It is often useful to pass information from one step to another. This can be done through the ExecutionContext. The catch is that there are two ExecutionContexts: one at the Step level and one at the Job level. The Step ExecutionContext remains only as long as the step, while the Job ExecutionContext remains through the whole Job. On the other hand, the Step ExecutionContext is updated every time the Step commits a chunk, while the Job ExecutionContext is updated only at the end of each Step.

The consequence of this separation is that all data must be placed in the Step ExecutionContext while the Step is executing. Doing so ensures that the data is stored properly while the Step runs. If data is stored to the Job ExecutionContext, then it is not persisted during Step execution. If the Step fails, that data is lost.

public class SavingItemWriter implements ItemWriter<Object> {
    private StepExecution stepExecution;

    public void write(List<? extends Object> items) throws Exception {
        // ...

        ExecutionContext stepContext = this.stepExecution.getExecutionContext();
        stepContext.put("someKey", someObject);
    }

    @BeforeStep
    public void saveStepExecution(StepExecution stepExecution) {
        this.stepExecution = stepExecution;
    }
}

To make the data available to future Steps, it must be “promoted” to the Job ExecutionContext after the step has finished. Spring Batch provides the ExecutionContextPromotionListener for this purpose. The listener must be configured with the keys related to the data in the ExecutionContext that must be promoted. It can also, optionally, be configured with a list of exit code patterns for which the promotion should occur (COMPLETED is the default). As with all listeners, it must be registered on the Step as shown in the following example:

Java Configuration

@Bean
public Job job1() {
	return this.jobBuilderFactory.get("job1")
				.start(step1())
				.next(step1())
				.build();
}

@Bean
public Step step1() {
	return this.stepBuilderFactory.get("step1")
				.<String, String>chunk(10)
				.reader(reader())
				.writer(savingWriter())
				.listener(promotionListener())
				.build();
}

@Bean
public ExecutionContextPromotionListener promotionListener() {
	ExecutionContextPromotionListener listener = new ExecutionContextPromotionListener();

	listener.setKeys(new String[] {"someKey" });

	return listener;
}

Finally, the saved values must be retrieved from the Job ExecutionContext, as shown in the following example:

public class RetrievingItemWriter implements ItemWriter<Object> {
    private Object someObject;

    public void write(List<? extends Object> items) throws Exception {
        // ...
    }

    @BeforeStep
    public void retrieveInterstepData(StepExecution stepExecution) {
        JobExecution jobExecution = stepExecution.getJobExecution();
        ExecutionContext jobContext = jobExecution.getExecutionContext();
        this.someObject = jobContext.get("someKey");
    }
}

In similar way, @AfterStep annotated method can be used to read/write the ExecutionContext and can access in future Step.

@AfterStep     
public ExitStatus afterStep(StepExecution execution) {         
         this.stepExecution = stepExecution;
         return execution.getExitStatus();
 }

I hope you have enjoyed this post and it helped you to Passing Data to Future Steps in Spring Batch. Please like and share and feel free to comment if you have any suggestions or feedback.