Access a property file outside war- Spring 2.5.1 version - spring

Question

I need to access a property file outside war. I am keeping path to the outside property
file in a class path property file. The Project version is Spring 2.5.1 and
#Configuration and Environemnt classes are not available unfortunately.
System.properties is in the class path it has key entry to the outside property.
key.externalFile=C:\temp\external.properties
I tried with below approach
<context:property-placeholder location="classpath:System.properties"/>
<context:property-placeholder location="file:${key.externalFile}" />
In the external.properties file it has id
keyValue= 444;
I need to inject this value to a bean as below.
<bean id="helloWorldBean" class="com.java.snippets.enterprise.services.HelloWorld">
<property name="key" value="${keyValue} />
I am getting the error Could not resolve placeholder 'keyValue' in string value "${keyValue}"
I also tried out with
<context:property-placeholder location="file:${key.supportiveFile}" />
<util:properties id="props" location="file:${key.supportiveFile}"/>
but it ended with the same results.
<bean id="helloWorldBean"
class="com.java.snippets.enterprise.services.HelloWorld">
<property name="key" value="${props.keypath}" />
</bean>
Please help me and looking forward.
Complete Code
1. Context file
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:util="http://www.springframework.org/schema/util"
xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
xmlns:jee="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee"
xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/util http://www.springframework.org/schema/util/spring-util-2.5.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-2.5.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-2.5.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee/spring-jee-2.5.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-2.5.xsd
">
<context:property-placeholder location="classpath:constants.properties"/>
<context:property-placeholder location="file:${key.supportiveFile}"/>
<bean id="helloWorldBean"
class="com.java.snippets.enterprise.services.HelloWorld">
<property name="key" value="${keypath}" />
</bean>
</beans>
2. System property file - constants.properties
key.supportiveFile=C\:\\Users\\Kasun\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\key.properties
3. Test Class
public static void main(String[] args) {
ApplicationContext context = new
ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("applicationContext.xml");
HelloWorld hello = (HelloWorld) context.getBean("helloWorldBean");
hello.sayHello();
}
Thanks. Unfortunately it still cannot resolve. Exception in thread "main" org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanInitializationException: Could not load properties; nested exception is java.io.FileNotFoundException: ${key.externalFile} (The system cannot find the file specified)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyResourceConfigurer.postProcessBeanFactory(PropertyResourceConfigurer.java:78)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.invokeBeanFactoryPostProcessors(AbstractApplicationContext.java:542)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContexeBeanFactoryPostProcessors(AbstractApplicationContext.java:516)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:348)
at org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.(ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.java:123)
at org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.t.invok

Answer 1

Remove the context attribute definitions of propertyPlaceholderConfigurer and replace them with:
<bean id="placeholderConfig1" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
<property name="location">
<value>classpath:System.properties</value>
</property>
<property name="ignoreUnresolvablePlaceholders">
<value>true</value>
</property>
<property name="systemPropertiesModeName">
<value>SYSTEM_PROPERTIES_MODE_OVERRIDE</value>
</property>
</bean>
<bean id="placeholderConfig2" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
<property name="location">
<value>file:${key.externalFile}</value>
</property>
</bean>