总而言之:

ApplicationContext包括BeanFactory的所有功能。 一般建议使用前者。

在一些有限的情况下，例如在移动应用程序中，内存消耗可能是关键的。

在这种情况下，使用更轻量级的BeanFactory是合理的。然而，在大多数企业应用程序中，ApplicationContext是您想要使用的。

要了解更多，请参阅我的博客文章:

Spring中的BeanFactory和ApplicationContext的区别——java Spring博客的基础

Spring提供两种IOC容器，一种是XMLBeanFactory，另一种是ApplicationContext。

通过完整路径加载的FileSystemXmlApplicationContext bean。 通过CLASSPATH加载的bean XMLWebApplicationContext和AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext bean通过web应用程序上下文加载。 从基于Annotation的配置中加载Spring bean。

例子:

ApplicationContext applicationContext = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext(BeansConfiguration.class);

ApplicationContext是由web.xml中定义的ContextLoaderListener或ContextLoaderServlet和struts-config.xml中定义的ContextLoaderPlugin初始化的容器。

注意:XmlBeanFactory从Spring 3.1开始已弃用，取而代之的是DefaultListableBeanFactory和XmlBeanDefinitionReader。

参考Spring Docs中的这个文档:

http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.2.x/spring-framework-reference/html/beans.html#context-introduction-ctx-vs-beanfactory

5.15.1 bean工厂还是应用上下文?

使用ApplicationContext，除非你有很好的理由不这样做。

Because the ApplicationContext includes all functionality of the BeanFactory, it is generally recommended over the BeanFactory, except for a few situations such as in an Applet where memory consumption might be critical and a few extra kilobytes might make a difference. However, for most typical enterprise applications and systems, the ApplicationContext is what you will want to use. Spring 2.0 and later makes heavy use of the BeanPostProcessor extension point (to effect proxying and so on). If you use only a plain BeanFactory, a fair amount of support such as transactions and AOP will not take effect, at least not without some extra steps on your part. This situation could be confusing because nothing is actually wrong with the configuration.

在非web应用程序中使用BeanFactory，因为它只支持单例和原型bean作用域。

而ApplicationContext容器确实支持所有的bean作用域，所以你应该将它用于web应用程序。

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.

ApplicationContext是比BeanFactory更可取的方式 在新的Spring版本中，BeanFactory被ApplicationContext取代。但是仍然存在用于向后兼容的BeanFactory ApplicationContext扩展了BeanFactory，并具有以下优点 它支持文本消息的国际化 它支持将事件发布到已注册的侦听器 访问资源，如url和文件