Servlet context initialization parameter for spring.config.location is ignored

[yreifschneider]

I'm using Spring Boot 1.4.0 deployed as a war file to Tomcat 8.5. According to the documentantion, I should be able to configure the spring.boot.location configuration parameter by passing it via Servlet context initialization parameter.

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.
http://docs.spring.io/spring-boot/docs/current/reference/html/boot-features-external-config.html

When I add this line to my context.xml file in Tomcat
<Parameter name="spring.config.location" value="file:/some/path/" />
the application.properties file at this path is ignored and not read.

If I however use a JNDI entry like
<Environment name="spring.config.location" value="file:/some/path/" type="java.lang.String" />
the application.properties file is read and will be used.

[philwebb]

Out of interest is this something that was previously working with Spring Boot 1.3?

[wilkinsona]

I don't think this has ever worked. Unless you're using ContextLoader, StandardServletEnvironment servlet-based property sources aren't initialized until prepareRefresh is called on the web application context which is too late for ConfigFileApplicationListener to make use of their properties.

[wilkinsona]

To initialise the environment with the servlet context early enough (before ConfigFileApplicationListener) it needs to be done in a SpringApplicationRunListener. As it stands, they're only loaded via spring.factories which makes passing accessing the servlet context tricky (we'd have to use thread local or similar).