Spring custom annotation: how to inherit attributes?

Question

I am creating my own custom shortcut annotation, as described in Spring Documentation:

@Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.TYPE})
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Transactional(value = "Custom", readOnly = true)
public @interface CustomTransactional {
}

Is it possible, that with my custom annotation I could be also able to set any other attributes, which are available in @Transactional? I would like to able use my annotation, for example, like this:

@CustomTransactional(propagation = Propagation.REQUIRED)
public class MyClass {

}

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 04 '13 at 13:31

No, that will not work, if you want additional attributes that will have to be set on your custom annotation itself this way:

@Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.TYPE})
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Transactional(value = "Custom", readOnly = true, propagation = Propagation.REQUIRED)
public @interface CustomTransactional {
}

A solution (bad one :-) ) could be to define multiple annotations with the base set of cases that you see for your scenario:

@Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.TYPE})
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Transactional(value = "Custom", readOnly = true, propagation = Propagation.REQUIRED)
public @interface CustomTransactionalWithRequired {
}

@Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.TYPE})
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Transactional(value = "Custom", readOnly = true, propagation = Propagation.SUPPORTED)
public @interface CustomTransactionalWithSupported {
}

Yes, I thought of such scenario, but then I would end up with MANY annotation - for each sensible attribute combination ;) — Laimoncijus, Jan 04 '13 at 13:34
Yes, I thought so, that is the reason why I put it as a bad solution :-) . don't see any other option than using `@Transactional` itself if that is the case, custom stereotype annotations will help if you have a fixed set of attributes for your annotations. — Biju Kunjummen, Jan 04 '13 at 13:43

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 16 '15 at 19:10

In (at least) Spring 4, you can do this by specifying the element inside the annotation, e.g.:

@Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.TYPE})
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Transactional(value = "Custom", readOnly = true)
public @interface CustomTransactional {
    Propagation propagation() default Propagation.SUPPORTED;
}

Source: http://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/spring-framework-reference/html/beans.html#beans-meta-annotations

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 12 '22 at 17:46

As of Spring Framework 4.2, @AliasFor annotation can be used to declare aliases for annotation attributes.

@Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.TYPE})
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Transactional
public @interface CustomTransactional {
  @AliasFor(annotation = Transactional.class, attribute = "propagation")
  Propagation propagation() default Propagation.REQUIRED;
}

Spring custom annotation: how to inherit attributes?

3 Answers3