PropertySources Empty in Spring Cloud Config

[Sam Mallick]

Hello Everyone,

I am trying to learn Spring Cloud Config because the application I work on is deployed on different servers with different properties. Previously it used Ant and filtering to create properties for each server at deployment time. But we are moving to Maven. So that option is gone. And moreover it was a very crude way of going about things. But then again, 15 years ago that was the only option they had I guess.

Okay that is the background. I have read some tutorials and gone through some of the code given there. I wrote a Spring Boot App that reads the property files, and I try to fetch it on the browser.

But the problem is, the properties show up empty. It is a very basic piece of code. So it not working has really dented my confidence!

My code is like this:

package com.example.demo;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.jdbc.DataSourceAutoConfiguration;
import org.springframework.cloud.config.server.EnableConfigServer;

@SpringBootApplication
@EnableConfigServer
@EnableAutoConfiguration(exclude={DataSourceAutoConfiguration.class})
public class DemoApplication {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		SpringApplication.run(DemoApplication.class, args);
	}
}

And my application.properties is like:

server.port=9090
#spring.cloud.config.server.native.search-locations=file:///H:/tomcat/myProperties.properties
spring.cloud.config.server.native.searchLocations=file:///H:/tomcat/myProperties.properties
spring.cloud.config.server.native.addLabelLocations=false
spring.profiles.active=native
spring.security.user.name=admin
spring.security.user.password=admin
logging.level.web=DEBUG
debug=false
spring.output.ansi.enabled=ALWAYS
spring.devtools.restart.enabled=false

My pom.xml is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd"> <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion> <parent> <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId> <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId> <version>2.5.2</version> <relativePath /> <!-- lookup parent from repository --> </parent> <groupId>com.att.palabs</groupId> <artifactId>configuration-server</artifactId> <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version> <name>demo</name> <description>Demo project for Spring Boot</description> <properties> <java.version>1.8</java.version> <spring-cloud.version>2020.0.3</spring-cloud.version> </properties> <dependencies> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId> <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-actuator</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId> <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId> <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-security</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId> <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId> <artifactId>spring-cloud-config-server</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId> <artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId> <scope>runtime</scope> <optional>true</optional> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId> <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId> <scope>test</scope> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId> <artifactId>spring-security-test</artifactId> <scope>test</scope> </dependency> </dependencies> <dependencyManagement> <dependencies> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId> <artifactId>spring-cloud-dependencies</artifactId> <version>${spring-cloud.version}</version> <type>pom</type> <scope>import</scope> </dependency> </dependencies> </dependencyManagement> <build> <resources> <resource> <directory>src/main/resources/</directory> <includes> <include>**/*.properties</include> </includes> </resource> </resources> <plugins> <plugin> <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId> <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId> </plugin> </plugins> </build> </project>

But when I hit the URL:

http://localhost:9090/config/default/master

I only see this:
{"name":"config","profiles":["default"],"label":"master","version":null,"state":null,"propertySources":[]}

Now I am not quite sure why the propertySource would be empty here. It should list the properties that I have in the properties file. The tutorials make it look easy. And the startup logs, dont shed any light on it. Although I do not know what to look for really!

I am on a Windows machine and running the code in Eclipse.

Now I have seen different tutorials have different property keys for the search locations, can you please tell me which one is right?

spring.cloud.config.server.native.searchLocations
OR
spring.cloud.config.server.native.search-locations


I dont know what else information to provide, if you need anything else, please do let me know, I will add it to the question. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Himai Minh]

Hi, Sam,
How about this ?

 spring.cloud.config.server.git.uri=file:///H:/tomcat/myProperties.properties 

[Sam Mallick]

Unfortunately the result is the same. I still get an empty JSON.

[Himai Minh]

How about this URL  localhost:9090/myProperties ?
You may find a tutorial about how to create Spring Cloud config server here:
https://www.javatpoint.com/connect-spring-cloud-config-server-to-local-git-repository
But the Spring boot version they are using is not the latest.

[Sam Mallick]

My problem is the GIT thing. Probably with Git the code might just work out fine. But I am using a native profile and trying to read a properties file from a local file system.

And with that URL I get:
Whitelabel Error Page This application has no explicit mapping for /error, so you are seeing this as a fallback.

[Himai Minh]

I am not sure if the Spring security block the access to the local repository. You can experiment by removing the Spring security dependency and see.

[Maryna Jjj]

I had the samme problem with a git derectory. My solution is:
1. create a new git derectory "git-localconfig-repo" on your computer, and init git there
2. add the "link source" to Eclipse project  with this new derectory location, rigth clik on project -> Build parth-> configure Build part-> Source -> link source
3. create a new property file in the Eclipse git folder  "git-localconfig-repo"
4. update the project application.property with new location of file like spring.cloud.config.server.git.uri=file:///C:/MyWorkspace/git/git-localconfig-repo
5. add and commit changes from git bash ind the git derectory C:/MyWorkspace/git/git-localconfig-repo.

[Himai Minh]

Hi,
If you use IntelliJ, we can add the local git repo as a content root.
Here is the tutorial how to add a source to the content root https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/content-roots.html

To my experience with the latest version of IntelliJ, we don't really need to do it though.