Spring Boot application.properties value not populating

Question

I have a very simple Spring Boot app that I'm trying to get working with some externalised configuration. I've tried to follow the information on the spring boot documentation however I'm hitting a road block.

When I run the app below the external configuration in the application.properties file does not get populated into the variable within the bean. I'm sure I'm doing something stupid, thanks for any suggestions.

MyBean.java (located in /src/main/java/foo/bar/)

package foo.bar;  import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value; import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties; import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.EnableConfigurationProperties; import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;  @Component public class MyBean {      @Value("${some.prop}")     private String prop;      public MyBean() {         System.out.println("================== " + prop + "================== ");     } } 

Application.java (located in /src/main/java/foo/)

package foo;  import foo.bar.MyBean;  import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired; import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value; import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration; import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication; import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan; import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;  @Configuration @ComponentScan @EnableAutoConfiguration public class Application {      @Autowired     private MyBean myBean;      public static void main(String[] args) {         SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);     } } 

application.properties (located in /src/main/resources/)

some.prop=aabbcc 

Log output when executing the Spring Boot app:

grb-macbook-pro:properties-test-app grahamrb$ java -jar ./build/libs/properties-test-app-0.1.0.jar    .   ____          _            __ _ _  /\\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __  __ _ \ \ \ \ ( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | \ \ \ \  \\/  ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| |  ) ) ) )   '  |____| .__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | / / / /  =========|_|==============|___/=/_/_/_/  :: Spring Boot ::        (v1.1.5.RELEASE)  2014-09-10 21:28:42.149  INFO 16554 --- [           main] foo.Application                          : Starting Application on grb-macbook-pro.local with PID 16554 (/Users/grahamrb/Dropbox/dev-projects/spring-apps/properties-test-app/build/libs/properties-test-app-0.1.0.jar started by grahamrb in /Users/grahamrb/Dropbox/dev-projects/spring-apps/properties-test-app) 2014-09-10 21:28:42.196  INFO 16554 --- [           main] ationConfigEmbeddedWebApplicationContext : Refreshing org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.AnnotationConfigEmbeddedWebApplicationContext@67e38ec8: startup date [Wed Sep 10 21:28:42 EST 2014]; root of context hierarchy 2014-09-10 21:28:42.828  INFO 16554 --- [           main] o.s.b.f.s.DefaultListableBeanFactory     : Overriding bean definition for bean 'beanNameViewResolver': replacing [Root bean: class [null]; scope=; abstract=false; lazyInit=false; autowireMode=3; dependencyCheck=0; autowireCandidate=true; primary=false; factoryBeanName=org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.ErrorMvcAutoConfiguration$WhitelabelErrorViewConfiguration; factoryMethodName=beanNameViewResolver; initMethodName=null; destroyMethodName=(inferred); defined in class path resource [org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ErrorMvcAutoConfiguration$WhitelabelErrorViewConfiguration.class]] with [Root bean: class [null]; scope=; abstract=false; lazyInit=false; autowireMode=3; dependencyCheck=0; autowireCandidate=true; primary=false; factoryBeanName=org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.WebMvcAutoConfiguration$WebMvcAutoConfigurationAdapter; factoryMethodName=beanNameViewResolver; initMethodName=null; destroyMethodName=(inferred); defined in class path resource [org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/WebMvcAutoConfiguration$WebMvcAutoConfigurationAdapter.class]] 2014-09-10 21:28:43.592  INFO 16554 --- [           main] .t.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory : Server initialized with port: 8080 2014-09-10 21:28:43.784  INFO 16554 --- [           main] o.apache.catalina.core.StandardService   : Starting service Tomcat 2014-09-10 21:28:43.785  INFO 16554 --- [           main] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine  : Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/7.0.54 2014-09-10 21:28:43.889  INFO 16554 --- [ost-startStop-1] o.a.c.c.C.