Setting up Dev and Test Profiles with Dummy Data

Overview

In this lab, you will:

• Create two Spring Boot profiles: dev and test.
• Set different property values for each profile.
• Use these properties to print different dummy data depending on the active profile.

You will work inside your Application class to log or print the environment-specific information.

Project Setup

• Group: com.neueda
• Artifact: profile-demo
• Name: profile-demo
• Dependencies:
  • Spring Web
  • Spring Boot DevTools (optional, for easy restart)

Step 1: Create Profile-Specific Property Files

In src/main/resources, create:

1. application-dev.properties

Insert this into the file:

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myapp.environment=Development Environment
myapp.dummydata=Dummy Dev Data Loaded

2. application-test.properties

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myapp.environment=Testing Environment
myapp.dummydata=Dummy Test Data Loaded

Note: There should already be a default application.properties file. Leave it mostly empty or use it for shared settings.

Step 2: Update the Main Application Class

• File: src/main/java/com/neueda/profile_demo/ProfileDemoApplication.java
• Inject the properties to be read from application-<profile>.properties using @Value.
• Log the values depending on the active profile.

Example structure:

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@SpringBootApplication
public class ProfileDemoApplication {

    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(ProfileDemoApplication.class);

    @Value("${myapp.environment:dev}")
    private String environment;

    @Value("${myapp.dummydata:Dummy Dev Data Loaded by default}")
    private String dummyData;

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

    @Bean
    public String environmentInfo() {
        logger.info("****Application is running in {} environment****", environment);
        logger.info("****Dummy data: {}****", dummyData);
        return "Environment: " + environment + ", Dummy Data: " + dummyData;
    }
}

Step 3: Running and Testing

• Make sure your application.properties has one of these lines:

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spring.profiles.active=dev

• Start your application. You should see logs showing Development Environment and Dummy Dev Data Loaded.

• Now change it to:

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spring.profiles.active=test

• Restart the app. You should see logs showing Testing Environment and Dummy Test Data Loaded.

Note:

• It is also possible to set the profile whilst running using mvn
• Remove the spring.profiles.active line from application-properties
• For mvn run:

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mvn spring-boot:run -Dspring-boot.run.profiles=dev

• The dev properties should be logged as expected
• For gradle run (either of these commands):

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./gradlew bootRun --args='--spring.profiles.active=dev'
./gradlew bootRun -Dspring.profiles.active=dev

Step 4 (Extension Task): Create a Profile-Based Configuration Class

• Create a configuration class to load profile based values.

Example properties:

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# application-dev.properties
name=Developer Name
version=1.0-DEV

# application-test.properties
name=Test Developer Name
version=1.0-DEV-TEST

• Create a class called ProfileConfig
• Annotate the class with @Component and @ConfigurationProperties
• Create an instance variable for name and version of type string
• Add the relevant getters and setters
• Inject and use the ProfileConfig class in the main ProfileDemoApplication class (annotate with autowired)
• Try switching profiles using the command line when you run the application to see the output logged change

ProfileConfig Class

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@ConfigurationProperties
@Component
public class ProfileConfig {

    private String name;
    private String version;

    // Getters and setters
    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public String getVersion() {
        return version;
    }

    public void setVersion(String version) {
        this.version = version;
    }
}

Updated Main Application Class (Option 1)

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@SpringBootApplication
public class ProfileDemoApplication {

    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(ProfileDemoApplication.class);

    @Autowired
    private ProfileConfig profileConfig;

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

    @Bean
    public String environmentInfo() {
        logger.info("Profile Name: {}", profileConfig.getName());
        logger.info("Profile Version: {}", profileConfig.getVersion());
        return "Profile Name: " + profileConfig.getName() + ", Profile Version: " + profileConfig.getVersion();
    }
}

Updated Main Application Class (Option 2 - Combined Approach)

This method will also work with the previous format for reading values from the properties files using a specific prefix:

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@SpringBootApplication
public class ProfileDemoApplication {

    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(ProfileDemoApplication.class);

    @Value("${myapp.environment:dev}")
    private String environment;

    @Value("${myapp.dummydata:Dummy Dev Data Loaded by default}")
    private String dummyData;

    @Autowired
    private ProfileConfig profileConfig;

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

    @Bean
    public String environmentInfo() {
        logger.info("Environment: {}", environment);
        logger.info("Dummy Data: {}", dummyData);
        logger.info("Profile Name: {}", profileConfig.getName());
        logger.info("Profile Version: {}", profileConfig.getVersion());
        return "Environment: " + environment + ", Dummy Data: " + dummyData + ", Profile Name: " + profileConfig.getName() + ", Profile Version: " + profileConfig.getVersion();
    }
}

Now both the values beginning myapp. will be logged along with the name and version from the relevant properties file.