Could not resolve Spring property placeholder

I have my config:

<context:property-placeholder location="classpath:idm.properties" />

<bean id="idmPropertyHolder" class="fi.utu.resurssitilaus.idm.IdmPropertyHolder">
   <property name="url" value="${idm.url}" /> 
    <property name="user" value="${idm.user}" />
    <property name="password" value="${idm.password}" />
    <property name="proxyHost" value="${http.proxyHost}" />
    <property name="proxyPort" value="${http.proxyPort}" />
</bean>

I get the error

    SEVERE: Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
    org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Invalid bean definition with name 'idmPropertyHolder' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/idm-config.xml]: Could not resolve placeholder 'idm.url'
            at org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer.processProperties(PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer.java:272)
            at org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyResourceConfigurer.postProcessBeanFactory(PropertyResourceConfigurer.java:75)
            at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.invokeBeanFactoryPostProcessors(AbstractApplicationContext.java:640)
            at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.invokeBeanFactoryPostProcessors(AbstractApplicationContext.java:615)
            at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:405)
            at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.createWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:276)
            at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:197)
            at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:47)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:3934)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4429)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:791)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:771)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:526)
            at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDescriptor(HostConfig.java:630)
            at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployApps(HostConfig.java:514)
            at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.check(HostConfig.java:1288)
            at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
            at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
            at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
            at org.apache.tomcat.util.modeler.BaseModelMBean.invoke(BaseModelMBean.java:297)
            at com.sun.jmx.interceptor.DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.invoke(DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.java:836)
            at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer.invoke(JmxMBeanServer.java:761)
            at org.apache.catalina.manager.ManagerServlet.check(ManagerServlet.java:1473)
            at org.apache.catalina.manager.ManagerServlet.deploy(ManagerServlet.java:824)
            at org.apache.catalina.manager.ManagerServlet.doGet(ManagerServlet.java:350)
            at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:617)
            at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
            at org.netbeans.modules.web.monitor.server.MonitorFilter.doFilter(MonitorFilter.java:196)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
            at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:525)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:128)
            at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
            at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)
            at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:849)
            at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:583)
            at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:454)
            at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
    24.1.2011 9:19:05 org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
    INFO: Closing Spring root WebApplicationContext
    24.1.2011 9:19:05 org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
    INFO: Shutting down log4j

I know this could be missing properties file, but I have it in my classpath just right. What is missing?

My web.xml:

<context-param>
    <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
    <param-value>
      /WEB-INF/base-config.xml
      /WEB-INF/idm-config.xml
      /WEB-INF/ldap-config.xml
      /WEB-INF/sec-config.xml

    </param-value>
  </context-param>

  <!-- Reads request input using UTF-8 encoding -->
  <filter>
    <filter-name>characterEncodingFilter</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter</filter-class>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>encoding</param-name>
      <param-value>UTF-8</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>forceEncoding</param-name>
      <param-value>true</param-value>
    </init-param>
  </filter>


  <filter>
    <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class>
  </filter>

  <filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>characterEncodingFilter</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
  </filter-mapping>


  <filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
  </filter-mapping>

  <listener>
    <listener-class>org.springframework.web.util.Log4jConfigListener</listener-class>
  </listener>


  <listener>
    <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
  </listener>

  <listener>
    <listener-class>org.springframework.security.web.session.HttpSessionEventPublisher</listener-class>
  </listener>

  <!-- Handles all requests into the application -->
  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
      <param-value>
        /WEB-INF/app-config.xml

      </param-value>
    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
  </servlet>

  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>tiles</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.apache.tiles.web.startup.TilesServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>
        org.apache.tiles.impl.BasicTilesContainer.DEFINITIONS_CONFIG
      </param-name>
      <param-value>
        /WEB-INF/tiles-config.xml
      </param-value>
    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>2</load-on-startup>
  </servlet>

  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>*.html</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>

  <session-config>
    <session-timeout>
      30
    </session-timeout>
  </session-config>

  <welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>redirect.jsp</welcome-file>
  </welcome-file-list>
</web-app>

You may have more than one org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer in your application. Try setting a breakpoint on the setLocations method of the superclass and see if it's called more than once at application startup. If there is more than one org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer, you might need to look at configuring the ignoreUnresolvablePlaceholders property so that your application will start up cleanly.

Your property file location is classpath:idm.properties

This is rather unusual, it means that idm.properties must be located either at the top level of WEB-INF/classes or at the top-level of one of the jars inside WEB-INF/lib. Usually it's good practice to either use a dedicated folder for properties or keep them close to the context files that use them.

So my suggestion is this: Is your properties file perhaps next to your context file? If so, it's not on the classpath (see this question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/793917/is-web-inf-in-the-classpath).

The classpath: prefix maps to a ClassPathResource, but you probably need a ServletContextResource, and you'll get that from a WebApplicationContext using the syntax without prefix:

<context:property-placeholder location="idm.properties" />

Reference:

• The ResourceLoader
  (describes how different ApplicationContext types handle resources without prefix)
• The PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer mechanism
  (describes the <context:property-placeholder> mechanism)

It's definitely not a problem with propeties file not being found, since in that case another exception is thrown.

Make sure that you actually have a value with key idm.url in your idm.properties.

I still believe its to do with the props file not being located by spring. Do a quick test by passing the params as jvm params. i.e -Didm.url=....

make sure your properties file exist in classpath directory but not in sub folder of your classpath directory. if it is exist in sub folder then write as below classpath:subfolder/idm.properties

the following property must be added in the gradle.build file

processResources {
    filesMatching("**/*.properties") {
        expand project.properties
    }
}

Additionally, if working with Intellij, the project must be re-imported.

Ensure 'idm.url' is set in property file and the property file is loaded