Here is how to get the ApplicationContext in a spring bean. It can be used to look up other spring beans or search out beans based on their type.

1. Implement ApplicationContextAware in your bean and add in a setter and private variable for the ApplicationContext

   import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
   import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextAware;
   
   public class SpringBeanThingy implements ApplicationContextAware {
   
   	private ApplicationContext applicationContext;
   	public void setApplicationContext(ApplicationContext applicationContext) {
   		this.applicationContext = applicationContext;
   	}
   
   	// Other methods and stuff here
   }

2. Make the bean in your spring config file and spring puts in the appcontext for you

   <bean id="appnameSpringBeanThingy"
   	class="org.sakaiproject.appname.spring.SpringBeanThingy" />

3. Use the ApplicationContext in your methods to look up spring beans (or do whatever you want), for example:

   private List getSpringBeans(String match) {
   	List l = new ArrayList();
   	String[] beanArray = applicationContext.getBeanDefinitionNames();
   	for (int j=0; j<beanArray.length; j++) {
   		if (isMatch(beanArray[j], match)) {
   			l.add(beanArray[j]);
   		}
   	}
   	return l;
   }
   
   private boolean isMatch(String beanName, String mappedName) {
   	return (mappedName.equals(beanName)) ||
   		(mappedName.endsWith("*") && beanName.startsWith(mappedName.substring(0, mappedName.length() - 1))) ||
   		(mappedName.startsWith("*") && beanName.endsWith(mappedName.substring(1, mappedName.length())));
   }