Could not resolve Spring property placeholder

Question

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> 

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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:

• The ResourceLoader
  (describes how different ApplicationContext types handle resources without prefix)
• The PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer mechanism
  (describes the <context:property-placeholder> mechanism)