Recursively defining maven properties - maven-2

Question

We are attempting to re-factor our modularized maven building. We've introduced a property DEPLOYMENT_ENV which might be "prod", "dev", "staging", or what not. The mentality we had going in was that we could then define, say:
dev.jdbc.username = yoyodyne
dev.jdbc.password = 0verthruster
staging.jdb.username = cavaliers
staging.jdbc.password = 8thdim
Where this seems to break down is feeding maven plugin's configurations. For example, DBUnit needs a username. Semantically, the solution we had in mind looked like the below, however maven does not allow for recursive property definitions in this fashion:
<configuration>
<username>${${DEPLOYMENT_ENV}.jdbc.username}</username>
</configuration>
Any ideas for parameterizing maven builds, such that we can keep our big huge central list of property definitions?

Answer 1

Instead of different property names you can simply use same properties, but declare them in different profiles, either in pom.xml or in settings.xml

Answer 2

Could you be a little more specific about the issue you encounter? Do you have any error?
I already used this recursive property definition in one of my pom.xml, in a antrun plugin <configuration> and it works well:
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.2</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>run</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<tasks>
...
<ftp server="${my-ftp-url}" userid="${ftp-${appli}-${env}-username}" password="${ftp-${appli}-${env}-password}"
remotedir="${remoteDir}/sources" passive="yes">
<fileset dir="../target/">
<include name="*.tar.gz"/>
</fileset>
</ftp>
...
As you can see in this code snippet, I use the ${ftp-${appli}-${env}-username} property, where ${appli}, ${env} and ${ftp-xxx-yyy-username} are properties that come from command line or settings.xml.
Anyway, as suggested by Eugene Kuleshov, I would go for a set of <profiles> that only define some properties, using <properties> tags, or an external property file:
<build>
<plugins>
<!-- Properties loader -->
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>properties-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.0-alpha-1</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>initialize</phase>
<goals>
<goal>read-project-properties</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<files>
<file>${basedir}/${env-properties-file}</file>
</files>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
...
<profiles>
<!-- Development -->
<profile>
<id>dev</id>
<activation>
<activeByDefault>true</activeByDefault>
<property>
<name>env</name>
<value>dev</value>
</property>
</activation>
<properties>
<env-properties-file>dev-environment.properties</env-properties-file>
</properties>
</profile>
<!-- Homologation -->
<profile>
<id>hom</id>
<activation>
<activeByDefault>false</activeByDefault>
<property>
<name>env</name>
<value>hom</value>
</property>
</activation>
<properties>
<env-properties-file>homologation-environment.properties</env-properties-file>
</properties>
</profile>
...