这是一个最简单的容器，它主要的功能是为依赖注入 （DI） 提供支持，这个容器接口在 org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanFactor 中被定义。BeanFactory 和相关的接口，比如BeanFactoryAware、DisposableBean、InitializingBean，仍旧保留在 Spring 中，主要目的是向后兼容已经存在的和那些 Spring 整合在一起的第三方框架。
在 Spring 中，有大量对 BeanFactory 接口的实现。其中，最常被使用的是 XmlBeanFactory 类。这个容器从一个 XML 文件中读取配置元数据，由这些元数据来生成一个被配置化的系统或者应用。
在资源宝贵的移动设备或者基于 applet 的应用当中， BeanFactory 会被优先选择。否则，一般使用的是 ApplicationContext，除非你有更好的理由选择 BeanFactory。
XmlBeanFactory设计的类继承关系图：
XmlBeanFactory继承自DefaultListableBeanFactory这个类，后者是我们经常要用到的IOC容器的实现，比如在设计应用上下文ApplicationContext时就会用到它。在Spring中，实际上是把DefaultListableBeanFactory作为一个默认功能完整的IOC容器来使用的。XmlBeanFactory继承DefaultListableBeanFactory容器功能的同时，增加了新的功能。从名字我们可以看出，它是一个与XML相关的BeanFactory，也就是说它是一个可以读取以XML文件方式定义的BeanDefinition的IOC容器。（关于BeanDefinition，我们可以理解为spring ioc的bean配置文件）在XmlBeanFactory中，初始化了一个XmlBeanDefinitionReader对象，有了这个Reader对象，那些以XML方式定义的BeanDefinition就有了处理的地方。我们可以看到，对这些XML形式的信息的处理实际上是由这个XmlBeanDefinitionReader来完成的。构造XmlBeanFactory这个IOC容器时，需要指定BeanDefinition的信息来源，而这个信息来源需要封装成Spring中的Resource类，Resource源码：
public interface Resource extends InputStreamSource {
/**
* Return whether this resource actually exists in physical form.
* <p>This method performs a definitive existence check, whereas the
* existence of a {@code Resource} handle only guarantees a
* valid descriptor handle.
*/
boolean exists();
/**
* Return whether the contents of this resource can be read,
* e.g. via {@link #getInputStream()} or {@link #getFile()}.
* <p>Will be {@code true} for typical resource descriptors;
* note that actual content reading may still fail when attempted.
* However, a value of {@code false} is a definitive indication
* that the resource content cannot be read.
* @see #getInputStream()
*/
boolean isReadable();
/**
* Return whether this resource represents a handle with an open
* stream. If true, the InputStream cannot be read multiple times,
* and must be read and closed to avoid resource leaks.
* <p>Will be {@code false} for typical resource descriptors.
*/
boolean isOpen();
/**
* Return a URL handle for this resource.
* @throws IOException if the resource cannot be resolved as URL,
* i.e. if the resource is not available as descriptor
*/
URL getURL() throws IOException;
/**
* Return a URI handle for this resource.
* @throws IOException if the resource cannot be resolved as URI,
* i.e. if the resource is not available as descriptor
*/
URI getURI() throws IOException;
/**
* Return a File handle for this resource.
* @throws IOException if the resource cannot be resolved as absolute
* file path, i.e. if the resource is not available in a file system
*/
File getFile() throws IOException;
/**
* Determine the content length for this resource.
* @throws IOException if the resource cannot be resolved
* (in the file system or as some other known physical resource type)
*/
long contentLength() throws IOException;
/**
* Determine the last-modified timestamp for this resource.
* @throws IOException if the resource cannot be resolved
* (in the file system or as some other known physical resource type)
*/
long lastModified() throws IOException;
/**
* Create a resource relative to this resource.
* @param relativePath the relative path (relative to this resource)
* @return the resource handle for the relative resource
* @throws IOException if the relative resource cannot be determined
*/
Resource createRelative(String relativePath) throws IOException;
/**
* Determine a filename for this resource, i.e. typically the last
* part of the path: for example, "myfile.txt".
* <p>Returns {@code null} if this type of resource does not
* have a filename.
*/
String getFilename();
/**
* Return a description for this resource,
* to be used for error output when working with the resource.
* <p>Implementations are also encouraged to return this value
* from their {@code toString} method.
* @see Object#toString()
*/
String getDescription();
}public interface InputStreamSource {
/**
* Return an {@link InputStream}.
* <p>It is expected that each call creates a <i>fresh</i> stream.
* <p>This requirement is particularly important when you consider an API such
* as JavaMail, which needs to be able to read the stream multiple times when
* creating mail attachments. For such a use case, it is <i>required</i>
* that each {@code getInputStream()} call returns a fresh stream.
* @return the input stream for the underlying resource (must not be {@code null})
* @throws IOException if the stream could not be opened
* @see org.springframework.mail.javamail.MimeMessageHelper#addAttachment(String, InputStreamSource)
*/
InputStream getInputStream() throws IOException;
}Resource是Spring用来封装I/O操作的类。比如我们的BeanDefinition信息的以XML文件的形式存在的，那么可以使用像ClassPathResource res = new ClassPathResource("beans.xml")这样具体的ClassPathResource来构造需要的Resource，然后将Resource作为构造参数传递给XmlBeanFactory构造函数。这样，IOC容器就可以方便地定位到需要的BeanDefinition信息来对Bean完成容器的初始化和依赖注入过程。
XmlBeanFactory的功能是建立在DefaultListableBeanFactory这个基本容器基础上的，并在这个基本容器的基本上实现了诸如XML读取的附加功能。如代码清单所示，在
XmlBeanFactory构造方法中需要得到Resource对象。对XmlBeanDefinitionReader初始化，以及使用这个对象来完成loadBeanDefinitions的调用，就是这个调用启动从Resource中载人BeanDefinition的过程，loadBeanDefinitions同时也是IOC初始化的重要组成部分。
public int loadBeanDefinitions(Resource resource) throws BeanDefinitionStoreException {
return loadBeanDefinitions(new EncodedResource(resource));
} public EncodedResource(Resource resource) {
Assert.notNull(resource, "Resource must not be null");
this.resource = resource;
}