Which type of resource file to use to store constants

Question

I am developing an application that tests web Services, and I use JUnit parameterized tests. I want to read parameters from a resources file. I am wondering which is the best way to store these parameters.

1. In a .properties file ?

   test1.inputPath= C:\\Path
   test1.expectedOutputPath= C:\\Path
   test2.inputPath= C:\\Path2
   test2.expectedOutputPath= C:\\Path2
   

2. In an xml file?

   <test>
     <inputPath>  C:\Path <\inputPath>
     <expectedOutputPath>  C:\Path <\expectedOutputPath>
   <\test>
   <test>
     <inputPath>  C:\Path2 <\inputPath>
     <expectedOutputPath>  C:\Path2 <\expectedOutputPath>
   <\test>
   

3. Other way to do this?

Thanks.

Answer 1

The best solution that I found for my problem is to use PropertiesConfiguration of Apache Commons Configuration. It is very simple to use:

In my .properties file :

test1= Path1,Path2
test2= Path3,Path4

Then I read the .properties file automatically and I retrieve paths as a String array for each test.

@Parameters
public static Collection<Object[]> readPropertiesFile(){
    ArrayList<Object[]> result= new ArrayList<Object[]>();
    try {
        Configuration config = new PropertiesConfiguration("testPaths.properties");
        Iterator<String> keys=config.getKeys();
        while(keys.hasNext()){
            String[] paths= config.getStringArray(keys.next());
            result.add(paths);          
        }
    } catch (ConfigurationException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return result;
}