Setting environment variable and accessing it in Java program on Azure webapp

Sometimes, you want to set new environment variable and want to access it in your Java Program.

You can do this by setting up the value in JAVA_OPTS either in web.config or in webapps App Setting.

1. In web.config -

    <httpPlatform processPath=”%AZURE_TOMCAT7_HOME%binstartup.bat” arguments=””>
    <environmentVariables>
    <environmentVariable name=”JAVA_OPTS” value=”-DmyNewEnvVar=Wow” />
    </environmentVariables>
    </httpPlatform >
   

2. In App Setting -

Note: Make sure you set the “-D” text before your variable name.

Once you add the environment variable as mentioned above, you can access it in code using the System class in Java program.

System.getProperty(“myNewEnvVar”);

To list multiple variables use can delimit it by a space ” “. For eg. -DmyNewEnvVar=Wow -DmyAnotherEnvVar=Wowa

If you want to list all the available environment variable you can use the getProperties() method call.

Note: The web.config setting will override the app_setting way.

Also, if you want to access the existing environment variable, you can use the “-D” way to set the value in the web.config.

For eg, you want to use the %HTTP_PLATFORM_PORT% value, you can set

JAVA_OPTS=”-Dhttp.port=%HTTP_PLATFORM_PORT%”

Now, using the System.getProperty(“http.port”), you can access the port value for the platform.