In the Spring Framework for Java, what is the best way to store elements defined in the .properties file into a variable in JavaScript?

Question

I currently have a Java Spring project where the bulk of the front is in AngularJS, HTML, etc. I currently have an application.properties file that holds:

    name:myName
    idNum:8888888888
    password:squirrels
    contextPath:/ilovesquirrels-ui
    server:0000

    ui.firstLink: www.google.com
    ui.secondLink: www.yahoo.com
    ui.thirdLink: www.w3schools.com

    myBool: False

The first five seem to read in automatically to a place I cannot seem to find. The last four, I'd like to access in Javascript to store the urls and the boolean. I'd like to write something in JS like:

    var myLink1 = "something that accesses ui.firstLink in application.properties";

    var myLink2 = "something that accesses ui.secondLink in application.properties";

    var myLink3 = "something that accesses ui.thirdLink in application.properties";

Right now, I am reading information from a Javascript file that holds a JSON object that I'd eventually like to get rid of. It was all the same information as application.properties, except it is more visible to the end user. How do I get the links from my application.properties file into Javascript variables?

Have a Spring MVC web Service expose the properties you wish to share and implement a web Service call from your JS Client. — Daniel Lavoie, Aug 25 '16 at 15:40

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:01

0

You could create a jsp file with this:

<script>
    var myLink1 = '<%=properties.getProperty("ui.firstLink")%>';
</script>

If you want to use spring, create a PopertiesPlaceHolderConfigurer and use spring tags in jsp. See here

edited May 23 '17 at 12:01

Community

1
1

answered Aug 25 '16 at 15:37

6ton

4,174
1
22
37

Luís Soares · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-25T18:51:28.790

I don't like to mix JavaScript with the server-side language as it:

makes life harder for editors
is harder to read
couples JS with the server-side technology

Therefore, I would put the desired variable expressions as meta tags or data-attributes and then access them using JS.

<body data-uifirstlink='<%=properties.getProperty("uifirstLink")%>'; accessed with jQuery by: $('body').data('uifirstlink');

note: ideally, these data attributes should be as contextual as possible (instead of body choose a more specific place).
<meta name='uifirstlink' content='<%=properties.getProperty("uifirstLink")%>' /> accessed with jQuery by: $('meta[name="uifirstlink"]').prop('content')

A service for retrieving properties is not good because:

You need to wait for the page to load to run the call and use the variables
You have unnecessary Ajax calls
You create more coupling between client and server

Finally, you could consider cookies or headers, but I don't think is so straightforward.

In the Spring Framework for Java, what is the best way to store elements defined in the .properties file into a variable in JavaScript?

2 Answers2