[FIXED] Using Java and Spring Boot and my @Value annotation for my application-dev.properties is not being resolved?

Issue

This is my very first question so I apologize if it is not specific enough (please be gentle haha) and I have already gone through documentation, but I am new to the field and none of it helped.

I am making a simple project that uses Java 18 and Spring Boot to make a call to an external API call and I want to hide my API key that I use for obvious reasons.

As of right now, I have an application-dev.properties file in my resources directory with the following (I am making up the actual key for security) and I have application-dev.properties in my .gitignore file so it doesn't get committed:

api-key=someText

And I am trying to use that value in my controller like so:

@RestController
public class ImageController {

    @Value("${api-key}")
    private String API_KEY;

    @RequestMapping(value = "/image")
    public List<String> getImages(@RequestParam(defaultValue = "4") String request) {

        String url = "https://api.nasa.gov/planetary/apod?" + API_KEY + request;
        RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();

The error I am receiving is this:

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'imageController': Injection of autowired dependencies failed; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Could not resolve placeholder 'api-key' in value "${api-key}"

Thanks in advance!

Solution

As you mentioned you are using application-dev.properties therefore you have to do profiling correctly. In your application.properties add spring.profiles.active=dev to activate dev profile.

Answered By - YJR
Answer Checked By - Gilberto Lyons (JavaFixing Admin)