The Suite Level Container is created and destroyed once during the entire test run. This can be used to create and inject resources that are required across all the test runs . For example, if you would like a browser instance to be reused across a test suite, the suite level container would be a good place to create it. This container can be configured using applicationContext-suite.xml.

The Scenario Level Container is created and destroyed each time a scenario is executed. This container can be used to create and inject resources and classes that are required during the execution of every scenario. This container can be configured using applicationContext-scenario.xml.

Here is an example of how to use different kinds of beans to suit your needs. This allows you to initialize objects that can setup your test environment for you.

The following configuration allows your Workflows to use objects initialized in the container:

public class Login {

  public Login(Authentication auth, Selenium selenium){
    this.auth = auth;
    this.selenium = selenium;
  }

}

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans
  xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xmlns:lang="http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans 
            org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/spring-beans-2.0.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang org/springframework/scripting/config/spring-lang-2.0.xsd">

  <!-- ========================================================== -->
  <!-- SimpleBean should have a default no-args constructor. -->
  <!-- ========================================================== -->
  <bean id="simpleBean" class="com.foo.example.container.SimpleBean"/>

  <!-- ========================================================== -->
  <!-- An example of a bean that needs some constructor parameters -->
  <!-- ========================================================== -->
  <bean id="initializedUsingConstructor" class="com.foo.example.container.Authentication">
    <constructor-arg type="java.lang.String" value="username"/>
    <constructor-arg type="java.lang.String" value="password"/>
  </bean>
  
  <!-- ========================================================== -->
  <!-- You can also have a bean that depends on another bean, via it's constructor -->
  <!-- ========================================================== -->
  <!--
    public class NeedsSimpleBean {
      public NeedsSimpleBean(SimpleBean simpleBean) {
        // do something with simpleBean
      }
    }
  -->
  <bean id="beanDependingOnSimpleBean" class="com.foo.example.container.NeedsSimpleBean" autowire="autodetect"/>
  
  <!-- ========================================================== -->
  <!-- beans can be initialized using properties from property files -->
  <!-- ========================================================== -->
  <bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
    <property name="systemPropertiesModeName" value="SYSTEM_PROPERTIES_MODE_OVERRIDE"/>
    <property name="locations">
      <value>classpath:twist.properties</value>
    </property>
  </bean>

  <!-- ========================================================== -->
  <!-- You can also set system properties as part of initialization -->
  <!-- ========================================================== -->
  <bean id="systemproperty" class="com.thoughtworks.twist.core.SystemPropertyInitializingBean">
    <property name="systemProperties">
      <map>
        <entry key="http.proxyHost" value="your.proxy.host"/>
        <entry key="http.proxyPort" value="8080"/>
        <entry key="http.proxyUser" value="proxyUser"/>
        <entry key="http.proxyPassword" value="proxyPassword"/>
      </map>
    </property>
  </bean>

  <!-- ========================================================== -->
  <!-- A bean can be created using a factory as well. -->
  <!-- ========================================================== -->
  <!-- Create and initialize the factory that'll create the bean. -->
  <bean id="seleniumDriverFactory" class="com.thoughtworks.twist.driver.selenium.SeleniumRCDriver" 
          init-method="start" destroy-method="stop" lazy-init="true">
    <property name="serverOptions" value="${selenium.server.options}"/>
    <property name="browserLauncher" value="${selenium.browserLauncher}"/> 
    <property name="browserURL" value="${selenium.browserURL}"/> 
  </bean> 
    
  <!-- Create the bean using the factory 'seleniumDriverFactory' -->
  <bean id="selenium"  factory-bean="seleniumDriverFactory" factory-method="getTwistSelenium" lazy-init="true">
    <constructor-arg value="${twist.selenium.enableImplicitWait}" />
    <property name="highlight" value="${twist.selenium.highlight}"/>
  </bean>
  
  
  <!-- ========================================================== -->
  <!-- Use a database to get or set test data. -->
  <!-- ========================================================== -->
  <bean id="dataSource" destroy-method="close" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource">
    <property name="driverClassName" value="${jdbc.driverClassName}"/>
    <property name="url" value="${jdbc.url}"/>
    <property name="username" value="${jdbc.username}"/>
    <property name="password" value="${jdbc.password}"/>
  </bean>

</beans>

The bean definitions have some additional attributes:

init-method	Called after the bean is created in order to initialize it
destroy-method	Called before the bean needs to be destroyed (typically when the container shuts down)
lazy-init	If this is set to 'true', the bean will be created only when it is required, setting this to false will mean that the bean is created when the container starts.