Load webserver context.xml using Spring - spring

Question

Fairly new to Spring, so I'm having some trouble with this. I'm trying to use LDAP security with Spring. I can use a properties file I created inside the webapp itself. But what I would like to do is load and read the context.xml file of the server (it has all the values I need for this and other applications).
This is what I have:
<bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
<property name="ignoreUnresolvablePlaceholders" value="true"/>
</bean>
<bean class="org.springframework.web.context.support.ServletContextPropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
<property name="systemPropertiesModeName" value="SYSTEM_PROPERTIES_MODE_OVERRIDE"/>
<property name="searchContextAttributes" value="true"/>
<property name="contextOverride" value="true"/>
<property name="ignoreResourceNotFound" value="true"/>
<property name="locations">
<list>
<value>/WEB-INF/properties/dataUploadProperties.properties</value>
<value>/WEB-INF/properties/globalProperties.properties</value>
<value>context.xml</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>
I'm able to load and read the 2 properties files, but the context.xml is not found. Does it need to be the absolute path on the server?
Thanks
Chris

Answer 1

So the first thing I would recommend is to use Spring Security. It has an already build in LDAP support.
but the context.xml is not found
Normally this (reading the context.xml directly) is not the way you should go.
Instead, define some properties and or JNDI resources in the context.xml and then use them in the spring configuration.
For example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:jee="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee
http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee/spring-jee-3.0.xsd">
<!-- access via jndi -->
<jee:jndi-lookup id="jndiEmailSession"
jndi-name="java:comp/env/email/session/myEmailSession" />
<!-- direct access for properties required the SERVLET contect property
place older configurer, then it works like properties from normal
property files -->
<bean class="org.springframework.web.context.support.ServletContextPropertyPlaceholderConfigurer"> <property name="locations" value="classpath*:META-INF/spring/*.properties" /> </bean>
<bean class=Demo>
<property name="someString" value="${simpleValue}" />
</bean>
</beans>
context.xml:
<Resource name="email/session/myEmailSession"
type="javax.mail.Session"
auth="Container"
password="secret"
mail.debug="false"
mail.transport.protocol="smtp"
mail.smtp.auth="true"
mail.smtp.user="test#example.com"
mail.smtp.host="mail.example.com"
mail.smtp.from="test#example.com"/>
<Parameter name="simpleValue" value="any" override="false" />