Question

my webapp has a hibernate config file that specifies db password as follows:

 <property name="hibernate.connection.password">p1ssw2rd</property>

it also has an ant build file, is it possible to specify the db password at build time and then pass it to hibernate?

    <target name="init-development">

      <property name="databasePassword" value="xxxx"/>
    </target>

Answer 1

You can create template hibernate config with password label like this:

<property name="hibernate.connection.password">@@HIBER_PASSWORD@@</property>

and when ant starts a build, copy template config over real hibernate config, applying replacement password label with real db password specified in build.xml.
It is like that:

<copy file="${src.dir}/hibernate-config.xml.tpl"
         tofile="${src.dir}/hibernate-config.xml">
    <filterchain>
           <replacetokens>
               <token key="@@HIBER_PASSWORD@@"
                      value="${databasePassword}"/>
           </replacetokens>
    </filterchain>
</copy>