Java properties file validation - java

My Java application loads a properties file at startup, which contains key-value pairs. I can set and retrieve the expected properties successfully.
However, as it stands the properties file can contain any property name I care to put in there. I'd like to be able to restrict the properties to a specific set, some of which are mandatory and others optional.
I can manually check each loaded property against a valid set but I was wondering if there was a more elegant way to do this. E.g. perhaps some way to declare the expected mandatory/optional properties, so that when the properties file is loaded, an exception is thrown if an invalid or missing property is detected. Similar to the kind of thing boost::program_options offers in C++.

Since Properties is already a simple iterable structure, I would just perform your validation against that object. Below is a simple validation of required vs optional.
public static void testProps(Properties props, Set<String> required, Set<String> optional) {
int requiredCount=0;
Enumeration keys = props.keys();
while (keys.hasMoreElements()) {
String key=(String) keys.nextElement();
if (required.contains(key)) {
requiredCount++;
} else if (!optional.contains(key)) {
throw new IllegalStateException("Unauthorized key : " + key);
}
}
if (requiredCount<required.size()) {
for (String requiredKey : required) {
if (!props.containsKey(requiredKey)) {
throw new IllegalStateException("Missing required key : " + requiredKey);
}
}
}
}

I can manually check each loaded property against a valid set but I
was wondering if there was a more elegant way to do this. E.g. perhaps
some way to declare the expected mandatory/optional properties, so
that when the properties file is loaded, an exception is thrown if an
invalid or missing property is detected.
The built-in API of the JDK (java.util.Properties) do not offer this kind of validation.
However, it should not be difficult to implment your own ConfigLoader class which does this. Your class could wrap java.util.Properties, and validate the data after loading. You could for example maintain a list of mandatory and optional keys (hardcoded, or loaded externally), and then check the list of loaded keys against these lists.
It's possible you could find some implementation which does this, but as the validation itself will be specific to your needs anyway, and the rest is fairly simple, I don't think it's worth hunting for an existing solution.

Related

How can my Freemarker ObjectWrapper access a template setting

Use case: system administrator stores a Freemarker template in a database which is used (by Spring Boot REST API) to present information stored by system users (respondents) in a locale-aware way to a different user type (reviewer).
A respondent's response might be stored in this sort of object (or in lists of this sort of object, in the event a question posed to the respondent is expected to have multiple answers):
// snip
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.ObjectNode;
// more imports snipped
public class LanguageStringMap {
private Map<Language, String> languageStringMap;
public LanguageStringMap(ObjectNode languageMapNode) {
// snip of code instantiating a LanguageStringMap from JSON
}
public void put(Language language, String value) {
if (value.length() == 0)
throw new IllegalArgumentException(String.format(
"value for language '%s' of zero length", language.getCode()));
languageStringMap.put(language, value);
}
public String get(Language language) { return languageStringMap.get(language); }
}
What I think I want to do is write an ObjectWrapper that maps instances of LanguageStringMap to a string (obtained by calling the get() method with a language derived from the Locale requested by the reviewer's browser and set in the template's settings). This presents a cleaner user experience to the system administrator than making the uploaded template contain a bunch of template method calls would.
To do this, my object wrapper needs to access a template setting. I have perused the pertinent Freemarker documentation, but I am still unclear on how to do this or if it is even possible.
I think it would be a mistake to try to implement this with resource bundles uploaded to the database alongside the templates, but that is a consideration.
Typically you simply put the locale specific string into the data-model before the template is processed, along with all the other variables. In that case no ObjectWrapper customization is needed. But if you have to use an ObjectWrapper-based solution, then you can get the locale inside an ObjectWrapper method (like in the override of DefaultObjectWrapper.handleUnknownType) with Environment.getCurrentEnvironment().getLocale().

How to get rid of OSGi bundle's properties that are not exist in their corresponding configuration ("service.pid", etc.)?

