Before the port was not set in properties file and it was alaways using the default value without checking COUCHDB_PORT.

Not the value in the porperty file is set to ${couchdb.port} if one does not set the variable COUCHDB_PORT the value in the property file will become the string:"${env,COUCHDB_PORT}".

I don't know of a way to set the default value if the environment variable is not set.