Spring Boot profile properties doesn't work with tests

Question

Spring Boot version 2.2.6. I have case that there is several application-{profile}.yml files in folder src/main/resources/ and I want't to build project with Maven eg mvn clean package -Dspring.profiles.active=dev

Then I have just application.yml file in folder src/test/resources , this should be a properties file to all test (IT/unit).

Now when I build with command mvn clean package -Dspring.profiles.active=dev , properties src/main/resources/application-dev.yml and src/test/resources/application.yml are MERGED and used for the tests. Well in test properties there might be pretty fatal confs eg Hibernate auto-ddl: create-drop.

Have been reading docs but I don't find any logic why properties files are MERGED in this case. Is there any good practice that tests can be forced to use ALWAYS certain properties file? I think that just using some annotations in test files isn't the best practice, eg @TestPropertySource or @ActiveProfiles , cause when you forgot to use these annotations then the case is same again. Is there some global configuration for all tests or some other better solutions?

Answer 1

The application.yml file has higher precedence over any environment-specific file, for example, application-dev.yml file. The standard inheritance applies, so you can override the parent properties in the profile-specific YAML file.

application.yml

server:
  port: 9090

spring:
  jpa:
    hibernate:
      ddl-auto: create-drop

application-dev.yml

spring:
  jpa:
    hibernate:
      ddl-auto: none

In case you run with the dev profile, the value of spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto parameter would be none .

Answer 2

I get that application.yml has higher precedence in folder /src/main, but that it takes over also from folder /src/test is kinda weird.

Yes that config can be made into profile-specific files (ddl-auto: none), tough I still have problem with datasource, somehow Spring Boot is picking application-dev.ymls datasource into tests also, this is working like other way around than that ddl-auto attribute.

src/test/resources/application.yml

spring:
  datasource:
    url: jdbc:h2:mem:test;DB_CLOSE_ON_EXIT=FALSE;MODE=PostgreSQL

src/main/resources/application-dev.yml

spring:
  datasource:
    url: jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/db