How to set environment variable or system property in spring tests?

Question

I'd like to write some tests that check the XML Spring configuration of a deployed WAR. Unfortunately some beans require that some environment variables or system properties are set. How can I set an environment variable before the spring beans are initialized when using the convenient test style with @ContextConfiguration?

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration(locations = "classpath:whereever/context.xml")
public class TestWarSpringContext { ... }

If I configure the application context with annotations, I don't see a hook where I can do something before the spring context is initialized.

Answer 1

You can initialize the System property in a static initializer:

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration(locations = "classpath:whereever/context.xml")
public class TestWarSpringContext {

    static {
        System.setProperty("myproperty", "foo");
    }

}

The static initializer code will be executed before the spring application context is initialized.