Environment Abstraction

The Environment interface is an abstraction integrated in the container that models two key aspects of the application environment: profiles and properties.

A profile is a named, logical group of bean definitions to be registered with the container only if the given profile is active. Beans may be assigned to a profile whether defined in XML or with annotations. The role of the Environment object with relation to profiles is in determining which profiles (if any) are currently active, and which profiles (if any) should be active by default.

Properties play an important role in almost all applications and may originate from a variety of sources: properties files, JVM system properties, system environment variables, JNDI, servlet context parameters, ad-hoc Properties objects, Map objects, and so on. The role of the Environment object with relation to properties is to provide the user with a convenient service interface for configuring property sources and resolving properties from them.

Bean Definition Profiles

Bean definition profiles provide a mechanism in the core container that allows for registration of different beans in different environments. The word, “environment,” can mean different things to different users, and this feature can help with many use cases, including:

  • Working against an in-memory datasource in development versus looking up that same datasource from JNDI when in QA or production.

  • Registering monitoring infrastructure only when deploying an application into a performance environment.

  • Registering customized implementations of beans for customer A versus customer B deployments.

Consider the first use case in a practical application that requires a DataSource. In a test environment, the configuration might resemble the following:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

@Bean
public DataSource dataSource() {
	return new EmbeddedDatabaseBuilder()
		.setType(EmbeddedDatabaseType.HSQL)
		.addScript("my-schema.sql")
		.addScript("my-test-data.sql")
		.build();
}
@Bean
fun dataSource(): DataSource {
	return EmbeddedDatabaseBuilder()
			.setType(EmbeddedDatabaseType.HSQL)
			.addScript("my-schema.sql")
			.addScript("my-test-data.sql")
			.build()
}

Now consider how this application can be deployed into a QA or production environment, assuming that the datasource for the application is registered with the production application server’s JNDI directory. Our dataSource bean now looks like the following listing:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

@Bean(destroyMethod = "")
public DataSource dataSource() throws Exception {
	Context ctx = new InitialContext();
	return (DataSource) ctx.lookup("java:comp/env/jdbc/datasource");
}
@Bean(destroyMethod = "")
fun dataSource(): DataSource {
	val ctx = InitialContext()
	return ctx.lookup("java:comp/env/jdbc/datasource") as DataSource
}

The problem is how to switch between using these two variations based on the current environment. Over time, Spring users have devised a number of ways to get this done, usually relying on a combination of system environment variables and XML <import/> statements containing ${placeholder} tokens that resolve to the correct configuration file path depending on the value of an environment variable. Bean definition profiles is a core container feature that provides a solution to this problem.

If we generalize the use case shown in the preceding example of environment-specific bean definitions, we end up with the need to register certain bean definitions in certain contexts but not in others. You could say that you want to register a certain profile of bean definitions in situation A and a different profile in situation B. We start by updating our configuration to reflect this need.

Using @Profile

The @Profile annotation lets you indicate that a component is eligible for registration when one or more specified profiles are active. Using our preceding example, we can rewrite the dataSource configuration as follows:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

@Configuration
@Profile("development")
public class StandaloneDataConfig {

	@Bean
	public DataSource dataSource() {
		return new EmbeddedDatabaseBuilder()
			.setType(EmbeddedDatabaseType.HSQL)
			.addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/schema.sql")
			.addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/test-data.sql")
			.build();
	}
}
@Configuration
@Profile("development")
class StandaloneDataConfig {

	@Bean
	fun dataSource(): DataSource {
		return EmbeddedDatabaseBuilder()
				.setType(EmbeddedDatabaseType.HSQL)
				.addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/schema.sql")
				.addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/test-data.sql")
				.build()
	}
}

  • Java

  • Kotlin

@Configuration
@Profile("production")
public class JndiDataConfig {

	@Bean(destroyMethod = "") (1)
	public DataSource dataSource() throws Exception {
		Context ctx = new InitialContext();
		return (DataSource) ctx.lookup("java:comp/env/jdbc/datasource");
	}
}
1 @Bean(destroyMethod = "") disables default destroy method inference. 
@Configuration
@Profile("production")
class JndiDataConfig {

	@Bean(destroyMethod = "") (1)
	fun dataSource(): DataSource {
		val ctx = InitialContext()
		return ctx.lookup("java:comp/env/jdbc/datasource") as DataSource
	}
}
1 @Bean(destroyMethod = "") disables default destroy method inference.
As mentioned earlier, with @Bean methods, you typically choose to use programmatic JNDI lookups, by using either Spring’s JndiTemplate/JndiLocatorDelegate helpers or the straight JNDI InitialContext usage shown earlier but not the JndiObjectFactoryBean variant, which would force you to declare the return type as the FactoryBean type.

