解释为什么Spring 默认会加载/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml

/**
 * Instantiate the root WebApplicationContext for this loader, either the
 * default context class or a custom context class if specified.
 * <p>This implementation expects custom contexts to implement the
 * {@link ConfigurableWebApplicationContext} interface.
 * Can be overridden in subclasses.
 * <p>In addition, {@link #customizeContext} gets called prior to refreshing the
 * context, allowing subclasses to perform custom modifications to the context.
 * @param sc current servlet context
 * @return the root WebApplicationContext
 * @see ConfigurableWebApplicationContext
 */
protected WebApplicationContext createWebApplicationContext(ServletContext sc) {
   Class<?> contextClass = determineContextClass(sc);
   if (!ConfigurableWebApplicationContext.class.isAssignableFrom(contextClass)) {
      throw new ApplicationContextException("Custom context class [" + contextClass.getName() +
            "] is not of type [" + ConfigurableWebApplicationContext.class.getName() + "]");
   }
   return (ConfigurableWebApplicationContext) BeanUtils.instantiateClass(contextClass);
}

	/**
	 * Return the WebApplicationContext implementation class to use, either the
	 * default XmlWebApplicationContext or a custom context class if specified.
	 * @param servletContext current servlet context
	 * @return the WebApplicationContext implementation class to use
	 * @see #CONTEXT_CLASS_PARAM
	 * @see org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext
	 */
	protected Class<?> determineContextClass(ServletContext servletContext) {
		String contextClassName = servletContext.getInitParameter(CONTEXT_CLASS_PARAM);
		if (contextClassName != null) {
			try {
				return ClassUtils.forName(contextClassName, ClassUtils.getDefaultClassLoader());
			}
			catch (ClassNotFoundException ex) {
				throw new ApplicationContextException(
						"Failed to load custom context class [" + contextClassName + "]", ex);
			}
		}
		else {
			contextClassName = defaultStrategies.getProperty(WebApplicationContext.class.getName());
			try {
				return ClassUtils.forName(contextClassName, ContextLoader.class.getClassLoader());
			}
			catch (ClassNotFoundException ex) {
				throw new ApplicationContextException(
						"Failed to load default context class [" + contextClassName + "]", ex);
			}
		}
	}

/*
 * Copyright 2002-2014 the original author or authors.
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

package org.springframework.web.context.support;

import java.io.IOException;

import org.springframework.beans.BeansException;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.ResourceEntityResolver;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader;

/**
 * {@link org.springframework.web.context.WebApplicationContext} implementation
 * which takes its configuration from XML documents, understood by an
 * {@link org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader}.
 * This is essentially the equivalent of
 * {@link org.springframework.context.support.GenericXmlApplicationContext}
 * for a web environment.
 *
 * <p>By default, the configuration will be taken from "/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml"
 * for the root context, and "/WEB-INF/test-servlet.xml" for a context with the namespace
 * "test-servlet" (like for a DispatcherServlet instance with the servlet-name "test").
 *
 * <p>The config location defaults can be overridden via the "contextConfigLocation"
 * context-param of {@link org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader} and servlet
 * init-param of {@link org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet}. Config locations
 * can either denote concrete files like "/WEB-INF/context.xml" or Ant-style patterns
 * like "/WEB-INF/*-context.xml" (see {@link org.springframework.util.PathMatcher}
 * javadoc for pattern details).
 *
 * <p>Note: In case of multiple config locations, later bean definitions will
 * override ones defined in earlier loaded files. This can be leveraged to
 * deliberately override certain bean definitions via an extra XML file.
 *
 * <p><b>For a WebApplicationContext that reads in a different bean definition format,
 * create an analogous subclass of {@link AbstractRefreshableWebApplicationContext}.</b>
 * Such a context implementation can be specified as "contextClass" context-param
 * for ContextLoader or "contextClass" init-param for FrameworkServlet.
 *
 * @author Rod Johnson
 * @author Juergen Hoeller
 * @see #setNamespace
 * @see #setConfigLocations
 * @see org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader
 * @see org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader#initWebApplicationContext
 * @see org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet#initWebApplicationContext
 */
public class XmlWebApplicationContext extends AbstractRefreshableWebApplicationContext {

   /** Default config location for the root context */
   public static final String DEFAULT_CONFIG_LOCATION = "/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml";

   /** Default prefix for building a config location for a namespace */
   public static final String DEFAULT_CONFIG_LOCATION_PREFIX = "/WEB-INF/";

   /** Default suffix for building a config location for a namespace */
   public static final String DEFAULT_CONFIG_LOCATION_SUFFIX = ".xml";


   /**
    * Loads the bean definitions via an XmlBeanDefinitionReader.
    * @see org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader
    * @see #initBeanDefinitionReader
    * @see #loadBeanDefinitions
    */
   @Override
   protected void loadBeanDefinitions(DefaultListableBeanFactory beanFactory) throws BeansException, IOException {
      // Create a new XmlBeanDefinitionReader for the given BeanFactory.
      XmlBeanDefinitionReader beanDefinitionReader = new XmlBeanDefinitionReader(beanFactory);

      // Configure the bean definition reader with this context's
      // resource loading environment.
      beanDefinitionReader.setEnvironment(getEnvironment());
      beanDefinitionReader.setResourceLoader(this);
      beanDefinitionReader.setEntityResolver(new ResourceEntityResolver(this));

      // Allow a subclass to provide custom initialization of the reader,
      // then proceed with actually loading the bean definitions.
      initBeanDefinitionReader(beanDefinitionReader);
      loadBeanDefinitions(beanDefinitionReader);
   }

   /**
    * Initialize the bean definition reader used for loading the bean
    * definitions of this context. Default implementation is empty.
    * <p>Can be overridden in subclasses, e.g. for turning off XML validation
    * or using a different XmlBeanDefinitionParser implementation.
    * @param beanDefinitionReader the bean definition reader used by this context
    * @see org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader#setValidationMode
    * @see org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader#setDocumentReaderClass
    */
   protected void initBeanDefinitionReader(XmlBeanDefinitionReader beanDefinitionReader) {
   }

   /**
    * Load the bean definitions with the given XmlBeanDefinitionReader.
    * <p>The lifecycle of the bean factory is handled by the refreshBeanFactory method;
    * therefore this method is just supposed to load and/or register bean definitions.
    * <p>Delegates to a ResourcePatternResolver for resolving location patterns
    * into Resource instances.
    * @throws IOException if the required XML document isn't found
    * @see #refreshBeanFactory
    * @see #getConfigLocations
    * @see #getResources
    * @see #getResourcePatternResolver
    */
   protected void loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader reader) throws IOException {
      String[] configLocations = getConfigLocations();
      if (configLocations != null) {
         for (String configLocation : configLocations) {
            reader.loadBeanDefinitions(configLocation);
         }
      }
   }

   /**
    * The default location for the root context is "/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml",
    * and "/WEB-INF/test-servlet.xml" for a context with the namespace "test-servlet"
    * (like for a DispatcherServlet instance with the servlet-name "test").
    */
   @Override
   protected String[] getDefaultConfigLocations() {
      if (getNamespace() != null) {
         return new String[] {DEFAULT_CONFIG_LOCATION_PREFIX + getNamespace() + DEFAULT_CONFIG_LOCATION_SUFFIX};
      }
      else {
         return new String[] {DEFAULT_CONFIG_LOCATION};
      }
   }

}