[spring] Could not resolve Spring property placeholder

I have my config:

<context:property-placeholder location="classpath:idm.properties" />

<bean id="idmPropertyHolder" class="fi.utu.resurssitilaus.idm.IdmPropertyHolder">
   <property name="url" value="${idm.url}" /> 
    <property name="user" value="${idm.user}" />
    <property name="password" value="${idm.password}" />
    <property name="proxyHost" value="${http.proxyHost}" />
    <property name="proxyPort" value="${http.proxyPort}" />
</bean>

I get the error

    SEVERE: Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
    org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Invalid bean definition with name 'idmPropertyHolder' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/idm-config.xml]: Could not resolve placeholder 'idm.url'
            at org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer.processProperties(PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer.java:272)
            at org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyResourceConfigurer.postProcessBeanFactory(PropertyResourceConfigurer.java:75)
            at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.invokeBeanFactoryPostProcessors(AbstractApplicationContext.java:640)
            at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.invokeBeanFactoryPostProcessors(AbstractApplicationContext.java:615)
            at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:405)
            at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.createWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:276)
            at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:197)
            at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:47)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:3934)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4429)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:791)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:771)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:526)
            at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDescriptor(HostConfig.java:630)
            at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployApps(HostConfig.java:514)
            at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.check(HostConfig.java:1288)
            at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
            at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
            at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
            at org.apache.tomcat.util.modeler.BaseModelMBean.invoke(BaseModelMBean.java:297)
            at com.sun.jmx.interceptor.DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.invoke(DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.java:836)
            at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer.invoke(JmxMBeanServer.java:761)
            at org.apache.catalina.manager.ManagerServlet.check(ManagerServlet.java:1473)
            at org.apache.catalina.manager.ManagerServlet.deploy(ManagerServlet.java:824)
            at org.apache.catalina.manager.ManagerServlet.doGet(ManagerServlet.java:350)
            at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:617)
            at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
            at org.netbeans.modules.web.monitor.server.MonitorFilter.doFilter(MonitorFilter.java:196)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
            at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:525)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:128)
            at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
            at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)
            at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:849)
            at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:583)
            at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:454)
            at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
    24.1.2011 9:19:05 org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
    INFO: Closing Spring root WebApplicationContext
    24.1.2011 9:19:05 org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
    INFO: Shutting down log4j

I know this could be missing properties file, but I have it in my classpath just right. What is missing?

My web.xml:

<context-param>
    <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
    <param-value>
      /WEB-INF/base-config.xml
      /WEB-INF/idm-config.xml
      /WEB-INF/ldap-config.xml
      /WEB-INF/sec-config.xml

    </param-value>
  </context-param>

  <!-- Reads request input using UTF-8 encoding -->
  <filter>
    <filter-name>characterEncodingFilter</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter</filter-class>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>encoding</param-name>
      <param-value>UTF-8</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>forceEncoding</param-name>
      <param-value>true</param-value>
    </init-param>
  </filter>


  <filter>
    <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class>
  </filter>

  <filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>characterEncodingFilter</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
  </filter-mapping>


  <filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
  </filter-mapping>

  <listener>
    <listener-class>org.springframework.web.util.Log4jConfigListener</listener-class>
  </listener>


  <listener>
    <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
  </listener>

  <listener>
    <listener-class>org.springframework.security.web.session.HttpSessionEventPublisher</listener-class>
  </listener>

  <!-- Handles all requests into the application -->
  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
      <param-value>
        /WEB-INF/app-config.xml

      </param-value>
    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
  </servlet>

  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>tiles</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.apache.tiles.web.startup.TilesServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>
        org.apache.tiles.impl.BasicTilesContainer.DEFINITIONS_CONFIG
      </param-name>
      <param-value>
        /WEB-INF/tiles-config.xml
      </param-value>
    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>2</load-on-startup>
  </servlet>

  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>*.html</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>

  <session-config>
    <session-timeout>
      30
    </session-timeout>
  </session-config>

  <welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>redirect.jsp</welcome-file>
  </welcome-file-list>
</web-app>

This question is related to spring

The answer is


I still believe its to do with the props file not being located by spring. Do a quick test by passing the params as jvm params. i.e -Didm.url=....


Your property file location is classpath:idm.properties

This is rather unusual, it means that idm.properties must be located either at the top level of WEB-INF/classes or at the top-level of one of the jars inside WEB-INF/lib. Usually it's good practice to either use a dedicated folder for properties or keep them close to the context files that use them.

So my suggestion is this: Is your properties file perhaps next to your context file? If so, it's not on the classpath (see this question: Is WEB-INF in the CLASSPATH?).

The classpath: prefix maps to a ClassPathResource, but you probably need a ServletContextResource, and you'll get that from a WebApplicationContext using the syntax without prefix:

<context:property-placeholder location="idm.properties" />

Reference:


It's definitely not a problem with propeties file not being found, since in that case another exception is thrown.

Make sure that you actually have a value with key idm.url in your idm.properties.


make sure your properties file exist in classpath directory but not in sub folder of your classpath directory. if it is exist in sub folder then write as below classpath:subfolder/idm.properties


the following property must be added in the gradle.build file

processResources {
    filesMatching("**/*.properties") {
        expand project.properties
    }
}

Additionally, if working with Intellij, the project must be re-imported.


Ensure 'idm.url' is set in property file and the property file is loaded


You may have more than one org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer in your application. Try setting a breakpoint on the setLocations method of the superclass and see if it's called more than once at application startup. If there is more than one org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer, you might need to look at configuring the ignoreUnresolvablePlaceholders property so that your application will start up cleanly.