Is there a way to specify a default property value in Spring XML?

Question

We are using a PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer to use java properties in our Spring configuration (details here)

eg:

Answer 1

There is a little known feature, which makes this even better. You can use a configurable default value instead of a hard-coded one, here is an example:

config.properties:

timeout.default=30
timeout.myBean=60

context.xml:

    
        config.properties
    



    

To use the default while still being able to easily override later, do this in config.properties:

timeout.myBean = ${timeout.default}