Servlet Cannot find Find Properties File

[Graeme Byers]

The problem occurs when attempting to load a properties file in a servlet.

The batch job works OK. So I cut and paste the batch driver (GBTest01) into the servlet.

The servlet fails :

SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet AServlet threw exception
java.lang.RuntimeException: PropertiesFileLoader : Properties file 'GBForms.properties' 
                                                   is missing in classpath
	at gbpackage.PropertiesFileLoader.<clinit>(PropertiesFileLoader.java:20)
	at gbpackage.AServlet.doGet(AServlet.java:14)
	at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:617)

What's missing ? Thank you for any help.

The Properties File Directory :

 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is F066-43EE

 Directory of [b]c:\apache-tomcat-6.0.18\webapps\gbforms[/b]

27/08/2011  09:11    <DIR>          .
27/08/2011  09:11    <DIR>          ..
24/08/2011  07:15               399 ChangeLog.txt
25/08/2011  04:30               238 GBForms.properties            <---------
27/08/2011  09:11    <DIR>          HTMLLib
18/08/2011  04:32    <DIR>          JavaBeanSource
26/08/2011  10:16    <DIR>          JSPPages
27/08/2011  10:02    <DIR>          META-INF
25/08/2011  09:23    <DIR>          servletsource
27/08/2011  10:02    <DIR>          WEB-INF
               2 File(s)            637 bytes
               8 Dir(s)  21,858,123,776 bytes free

The Classpath : C:\apache-tomcat-6.0.18\webapps\GBForms is in the classpath (the batch program found it).

The Batch Driver :

package gbpackage ;
public class GBTest01 {
       public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
   
	      PropertiesFileLoader p = null ;

              try   { p = new PropertiesFileLoader("GBForms") ; }
              catch (Exception e) { throw e ; }

              String userName = p.getProperty ("userName" , true) ;
              String password = p.getProperty ("password" , true) ;
              System.out.println (userName + "/" + password) ;
}     }

The Properties File Loader : used by batch and servlet

package gbpackage ;
import java.io.IOException ; import java.io.InputStream ; import java.util.Properties ;
public class PropertiesFileLoader {

       private static final String     PROPERTIES_FILE_NAME = "GBForms.properties" ;

       private static final Properties PROPERTIES_OBJECT    = new Properties() ;
       private String                  contextName ;

       static {
                ClassLoader classLoader           = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader() ;
                InputStream propertiesInputStream = classLoader.getResourceAsStream
                                                   (PROPERTIES_FILE_NAME) ;

                if  (propertiesInputStream == null) {
                     throw new RuntimeException( "PropertiesFileLoader : Properties file '" +  
                                                  PROPERTIES_FILE_NAME + "' is missing in classpath") ;
                }
                try   { PROPERTIES_OBJECT.load (propertiesInputStream) ; }   
                catch ( IOException e) { throw new RuntimeException 
                                       ("PropertiesFileLoader : Cannot load properties file '" + 
                                         PROPERTIES_FILE_NAME + e.getMessage()) ; 
                }
        }

        public PropertiesFileLoader (String contextName) throws Exception
             { this.contextName = contextName ; }  

        public String getProperty (String key, boolean mandatory) throws Exception {
 
               String fullKey  = contextName + "." + key ;
               String property = PROPERTIES_OBJECT.getProperty (fullKey);

               if  (property == null || property.trim().length() == 0) {
                    if  (mandatory) {
                         throw new Exception ("Required property '" + fullKey + "' " +
                                              "is missing in properties file '"      + 
                                               PROPERTIES_FILE_NAME + "'.") ;
                    } else {
                             property = null ;
                    }
               }
               return property ;
         }
}

The Servlet :

package gbpackage ; 
import java.io.* ; import javax.servlet.* ; import javax.servlet.http.* ; 
public class AServlet extends HttpServlet {

       public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request , HttpServletResponse response) 
                         throws ServletException , IOException {

               response.setContentType ("text/html") ;
               PrintWriter out = response.getWriter () ;
               out.println ("<h3>AServlet</h3>") ;
                  
	       PropertiesFileLoader p = null ;

               try   { p = new PropertiesFileLoader("GBForms") ; }
               catch (Exception e) { throw new ServletException (e.getMessage()) ; }

               String userName = null ;
               String password = null ;
               try {
                     userName = p.getProperty ("userName" , true) ;
                     password = p.getProperty ("password" , true) ;
               }
               catch (Exception e) { throw new ServletException (e.getMessage()) ; }
               out.println (userName + "/" + password) ;
}      }

[William Brogden]

1. Servlet containers like Tomcat ignore your environment CLASSPATH - look at the class-loader-howto.html file normally installed with Tomcat in the "docs" under webapps.

2. The servlet API provides a mechanism for locating files in the web application. See javax.servlet.ServletContext API for methods like getContextPath, getRealPath.

Bill

[Graeme Byers]

Thank you for your reply.
By tinkering around I found that placing the properties file in WEB-INF/classes works.
I will read the documentation.
Graeme.