I have the class similar to the following:
#Component(configurationPid = "foo.bar", configurationPolicy = ConfigurationPolicy.REQUIRE)
public class MyClass {
#Activate
public void activate(Map<String, Object> properties) throws Exception {
for (String property : properties.keySet()) {
if (!isValidProperty(property)) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown property: " + property);
}
...
}
}
}
The properties map must contain the properties from the corresponding configuration source (e.g. a file provided by an user). And it is, but it also contains some properties that are not really exist (service.pid, felix.fileinstall.dir, etc.), so my program is broken. I want to get rid of them somehow.
I tried to use ConfigurationAdmin.getConfiguration.getProperties and also blueprint cm-properties but this gives the same effect.
I can't hardcode the names of the properties to exclude, because I don't know what they are.
Is there any means to tell the OSGi runtime not to put them at all in my map?
I'm doing this using ServiceMix's OSGi support (which is essentially Karaf, Felix, and Aries).
Just ignore the properties you don't like/understand. The system is designed so that the party doing the configuration can add any property and that property will be passed to your component and thus be a service property on your component's service. Removing the properties you, the component developer, don't understand is overly restrictive. You would remove the ability of someone in the deployment process from decorating your service in a way meaningful to someone else.
Currently there is no way to exclude these artificial properties but I agree this is pretty bad.
You can open an issue and the Apache felix project jira.

Enterprise Architect - MDA converst Map to List

I am using EA for creation of PIM. When I generate java code directly I am getting correct data type where I want - Map where I set qualifiers on association properties which as I understand meas that it is going to be a map. And that works as expected. Hovewer when I do the MDA transformation and generete code - properties are conveted to List (which is bad) bug setters and getters method keep using Map as in the following example:
public class Check {
private List< Comp> comps;
private List< Gratuity> gratuities;
public Check(){
}
public Map<String, Comp> getcomps(){
return comps;
}
public Map<String, Gratuity> getgratuities(){
return gratuities;
}
I am using default transformation package for Java. I tried to add following line to Java transformation for connector is source section
%connectorType%
%PI="\n "%
{
%TRANSFORM_CURRENT()%
%TRANSFORM_REFERENCE("Connector",connectorGUID)%
Source
{
%TRANSFORM_REFERENCE("Class",connectorSourceElemGUID)%
access=%qt%%connectorSourceAccess == "Public" ? "Private" : value%%qt%
qualifier=%connectorSourceQualifier%
%TRANSFORM_CURRENT("Source","access")%
}
Target
{
%TRANSFORM_REFERENCE("Class",connectorDestElemGUID)%
access=%qt%%connectorDestAccess == "Public" ? "Private" : value%%qt%
%TRANSFORM_CURRENT("Target","access")%
%PI="\n"%
}
}
but that doesn't seem to help
This is an incomplete answer, but it's too long to go in a comment.
I'm not convinced that the connector source qualifier determines which collection class (Map, List) is used. There are three things involved here: the MDA transform template, the code generation template and the collection class options.
Check Tools -- Options -- Source Code Engineering -- Java. There you'll find settings for Default Collection Class and Additional Collection Classes (these are used for attributes), and (by clicking the Collection Classes button) collection class settings for associations. Check these.
Also, check the Linked Attribute Declaration template for Java code generation. It seems to me that this does not check the qualifier, but it does check %linkAttCollectionClass%.
I got a reply form Enterprise Architect support which says it is bug - original message:
I am sorry it does not work because there's an issue with regard to transformation of the Connector 'qualifier'.
The transformation template '%TRANSFORM_CURRENT()%' (and your new added 'qualifier="tr: String') is all correct, but the issue makes it fail to transform that qualifier value across.
We are going to resolve this issue in a future release of EA. Unfortunately I cannot provide a timeframe for release.
Issue ID: 13106266

