Two options:

1. The script can use -Dproperty=value for setting the properties,
which you can access in your code using System.getProperty().

2. Store the properties in properties file with name=value format, and
read it in your code using Properties.load(), passing in the
inputstream to the properties file. The script can  pass the
path_to_the_properties file as an argument to the program.

Both approaches will work regardless of the underlying Operating
System/IDE.

-cheers,
Manish

A native script in Windows is just a .bat (batch file). I say native
since it is possible to install Perl or tcl/tk or any number of other
languages and run the script that way, although for this type of thing
.bat would be the easiest.

Hi Shawn,

You can write a script that launches your Java application and passes
into it values that your application then uses. A rough example is
outlined below.

The script could be a .sh script on Linux/Unix or a .bat script on
Windows, although these are not the only options.

java MyApp value1 value2

The application then has a main method that accepts value1 and value2
as arguments through the standard "main method", as per below. You
could use those values in the main method by passing them to an
instance of your app or use them directly..

public class MyApp {

 public static void main (String [] args) {
   String firstArg = args[0];
   String secondArg = args[1];

   // Use the args directly..
   System.out.println("Now using " + firstArg + " and "
       + secondArg + " to set up my app.");

   // You can also pass them to a new object for
   // use by the app in that way.
   MyApp myApp = new MyApp(firstArg, secondArg);
 }

 // You might have instance variables that need to
 // be set from the script.
 private String setting1;
 private String setting2;

 // The constructor then sets up those variables
 // from values pass to it from the main method,
 // which were passed to it from a script.
 public MyApp(String setting1, String setting2) {
   this.setting1 = setting1;
   this.setting2 = setting2;
 }

}

I don't know of an OS (especially Linux/Unix/Windows/Mac) that doesn't
support scripts that can run Java.. so you are in luck!

Also, if you are using Eclipse, you can use "Run | Run .. | Java
Application" to set arguments to the application as well, which is a
handy alternative to a script while you are still writing the code.

Rob

Provide a configuration file, e.g. located relative to the user.dir (a
system property). Reading (and writing) a configuration file in Java is
rather trivial, since Java comes with an own API for this, the
Properties class.

/Thomas