The Bean and the Container

ApplicationContext is the interface you will type constantly, and the one whose relationship to BeanFactory almost nobody can state on request. This topic settles both: what makes an object a bean rather than just an object, what the container adds beyond creating one, and the fixed order every bean passes through before it's usable. It does not cover writing a custom BeanPostProcessor or working with more than one context — the Spring reference docs are the place for either.