24. Externalized Configuration

Spring Boot allows you to externalize your configuration so you can work with the same application code in different environments. You can use properties files, YAML files, environment variables and command-line arguments to externalize configuration. Property values can be injected directly into your beans using the @Value annotation, accessed via Spring’s Environment abstraction or bound to structured objects via @ConfigurationProperties.

Spring Boot uses a very particular PropertySource order that is designed to allow sensible overriding of values. Properties are considered in the following order:

  1. Devtools global settings properties on your home directory (~/.spring-boot-devtools.properties when devtools is active).
  2. @TestPropertySource annotations on your tests.
  3. @SpringBootTest#properties annotation attribute on your tests.
  4. Command line arguments.
  5. Properties from SPRING_APPLICATION_JSON (inline JSON embedded in an environment variable or system property)
  6. ServletConfig init parameters.
  7. ServletContext init parameters.
  8. JNDI attributes from java:comp/env.
  9. Java System properties (System.getProperties()).
  10. OS environment variables.
  11. A RandomValuePropertySource that only has properties in random.*.
  12. Profile-specific application properties outside of your packaged jar (application-{profile}.properties and YAML variants)
  13. Profile-specific application properties packaged inside your jar (application-{profile}.properties and YAML variants)
  14. Application properties outside of your packaged jar (application.properties and YAML variants).
  15. Application properties packaged inside your jar (application.properties and YAML variants).
  16. @PropertySource annotations on your @Configuration classes.
  17. Default properties (specified using SpringApplication.setDefaultProperties).

To provide a concrete example, suppose you develop a @Component that uses a name property:

import org.springframework.stereotype.*
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.*

@Component
public class MyBean {

    @Value("${name}")
    private String name;

    // ...

}

On your application classpath (e.g. inside your jar) you can have an application.properties that provides a sensible default property value for name. When running in a new environment, an application.properties can be provided outside of your jar that overrides the name; and for one-off testing, you can launch with a specific command line switch (e.g. java -jar app.jar --name="Spring").

[Tip]Tip

The SPRING_APPLICATION_JSON properties can be supplied on the command line with an environment variable. For example in a UN*X shell:

$ SPRING_APPLICATION_JSON='{"foo":{"bar":"spam"}}' java -jar myapp.jar

In this example you will end up with foo.bar=spam in the Spring Environment. You can also supply the JSON as spring.application.json in a System variable:

$ java -Dspring.application.json='{"foo":"bar"}' -jar myapp.jar

or command line argument:

$ java -jar myapp.jar --spring.application.json='{"foo":"bar"}'

or as a JNDI variable java:comp/env/spring.application.json.

24.1 Configuring random values

The RandomValuePropertySource is useful for injecting random values (e.g. into secrets or test cases). It can produce integers, longs, uuids or strings, e.g.

my.secret=${random.value}
my.number=${random.int}
my.bignumber=${random.long}
my.uuid=${random.uuid}
my.number.less.than.ten=${random.int(10)}
my.number.in.range=${random.int[1024,65536]}

The random.int* syntax is OPEN value (,max) CLOSE where the OPEN,CLOSE are any character and value,max are integers. If max is provided then value is the minimum value and max is the maximum (exclusive).

24.2 Accessing command line properties

By default SpringApplication will convert any command line option arguments (starting with ‘--’, e.g. --server.port=9000) to a property and add it to the Spring Environment. As mentioned above, command line properties always take precedence over other property sources.

If you don’t want command line properties to be added to the Environment you can disable them using SpringApplication.setAddCommandLineProperties(false).

24.3 Application property files

SpringApplication will load properties from application.properties files in the following locations and add them to the Spring Environment:

  1. A /config subdirectory of the current directory.
  2. The current directory
  3. A classpath /config package
  4. The classpath root

The list is ordered by precedence (properties defined in locations higher in the list override those defined in lower locations).

[Note]Note

You can also use YAML ('.yml') files as an alternative to '.properties'.

