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

For example, consider the following YAML document:

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

The preceding example would be transformed into the following 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, consider the following YAML:

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

The preceding example would be transformed into these properties:

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

To bind to properties like that by using Spring Boot’s Binder 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. For example, the following example binds to the properties shown previously:

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

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

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

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

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

server:
	address: 192.168.1.100
---
spring:
	profiles: development
server:
	address: 127.0.0.1
---
spring:
	profiles: production & eu-central
server:
	address: 192.168.1.120

In the preceding example, if the development profile is active, the server.address property is 127.0.0.1. Similarly, if the production and eu-central profiles are active, the server.address property is 192.168.1.120. If the development, production and eu-central profiles are not enabled, then the value for the property is 192.168.1.100.

	Note
	spring.profiles can therefore contain a profile name (for example production) or a profile expression. A profile expression allows for more complicated profile logic to be expressed, for example production & (eu-central | eu-west). Check the reference guide for more details.

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

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

Whereas, in the following example, the password is always set because it is not attached to any profile, and it would have to be explicitly reset in all other profiles as necessary:

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

Spring profiles designated by using the spring.profiles element may optionally be negated by 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.

YAML files cannot be loaded by using the @PropertySource annotation. So, in the case that you need to load values that way, you need to use a properties file.

Using the multi YAML document syntax in profile-specific YAML files can lead to unexpected behavior. For example, consider the following config in a file:

application-dev.yml. 

server:
  port: 8000
---
spring:
  profiles: "!test"
  security:
    user:
      password: "secret"

If you run the application with the arguments --spring.profiles.active=dev" you might expect `security.user.password to be set to “secret”, but this is not the case.

The nested document will be filtered because the main file is named application-dev.yml. It is already considered to be profile-specific, and nested documents will be ignored.

	Tip
	We recommend that you don’t mix profile-specific YAML files and multiple YAML documents. Stick to using only one of them.

As well as using @ConfigurationProperties to annotate a class, you can also use it on public @Bean methods. Doing so 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, as shown in the following example:

@ConfigurationProperties(prefix = "another")
@Bean
public AnotherComponent anotherComponent() {
	...
}

Any property defined with the another prefix is mapped onto that AnotherComponent bean in manner similar to the preceding AcmeProperties example.

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

As an example, consider the following @ConfigurationProperties class:

@ConfigurationProperties(prefix="acme.my-project.person")
public class OwnerProperties {

	private String firstName;

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

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

}

With the preceding code, the following properties names can all be used:

	Note
	The prefix value for the annotation must be in kebab case (lowercase and separated by -, such as acme.my-project.person).

	Tip
	We recommend that, when possible, properties are stored in lower-case kebab format, such as my.property-name=acme.

Binding Maps

When binding to Map properties, if the key contains anything other than lowercase alpha-numeric characters or -, you need to use the bracket notation so that the original value is preserved. If the key is not surrounded by [], any characters that are not alpha-numeric or - are removed. For example, consider binding the following properties to a Map:

acme:
  map:
    "[/key1]": value1
    "[/key2]": value2
    /key3: value3

The properties above will bind to a Map with /key1, /key2 and key3 as the keys in the map.

	Note
	For YAML files, the brackets need to be surrounded by quotes for the keys to be parsed properly.

Binding from Environment Variables

Most operating systems impose strict rules around the names that can be used for environment variables. For example, Linux shell variables can contain only letters (a to z or A to Z), numbers (0 to 9) or the underscore character (_). By convention, Unix shell variables will also have their names in UPPERCASE.

Spring Boot’s relaxed binding rules are, as much as possible, designed to be compatible with these naming restrictions.

To convert a property name in the canonical-form to an environment variable name you can follow these rules:

• Replace dots (.) with underscores (_).
• Remove any dashes (-).
• Convert to uppercase.

For example, the configuration property spring.main.log-startup-info would be an environment variable named SPRING_MAIN_LOGSTARTUPINFO.

	Note
	Underscores cannot be used to replace the dashes in property names. If you attempt to use SPRING_MAIN_LOG_STARTUP_INFO with the example above, no value will be bound.

Environment variables can also be used when binding to object lists. To bind to a List, the element number should be surrounded with underscores in the variable name.

For example, the configuration property my.acme[0].other would use an environment variable named MY_ACME_0_OTHER.

When lists are configured in more than one place, overriding works by replacing the entire list.

For example, assume a MyPojo object with name and description attributes that are null by default. The following example exposes a list of MyPojo objects from AcmeProperties:

@ConfigurationProperties("acme")
public class AcmeProperties {

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

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

}

Consider the following configuration:

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

If the dev profile is not active, AcmeProperties.list contains one MyPojo entry, as previously defined. If the dev profile is enabled, however, the list still contains only one entry (with a name of my another name and a description of null). This configuration does not add a second MyPojo instance to the list, and it does not merge the items.

When a List is specified in multiple profiles, the one with the highest priority (and only that one) is used. Consider the following example:

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

In the preceding example, if the dev profile is active, AcmeProperties.list contains one MyPojo entry (with a name of my another name and a description of null). For YAML, both comma-separated lists and YAML lists can be used for completely overriding the contents of the list.

For Map properties, you can bind with property values drawn from multiple sources. However, for the same property in multiple sources, the one with the highest priority is used. The following example exposes a Map<String, MyPojo> from AcmeProperties:

@ConfigurationProperties("acme")
public class AcmeProperties {

	private final Map<String, MyPojo> map = new HashMap<>();

	public Map<String, MyPojo> getMap() {
		return this.map;
	}

}

Consider the following configuration:

acme:
  map:
    key1:
      name: my name 1
      description: my description 1
---
spring:
  profiles: dev
acme:
  map:
    key1:
      name: dev name 1
    key2:
      name: dev name 2
      description: dev description 2

If the dev profile is not active, AcmeProperties.map contains one entry with key key1 (with a name of my name 1 and a description of my description 1). If the dev profile is enabled, however, map contains two entries with keys key1 (with a name of dev name 1 and a description of my description 1) and key2 (with a name of dev name 2 and a description of dev description 2).

