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>

score 105 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 25 '11 at 22:11

105

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.

answered Jan 25 '11 at 22:11

jabley

2,212
2
19
23

8

I imported one application context from another one and each of them had it's own property place holder. Took me hours trying to figure it out (I had the same exception going on) and setting ignoreUnresolvablePlaceholders to true in the top app context did the trick. Thank you for writing this answer! – forhas Sep 23 '12 at 18:00
Same problem here only in my case I had one ppc in the xml and was apparently creating another by using the @PropertySource annotation elsewhere. i got rid of the annotation and passed both props files to the ppc bean in the xml and viola. thanks for the tip. – dev Oct 14 '13 at 16:53
So simple, but so powerfull solution for resolve all problems with placeholder configs! – Cherry Feb 29 '16 at 03:28
I had same problem but ignoreUnresolvablePlaceholders solution doesn't resolve mine. Yes, I had one more place holder configurer, but it was at my server configuration and that still prevent reading config file. I removed that place holder configurer from server configuration and all work fine. Thanks for hint. – Mustafa Kemal Apr 05 '17 at 10:38

score 16 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

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)

In the Spring petclinic example they put properties in src/main/resources and then reference them via classpath:app.properties. — blahdiblah, May 07 '11 at 00:20

score 11 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 24 '11 at 13:47

11

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.

answered Jan 24 '11 at 13:47

axtavt

239,438
41
511
482

I had copy-pasted the VM options from my startup script so they were all prepended with "-D". It hadn't occurred to me to check something this obvious... Thanks! – delucasvb Aug 11 '16 at 13:48

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 03 '16 at 12:06

3

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

answered Jan 03 '16 at 12:06

Ram

1,461
1
13
17

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 24 '11 at 07:35

3

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=....

answered Jan 24 '11 at 07:35

Aravind Yarram

78,777
46
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327

I'm not familiar with jvm params – mjgirl Jan 24 '11 at 07:55
@mjgirl it's not that hard: `-Dkey=value` means setting the System Property "key" to "value" – Sean Patrick Floyd Jan 24 '11 at 10:39
Do yo mean I write that to properties file – mjgirl Jan 24 '11 at 11:36
1

@mjgirl let us say u have a class called "A" with main method in it. you can pass idm.url to "A" like this "java -Didm.url=http://www.abc.com A" – Aravind Yarram Jan 24 '11 at 14:28

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 01 '19 at 03:43

0

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.

answered Nov 01 '19 at 03:43

carlos figueredo

1

score -7 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 06 '13 at 23:44

-7

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

answered Feb 06 '13 at 23:44

Mukesh Koshy M

1

Could not resolve Spring property placeholder

7 Answers7

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