If you don’t like application.properties as the configuration file name you can switch to another by specifying a spring.config.name environment property. You can also refer to an explicit location using the spring.config.location environment property (comma-separated list of directory locations, or file paths).

$ java -jar myproject.jar --spring.config.name=myproject

or

$ java -jar myproject.jar --spring.config.location=classpath:/default.properties,classpath:/override.properties
[Warning]Warning

spring.config.name and spring.config.location are used very early to determine which files have to be loaded so they have to be defined as an environment property (typically OS env, system property or command line argument).

If spring.config.location contains directories (as opposed to files) they should end in / (and will be appended with the names generated from spring.config.name before being loaded, including profile-specific file names). Files specified in spring.config.location are used as-is, with no support for profile-specific variants, and will be overridden by any profile-specific properties.

Config locations are searched in reverse order. By default, the configured locations are classpath:/,classpath:/config/,file:./,file:./config/. The resulting search order is:

  1. file:./config/
  2. file:./
  3. classpath:/config/
  4. classpath:/

When custom config locations are configured, they are used in addition to the default locations. Custom locations are searched before the default locations. For example, if custom locations classpath:/custom-config/,file:./custom-config/ are configured, the search order becomes:

  1. file:./custom-config/
  2. classpath:custom-config/
  3. file:./config/
  4. file:./
  5. classpath:/config/
  6. classpath:/

This search ordering allows you to specify default values in one configuration file and then selectively override those values in another. You can provide default values for you application in application.properties (or whatever other basename you choose with spring.config.name) in one of the default locations. These default values can then be overriden at runtime with a different file located in one of the custom locations.

[Note]Note

If you use environment variables rather than system properties, most operating systems disallow period-separated key names, but you can use underscores instead (e.g. SPRING_CONFIG_NAME instead of spring.config.name).

[Note]Note

If you are running in a container then JNDI properties (in java:comp/env) or servlet context initialization parameters can be used instead of, or as well as, environment variables or system properties.

24.4 Profile-specific properties

In addition to application.properties files, profile-specific properties can also be defined using the naming convention application-{profile}.properties. The Environment has a set of default profiles (by default [default]) which are used if no active profiles are set (i.e. if no profiles are explicitly activated then properties from application-default.properties are loaded).

Profile-specific properties are loaded from the same locations as standard application.properties, with profile-specific files always overriding the non-specific ones irrespective of whether the profile-specific files are inside or outside your packaged jar.

If several profiles are specified, a last wins strategy applies. For example, profiles specified by the spring.profiles.active property are added after those configured via the SpringApplication API and therefore take precedence.

[Note]Note

If you have specified any files in spring.config.location, profile-specific variants of those files will not be considered. Use directories in spring.config.location if you also want to also use profile-specific properties.

24.5 Placeholders in properties

The values in application.properties are filtered through the existing Environment when they are used so you can refer back to previously defined values (e.g. from System properties).

app.name=MyApp
app.description=${app.name} is a Spring Boot application
[Tip]Tip

You can also use this technique to create ‘short’ variants of existing Spring Boot properties. See the Section 72.4, “Use ‘short’ command line arguments” how-to for details.

24.6 Using YAML instead of Properties

YAML is a superset of JSON, and as such is a very convenient format for specifying hierarchical configuration data. The SpringApplication class will automatically support YAML as an alternative to properties whenever you have the SnakeYAML library on your classpath.

[Note]Note

If you use ‘Starters’ SnakeYAML will be automatically provided via spring-boot-starter.

24.6.1 Loading YAML

Spring Framework provides two convenient classes that can be used to load YAML documents. The YamlPropertiesFactoryBean will load YAML as Properties and the YamlMapFactoryBean will load YAML as a Map.