Registering and updating application properties using JMX

I have to access some application through an mbean so that I can change its application properties. Now i think this can be done in two ways:
First, either I ask the developer of that application to register all the application properties in an arraylist which my mbean will access.
Secondly, if there is any other way, such that the developer will only need to register editable properties and still my mbean can access both readable/editable(r/w) application properties.
Now since I don't know where these application properties are stored in the JVM, is there a way to implement my second point so that the mbean will just need to access that object and it will get all application properties?
Seems like you have some contradicting requirements here.
You want to change minimal code in the application.
You want to be cause to expose all properties for read and/or write.
You may or may not be talking about System.getProperty(...). If not then I guess you are talking about just fields in various objects.
There are (at least) two ways of doing this. Without knowing how you are exporting the mbeans from the source code right now, I can't tailor my answer to your specific config. My answer will instead show how you might use my SimpleJMX package to expose your properties.
If you are talking about System.getProperty(...) then you could write a JMX mbean that could query any property and return the value:
#JmxOperation(description = "Query for property")
public String queryForProperty(String name) {
return System.getProperty(name);
}
If, instead, you need to export of fields from some list of objects then you are going to either have to add annotations to each fields you are exporting or you are going to have to write beans that export the fields through delegation. I see no easy way and I know of no package that will easily export a series of objects for you without some sort of information about what is to be exported and how.
Using SimpleJMX, you can export a field by annotating either the field or the get method:
#JmxAttributeField(description = "Number of hits in the cache")
private int hitCount;
...
// this can also be specified as #JmxAttributeMethod on the getter/setter methods
#JmxAttributeMethod(description = "Number of misses in the cache")
private int getMissCount() {
return missCount;
}
The #JmxAttributeField supports a isWritable = true to allow the value to be set by JMX. You can also annotation the setter with #JmxAttributeMethod to make it writable.
If you don't want to add annotations to each of your classes, then you are going to have to write some sort of JMX container class that exports the values through delegation:
public class JmxPublisher {
private Class1 object1;
private Class2 object2;
...
public JmxPublisher(Class1 object1, Class2 object2) {
this.object1 = object1;
this.object2 = object2;
...
}
#JmxAttributeMethod(description = "Number of hits in the cache")
public int getClass1HitCount() {
return object1.getHitCount();
}
#JmxAttributeMethod(description = "Shutdown the background thread")
public void setClass2Shutdown(boolean shutdown) {
return object2.setShutdown(shutdown);
}
...
}
I also think you should express yourself more clearly.
From what I understood - why not providing a way to query the remote application, and get information on all properties and if they are Read-only, Write-only or RW?
This way the list of properties will not be mentioned at the source code of the client application - maybe you should let the user of the client application see the list of properties, and let him edit the properties he can edit, and prevent him from editing the properties he can't.

Java - Setting context attributes (ServletContextListener)

I read a properties-file at the webapplication startup phase (contextInitialized()) and I started to think about how to make these settings 'visible' to the servlets. Do I need to loop through the keys and add each and every one to the context, like this
Iterator i = settings.keySet().iterator();
while (i.hasNext()) {
key = (String) i.next();
value = (String) settings.get(key);
context.setAttribute(key, value);
}
or are there better methods?
Thank you!
/Adam
why not store the entire contents in your servlet context?
context.setAttribute("mySettings", settings);
setAttribute's signature is:
public void setAttribute(String name, Object object)
Have you considered the possibility of defining the settings in web.xml?
Also, if that's not possible, use generics if possible:
String key = null;
Iterator<String> i = settings.keySet().iterator();
while (i.hasNext())
context.setAttribute(key = i.next(), settings.get(key));
I've been toying with an idea:
In the context initialized method, I've planned to create just one global object for the settings. Much like toolkit proposed. But instead of setting context attributes for each key/attribute/setting, would it be a terrible idea to add a settings container/wrapper object? I'm thinking this class would be responsible for holding (static?) classes of module settings. This way I can get typed references like so
//ExampleServlet.java
Settings settings = (Settings)context.getAttribute("application.settings");
String color = settings.getModule1().getColor();
String font = settings.getModule1().getFont();
int blogs = settings.getModule2().getActiveBlogCount();
Throughout the code I'll have to remember only one attribute key, the one for the entire settings container. Less risk of typos which could cause rumtime exceptions!
It will also make it easy to rename attributes.
What do you think?
/Adam
What about using the JNDI context. JNDI is a more common way to pass properties to a webapp.
Any Properties may be specified in the META-INF/context.xml for tomcat or any application specific setup.
It's something that I have contemplated, setting the entire properties object as a context attribute.
If I do not go this route, are there any guidelines for how to name these attributes or do you feel that "application.settings" or "myBlog.settings"? How do you group keys? Would this be okay:
application.module1.color=black
application.module1.font=arial
I feel, in a way, that it could become a burden to maintain such an application where the property keys are spread throughout the code? Should another developer rename a property in the properties file, we'll know only when running the application (if/when/what referenced the old key). Right?
I'll have to lookup JNDI.

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