How to read properties file in Spring Framework

2012-12-16

How to read properties file in Spring Framework

I've had a problem with reading .properties file in Spring Framework. I needed to inject it into the iBatis' SqlMapConfig.xml:

<!-- iBatis -->
<bean id="sqlMap" class="org.springframework.orm.ibatis.SqlMapClientFactoryBean">
  <property name="sqlMapClientProperties" value="file:conf/${profile}/nastaveni.properties" />
  <property name="configLocation" value="ibatis-maps/SqlMapConfig2.xml"/>
</bean>
<alias alias="iBatis" name="sqlMap"/>

But iBatis kept complaining that the properties defined in the file were not resolved. Better said, it behaved like the actual value was the property name, thus the code

<transactionManager type="JDBC">
  <dataSource type="SIMPLE">
    <property name="JDBC.Driver" value="${jdbc.driver}"/>

gave me a ClassNotFoundException for the class jdbc.driver.

What actually happened was clear when I made a test bean with a property of type java.lang.Properties. Spring takes the file path „file:conf/${pro­file}/nastave­ni.properties“ as a Properties string definition and provides iBatis a Properties object with a single property: file = conf/release/nastaveni.properties.

The solution is to use the SqlMapClientFactoryBean:

<!-- iBatis -->
<bean id="sqlMap" class="org.springframework.orm.ibatis.SqlMapClientFactoryBean">
  <property name="sqlMapClientProperties">
    <bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertiesFactoryBean">
      <property name="location" value="file:conf/${profile}/nastaveni.properties"/>
    </bean>
  </property>
  <property name="configLocation" value="ibatis-maps/SqlMapConfig2.xml"/>
</bean>

Of course, this is a trivial think, but not much well documented.

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