MessageSource and PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer cannot load messages but with classpath* - spring

Question

My applicationContext.xml is in path:
src/main/resources/META-INF/spring
and property files are in path:
src/main/resources/messages
and I load spring context in web.xml as follows:
<context-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value>classpath:META-INF/spring/applicationContext.xml</param-value>
</context-param>
when I am configuring MessageSource and PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer as follows:
<bean id="propertyPlaceholderConfigurer"
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
<property name="locations">
<list>
<value>classpath:messages/apps.properties</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>
<bean id="messageSource" class="org.springframework.context.support.ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource">
<property name="basenames">
<list>
<value>classpath:messages/ValidationMessages</value>
<value>classpath:messages/app</value>
</list>
</property>
<property name="defaultEncoding" value="UTF-8"/>
</bean>
they both don't work, it only works when I change classpath to classpath*
Any ideas why?

Answer 1

From Spring documentation:
4.7.2.2 The classpath*: prefix
[...] location string may use the special classpath*: prefix: [...]
This special prefix specifies that all classpath resources that match the given name must be obtained [...], and then merged to form the final application context definition.
Are you sure there are no other messages/apps.properties files on your CLASSPATH coincidentally taking precedence and overriding your file? This description suggests that you might have several same named files that are merged when * is used.
Can you check this by calling:
SomeClass.class.getClassLoader().getResources("/messages/apps.properties");
?

Answer 2

Look at this excellent article for classpath v classpth* difference in regards to spring resource loading, I did some testing on your problem in my testing it worked whether i used classpath or classpath*
I am listing the code here about the test i did
I created a this directory structure (META-INF/spring under src/main/resource) placed context.xml
I am listing complete context.xml here
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">
<bean id="propertyPlaceholderConfigurer"
class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
<property name="locations">
<list>
<value>classpath:messages/apps.properties</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>
<bean class="prasanna.service.TestBean">
<property name="appName" value="${appname}"></property>
</bean>
<bean id="messageSource" class="org.springframework.context.support.ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource">
<property name="basenames">
<list>
<value>classpath:messages/ValidationMessages</value>
<value>classpath:messages/apps</value>
</list>
</property>
<property name="defaultEncoding" value="UTF-8"/>
</bean>
</beans>
Listing for apps.properties
appname=spring mvc app
Listing for ValidationMessages.properties
error.name=Invalid name
TestBean is rather simple
public class TestBean
{
private String appName;
public String getAppName() {
return appName;
}
public void setAppName(String appName) {
this.appName = appName;
}
}
I am using a simple java class to load the property files and read them
public class LoadContext
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
ApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(new String[]{"classpath:META-INF/spring/context.xml"});
ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource msgs = ctx.getBean(ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource.class);
TestBean testBean = ctx.getBean(TestBean.class);
Assert.assertTrue(testBean.getAppName().equals("spring mvc app"));
String msg = msgs.getMessage("appname", new Object[]{new DefaultMessageSourceResolvable("appname")}, null);
System.out.println(" "+ msg);
String msg2 = msgs.getMessage("error.name", new Object[]{new DefaultMessageSourceResolvable("error.name")}, null);
System.out.println(" "+ msg2);
}
}