For example, the following YAML document:

environments:
    dev:
        url: https://dev.example.com
        name: Developer Setup
    prod:
        url: https://another.example.com
        name: My Cool App

Would be transformed into these properties:

environments.dev.url=https://dev.example.com
environments.dev.name=Developer Setup
environments.prod.url=https://another.example.com
environments.prod.name=My Cool App

YAML lists are represented as property keys with [index] dereferencers, for example this YAML:

my:
   servers:
       - dev.example.com
       - another.example.com

Would be transformed into these properties:

my.servers[0]=dev.example.com
my.servers[1]=another.example.com

To bind to properties like that using the Spring DataBinder utilities (which is what @ConfigurationProperties does) you need to have a property in the target bean of type java.util.List (or Set) and you either need to provide a setter, or initialize it with a mutable value, e.g. this will bind to the properties above

@ConfigurationProperties(prefix="my")
public class Config {

    private List<String> servers = new ArrayList<String>();

    public List<String> getServers() {
        return this.servers;
    }
}
[Note]Note

Extra care is required when configuring lists that way as overriding will not work as you would expect. In the example above, when my.servers is redefined in several places, the individual elements are targeted for override, not the list. To make sure that a PropertySource with higher precedence can override the list, you need to define it as a single property:

my:
   servers: dev.bar.com,foo.bar.com

24.6.2 Exposing YAML as properties in the Spring Environment

The YamlPropertySourceLoader class can be used to expose YAML as a PropertySource in the Spring Environment. This allows you to use the familiar @Value annotation with placeholders syntax to access YAML properties.

24.6.3 Multi-profile YAML documents

You can specify multiple profile-specific YAML documents in a single file by using a spring.profiles key to indicate when the document applies. For example:

server:
    address: 192.168.1.100
---
spring:
    profiles: development
server:
    address: 127.0.0.1
---
spring:
    profiles: production
server:
    address: 192.168.1.120

In the example above, the server.address property will be 127.0.0.1 if the development profile is active. If the development and production profiles are not enabled, then the value for the property will be 192.168.1.100.

The default profiles are activated if none are explicitly active when the application context starts. So in this YAML we set a value for security.user.password that is only available in the "default" profile:

server:
  port: 8000
---
spring:
  profiles: default
security:
  user:
    password: weak

whereas in this example, the password is always set because it isn’t attached to any profile, and it would have to be explicitly reset in all other profiles as necessary:

server:
  port: 8000
security:
  user:
    password: weak

Spring profiles designated using the "spring.profiles" element may optionally be negated using the ! character. If both negated and non-negated profiles are specified for a single document, at least one non-negated profile must match and no negated profiles may match.

24.6.4 YAML shortcomings

YAML files can’t be loaded via the @PropertySource annotation. So in the case that you need to load values that way, you need to use a properties file.

24.6.5 Merging YAML lists

As we have seen above, any YAML content is ultimately transformed to properties. That process may be counter intuitive when overriding “list” properties via a profile.

For example, assume a MyPojo object with name and description attributes that are null by default. Let’s expose a list of MyPojo from FooProperties:

@ConfigurationProperties("foo")
public class FooProperties {

    private final List<MyPojo> list = new ArrayList<>();

    public List<MyPojo> getList() {
        return this.list;
    }

}

Consider the following configuration:

foo:
  list:
    - name: my name
      description: my description
---
spring:
  profiles: dev
foo:
  list:
    - name: my another name

If the dev profile isn’t active, FooProperties.list will contain one MyPojo entry as defined above. If the dev profile is enabled however, the list will still only contain one entry (with name “my another name” and description null). This configuration will not add a second MyPojo instance to the list, and it won’t merge the items.

When a collection is specified in multiple profiles, the one with highest priority is used (and only that one):

foo:
  list:
    - name: my name
      description: my description
    - name: another name
      description: another description
---
spring:
  profiles: dev
foo:
  list:
     - name: my another name

In the example above, considering that the dev profile is active, FooProperties.list will contain one MyPojo entry (with name “my another name” and description null).

