public String getProperty(String propKey) throws ServiceException
    {
        if(propKey.isEmpty())
            return "";
        if(!initialized) {
            theLogger.log(Level.SEVERE, "Configuration Manager not yet Initialized");
            throw new ServiceException("Configuration Manager not yet Initialized");
        }
        // wraps a call to property getter method: decoding
        String settingValue = "";
        if(propKey.equals("host")) {
            settingValue = srvProps.getProperty("server.host");
        }else if(propKey.equals("port")) {
            settingValue = srvProps.getProperty("server.port");
        }else if(propKey.equals("serverhome")) {
            settingValue = srvProps.getProperty("server.home");
        }else if(propKey.equals("poolsize")) {
            settingValue = srvProps.getProperty("server.thread.max");
        }else if(propKey.equals("auth")) {
            settingValue = srvProps.getProperty("server.auth");
        }
        // return the retrieved value
        return ((settingValue == null)?"":settingValue);
    }