我是Spring框架的新手，我一直在摆弄它，并把一些样本应用放在一起，目的是评估Spring MVC在即将到来的公司项目中的使用。到目前为止，我真的很喜欢Spring MVC，它看起来很容易使用，并鼓励你编写对单元测试非常友好的类。
作为练习，我正在为我的一个示例/测试项目编写一个主方法。我不清楚的一件事是BeanFactory和ApplicationContext之间的确切区别——哪个适合在哪些条件下使用?
我知道ApplicationContext扩展了BeanFactory，但是如果我只是编写一个简单的主方法，我是否需要ApplicationContext提供的额外功能呢?ApplicationContext究竟提供了什么样的额外功能?
除了回答“我应该在main()方法中使用哪个”之外，关于在这样的场景中应该使用哪个实现，是否有任何标准或指南?我的main()方法是否应该被编写成依赖于bean/应用程序配置的XML格式——这是一个安全的假设吗，还是我将用户锁定到某个特定的东西?
这个答案在web环境中会改变吗——如果我的任何类需要了解Spring，它们更可能需要ApplicationContext吗?
谢谢你的帮助。我知道很多问题都可以在参考手册中找到答案，但如果没有仔细阅读手册，我很难找到这两个接口的清晰分解以及各自的优缺点。
我需要解释BeanFactory & ApplicationContext。
BeanFactory: BeanFactory is root interface for accessing the SpringBean Container.There is basic client view of a bean container.
That interface is implemented by the object class that holds the number of beans definitions, and each uniquely identify by the String name
Depending the Bean definition the factory will return the instance that instance may be the instance of contained object or a single shared instance. Which type of instance will be return depends of bean factory configuration.
Normally Bean factory will load the all the all the beans definition, which stored in the configuration source like XML...etc.
BeanFactory是一个为依赖注入提供基本支持的最简单的容器
应用程序上下文
应用程序上下文是spring应用程序中的一个中心接口，它向应用程序提供配置信息。它实现了Bean工厂接口。
应用程序上下文是一个高级容器，它增加了高级级别的企业特定功能，例如从属性文件....解析文本消息的能力等
一个ApplicationContext提供:
Bean factory methods for accessing application components. Inherited from ListableBeanFactory.
The ability to load file resources in a generic fashion. Inherited from the ResourceLoader interface.
The ability to publish events to registered listeners. Inherited from the ApplicationEventPublisher interface.
The ability to resolve messages, supporting internationalization. Inherited from the MessageSource interface.
Inheritance from a parent context. Definitions in a descendant context will always take priority. This means, for example, that a single parent context can be used by an entire web application, while each servlet has its own child context that is independent of that of any other servlet.
In addition to standard BeanFactory lifecycle capabilities, ApplicationContext implementations detect and invoke ApplicationContextAware beans as well as ResourceLoaderAware, ApplicationEventPublisherAware and MessageSourceAware beans.
BeanFactory和ApplicationContext都是从spring IOC容器中获取bean的方法，但仍有一些区别。
BeanFactory是实例化、配置和管理许多bean的实际容器。这些bean通常彼此协作，因此它们之间存在依赖关系。这些依赖关系反映在BeanFactory使用的配置数据中。
BeanFactory和ApplicationContext都是Java接口，而ApplicationContext扩展了BeanFactory。它们都是使用XML配置文件进行配置的。简而言之，BeanFactory提供了基本的控制反转(IoC)和依赖注入(DI)特性，而ApplicationContext提供了高级特性。
BeanFactory由接口“org.springframework.beans”表示。其中BeanFactory有多个实现。
ClassPathResource resource = new ClassPathResource("appConfig.xml");
XmlBeanFactory factory = new XmlBeanFactory(resource);
区别
BeanFactory instantiate bean when you call getBean() method while ApplicationContext instantiate Singleton bean when container is started, It doesn't wait for getBean() to be called.
BeanFactory doesn't provide support for internationalization but ApplicationContext provides support for it.
Another difference between BeanFactory vs ApplicationContext is ability to publish event to beans that are registered as listener.
One of the popular implementation of BeanFactory interface is XMLBeanFactory while one of the popular implementation of ApplicationContext interface is ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.
If you are using auto wiring and using BeanFactory than you need to register AutoWiredBeanPostProcessor using API which you can configure in XML if you are using ApplicationContext. In summary BeanFactory is OK for testing and non production use but ApplicationContext is more feature rich container implementation and should be favored over BeanFactory
BeanFactory by default its support Lazy loading and ApplicationContext by default support Aggresive loading.