The profile string may contain a simple profile name (for example, production) or a profile expression. A profile expression allows for more complicated profile logic to be expressed (for example, production & us-east). The following operators are supported in profile expressions:

  • !: A logical NOT of the profile

  • &: A logical AND of the profiles

  • |: A logical OR of the profiles

You cannot mix the & and | operators without using parentheses. For example, production & us-east | eu-central is not a valid expression. It must be expressed as production & (us-east | eu-central).

You can use @Profile as a meta-annotation for the purpose of creating a custom composed annotation. The following example defines a custom @Production annotation that you can use as a drop-in replacement for @Profile("production"):

  • Java

  • Kotlin

@Target(ElementType.TYPE)
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Profile("production")
public @interface Production {
}
@Target(AnnotationTarget.CLASS)
@Retention(AnnotationRetention.RUNTIME)
@Profile("production")
annotation class Production
If a @Configuration class is marked with @Profile, all of the @Bean methods and @Import annotations associated with that class are bypassed unless one or more of the specified profiles are active. If a @Component or @Configuration class is marked with @Profile({"p1", "p2"}), that class is not registered or processed unless profiles 'p1' or 'p2' have been activated. If a given profile is prefixed with the NOT operator (!), the annotated element is registered only if the profile is not active. For example, given @Profile({"p1", "!p2"}), registration will occur if profile 'p1' is active or if profile 'p2' is not active.

@Profile can also be declared at the method level to include only one particular bean of a configuration class (for example, for alternative variants of a particular bean), as the following example shows:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {

	@Bean("dataSource")
	@Profile("development") (1)
	public DataSource standaloneDataSource() {
		return new EmbeddedDatabaseBuilder()
			.setType(EmbeddedDatabaseType.HSQL)
			.addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/schema.sql")
			.addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/test-data.sql")
			.build();
	}

	@Bean("dataSource")
	@Profile("production") (2)
	public DataSource jndiDataSource() throws Exception {
		Context ctx = new InitialContext();
		return (DataSource) ctx.lookup("java:comp/env/jdbc/datasource");
	}
}
1 The standaloneDataSource method is available only in the development profile.
2 The jndiDataSource method is available only in the production profile. 
@Configuration
class AppConfig {

	@Bean("dataSource")
	@Profile("development") (1)
	fun standaloneDataSource(): DataSource {
		return EmbeddedDatabaseBuilder()
				.setType(EmbeddedDatabaseType.HSQL)
				.addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/schema.sql")
				.addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/test-data.sql")
				.build()
	}

	@Bean("dataSource")
	@Profile("production") (2)
	fun jndiDataSource() =
		InitialContext().lookup("java:comp/env/jdbc/datasource") as DataSource
}
1 The standaloneDataSource method is available only in the development profile.
2 The jndiDataSource method is available only in the production profile.

With @Profile on @Bean methods, a special scenario may apply: In the case of overloaded @Bean methods of the same Java method name (analogous to constructor overloading), a @Profile condition needs to be consistently declared on all overloaded methods. If the conditions are inconsistent, only the condition on the first declaration among the overloaded methods matters. Therefore, @Profile can not be used to select an overloaded method with a particular argument signature over another. Resolution between all factory methods for the same bean follows Spring’s constructor resolution algorithm at creation time.

If you want to define alternative beans with different profile conditions, use distinct Java method names that point to the same bean name by using the @Bean name attribute, as shown in the preceding example. If the argument signatures are all the same (for example, all of the variants have no-arg factory methods), this is the only way to represent such an arrangement in a valid Java class in the first place (since there can only be one method of a particular name and argument signature).

XML Bean Definition Profiles

The XML counterpart is the profile attribute of the <beans> element. Our preceding sample configuration can be rewritten in two XML files, as follows:

<beans profile="development"
	xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xmlns:jdbc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jdbc"
	xsi:schemaLocation="...">

	<jdbc:embedded-database id="dataSource">
		<jdbc:script location="classpath:com/bank/config/sql/schema.sql"/>
		<jdbc:script location="classpath:com/bank/config/sql/test-data.sql"/>
	</jdbc:embedded-database>
</beans>
<beans profile="production"
	xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xmlns:jee="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee"
	xsi:schemaLocation="...">

	<jee:jndi-lookup id="dataSource" jndi-name="java:comp/env/jdbc/datasource"/>
</beans>

It is also possible to avoid that split and nest <beans/> elements within the same file, as the following example shows:

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xmlns:jdbc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jdbc"
	xmlns:jee="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee"
	xsi:schemaLocation="...">

	<!-- other bean definitions -->

	<beans profile="development">
		<jdbc:embedded-database id="dataSource">
			<jdbc:script location="classpath:com/bank/config/sql/schema.sql"/>
			<jdbc:script location="classpath:com/bank/config/sql/test-data.sql"/>
		</jdbc:embedded-database>
	</beans>

	<beans profile="production">
		<jee:jndi-lookup id="dataSource" jndi-name="java:comp/env/jdbc/datasource"/>
	</beans>
</beans>

The spring-bean.xsd has been constrained to allow such elements only as the last ones in the file. This should help provide flexibility without incurring clutter in the XML files.