24.7 Type-safe Configuration Properties

Using the @Value("${property}") annotation to inject configuration properties can sometimes be cumbersome, especially if you are working with multiple properties or your data is hierarchical in nature. Spring Boot provides an alternative method of working with properties that allows strongly typed beans to govern and validate the configuration of your application.

package com.example;

import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.List;

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;

@ConfigurationProperties("foo")
public class FooProperties {

    private boolean enabled;

    private InetAddress remoteAddress;

    private final Security security = new Security();

    public boolean isEnabled() { ... }

    public void setEnabled(boolean enabled) { ... }

    public InetAddress getRemoteAddress() { ... }

    public void setRemoteAddress(InetAddress remoteAddress) { ... }

    public Security getSecurity() { ... }

    public static class Security {

        private String username;

        private String password;

        private List<String> roles = new ArrayList<>(Collections.singleton("USER"));

        public String getUsername() { ... }

        public void setUsername(String username) { ... }

        public String getPassword() { ... }

        public void setPassword(String password) { ... }

        public List<String> getRoles() { ... }

        public void setRoles(List<String> roles) { ... }

    }
}

The POJO above defines the following properties:

  • foo.enabled, false by default
  • foo.remote-address, with a type that can be coerced from String
  • foo.security.username, with a nested "security" whose name is determined by the name of the property. In particular the return type is not used at all there and could have been SecurityProperties
  • foo.security.password
  • foo.security.roles, with a collection of String
[Note]Note

Getters and setters are usually mandatory, since binding is via standard Java Beans property descriptors, just like in Spring MVC. There are cases where a setter may be omitted:

  • Maps, as long as they are initialized, need a getter but not necessarily a setter since they can be mutated by the binder.
  • Collections and arrays can be either accessed via an index (typically with YAML) or using a single comma-separated value (properties). In the latter case, a setter is mandatory. We recommend to always add a setter for such types. If you initialize a collection, make sure it is not immutable (as in the example above)
  • If nested POJO properties are initialized (like the Security field in the example above), a setter is not required. If you want the binder to create the instance on-the-fly using its default constructor, you will need a setter.

Some people use Project Lombok to add getters and setters automatically. Make sure that Lombok doesn’t generate any particular constructor for such type as it will be used automatically by the container to instantiate the object.

You also need to list the properties classes to register in the @EnableConfigurationProperties annotation:

@Configuration
@EnableConfigurationProperties(FooProperties.class)
public class MyConfiguration {
}
[Note]Note

When @ConfigurationProperties bean is registered that way, the bean will have a conventional name: <prefix>-<fqn>, where <prefix> is the environment key prefix specified in the @ConfigurationProperties annotation and <fqn> the fully qualified name of the bean. If the annotation does not provide any prefix, only the fully qualified name of the bean is used.

The bean name in the example above will be foo-com.example.FooProperties.

Even if the configuration above will create a regular bean for FooProperties, we recommend that @ConfigurationProperties only deal with the environment and in particular does not inject other beans from the context. Having said that, The @EnableConfigurationProperties annotation is also automatically applied to your project so that any existing bean annotated with @ConfigurationProperties will be configured from the Environment. You could shortcut MyConfiguration above by making sure FooProperties is already a bean:

@Component
@ConfigurationProperties(prefix="foo")
public class FooProperties {

    // ... see above

}

This style of configuration works particularly well with the SpringApplication external YAML configuration:

# application.yml

foo:
    remote-address: 192.168.1.1
    security:
        username: foo
        roles:
          - USER
          - ADMIN

# additional configuration as required

To work with @ConfigurationProperties beans you can just inject them in the same way as any other bean.

@Service
public class MyService {

    private final FooProperties properties;

    @Autowired
    public MyService(FooProperties properties) {
        this.properties = properties;
    }

     //...

    @PostConstruct
    public void openConnection() {
        Server server = new Server(this.properties.getRemoteAddress());
        // ...
    }

}
[Tip]Tip

Using @ConfigurationProperties also allows you to generate meta-data files that can be used by IDEs to offer auto-completion for your own keys, see the Appendix B, Configuration meta-data appendix for details.

24.7.1 Third-party configuration

As well as using @ConfigurationProperties to annotate a class, you can also use it on public @Bean methods. This can be particularly useful when you want to bind properties to third-party components that are outside of your control.

