When the RootContainer is starting the configuration retrieval looks for configuration files in each jar available from the classpath at jar path /conf/portal/configuration.xml and from each war at path /WEB-INF/conf/configuration.xml. These configurations are added to a set. If a component was configured in a previous jar and the current jar contains a new configuration of that component the latest (from the current jar) will replace the previous configuration.

After the processing of all configurations available on the system the container will initialize it and start each component in order of the dependency injection (DI).

So, in general the user/developer should be careful when configuring the same components in different configuration files. It's recommended to configure service in its own jar only. Or, in case of a portal configuration, strictly reconfigure the component in portal files.

But, there are components that can be (or should be) configured more than one time. This depends on the business logic of the component. A component may initialize the same resource (shared with other players) or may add a particular object to a set of objects (shared with other players too). In the first case it's critical who will be the last, i.e. whose configuration will be used. In second case it doesn't matter who is the first and who is the last (if the parameter objects are independent).

In case of problems with configuration of component it's important to know from which jar/war it comes. For that purpose user/developer can set JVM system property org.exoplatform.container.configuration.debug, in command line:

java -Dorg.exoplatform.container.configuration.debug ...

With that property container configuration manager will report configuration adding process to the standard output (System.out).

   ......
   Add configuration jar:file:/D:/Projects/eXo/dev/exo-working/exo-tomcat/lib/exo.kernel.container-trunk.jar!/conf/portal/configuration.xml
   Add configuration jar:file:/D:/Projects/eXo/dev/exo-working/exo-tomcat/lib/exo.kernel.component.cache-trunk.jar!/conf/portal/configuration.xml
   Add configuration jndi:/localhost/portal/WEB-INF/conf/configuration.xml
        import jndi:/localhost/portal/WEB-INF/conf/common/common-configuration.xml
        import jndi:/localhost/portal/WEB-INF/conf/database/database-configuration.xml
        import jndi:/localhost/portal/WEB-INF/conf/ecm/jcr-component-plugins-configuration.xml
        import jndi:/localhost/portal/WEB-INF/conf/jcr/jcr-configuration.xml 
   ......