thanks! what we did was to use the "properties mbean service" from the link together with an input stream opened via an url. this seemed like the most future-proof way of setting this up (web-service and asset-storage are completely decoupled from each other): property-service.xml: <server> | <mbean code="org.jboss.varia.property.SystemPropertiesService" | name="jboss:type=Service,name=SystemProperties"> | | <attribute name="Properties"> | AssetPath=file:///g|projects/ourProject/assets/test.txt | </attribute> | | </mbean> | </server> and in the servlet: String path = System.getProperty("AssetPath"); | URL url = new URL(path); | InputStream is = url.openStream(); View the original post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4250561#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...