CODEWITHSUNDEEP
scalamavenconfigurationconfig
houcros
houcros

Reputation: 1020

Custom configuration files in Maven application (Java/Scala)

I have a Maven project written in Scala and deployed as a .jar. The project has the typical structure:

project-root
|__src
   |__main
   |  |__scala
   |  |__resources
   |
   |__test
      |__scala
      |__resources

I have many hardcoded values in the application that I'd like to extract to a configuration file.

I could just create a text config file anywhere, read it from the code and use the parameters, but I'm looking for a best practice/approach. I'd like to take this things into account:

Upvotes: 1

Views: 286

Answers (1)

alexanderific
alexanderific

Reputation: 790

If you want to be able to change configuration values without building the jar, you will want your config external to the artifact. There are ways to modify the contents of the built jar but I don't think that is what you are wanting to do. If you want to have config you can change on the fly, keep it out of your jar and reference it on the Classpath at runtime.

If you want to keep it on your artifact, and rebuild when you change values, keep the configuration file in src/main/resources. Maven will automatically package it into your jar for you at the root of the archive.

As for format, that's probably personal preference. Reading YAML usually requires another library such as snakeyml to parse effectively, so if you are trying to keep your library light on dependencies, maybe look at .config or .properties files instead. Otherwise, XML and YAML are always nice for complex configuration.

Upvotes: 1

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