Check out http://docs.jboss.com/seam/2.0.0.GA/reference/en/html/xml.html anonymous wrote : Sometimes we want to reuse the same components.xml file with minor changes during both deployment and testing. Seam lets you place wildcards of the form @wildcard@ in the components.xml file which can be replaced either by your Ant build script (at deployment time) or by providing a file named components.properties in the classpath (at development time). You'll see this approach used in the Seam examples. The good way is to use a properties file which is instantiated on compilation. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4118348#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...