What is the best way to manage configuration data
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”);