[Tomcat].[localhost].[/]       : Initializing Spring embedded WebApplicationContext 2014-09-10 21:28:43.889  INFO 16554 --- [ost-startStop-1] o.s.web.context.ContextLoader            : Root WebApplicationContext: initialization completed in 1695 ms 2014-09-10 21:28:44.391  INFO 16554 --- [ost-startStop-1] o.s.b.c.e.ServletRegistrationBean        : Mapping servlet: 'dispatcherServlet' to [/] 2014-09-10 21:28:44.393  INFO 16554 --- [ost-startStop-1] o.s.b.c.embedded.FilterRegistrationBean  : Mapping filter: 'hiddenHttpMethodFilter' to: [/*] ================== null================== 2014-09-10 21:28:44.606  INFO 16554 --- [           main] o.s.w.s.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping  : Mapped URL path [/**/favicon.ico] onto handler of type [class org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.ResourceHttpRequestHandler] 2014-09-10 21:28:44.679  INFO 16554 --- [           main] s.w.s.m.m.a.RequestMappingHandlerMapping : Mapped "{[/error],methods=[],params=[],headers=[],consumes=[],produces=[],custom=[]}" onto public org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity<java.util.Map<java.lang.String, java.lang.Object>> org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.BasicErrorController.error(javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest) 2014-09-10 21:28:44.679  INFO 16554 --- [           main] s.w.s.m.m.a.RequestMappingHandlerMapping : Mapped "{[/error],methods=[],params=[],headers=[],consumes=[],produces=[text/html],custom=[]}" onto public org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.BasicErrorController.errorHtml(javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest) 2014-09-10 21:28:44.716  INFO 16554 --- [           main] o.s.w.s.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping  : Mapped URL path [/**] onto handler of type [class org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.ResourceHttpRequestHandler] 2014-09-10 21:28:44.716  INFO 16554 --- [           main] o.s.w.s.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping  : Mapped URL path [/webjars/**] onto handler of type [class org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.ResourceHttpRequestHandler] 2014-09-10 21:28:44.902  INFO 16554 --- [           main] o.s.j.e.a.AnnotationMBeanExporter        : Registering beans for JMX exposure on startup 2014-09-10 21:28:44.963  INFO 16554 --- [           main] s.b.c.e.t.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer : Tomcat started on port(s): 8080/http 2014-09-10 21:28:44.965  INFO 16554 --- [           main] foo.Application                          : Started Application in 3.316 seconds (JVM running for 3.822) ^C2014-09-10 21:28:54.223  INFO 16554 --- [       Thread-2] ationConfigEmbeddedWebApplicationContext : Closing org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.AnnotationConfigEmbeddedWebApplicationContext@67e38ec8: startup date [Wed Sep 10 21:28:42 EST 2014]; root of context hierarchy 2014-09-10 21:28:54.225  INFO 16554 --- [       Thread-2] o.s.j.e.a.AnnotationMBeanExporter        : Unregistering JMX-exposed beans on shutdown 

Answer 1

The way you are performing the injection of the property will not work, because the injection is done after the constructor is called.

You need to do one of the following:

Better solution

@Component public class MyBean {      private final String prop;      @Autowired     public MyBean(@Value("${some.prop}") String prop) {         this.prop = prop;         System.out.println("================== " + prop + "================== ");     } } 

Solution that will work but is less testable and slightly less readable

@Component public class MyBean {      @Value("${some.prop}")     private String prop;      public MyBean() {      }      @PostConstruct     public void init() {         System.out.println("================== " + prop + "================== ");     } } 

Also note that is not Spring Boot specific but applies to any Spring application

Answer 2

The user "geoand" is right in pointing out the reasons here and giving a solution. But a better approach is to encapsulate your configuration into a separate class, say SystemContiguration java class and then inject this class into what ever services you want to use those fields.

Your current way(@grahamrb) of reading config values directly into services is error prone and would cause refactoring headaches if config setting name is changed.