The XML counterpart does not support the profile expressions described earlier. It is possible, however, to negate a profile by using the ! operator. It is also possible to apply a logical “and” by nesting the profiles, as the following example shows:

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xmlns:jdbc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jdbc"
	xmlns:jee="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee"
	xsi:schemaLocation="...">

	<!-- other bean definitions -->

	<beans profile="production">
		<beans profile="us-east">
			<jee:jndi-lookup id="dataSource" jndi-name="java:comp/env/jdbc/datasource"/>
		</beans>
	</beans>
</beans>

In the preceding example, the dataSource bean is exposed if both the production and us-east profiles are active.

Activating a Profile

Now that we have updated our configuration, we still need to instruct Spring which profile is active. If we started our sample application right now, we would see a NoSuchBeanDefinitionException thrown, because the container could not find the Spring bean named dataSource.

Activating a profile can be done in several ways, but the most straightforward is to do it programmatically against the Environment API which is available through an ApplicationContext. The following example shows how to do so:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

AnnotationConfigApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigApplicationContext();
ctx.getEnvironment().setActiveProfiles("development");
ctx.register(SomeConfig.class, StandaloneDataConfig.class, JndiDataConfig.class);
ctx.refresh();
val ctx = AnnotationConfigApplicationContext().apply {
	environment.setActiveProfiles("development")
	register(SomeConfig::class.java, StandaloneDataConfig::class.java, JndiDataConfig::class.java)
	refresh()
}

In addition, you can also declaratively activate profiles through the spring.profiles.active property, which may be specified through system environment variables, JVM system properties, servlet context parameters in web.xml, or even as an entry in JNDI (see PropertySource Abstraction). In integration tests, active profiles can be declared by using the @ActiveProfiles annotation in the spring-test module (see context configuration with environment profiles ).

Note that profiles are not an “either-or” proposition. You can activate multiple profiles at once. Programmatically, you can provide multiple profile names to the setActiveProfiles() method, which accepts String…​ varargs. The following example activates multiple profiles:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

ctx.getEnvironment().setActiveProfiles("profile1", "profile2");
ctx.getEnvironment().setActiveProfiles("profile1", "profile2")

Declaratively, spring.profiles.active may accept a comma-separated list of profile names, as the following example shows:

-Dspring.profiles.active="profile1,profile2"

Default Profile

The default profile represents the profile that is enabled by default. Consider the following example:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

@Configuration
@Profile("default")
public class DefaultDataConfig {

	@Bean
	public DataSource dataSource() {
		return new EmbeddedDatabaseBuilder()
			.setType(EmbeddedDatabaseType.HSQL)
			.addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/schema.sql")
			.build();
	}
}
@Configuration
@Profile("default")
class DefaultDataConfig {

	@Bean
	fun dataSource(): DataSource {
		return EmbeddedDatabaseBuilder()
				.setType(EmbeddedDatabaseType.HSQL)
				.addScript("classpath:com/bank/config/sql/schema.sql")
				.build()
	}
}

If no profile is active, the dataSource is created. You can see this as a way to provide a default definition for one or more beans. If any profile is enabled, the default profile does not apply.

The name of the default profile is default. You can change the name of the default profile by using setDefaultProfiles() on the Environment or, declaratively, by using the spring.profiles.default property.

PropertySource Abstraction

Spring’s Environment abstraction provides search operations over a configurable hierarchy of property sources. Consider the following listing:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

ApplicationContext ctx = new GenericApplicationContext();
Environment env = ctx.getEnvironment();
boolean containsMyProperty = env.containsProperty("my-property");
System.out.println("Does my environment contain the 'my-property' property? " + containsMyProperty);
val ctx = GenericApplicationContext()
val env = ctx.environment
val containsMyProperty = env.containsProperty("my-property")
println("Does my environment contain the 'my-property' property? $containsMyProperty")

In the preceding snippet, we see a high-level way of asking Spring whether the my-property property is defined for the current environment. To answer this question, the Environment object performs a search over a set of PropertySource objects. A PropertySource is a simple abstraction over any source of key-value pairs, and Spring’s StandardEnvironment is configured with two PropertySource objects — one representing the set of JVM system properties (System.getProperties()) and one representing the set of system environment variables (System.getenv()).

