loading .properties in spring-context.xml and persistence.xml

Question

Hi,

is there a way to reference a .properties file in a spring-context.xml and a JPA persistence.xml?

I think I've seen somewhere an example of this in spring context files, though I can't remember where that was. Maybe someone knows this? About the persistence.xml I am actually unsure if this works at all.

My aim is to change some properties between development and distribution configuration. The idea I have currently is to replace all properties manually in the files via ant from a template config. Though there should be a better way to do this. :)

Answer 1

You can reference external property files from a Spring bean definition file using a PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer. I don't think that will work for a JPA persistence.xml, although Spring's JPA support allows you to incorporate most, if not all, the content of persistence.xml into the beans file itself, in which case it would work fine.

Answer 2

Rather than using your build to create a prod or dev version of your persistence.xml, just move all property settings to your spring content.

My persistence.xml is

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<persistence
    xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence/persistence_1_0.xsd"
    version="1.0">
    <persistence-unit name="JPAService" transaction-type="RESOURCE_LOCAL">   
    </persistence-unit>
</persistence>

In my spring content, i then use the PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer to read dev/prod property values and set these into the entityManagerFactory bean

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
    xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
    xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-2.5.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-2.5.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-2.5.xsd"&gt;

    <bean class="org.springframework.context.annotation.CommonAnnotationBeanPostProcessor"/>
    <bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.RequiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor"/>    
    <bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor"/>
    <bean class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.support.PersistenceAnnotationBeanPostProcessor"/>

    <bean id="propertyPlaceholder" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
        <property name="systemPropertiesModeName" value="SYSTEM_PROPERTIES_MODE_OVERRIDE"/>
        <property name="ignoreResourceNotFound" value="true"/>
        <property name="locations">
            <list>
                <value>classpath:dev.properties</value>
            </list>
        </property>
    </bean>

    <bean id="dataSource" class="org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DriverManagerDataSource">
        <property name="driverClassName" value="${datasource.driverClassName}"/>
        <property name="url" value="${datasource.url}"/>
        <property name="username" value="${datasource.username}"/>
        <property name="password" value="${datasource.password}"/>
    </bean>

    <bean id="entityManagerFactory" class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean"> 
        <property name="persistenceXmlLocation" value="classpath:./META-INF/persistence.xml"/>
        <property name="persistenceUnitName" value="JPAService"/>
        <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>

        <property name="jpaVendorAdapter"> 
            <bean class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.HibernateJpaVendorAdapter"> 
                <property name="databasePlatform" value="org.hibernate.dialect.OracleDialect"/> 
                <property name="showSql" value="true" /> 
                <property name="generateDdl" value="true"/>
                <!-- set your properties here -->
            </bean> 
        </property>
    </bean>

    <bean id="transactionManager" class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.JpaTransactionManager">
        <property name="entityManagerFactory" ref="entityManagerFactory"/>
        <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>
    </bean>

    <tx:annotation-driven transaction-manager="transactionManager" proxy-target-class="false"/>
</beans>