Using multiple property files (via PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer) in multiple projects/modules

If you ensure that every place holder, in each of the contexts involved, is ignoring unresolvable keys then both of these approaches work. For example:

<context:property-placeholder
location="classpath:dao.properties,
          classpath:services.properties,
          classpath:user.properties"
ignore-unresolvable="true"/>

or

    <bean id="propertyConfigurer" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
        <property name="locations">
            <list>
                <value>classpath:dao.properties</value>
                <value>classpath:services.properties</value>
                <value>classpath:user.properties</value>
            </list>
        </property> 
        <property name="ignoreUnresolvablePlaceholders" value="true"/>
    </bean>