These default property sources are present for StandardEnvironment, for use in standalone applications. StandardServletEnvironment is populated with additional default property sources including servlet config, servlet context parameters, and a JndiPropertySource if JNDI is available.

Concretely, when you use the StandardEnvironment, the call to env.containsProperty("my-property") returns true if a my-property system property or my-property environment variable is present at runtime.

The search performed is hierarchical. By default, system properties have precedence over environment variables. So, if the my-property property happens to be set in both places during a call to env.getProperty("my-property"), the system property value “wins” and is returned. Note that property values are not merged but rather completely overridden by a preceding entry.

For a common StandardServletEnvironment, the full hierarchy is as follows, with the highest-precedence entries at the top:

  1. ServletConfig parameters (if applicable — for example, in case of a DispatcherServlet context)

  2. ServletContext parameters (web.xml context-param entries)

  3. JNDI environment variables (java:comp/env/ entries)

  4. JVM system properties (-D command-line arguments)

  5. JVM system environment (operating system environment variables)

Most importantly, the entire mechanism is configurable. Perhaps you have a custom source of properties that you want to integrate into this search. To do so, implement and instantiate your own PropertySource and add it to the set of PropertySources for the current Environment. The following example shows how to do so:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

ConfigurableApplicationContext ctx = new GenericApplicationContext();
MutablePropertySources sources = ctx.getEnvironment().getPropertySources();
sources.addFirst(new MyPropertySource());
val ctx = GenericApplicationContext()
val sources = ctx.environment.propertySources
sources.addFirst(MyPropertySource())

In the preceding code, MyPropertySource has been added with highest precedence in the search. If it contains a my-property property, the property is detected and returned, in favor of any my-property property in any other PropertySource. The MutablePropertySources API exposes a number of methods that allow for precise manipulation of the set of property sources.

Using @PropertySource

The @PropertySource annotation provides a convenient and declarative mechanism for adding a PropertySource to Spring’s Environment.

Given a file called app.properties that contains the key-value pair testbean.name=myTestBean, the following @Configuration class uses @PropertySource in such a way that a call to testBean.getName() returns myTestBean:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

@Configuration
@PropertySource("classpath:/com/myco/app.properties")
public class AppConfig {

 @Autowired
 Environment env;

 @Bean
 public TestBean testBean() {
  TestBean testBean = new TestBean();
  testBean.setName(env.getProperty("testbean.name"));
  return testBean;
 }
}
@Configuration
@PropertySource("classpath:/com/myco/app.properties")
class AppConfig {

	@Autowired
	private lateinit var env: Environment

	@Bean
	fun testBean() = TestBean().apply {
		name = env.getProperty("testbean.name")!!
	}
}

Any ${…​} placeholders present in a @PropertySource resource location are resolved against the set of property sources already registered against the environment, as the following example shows:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

@Configuration
@PropertySource("classpath:/com/${my.placeholder:default/path}/app.properties")
public class AppConfig {

 @Autowired
 Environment env;

 @Bean
 public TestBean testBean() {
  TestBean testBean = new TestBean();
  testBean.setName(env.getProperty("testbean.name"));
  return testBean;
 }
}
@Configuration
@PropertySource("classpath:/com/\${my.placeholder:default/path}/app.properties")
class AppConfig {

	@Autowired
	private lateinit var env: Environment

	@Bean
	fun testBean() = TestBean().apply {
		name = env.getProperty("testbean.name")!!
	}
}

Assuming that my.placeholder is present in one of the property sources already registered (for example, system properties or environment variables), the placeholder is resolved to the corresponding value. If not, then default/path is used as a default. If no default is specified and a property cannot be resolved, an IllegalArgumentException is thrown.

The @PropertySource annotation is repeatable, according to Java 8 conventions. However, all such @PropertySource annotations need to be declared at the same level, either directly on the configuration class or as meta-annotations within the same custom annotation. Mixing direct annotations and meta-annotations is not recommended, since direct annotations effectively override meta-annotations.

Placeholder Resolution in Statements

Historically, the value of placeholders in elements could be resolved only against JVM system properties or environment variables. This is no longer the case. Because the Environment abstraction is integrated throughout the container, it is easy to route resolution of placeholders through it. This means that you may configure the resolution process in any way you like. You can change the precedence of searching through system properties and environment variables or remove them entirely. You can also add your own property sources to the mix, as appropriate.

Concretely, the following statement works regardless of where the customer property is defined, as long as it is available in the Environment:

<beans>
	<import resource="com/bank/service/${customer}-config.xml"/>
</beans>