github.com/pavelspicak/customProfileAnnotation

If you run ./gradlew bootRun you will see log message:

1. with Spring Boot version '1.5.22.RELEASE' (only TestComponent is created):

2019-11-01 13:27:21.945 INFO 44112 --- [ main] c.s.c.CustomProfileAnnotationApplication : The following profiles are active: test
2019-11-01 13:27:22.034 INFO 44112 --- [ main] s.c.a.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext : Refreshing org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext@1da51a35: startup date [Fri Nov 01 13:27:22 CET 2019]; root of context hierarchy
2019-11-01 13:27:22.570 INFO 44112 --- [ main] c.s.c.test.TestComponent : test component created.
2019-11-01 13:27:22.805 INFO 44112 --- [ main] o.s.j.e.a.AnnotationMBeanExporter : Registering beans for JMX exposure on startup
2019-11-01 13:27:22.828 INFO 44112 --- [ main] c.s.c.CustomProfileAnnotationApplication : Started CustomProfileAnnotationApplication in 1.362 seconds (JVM running for 2.127)

2. with Spring Boot version '2.2.0.RELEASE' (TestComponent and DevComponent are created):

2019-11-01 13:28:12.612 INFO 44142 --- [ main] c.s.c.CustomProfileAnnotationApplication : The following profiles are active: test
2019-11-01 13:28:13.056 INFO 44142 --- [ main] c.s.c.dev.DevComponent : dev component created.
2019-11-01 13:28:13.057 INFO 44142 --- [ main] c.s.c.test.TestComponent : test component created.
2019-11-01 13:28:13.118 INFO 44142 --- [ main] c.s.c.CustomProfileAnnotationApplication : Started CustomProfileAnnotationApplication in 0.929 seconds (JVM running for 1.287)