JavaConfigWebApplicationContext allows for seamlessly bootstrapping @Configuration classes within your servlet container's web.xml deployment descriptor. This process requires no Spring XML whatsoever:

<web-app>
    <!-- Configure ContextLoaderListener to use JavaConfigWebApplicationContext
         instead of the default XmlWebApplicationContext -->
    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextClass</param-name>
        <param-value>
            org.springframework.config.java.context.JavaConfigWebApplicationContext
        </param-value>
    </context-param>

    <!-- Configuration locations must consist of one or more comma- or space-delimited
         fully-qualified @Configuration classes -->
    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>example.ApplicationConfig</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <!-- Bootstrap the root application context as usual using ContextLoaderListener -->
    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
    </listener>

    <!-- Declare a Spring MVC DispatcherServlet as usual -->
    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
        <!-- Configure DispatcherServlet to use JavaConfigWebApplicationContext
             instead of the default XmlWebApplicationContext -->
        <init-param>
            <param-name>contextClass</param-name>
            <param-value>
                org.springframework.config.java.context.JavaConfigWebApplicationContext
            </param-value>
        </init-param>
        <!-- Again, config locations must consist of one or more comma- or space-delimited
             and fully-qualified @Configuration classes -->
        <init-param>
            <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
            <param-value>example.web.ServletConfig</param-value>
        </init-param>
    </servlet>

    <!-- map all requests for /main/* to the dispatcher servlet -->
    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/main/*</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>
</web-app>
            

For basic information regarding initialization parameters to DispatcherServlet and use of ContextLoaderListener, see Chapter 13. Web MVC framework of the Core Spring Framework documentation.