MessageSource and PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer cannot load messages but with classpath*

My applicationContext.xml is in path:

src/main/resources/META-INF/spring

and property files are in path:

src/main/resources/messages

and I load spring context in web.xml as follows:

<context-param>
    <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
    <param-value>classpath:META-INF/spring/applicationContext.xml</param-value>
</context-param>

when I am configuring MessageSource and PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer as follows:

<bean id="propertyPlaceholderConfigurer"
      class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
    <property name="locations">
        <list>
            <value>classpath:messages/apps.properties</value>        
        </list>
    </property>
</bean>

<bean id="messageSource" class="org.springframework.context.support.ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource">
    <property name="basenames">
        <list>
            <value>classpath:messages/ValidationMessages</value>
            <value>classpath:messages/app</value>
        </list>
    </proper开发者_C百科ty>
    <property name="defaultEncoding" value="UTF-8"/>
</bean>

they both don't work, it only works when I change classpath to classpath* Any ideas why?

From Spring documentation:

4.7.2.2 The classpath*: prefix

[...] location string may use the special classpath*: prefix: [...]

This special prefix specifies that all classpath resources that match the given name must be obtained [...], and then merged to form the final application context definition.

Are you sure there are no other messages/apps.properties files on your CLASSPATH coincidentally taking precedence and overriding your file? This description suggests that you might have several same named files that are merged when * is used.

Can you check this by calling:

SomeClass.class.getClassLoader().getResources("/messages/apps.properties");

?

Look at this excellent article for classpath v classpth* difference in regards to spring resource loading, I did some testing on your problem in my testing it worked whether i used classpath or classpath*

I am listing the code here about the test i did

• I created a this directory structure (META-INF/spring under src/main/resource) placed context.xml

• I am listing complete context.xml here

     <?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-3.0.xsd 
  http://www.springframework.org/schema/context   http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">
  
     <bean id="propertyPlaceholderConfigurer"
               class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
      <property name="locations">
          <list>
              <value>classpath:messages/apps.properties</value>
          </list>
      </property>
    </bean>
  
      <bean class="prasanna.service.TestBean">
         <property name="appName" value="${appname}"></property>
       </bean>
  
  <bean id="messageSource"  class="org.springframework.context.support.ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource">
  <property name="basenames">
       <list>
         <value>classpath:messages/ValidationMessages</value>
             <value>classpath:messages/apps</value>
         </list>
     </property>
      <property name="defaultEncoding" value="UTF-8"/>
  </bean>
      </beans>
  

• Listing for apps.properties

   appname=spring mvc app
  

• Listing for ValidationMessages.properties

    error.name=Invalid name
  

• TestBean is rather simple

      public class TestBean 
      {
          private String appName;
  
          public String getAppName() {
              return appName;
          }
  
          public void setAppName(String appName) {
              this.appName = appName;
          }
  
      }
  

• I am using a simple java class to load the property files and read them

  public class LoadContext 
  {
      public static void main(String[] args) 
      {
          ApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(new String[]{"classpath:META-INF/spring/context.xml"});
          ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource msgs = ctx.getBean(ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource.class);
  
                TestBean testBean = ctx.getBean(TestBean.class);
      Assert.assertTrue(testBean.getAppName().equals("spring mvc app"));
  
          String msg = msgs.getMessage("appname", new Object[]{new DefaultMessageSourceResolvable("appname")}, null);
          System.out.println(" "+ msg);
  
          String msg2 = msgs.getMessage("error.name", new Object[]{new DefaultMessageSourceResolvable("error.name")}, null);
          System.out.println(" "+ msg2);
      }
  
  }