OWASP ESAPI can't find my ESAPI.properties file although it exists in directory

I have problems configuring ESAPI to let it work with my Spring Boot Web Application (maven project).

I'm using this URL for help : https://web.archive.org/web/20161005210258/http://code.google.com/p/owasp-esapi-java/source/browse/trunk/src/main/java/org/owasp/esapi/reference/DefaultSecurityConfiguration.java

And from this URL I have chosen this part to put ESAPI.properties in a specific directory :

>The reference {@code SecurityConfiguration} manages all the settings used by the ESAPI in a single place. In this reference

• implementation, resources can be put in several locations, which are searched in the following order:
• <p>
• 1. Inside a directory set with a call to SecurityConfiguration.setResourceDirectory( "C:\temp\resources" ).
• <p>

So for that here is my code :

1 - In application.properties :

esapi.path=/data/folder/testApp/Apps/MyApp/ESAPIConf

2 - In StartupApplication.java (class that will be executed only once at the startup of my application) :

@Component
public class StartupApplication implements InitializingBean {
	
	@Autowired
	private Environment env;


	@Override
	@Transactional
	public void afterPropertiesSet() throws Exception {

		new GlobalVars();
		
		GlobalVars.esapiPropertyFilePath = env.getProperty("esapi.path");
		// this setResourceDirectory to be executed once
		ESAPI.securityConfiguration().setResourceDirectory(GlobalVars.esapiPropertyFilePath);

...etc

}

3 - In my jsp page :

<form action="#" method="POST" onsubmit="linkVariabletoDBFields()">

<input type="hidden" name = "nameconf" id="nameconf" value="<%=ESAPI.encoder().encodeForHTMLAttribute(request.getParameter("confname")) %>" />

The Problem :

When the application server (JBOSS EAP 7.2) is starting and more specifically when StartupApplication class is executed the setResourceDirectory is returning :

ESAPI: Reset resource directory to: /data/folder/testApp/Apps/MyApp/ESAPIConf
ESAPI: Attempting to load ESAPI.properties via file I/O.
ESAPI: Attempting to load ESAPI.properties as resource file via file I/O.
ESAPI: Not found in 'org.owasp.esapi.resources' directory or file not readable: /home/linuxuser/ESAPI.properties
ESAPI: Not found in SystemResource Directory/resourceDirectory: /data/folder/testApp/Apps/MyApp/ESAPIConf/ESAPI.properties
ESAPI: Not found in 'user.home' (/home/linuxuser) directory: /home/linuxuser/esapi/ESAPI.properties
ESAPI: Loading ESAPI.properties via file I/O failed. Exception was: java.io.FileNotFoundException
ESAPI: Attempting to load ESAPI.properties via the classpath.
ESAPI: SUCCESSFULLY LOADED ESAPI.properties via the CLASSPATH from '/ (root)' using current thread context class loader!
ESAPI: SecurityConfiguration for Validator.ConfigurationFile.MultiValued not found in ESAPI.properties. Using default: false
ESAPI: Attempting to load validation.properties via file I/O.
ESAPI: Attempting to load validation.properties as resource file via file I/O.
ESAPI: Not found in 'org.owasp.esapi.resources' directory or file not readable: /home/linuxuser/validation.properties
ESAPI: Not found in SystemResource Directory/resourceDirectory: /data/folder/testApp/Apps/MyApp/ESAPIConf/validation.properties
ESAPI: Not found in 'user.home' (/home/linuxuser) directory: /home/linuxuser/esapi/validation.properties
ESAPI: Loading validation.properties via file I/O failed.
ESAPI: Attempting to load validation.properties via the classpath.
ESAPI: SUCCESSFULLY LOADED validation.properties via the CLASSPATH from 'esapi/' using current thread context class loader!

It cannot find the properties file although the file exists in /data/folder/testApp/Apps/MyApp/ESAPIConf

And when I access my jsp page I'm getting :

Error :  org.owasp.esapi.errors.ConfigurationException: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException Encoder class (org.owasp.esapi.reference.DefaultEncoder) CTOR threw exception.

I guess because the ESAPI.properties was not found.

Kindly help.

Add this dependency in your pom.xml

    <dependency>
		<groupId>org.owasp.esapi</groupId>
		<artifactId>esapi</artifactId>
		<version>2.2.0.0</version>
	</dependency>

Then Maven>Update Project
This solved it for me.
Weird thing is I never added this dependency before this problem cropped up and yet the ESAPI worked well.