	Note
	The preceding merging rules apply to properties from all property sources and not just YAML files.

Spring Boot attempts 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 a bean named conversionService) or custom property editors (through a CustomEditorConfigurer bean) or custom Converters (with bean definitions annotated as @ConfigurationPropertiesBinding).

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 is not required for configuration keys coercion and only rely on custom converters qualified with @ConfigurationPropertiesBinding.

Converting durations

Spring Boot has dedicated support for expressing durations. If you expose a java.time.Duration property, the following formats in application properties are available:

• A regular long representation (using milliseconds as the default unit unless a @DurationUnit has been specified)
• The standard ISO-8601 format used by java.time.Duration
• A more readable format where the value and the unit are coupled (e.g. 10s means 10 seconds)

Consider the following example:

@ConfigurationProperties("app.system")
public class AppSystemProperties {

	@DurationUnit(ChronoUnit.SECONDS)
	private Duration sessionTimeout = Duration.ofSeconds(30);

	private Duration readTimeout = Duration.ofMillis(1000);

	public Duration getSessionTimeout() {
		return this.sessionTimeout;
	}

	public void setSessionTimeout(Duration sessionTimeout) {
		this.sessionTimeout = sessionTimeout;
	}

	public Duration getReadTimeout() {
		return this.readTimeout;
	}

	public void setReadTimeout(Duration readTimeout) {
		this.readTimeout = readTimeout;
	}

}

To specify a session timeout of 30 seconds, 30, PT30S and 30s are all equivalent. A read timeout of 500ms can be specified in any of the following form: 500, PT0.5S and 500ms.

You can also use any of the supported units. These are:

• ns for nanoseconds
• us for microseconds
• ms for milliseconds
• s for seconds
• m for minutes
• h for hours
• d for days

The default unit is milliseconds and can be overridden using @DurationUnit as illustrated in the sample above.

	Tip
	If you are upgrading from a previous version that is using Long to express the duration, make sure to define the unit (using @DurationUnit) if it isn’t milliseconds alongside the switch to Duration. Doing so gives a transparent upgrade path while supporting a much richer format.

Converting Data Sizes

Spring Framework has a DataSize value type that expresses a size in bytes. If you expose a DataSize property, the following formats in application properties are available:

• A regular long representation (using bytes as the default unit unless a @DataSizeUnit has been specified)
• A more readable format where the value and the unit are coupled (e.g. 10MB means 10 megabytes)

Consider the following example:

@ConfigurationProperties("app.io")
public class AppIoProperties {

	@DataSizeUnit(DataUnit.MEGABYTES)
	private DataSize bufferSize = DataSize.ofMegabytes(2);

	private DataSize sizeThreshold = DataSize.ofBytes(512);

	public DataSize getBufferSize() {
		return this.bufferSize;
	}

	public void setBufferSize(DataSize bufferSize) {
		this.bufferSize = bufferSize;
	}

	public DataSize getSizeThreshold() {
		return this.sizeThreshold;
	}

	public void setSizeThreshold(DataSize sizeThreshold) {
		this.sizeThreshold = sizeThreshold;
	}

}

To specify a buffer size of 10 megabytes, 10 and 10MB are equivalent. A size threshold of 256 bytes can be specified as 256 or 256B.

You can also use any of the supported units. These are:

• B for bytes
• KB for kilobytes
• MB for megabytes
• GB for gigabytes
• TB for terabytes

The default unit is bytes and can be overridden using @DataSizeUnit as illustrated in the sample above.

	Tip
	If you are upgrading from a previous version that is using Long to express the size, make sure to define the unit (using @DataSizeUnit) if it isn’t bytes alongsidethe switch to DataSize. Doing so gives a transparent upgrade path while supporting a much richer format.

Spring Boot attempts 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. To do so, ensure that a compliant JSR-303 implementation is on your classpath and then add constraint annotations to your fields, as shown in the following example:

@ConfigurationProperties(prefix="acme")
@Validated
public class AcmeProperties {

	@NotNull
	private InetAddress remoteAddress;

	// ... getters and setters

}

	Tip
	You can also trigger validation by annotating the @Bean method that creates the configuration properties with @Validated.

To ensure that validation is always triggered for nested properties, even when no properties are found, the associated field must be annotated with @Valid. The following example builds on the preceding AcmeProperties example:

@ConfigurationProperties(prefix="acme")
@Validated
public class AcmeProperties {

	@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 lets the bean be created without having to instantiate the @Configuration class. Doing so avoids any problems that may be caused by early instantiation. There is a property validation sample that shows how to set things up.

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

The @Value annotation is a core container feature, and it does not provide the same features as type-safe configuration properties. The following table summarizes the features that are supported by @ConfigurationProperties and @Value:

If you define a set of configuration keys for your own components, we recommend you group them in a POJO annotated with @ConfigurationProperties. Doing so will provide you with structured, type-safe object that you can inject into your own beans.

If you do want to use @Value, we recommend that you refer to property names using their canonical form (kebab-case using only lowercase letters). This will allow Spring Boot to use the same logic as it does when relaxed binding @ConfigurationProperties. For example, @Value("{demo.item-price}") will pick up demo.item-price and demo.itemPrice forms from the application.properties file, as well as DEMO_ITEMPRICE from the system environment. If you used @Value("{demo.itemPrice}") instead, demo.item-price and DEMO_ITEMPRICE would not be considered.

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