unable to resolve properties when using classpath:*.xml in contextConfigLocation

[fkhan]

When defining the MessageDispatcherServlet in my web.xml I'd like spring to automatically pickup the xml files from my application instead of needing to hand include each xml. So I am trying to use the Resource call classpath:*.xml in the contextConfigLocation init-param but when I do the error below occurs.

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionSt oreException: Error registering bean with name 'validatingInterceptor' defined in file [D:\cithaeron\stuff\tomcat\apache-tomcat-6.0.14\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes\soapapi.xml]: Could not resolve placeholder 'soapapi.validateRequest'

Here is my web.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
           xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
           xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee
		  http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
           version="2.5">

    <display-name>Cithaeron Soap API</display-name>

    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>spring-ws</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.springframework.ws.transport.http.MessageDispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
            <!-- <param-value>/WEB-INF/classes/demo.xml,/WEB-INF/classes/spring-ws-servlet.xml,/WEB-INF/classes/soapapi.xml,/WEB-INF/classes/orderbookmanager.xml,/WEB-INF/classes/matching.xml,/WEB-INF/classes/clearing.xml,/WEB-INF/classes/reference.xml</param-value> -->
             <param-value>classpath:*.xml</param-value> 
        </init-param>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>transformWsdlLocations</param-name>
            <param-value>true</param-value>
        </init-param>
    </servlet>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>spring-ws</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>
    
</web-app>

And here are the failing bean definitions from the soapapi.xml

    <bean id="propertiesAbstract" abstract="true" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
        <property name="locations">
            <list merge="true">
                <value>classpath:com/cithaeron/soapapi/report/report.properties</value>
                <value>classpath:com/cithaeron/soapapi/soapapi.properties</value>
            </list>
        </property>
    </bean>

    <bean id="validatingInterceptor"
          class="org.springframework.ws.soap.server.endpoint.interceptor.PayloadValidatingInterceptor">
        <description>
            This interceptor validates both incoming and outgoing message contents according to the 'cithaeron.xsd' XML
            Schema file.
        </description>
        <property name="schema" value="classpath:com/cithaeron/soapapi/cithaeron.xsd"/>
        <property name="validateRequest" value="${soapapi.validateRequest}"/>
        <property name="validateResponse" value="${soapapi.validateResponse}"/>
    </bean>

where the abstract property placeholder is made concrete inthe spring-ws-servlete.xml

    <bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer" parent="propertiesAbstract">
        <property name="locations">
            <list merge="true">
                <value>classpath:deployment.properties</value>
            </list>
        </property>

It all works if I list the xml files, anyone have any ideas why spring would not be able to find the properties files when using "classpath:*.xml"

[David C Brown]

Section 4.7.2.3. "Other notes relating to wildcards" of the Spring Framework Reference Documentation explains why.