Dump beans information in a Springframework application context. Licensed under WTFPL v2. More detail in blog post: http://aleung.github.io/blog/2011/11/08/Dump-beans-information-from-live-Spring-application-context/

applicationContext.xml

<?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:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd"
    default-lazy-init="false" default-autowire="byName">

    <!-- Enable @Autowired -->
    <context:annotation-config/>
    
    <!-- Load all beans with @Repository -->
    <context:component-scan base-package="leoliang.springtest"/>

    <bean id="aNormalBean" class="leoliang.springtest.NormalBean">
        <property name="anotherBean" ref="anotherBean"/>
    </bean>

    <bean class="leoliang.springtest.ApplicationContextDumper" />
</beans>

ApplicationContextDumper.java

package leoliang.springtest;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

import org.springframework.beans.BeansException;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.config.ConfigurableListableBeanFactory;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextAware;
import org.springframework.context.support.AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext;

public class ApplicationContextDumper implements ApplicationContextAware {

    private Map<String, Integer> beanReferenceCounter = new HashMap<String, Integer>();
    private StringBuilder outputMessage;

    @Override
    public void setApplicationContext(ApplicationContext context) throws BeansException {
        outputMessage = new StringBuilder();
        beanReferenceCounter.clear();
        outputMessage.append("--- ApplicationContextDumper begin ---\n");
        dumpApplicationContext(context);
        dumpBeansWithoutReference();
        outputMessage.append("--- ApplicationContextDumper end ---\n");
        System.out.print(outputMessage);
    }

    private void dumpBeansWithoutReference() {
        outputMessage.append("Beans without reference:\n");
        for (String bean : beanReferenceCounter.keySet()) {
            if (beanReferenceCounter.get(bean) == 0) {
                outputMessage.append("  ").append(bean).append('\n');
            }
        }
    }

    private void initBeanReferenceIfNotExist(String beanName) {
        Integer count = beanReferenceCounter.get(beanName);
        if (count == null) {
            beanReferenceCounter.put(beanName, 0);
        }
    }

    private void increaseBeanReference(String beanName) {
        Integer count = beanReferenceCounter.get(beanName);
        if (count == null) {
            count = new Integer(0);
        }
        beanReferenceCounter.put(beanName, ++count);
    }

    private void dumpApplicationContext(ApplicationContext context) {
        // Read context id isn't available. https://jira.springsource.org/browse/SPR-8816
        String appContextInfo = String.format("ApplicationContext %s : %s", context.getId(), context.getClass()
                .getName());
        ApplicationContext parent = context.getParent();
        if (parent != null) {
            appContextInfo += String.format(" -> %s", parent.getId());
        }
        outputMessage.append(appContextInfo).append('\n');

        ConfigurableListableBeanFactory factory = ((AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext) context).getBeanFactory();
        for (String beanName : factory.getBeanDefinitionNames()) {
            if (factory.getBeanDefinition(beanName).isAbstract()) {
                continue;
            }
            initBeanReferenceIfNotExist(beanName);
            Object bean = factory.getBean(beanName);
            outputMessage.append(String.format("  %s : %s\n", beanName, bean.getClass().getName()));
            for (String dependency : factory.getDependenciesForBean(beanName)) {
                outputMessage.append(String.format("    -> %s\n", dependency));
                increaseBeanReference(dependency);
            }
        }

        if (parent != null) {
            outputMessage.append("Parent:\n");
            dumpApplicationContext(parent);
        }
    }

}

beanRefContext.xml

<beans>
    <bean id="parentBeanFactory" class="org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext">
        <constructor-arg>
            <list>
                <value>classpath:**/parentContext.xml</value>
            </list>
        </constructor-arg>
    </bean>
    <bean id="myBeanFactory" class="org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext">
        <constructor-arg>
            <list>
                <value>classpath:**/applicationContext.xml</value>
            </list>
        </constructor-arg>
        <constructor-arg>
            <ref bean="parentBeanFactory" />
        </constructor-arg>
    </bean>
</beans>

main.java

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String[] paths = { "classpath:**/beanRefContext.xml" };
        new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(paths);
    }

output

--- ApplicationContextDumper begin ---
ApplicationContext org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext@e1d5ea : org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext -> parentBeanFactory
  org.springframework.context.annotation.internalConfigurationAnnotationProcessor : org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassPostProcessor
  org.springframework.context.annotation.internalAutowiredAnnotationProcessor : org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor
  org.springframework.context.annotation.internalRequiredAnnotationProcessor : org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.RequiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor
  org.springframework.context.annotation.internalCommonAnnotationProcessor : org.springframework.context.annotation.CommonAnnotationBeanPostProcessor
  repositoryBean : leoliang.springtest.RepositoryBean
    -> aNormalBean
  aNormalBean : leoliang.springtest.NormalBean
    -> anotherBean
  leoliang.springtest.ApplicationContextDumper#0 : leoliang.springtest.ApplicationContextDumper
Parent:
ApplicationContext parentBeanFactory : org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext
  anotherBean : leoliang.springtest.AnotherBean
Beans without reference:
  repositoryBean
  org.springframework.context.annotation.internalAutowiredAnnotationProcessor
  org.springframework.context.annotation.internalCommonAnnotationProcessor
  org.springframework.context.annotation.internalConfigurationAnnotationProcessor
  org.springframework.context.annotation.internalRequiredAnnotationProcessor
  leoliang.springtest.ApplicationContextDumper#0
--- ApplicationContextDumper end ---

parentContext.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">
    <bean id="abstractBean"  abstract="true" />
    <bean id="anotherBean" class="leoliang.springtest.AnotherBean" parent="abstractBean" />
</beans>