diff --git a/cave/com.raytheon.viz.hydrocommon/res/spring/viz-hydrocommon.xml b/cave/com.raytheon.viz.hydrocommon/res/spring/viz-hydrocommon.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c41897cf3b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cave/com.raytheon.viz.hydrocommon/res/spring/viz-hydrocommon.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"  
+    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.1.xsd">
+
+
+    <!-- this needs to be injected so AppsDefaults can properly initialize the apps_dir property in viz -->
+    <bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.MethodInvokingFactoryBean">
+        <property name="targetClass" value="com.raytheon.uf.common.ohd.AppsDefaults" />
+        <property name="targetMethod" value="setDataDirClass" />
+        <property name="arguments">
+            <value type="java.lang.Class">com.raytheon.uf.viz.core.VizApp</value>
+        </property>
+    </bean>        
+    
+</beans>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/edexOsgi/com.raytheon.uf.common.ohd/src/com/raytheon/uf/common/ohd/AppsDefaults.java b/edexOsgi/com.raytheon.uf.common.ohd/src/com/raytheon/uf/common/ohd/AppsDefaults.java
index c9f7e9ab70..ebe857a8cf 100644
--- a/edexOsgi/com.raytheon.uf.common.ohd/src/com/raytheon/uf/common/ohd/AppsDefaults.java
+++ b/edexOsgi/com.raytheon.uf.common.ohd/src/com/raytheon/uf/common/ohd/AppsDefaults.java
@@ -66,6 +66,8 @@ import com.raytheon.uf.common.util.FileUtil;
  * Sep 22, 2008            randerso     Initial creation
  * Apr  1, 2009            jelkins      added getTokens
  * Oct 19, 2012            bgonzale     App Context variable setup and token access.
+ * Sep 22, 2014 3356       njensen      Fix constructor usage in viz finding VizApp class
+ * 
  * </pre>
  * 
  * @author randerso
@@ -95,6 +97,8 @@ public class AppsDefaults {
 
     private static AppsDefaults instance;
 
+    private static Class<?> dataDirClass;
+
     private final Properties _envProperties;
 
     private LocalizationFile _appsDefaultsUserFile;
@@ -130,11 +134,16 @@ public class AppsDefaults {
         _envProperties = new Properties();
         _envProperties.putAll(System.getenv());
 
+        /*
+         * TODO this is nearly unmaintainable, figure out a better way to do it
+         * that works in both CAVE and EDEX, perhaps through a combination of a
+         * properties file and Spring. It's not even clear if apps_dir should be
+         * coming from the data dir in CAVE or somewhere else, and it's not
+         * clear how much it's used in CAVE.
+         */
         if (_envProperties.get("EDEX_HOME") == null) {
             try {
-                Class<?> vizapp = Class
-                        .forName("com.raytheon.uf.viz.core.VizApp");
-                Method getDataDir = vizapp.getMethod("getDataDir");
+                Method getDataDir = dataDirClass.getMethod("getDataDir");
                 String shareDir = (String) getDataDir.invoke(null);
                 _envProperties.put("apps_dir",
                         FileUtil.join(shareDir, "hydroapps"));
@@ -990,4 +999,15 @@ public class AppsDefaults {
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Sets the class used to determine the data dir, if necessary. See
+     * AppsDefaults's private constructor. At present only intended for use by
+     * CAVE since edex receives a corresponding environment variable.
+     * 
+     * @param dataDirClass
+     */
+    public static void setDataDirClass(Class<?> dataDirClass) {
+        AppsDefaults.dataDirClass = dataDirClass;
+    }
+
 } // end class AppsDefaults