Is `Properties` still used for loading configuration of JDBC from a file?

Question

I heard that Properties is legacy in Java.

Is Properties still used for load configuration of JDBC from a file as in an an old reply?

Without Properties, how can we do the same? By normal file-read functions and manually parse the files?

You can save you db.properties file to an external fixed location, and access it for later to retrieve your connection properties:

Properties props = new Properties();
FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream("/external/configuration/dir/db.properties");
props.load(in);
in.close();

String driver = props.getProperty("jdbc.driver");
if (driver != null) {
    Class.forName(driver) ;
}

String url = props.getProperty("jdbc.url");
String username = props.getProperty("jdbc.username");
String password = props.getProperty("jdbc.password");

Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(url, username, password);

Then, on every environment you can have a different copy of your database settings, without having to change your application file (JAR, ER, or whatever).

Sample database connection properties file:

# Oracle DB properties
#jdbc.driver=oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver
#jdbc.url=jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1571:MyDbSID
#jdbc.username=root
#jdbc.password=admin

# MySQL DB properties
jdbc.driver=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
jdbc.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/MyDbName
jdbc.username=root
jdbc.password=admin

Answer 1

Yes. At least in my organization, many configurations (not just database conf) are still loaded from properties files, which is perfectly normal and working well. I think it's only legacy in the sense that as a container, the Properties class came out before the introduction of the Java Collections Framework, like Vector and Hashtable.

On the other hand, alternatives like YAML and JSON are getting more popular. Probably because it's can become repetitive to describe an object with fields in a properties file.

jdbc.driver=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
jdbc.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/MyDbName
jdbc.username=root
jdbc.password=admin

While the same configuration in YAML would be more concise and readable(?).

jdbc:
  driver: "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
  url: "mysql://localhost:3306/MyDB"
  username: "root"
  password: ""