Constructor versus @Create annotation

[gmanwani]

Following is my current setup

public abstract Foo {

@In
protected FooComp1 fooComp1;
protected Foo foo;

protected void init() {
 if (fooComp1 != null) {
 foo = "injection works";
 }
}

public class FooImpl1 {

 public Foo() {
 init();
 }

}

public class FooImpl2 {

 public Foo() {
 }

 @Create
 public void initchild() {
 init();
 }

}

FooImpl1 and FooImpl2 are components which I define in the className.component.xml files with auto-create=true.

The interesting part is that when I create an instance of FooImpl2 injection works fine but in FooImpl1 (where my constructor calls init()) injection does not take place.

Can anyone explain why this is the case?

[gmanwani]

Sorry the above constructors are not Foo() but FooImpl1() and FooImpl2() respectively.

[hstang]

injection takes place after an instance is fully constructed. if you have a method annotated with @Create, it will be called after injection has taken place.

[gavin.king]

Injection is not defined in constructors. That is why we have the @Create method.

[gmanwani]

Thanks Gavin for the clarification.

Is there something stopping us from doing that i.e can we not inject/outject objects during construction?

[gavin.king]

yes, exactly.