To configure a bean from the Environment properties, add @ConfigurationProperties to its bean registration:

@ConfigurationProperties(prefix = "bar")
@Bean
public BarComponent barComponent() {
    ...
}

Any property defined with the bar prefix will be mapped onto that BarComponent bean in a similar manner as the FooProperties example above.

24.7.2 Relaxed binding

Spring Boot uses some relaxed rules for binding Environment properties to @ConfigurationProperties beans, so there doesn’t need to be an exact match between the Environment property name and the bean property name. Common examples where this is useful include dashed separated (e.g. context-path binds to contextPath), and capitalized (e.g. PORT binds to port) environment properties.

For example, given the following @ConfigurationProperties class:

@ConfigurationProperties(prefix="person")
public class OwnerProperties {

    private String firstName;

    public String getFirstName() {
        return this.firstName;
    }

    public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
        this.firstName = firstName;
    }

}

The following properties names can all be used:

Table 24.1. relaxed binding

PropertyNote

person.firstName

Standard camel case syntax.

person.first-name

Dashed notation, recommended for use in .properties and .yml files.

person.first_name

Underscore notation, alternative format for use in .properties and .yml files.

PERSON_FIRST_NAME

Upper case format. Recommended when using a system environment variables.


24.7.3 Properties conversion

Spring will attempt to coerce the external application properties to the right type when it binds to the @ConfigurationProperties beans. If you need custom type conversion you can provide a ConversionService bean (with bean id conversionService) or custom property editors (via a CustomEditorConfigurer bean) or custom Converters (with bean definitions annotated as @ConfigurationPropertiesBinding).

[Note]Note

As this bean is requested very early during the application lifecycle, make sure to limit the dependencies that your ConversionService is using. Typically, any dependency that you require may not be fully initialized at creation time. You may want to rename your custom ConversionService if it’s not required for configuration keys coercion and only rely on custom converters qualified with @ConfigurationPropertiesBinding.

24.7.4 @ConfigurationProperties Validation

Spring Boot will attempt to validate @ConfigurationProperties classes whenever they are annotated with Spring’s @Validated annotation. You can use JSR-303 javax.validation constraint annotations directly on your configuration class. Simply ensure that a compliant JSR-303 implementation is on your classpath, then add constraint annotations to your fields:

@ConfigurationProperties(prefix="foo")
@Validated
public class FooProperties {

    @NotNull
    private InetAddress remoteAddress;

    // ... getters and setters

}

In order to validate values of nested properties, you must annotate the associated field as @Valid to trigger its validation. For example, building upon the above FooProperties example:

@ConfigurationProperties(prefix="connection")
@Validated
public class FooProperties {

    @NotNull
    private InetAddress remoteAddress;

    @Valid
    private final Security security = new Security();

    // ... getters and setters

    public static class Security {

        @NotEmpty
        public String username;

        // ... getters and setters

    }

}

You can also add a custom Spring Validator by creating a bean definition called configurationPropertiesValidator. The @Bean method should be declared static. The configuration properties validator is created very early in the application’s lifecycle and declaring the @Bean method as static allows the bean to be created without having to instantiate the @Configuration class. This avoids any problems that may be caused by early instantiation. There is a property validation sample so you can see how to set things up.

[Tip]Tip

The spring-boot-actuator module includes an endpoint that exposes all @ConfigurationProperties beans. Simply point your web browser to /configprops or use the equivalent JMX endpoint. See the Production ready features. section for details.

24.7.5 @ConfigurationProperties vs. @Value

@Value is a core container feature and it does not provide the same features as type-safe Configuration Properties. The table below summarizes the features that are supported by @ConfigurationProperties and @Value:

Feature@ConfigurationProperties@Value

Relaxed binding

Yes

No

Meta-data support

Yes

No

SpEL evaluation

No

Yes

If you define a set of configuration keys for your own components, we recommend you to group them in a POJO annotated with @ConfigurationProperties. Please also be aware that since @Value does not support relaxed binding, it isn’t a great candidate if you need to provide the value using environment variables.

Finally, while you can write a SpEL expression in @Value, such expressions are not processed from Application property files.