title: Spring Test Configurations
body: <p>I'm fairly new to Spring and my understanding is a bit scratchy so bear with me and word answers for an idiot.</p>
  
  <p>I've started working on a relatively large, maven based project which has a load of (xml) spring configuration. For this we have a bunch of JUnit tests. At the moment spring configuration for the tests replaces the configuration for the core project modules, which is an issue because it means that if we make changes to the configuration of the main project then those changes aren't reflected in the test module and hence it's possible to get funny test results.</p>
  
  <p>We are currently changing this structure so that the test module configuration overrides (rather than replaces) the main modules configuration. So we only have to override the particular beans we are interested in for each tests.</p>
  
  <p>Is this the best way to do this? Are there alternative ways? Is it possible to fine tune this ever further so that you can override specific setters of a particular bean (rather than the entire bean) for tests?</p>
  
  <p>Any advice is much appreciated.</p>