Loading external spring properties in annotation based Spring 3.1 application

"As opposed to using XML namespace element, the Java @PropertySource annotation does not automatically register a PropertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer with Spring. Instead, the bean must be explicitly defined in the configuration to get the property resolution mechanism working."
http://www.javaworld.com/community/?q=node/8309


Loading in AppConfig

@Configuration

@ComponentScan({ "package1","package2" ...})

@ImportResource("classpath:/someOtherImports.xml")

public class AppConfig {

    

    static Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(AppConfig.class);

    /**

     * Load spring properties

     */

    @Bean

    public PropertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer properties(){

      String propertiesLocation = System.getProperty("config.dir") + "/spring.properties";

      PropertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer pspc = new PropertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer();

      Resource[] resources = new FileSystemResource []{new FileSystemResource (propertiesLocation)};

      pspc.setLocations(resources);

      pspc.setIgnoreUnresolvablePlaceholders(true);

      log.info("Loading spring properties from " + propertiesLocation);

      return pspc;

    }

}

Using properties in Beans
As usual:
private @Value("${myprop}") String myprop;