Inject external properties using CDI, Java and WildFly

Often you need to be able to configure different runtime properties based on environment.  Using the configuration below, you can have a different property file on each server (dev, production, test), each defining their own values.

How it works

1. The location of your property file is found by looking at a system property configured in the WildFly configuration file. This allows you to change the location of the property file, without having to recompile/redeploy the application.
2. The property file is loaded and the values are stored in a HashMap inside a @Singleton session bean
3. The properties are then injected into your CDI beans, making them accessible to your application code. This is achieved by creating a CDI Qualifier and producer method.

How its done

1. Create and populate a properties file inside the WildFly configuration folder

$ echo 'docs.dir=/var/documents' >> .standalone/configuration/application.properties

 2. Add a system property to the WildFly configuration file.

$ ./bin/jboss-cli.sh --connect
[standalone@localhost:9990 /] /system-property=application.properties:add(value=${jboss.server.config.dir}/application.properties)

This will add the following to your server configuration file (standalone.xml or domain.xml):

<system-properties>
    <property name="application.properties" value="${jboss.server.config.dir}/application.properties"/>
</system-properties>

3. Create the singleton session bean that loads and stores the application wide properties

package com.ritchie.chris.properties;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Properties;

import javax.annotation.PostConstruct;
import javax.ejb.Singleton;

@Singleton
public class PropertyFileResolver {
     
    private Map<String, String> properties = new HashMap<>();
     
    @PostConstruct
    private void init() throws IOException {
         
        //matches the property name as defined in the system-properties element in WildFly
        String propertyFile = System.getProperty("application.properties");
        File file = new File(propertyFile);
        Properties properties = new Properties();
         
        try {
            properties.load(new FileInputStream(file));
        } catch (IOException e) {
            System.out.println("Unable to load properties file" + e);
        }
         
        HashMap hashMap = new HashMap<>(properties);
        this.properties.putAll(hashMap);
    }
 
    public String getProperty(String key) {
        return properties.get(key);
    }
}

4. Create the CDI Qualifier. We will use this annotation on the Java variables we wish to inject into.

package com.ritchie.chris.properties;

import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

import javax.inject.Qualifier;

@Qualifier
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target({ ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.FIELD, ElementType.CONSTRUCTOR })
public @interface ApplicationProperty {

    // no default meaning a value is mandatory
    @Nonbinding
    String name();
}

5. Create the producer method; this generates the object to be injected

package com.ritchie.chris.properties;

import javax.enterprise.inject.Produces;
import javax.enterprise.inject.spi.InjectionPoint;
import javax.inject.Inject;

public class ApplicaitonPropertyProducer {

    @Inject
    private PropertyFileResolver fileResolver;

    @Produces
    @ApplicationProperty(name = "")
    public String getPropertyAsString(InjectionPoint injectionPoint) {
        
        String propertyName = injectionPoint.getAnnotated().getAnnotation(ApplicationProperty.class).name();
        String value = fileResolver.getProperty(propertyName);
        
        if (value == null || propertyName.trim().length() == 0) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("No property found with name " + value);
        }
        return value;
    }
    
    @Produces
    @ApplicationProperty(name="")
    public Integer getPropertyAsInteger(InjectionPoint injectionPoint) {
        
        String value = getPropertyAsString(injectionPoint);
        return value == null ? null : Integer.valueOf(value);
    }
}

6. Lastly inject the property into one of your CDI beans

package com.ritchie.chris.properties;

import javax.ejb.Stateless;
import javax.inject.Inject;

@Stateless
public class MySimpleEJB {

    @Inject
    @ApplicationProperty(name = "docs.dir")
    private String myProperty;
    
    public String getProperty() {
        return myProperty;
    }
}

Source code can be found on GitHub

Obtaining a reference to a CDI managed bean

Most of the time you can inject your CDI beans using the @Inject annotation. There may be occasions when you need to access your CDI beans inside a class where you can not use @Inject, you have a couple of options.

To programmatically access a CDI managed bean, first you need to get hold of the BeanManager (analogous to the ApplicationContext in Spring), by using CDI.current() or by doing a JNDI lookup.

Using CDI.current()

BeanManager bm = CDI.current().getBeanManager();

Using JNDI:

BeanManager bm = null;
try {
    InitialContext context = new InitialContext();
    bm = (BeanManager) context.lookup("java:comp/BeanManager");
} catch (Exception e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

Now you have the BeanManager you can access your CDI beans by doing either a type-based lookup or a name-based lookup.

Type based:

Bean<CrudService> bean = (Bean<CrudService>) bm.getBeans(CrudService.class).iterator().next();
CreationalContext<CrudService> ctx = bm.createCreationalContext(bean);
CrudService crudService = (CrudService) bm.getReference(bean, CrudService.class, ctx);

Name-based

Bean bean = bm.getBeans("crudService").iterator().next();
CreationalContext ctx = bm.createCreationalContext(bean);
CrudService crudService = bm.getReference(bean, bean.getClass(), ctx);

When using name-based lookup, your name has to match the value you pass into your @Named annotation. If do not pass a value then it is the name of your class, in camel case. Example:

@Named("crudService")
public class CrudService {}

And a full code example using CDI.current() and type-based lookup:

BeanManager bm = CDI.current().getBeanManager();
Bean<CrudService> bean = (Bean<CrudService>) bm.getBeans(CrudService.class).iterator().next();
CreationalContext<CrudService> ctx = bm.createCreationalContext(bean);
CrudService crudService = (CrudService) bm.getReference(bean, CrudService.class, ctx);