Willem, I am loading the properties in a bean:
<bean id="propLoader" class="com.aaa.bbb.ccc.PropLoader"/> public class PropLoader extends BridgePropertyPlaceholderConfigurer { ... Properties props = new Properties(); for (String prop : myProperties.getPropertyNames()) { if (prop != null) { // this loads the property "enableRoute" with value "true" or "false" props.setProperty(prop, myProperties.getValue(prop)); } } super.setProperties(props); ... } this bean is in the depends-on for the camelContext: <camelContext xmlns="http://camel.apache.org/schema/spring" trace="true" depends-on="propLoader,otherbean"> <route autoStartup="${enableRoute}"> ... </route> </camelContext> I am basing this off of info from: http://camel.apache.org/how-do-i-use-spring-property-placeholder-with-camel-xml.html I tried to use the {{enableRoute}} naming you mentioned, and I no longer get the exception; however, it does not seem to take because the route starts regardless of the value I set. I'm pretty sure that {{enableRoute}} is not getting the correct value that I am setting via the Spring BridgePropertyPlaceholderConfigurer. Thanks again for the assistance. JC -- View this message in context: http://camel.465427.n5.nabble.com/Enable-disable-routes-at-startup-using-Spring-tp5732852p5732907.html Sent from the Camel - Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.