<util:properties and @Value not working

[Slidewayz]

Hi,

I am calling a SOAP web service using Spring's WebServiceGatewaySupport.

It works fine, but I now need to externalize the endpoint ipAddress. Since the
endpoint is used in several methods in the class, I've defined the endpoint as
a class variable.

I've defined a text property file, utilroperties in applicationContext.xml, and @Value in the class.
When I don't reference the value in my class, the app starts fine so I know Spring is finding
my properties file and correlating it to the @Value.

However, I get a 'could not resolve placeholder' error with @Value("${myProp.ipAddress}") syntax.
With @Value("${myProp['ipAddress']}") syntax I get a null value in the ipAddress field.

I've tried both the static $ and dynamic # tags, to no avail. Is it possible that Spring won't
retrieve the value until after the class is instantiated ? If so, how do I get an externalized
endpoint ipAddress into my class ?

The code is below.

Please help !!!

appContext

<util:properties id="myProp" location="/WEB-INF/properties/myProperties"/>

property file

ipAddress=http://192.168.22.33:5897

@Value bits in the class

@Service
public class MyClass extends WebServiceGatewaySupport implements IMyClass
{

        @Value("${myProp.ipAddress}") // (or @Value("${myProp['ipAddress']}")
	public void setIpAddress(String ipAddress)
	{
		this.ipAddress = ipAddress;
	}

	MySoapProxy mySoapProxy = new MySoapProxy(ipAddress + "/MySoapService?wsdl");

...

[Slidewayz]

OK, I cracked it.

I set the value of the endpoint url within a @PostConstruct method. Therefore, the reason
why this wasn't working was because the property isn't set by Spring until after all the
properties in the class are instantiated.