java - Could not resolve placeholder in string value

Question

I am trying to use properties from a .properties file, but it doesn't seem to work.

Here is my code:

@Service("ServiceFTP")
@Transactional
public class ServiceFTPImpl implements ServiceFTP {

@Value("${project.ftp.adresse}")
private String adresse;

@Value("${project.ftp.login}")
private String compte;

@Value("${project.ftp.password}")
private String motDePasse;

@Value("${project.ftp.root}")
private String ROOT;

[...]

}

This class uses @Value annotations to get the properties. It is also declared as a Spring Service and is linked to my infraContext.xml file :

<?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-3.2.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.2.xsd">

<context:property-placeholder location="classpath:context-core.properties"/>

[...]

</beans>

Using context:property-placeholder, I link this file to my context-core.properties file :

project.ftp.adresse = localhost
project.ftp.login = anonymous
project.ftp.password =
project.ftp.root = /anonymous/

This does make sense, right ?

But when I try to launch my project, Tomcat throw this exception :

    ERROR [context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext()] Context initialization failed
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'ServiceFTP': Injection of autowired dependencies failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Could not autowire field: private java.lang.String project.sins.service.impl.ServiceFTPImpl.adresse; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Could not resolve placeholder 'project.ftp.adresse' in string value "${project.ftp.adresse}"
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.postProcessPropertyValues(AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.java:287)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.populateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1106)
    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$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:294)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:225)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:291)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:193)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:607)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:925)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:472)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:388)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:293)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:111)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4887)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5381)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:901)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:877)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:633)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDescriptor(HostConfig.java:657)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployDescriptor.run(HostConfig.java:1636)
    at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:471)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:334)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:166)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Could not autowire field: private java.lang.String project.sins.service.impl.ServiceFTPImpl.adresse; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Could not resolve placeholder 'project.ftp.adresse' in string value "${project.ftp.adresse}"
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor$AutowiredFieldElement.inject(AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.java:513)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.InjectionMetadata.inject(InjectionMetadata.java:92)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.postProcessPropertyValues(AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.java:284)
    ... 27 more
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Could not resolve placeholder 'project.ftp.adresse' in string value "${project.ftp.adresse}"
    at org.springframework.util.PropertyPlaceholderHelper.parseStringValue(PropertyPlaceholderHelper.java:173)
    at org.springframework.util.PropertyPlaceholderHelper.replacePlaceholders(PropertyPlaceholderHelper.java:125)
    at org.springframework.core.env.AbstractPropertyResolver.doResolvePlaceholders(AbstractPropertyResolver.java:151)
    at org.springframework.core.env.AbstractPropertyResolver.resolveRequiredPlaceholders(AbstractPropertyResolver.java:142)
    at org.springframework.context.support.PropertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer$2.resolveStringValue(PropertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer.java:169)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.resolveEmbeddedValue(AbstractBeanFactory.java:748)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.doResolveDependency(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:740)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.resolveDependency(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:730)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor$AutowiredFieldElement.inject(AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor.java:485)
    ... 29 more

Or, in short : java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Could not resolve placeholder 'project.ftp.adresse' in string value "${project.ftp.adresse}"

EDIT :

Here is my web.xml :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
         id="sins" version="2.5">

    <display-name>Project</display-name>

    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.util.Log4jConfigListener</listener-class>
    </listener>

    <context-param>
        <param-name>log4jExposeWebAppRoot</param-name>
        <param-value>false</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <filter>
        <filter-name>ExpiresFilter</filter-name>
        <filter-class>org.apache.catalina.filters.ExpiresFilter</filter-class>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>ExpiresByType text/html</param-name>
            <param-value>now plus 0 seconds</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>ExpiresByType application/json</param-name>
            <param-value>now plus 0 seconds</param-value>
        </init-param>
    </filter>

    <filter-mapping>
        <filter-name>ExpiresFilter</filter-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
        <dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher>
    </filter-mapping>

    <filter>
        <filter-name>EncodingFilter</filter-name>
        <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter</filter-class>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>encoding</param-name>
            <param-value>UTF-8</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>forceEncoding</param-name>
            <param-value>true</param-value>
        </init-param>
    </filter>
    <filter-mapping>
        <filter-name>EncodingFilter</filter-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    </filter-mapping>

    <filter>
        <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
        <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class>
    </filter>
    <filter-mapping>
        <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    </filter-mapping>

    <filter>
        <filter-name>Spring OpenEntityManagerInViewFilter</filter-name>
        <filter-class>
            org.springframework.orm.jpa.support.OpenEntityManagerInViewFilter
        </filter-class>
    </filter>

    <filter-mapping>
        <filter-name>Spring OpenEntityManagerInViewFilter</filter-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    </filter-mapping>

    <filter>
        <filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
        <filter-class>org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.filter.StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter</filter-class>
    </filter>

    <filter-mapping>
        <filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    </filter-mapping>

    <welcome-file-list>
        <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
    </welcome-file-list>

    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
    </listener>

    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.apache.struts2.tiles.StrutsTilesListener</listener-class>
    </listener>

    <context-param>
        <param-name>
            org.apache.tiles.impl.BasicTilesContainer.DEFINITIONS_CONFIG
        </param-name>
        <param-value>
            /WEB-INF/tiles/user.xml
        </param-value>
    </context-param>

    <resource-ref>
        <res-ref-name>jdbc/si_nsg</res-ref-name>
        <res-type>javax.sql.DataSource</res-type>
        <res-auth>Container</res-auth>
    </resou

Answer 1

In your configuration you have 2 PropertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer instances.

applicationContext.xml

<bean class="org.springframework.context.support.PropertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer">
    <property name="environment">
        <bean class="org.springframework.web.context.support.StandardServletEnvironment"/>
    </property>
</bean>

infraContext.xml

<context:property-placeholder location="classpath:context-core.properties"/>

By default a PlaceholderConfigurer is going to fail-fast, so if a placeholder cannot be resolved it will throw an exception. The instance from the applicationContext.xml file has no properties and as such will fail on all placeholders.

Solution: Remove the one from applicationContext.xml as it doesn't add anything it only breaks things.