Proper way to pass config properties loaded by Spring to JSF world - spring

Question

I have a duplicated configuration file under WEB-INF directory, called configDEV.properties and configPRO.properties (one for development environment, and the other for production environment).
I load the proper file thanks to these Spring declaration and this Tomcat launch parameter:
<context:property-placeholder
location="WEB-INF/config${project.environment}.properties" />
-Dproject.environment=PRO
(or –Dproject.environment=DEV)
Then, in a servlet listener (called StartListener) I do the following, in order to allow JSF to access these properties, in the managed beans, and in the jsp views. (In concrete, we are going to play with a property called cfg.skin.richSelector).
public class StartListener implements ServletContextListener {
public void contextInitialized(ServletContextEvent sce) {
//Environment properties
Map<String, String> vblesEntorno = System.getenv();
//Project properties
String entorno = vblesEntorno.get("project.environment");
String ficheroPropiedades = "/WEB-INF/config" + entorno + ".properties";
try {
Properties props = new Properties();
props.load(sc.getResourceAsStream(ficheroPropiedades));
setSkinRichSelector(sc, props.getProperty("cfg.skin.richSelector"));
} catch (Exception e) {
//...
}
}
private void setSkinRichSelector(ServletContext sc, String skinRichSelector) {
sc.setInitParameter("cfg.skin.richSelector", skinRichSelector);
}
public void contextDestroyed(ServletContextEvent sce) {}
}
In a JSF managed bean:
public class ThemeSwitcher implements Serializable {
private boolean richSelector;
public ThemeSwitcher() {
richSelector = Boolean.parseBoolean(
FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getInitParameter("cfg.skin.richSelector"));
if (richSelector) {
//do A
} else {
//do B
}
}
//getters & setters
}
In a xhtml page:
<c:choose>
<c:when test="#{themeSwitcher.richSelector}">
<ui:include src="/app/comun/includes/themeSwitcherRich.xhtml"/>
</c:when>
<c:otherwise>
<ui:include src="/app/comun/includes/themeSwitcher.xhtml"/>
</c:otherwise>
</c:choose>
All of this WORKS OK, but I want to ask the experts if it is the most suitable way to do that, or if this could be simplified in some way???
Thanks in advance for your hints and advices

Answer 1

It depends on which version of Spring you are using. If it happens to be newest Spring 3.1, you can take advantage of #Profile:
Springsource Blog
Springsource reference

Answer 2

Leave the property-placeholder in your applicationContext.xml if you are using it in your spring beans.
Configure a context init param in your web.xml like this:
<context-param>
<param-name>envProp</param-name>
<param-value>${project.environment}</param-value>
</context-param>
Also move the properties file under some package in your classpath (Note: Due to this change you need to locate the resource in the application context using classpath*: prefix)
and then you can load the bundle in your JSF page like this:
<f:loadBundle basename="com.examples.config#{initParam['envProp']}" var="msgs"/>
and use something like this:
<h:outputText value="#{msgs.cfg.skin.richSelector}" />
But instead of setting the system property like this configure ProjectStage via JNDI as mentioned by Ryan Lubke in his blog so that you can use the same property even for javax.faces.PROJECT_STAGE context parameter.