spring-projects/spring-framework · error · IllegalArgumentException

Property 'methodName' is required

Error message

Property 'methodName' is required

What it means

Thrown by MethodLocatingFactoryBean.setBeanFactory() when the 'methodName' property is blank/null. This FactoryBean resolves a named Method on a target aspect bean; without a method name it has nothing to locate. Spring's <aop:config> parser populates methodName from the 'method' attribute of the advice element, so a blank value means that attribute was omitted or empty.

Source

Thrown at spring-aop/src/main/java/org/springframework/aop/config/MethodLocatingFactoryBean.java:68

		this.targetBeanName = targetBeanName;
	}

	/**
	 * Set the name of the {@link Method} to locate.
	 * <p>This property is required.
	 * @param methodName the name of the {@link Method} to locate
	 */
	public void setMethodName(String methodName) {
		this.methodName = methodName;
	}

	@Override
	public void setBeanFactory(BeanFactory beanFactory) {
		if (!StringUtils.hasText(this.targetBeanName)) {
			throw new IllegalArgumentException("Property 'targetBeanName' is required");
		}
		if (!StringUtils.hasText(this.methodName)) {
			throw new IllegalArgumentException("Property 'methodName' is required");
		}

		Class<?> beanClass = beanFactory.getType(this.targetBeanName);
		if (beanClass == null) {
			throw new IllegalArgumentException("Can't determine type of bean with name '" + this.targetBeanName + "'");
		}
		this.method = BeanUtils.resolveSignature(this.methodName, beanClass);

		if (this.method == null) {
			throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unable to locate method [" + this.methodName +
					"] on bean [" + this.targetBeanName + "]");
		}
	}


	@Override
	public @Nullable Method getObject() throws Exception {
		return this.method;

View on GitHub (pinned to e8729d0438)

Solutions

1. Provide a non-empty 'method' attribute on each <aop:before>/<aop:after>/<aop:after-returning>/<aop:after-throwing>/<aop:around> element matching a public method on the aspect bean.
2. When using MethodLocatingFactoryBean programmatically, call setMethodName("adviceMethodName") before initialization.

Example fix

<!-- before -->
<aop:config>
  <aop:aspect ref="auditBean">
    <aop:before method="" pointcut="execution(* *(..))"/>
  </aop:aspect>
</aop:config>
<!-- after -->
<aop:config>
  <aop:aspect ref="auditBean">
    <aop:before method="log" pointcut="execution(* *(..))"/>
  </aop:aspect>
</aop:config>

import org.w3c.dom.Element;
import java.util.Set;

void ensureMethodAttrSet(Element adviceElement) {
  Set<String> adviceTags = Set.of("before","after","after-returning","after-throwing","around");
  if (adviceTags.contains(adviceElement.getLocalName())
      && (adviceElement.getAttribute("method") == null || adviceElement.getAttribute("method").isBlank()))
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("<aop:" + adviceElement.getLocalName() + "> requires a non-empty 'method' attribute");
}

When it happens

Trigger: Parsing an advice element like <aop:before method="" pointcut="..."/> inside <aop:aspect>, or programmatically constructing a MethodLocatingFactoryBean without calling setMethodName.

Common situations: Forgetting the 'method' attribute on <aop:before>/<aop:around>/etc. Typo leaving method="". Programmatic bean-definition construction that skips setMethodName.

Related errors

• Property 'targetBeanName' is required
• Unknown advice kind [{}].
• MethodInvocation is not a Spring ProxyMethodInvocation: {}
• 'argumentNames' property of AbstractAspectJAdvice contains a
• Only afterReturning advice can be used to bind a return valu

AI-assisted analysis of spring-projects/spring-framework@e8729d0438 (2026-08-04). Data as JSON: /data/errors/03effb96035e67b3.json. Report an issue: GitHub.