java - What is the best way to manage configuration data

Question

I am working on a product suite which has 4 products. Right now, all of the configuration data is either in the XML or properties files.This approach is not maintainable as we have to manage different configuration file for different environment(for e.g. Production, Development etc).

So, what is the best way to handle configuration data?

Also, can we modularize this into a separate module? So that all products can use this module. We don't want to use the property files. I am looking for a solution in which we can move all of the configuration specific code as a new configuration module and persist all the configuration data in database.

Answer 1

Using commons-configuration you have a unified API for accessing the properties, no matter how they are represented - .properties, xml, JNDI, etc. For example:

config.properties:

jdbcHost=192.168.12.35
jdbcUsername=dbuser
jdbcPassword=pass

config.xml:

<config>
   <jdbcHost>192.168.12.35</jdbcHost>
   <jdbcUsername>dbuser</jdbcUsername>
   <jdbcPassword>pass</jdbcPassword>
</config>

in both cases they will be accessible with something like:

String host = config.getString("jdbcHost");