JSP Web App configuration the Spring way?

[jawheeler]

Simple question, but I haven't been able to find a simple answer:

I'm using Spring, JSP 2.0 and JSTL

I want to have a configuration parameter for my web application. It will be deployed on various intranets, with different requirements.

Something like:

# app.properties
# Can users foo?
foo.enabled=false

I guess this should go in a properties file, or conceivably it could be in the *-servlet.xml as a bean.

Then I want a JSP that has something like this:

<%-- Only display the link if foo is enabled --%>
<c:if test="${...foo.enabled='true'}">
<a href="...">Foo</a>
</c:if>

It seems like I want to use EL to access an application property. What is the best way to do this?

[Marten Deinum]

Please use [ code][/code ] tags when posting code....

I would create some configuration object in your applicationContext which holds the properties. Then create a HandlerInterceptor which always adds that configuration object to the request attributes so that it is accessible in the jsp.

public class ConfigurationAddingHandlerInterceptor extends HandlerInterceptorAdapter {

  private Configuration configuration;

  public void postHandle(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Object handler, ModelAndView modelAndView) {
    modelAndView.addObject("configuration", configuration);
  }

}

<c:if test="${configuration.foo}">
  //something here
</c:if>