Context Properties and Bean Initialization

[Db Riekhof]

Hello,

I'm using Spring 3.1 and Tomcat 7.0.25. I'd like to get some custom property files loaded before the Spring Container processes my applicationContext.xml and initializes some beans in there. So after some research I found that a nice new way to do something like this in 3.1 is to use a custom ApplicationContextInitializer class. I tied it in my web.xml like this:

   <context-param>
        <param-name>contextInitializerClasses</param-name>
        <param-value>somepackage.web.ContextPropsLoader</param-value>
    </context-param>    

    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml</param-value>
    </context-param>

Then I wrote my class here:

public class ContextPropsLoader 
    implements ApplicationContextInitializer<ConfigurableWebApplicationContext> {

    @Override
    public void initialize(ConfigurableWebApplicationContext ctx )   {
        ConfigurableEnvironment env = ctx.getEnvironment();
        Properties props = <code to load all the props from various files>
        PropertySource ps = new PropertiesPropertySource( "MyCustomProperties", props );
        env.getPropertySources().addFirst(ps);
    }
}

It all works fine except for one Major problem. Beans inside my applicationContext.xml are getting initalized before my ContextPropsLoader code is getting executed. I know this by the errors it is showing, and by running it in the debugger and seeing the errors before it gets to the ContextPropsLoader code:

Apr 20, 2012 12:44:23 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext listenerStart
SEVERE: Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'dsPostgresUser' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]: Error setting property values; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.PropertyBatchUpdateException; nested PropertyAccessExceptions (1) are:
PropertyAccessException 1: org.springframework.beans.MethodInvocationException: Property 'driverClassName' threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Could not load JDBC driver class [${db.driver.class.postgresql}]
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.applyPropertyValues(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1396)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.populateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1118)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:517)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:456)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:294)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:225)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:291)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:193)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:585)
	at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:913)
	at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:464)
	at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:384)
	at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:283)
	at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:111)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4779)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5273)
	at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:897)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:873)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:615)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDescriptor(HostConfig.java:649)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployDescriptor.run(HostConfig.java:1581)
	at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:441)
	at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
	at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.PropertyBatchUpdateException; nested PropertyAccessExceptions (1) are:
PropertyAccessException 1: org.springframework.beans.MethodInvocationException: Property 'driverClassName' threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Could not load JDBC driver class [${db.driver.class.postgresql}]
	at org.springframework.beans.AbstractPropertyAccessor.setPropertyValues(AbstractPropertyAccessor.java:102)
	at org.springframework.beans.AbstractPropertyAccessor.setPropertyValues(AbstractPropertyAccessor.java:58)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.applyPropertyValues(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1393)
	... 27 more

The db.driver.class.postgresql property is defined in my ContextPropsLoader, but too late after bean initialization.

Suggestions? Anyway to get that code to run sooner or the beans to initialize later?

Thanks for reading.

[Manish Sridharan]

Have you added ContextLoaderListener in your web.xml ?
<listener> <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class> </listener>
Thanks

[Db Riekhof]

Manish Sridharan wrote:Have you added ContextLoaderListener in your web.xml ?

Thanks

Yes, I had the listener defined just as you say in web.xml. I moved it up to the top, and it still doesn't matter, same error.

[Piyush Mangal]

Why don't you use PropertyPlaceHolderConfigurer ?