We Keep Coding

Accessing files with relative filepath inside built jar java

I have a project which uses relative file paths to access resources. While the project is run in IDE, the path looks like.
\\src\\musicTest\\Track4O.mp3
When the project is built into a jar file, this no longer works. Upon opening the jar file, I noticed that the file structure looked like
musicTest.jar\\musicTest\\Track4O.mp3
In both cases, the class attempting to load the resource was in the same location as the mp3.
If anyone has a solution for either: maintaining the file path so that the build will run as intended or: solving the relative file path problem, it would be much appreciated.

Accessing a file within Java project

I have a Java project which uses a third party application. I have the license file (.lic format) stored in the resources folder. Upon running the Ant script, it will copy this file into the /lib/jar directory as it rolls up the project into a Jar file to use on the server. This is where I will need to access the file when running the system live. Here is how the folder structure looks
MyProject
src
package
AccessingClass.java
resources
File.lic
lib
jar
File.lic (upon copy from Ant)
I am not sure the best way to do this so any suggestions other than how I have been trying will probably be helpful. The 3rd party project has a method in a class like License.setLicense(), which can either take a String to the location or an InputStream of the file.
I have been playing around with feeding it an InputStream, but always get a null value when calling getClass().getResourceAsStream(). Here is everything I have tried:
getClass().getResourceAsStream("../../../lib/jar/File.lic");
getClass().getResourceAsStream("/File.lic");
And as a backup I also tried (for local builds I figure I would try the resource folder):
getClass().getResourceAsStream("../../../resources/File.lic");
getClass().getResourceAsStream("/File.lic");
Is there a better method to perform this action? Or would someone be able to tell me why what I am trying is failing? Thanks ahead of time.

Are you running this code standalone or in IDE env looks like classpath issue. If you are running at command prompt you have to set classpath to lib dir if in ide make sure you resources dir is in classpath.

First, you need to ensure that the JAR is added in your class path.
Below should work.
InputStream inputStream =
getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("/resources/File.lic");
Assuming File.lic is placed in root folder of the jar.

Where does tomcat store txt files used by web applications

I have tomcat installed at "C:\Program Files\apache-tomcat-7.0.27"
I have eclipse installed at "C:\Program Files\eclipse"
And I have the workspace located at "C:\workspace"
I'm using "Java perspective", created a "Java Project" with the default output folder as "helloWorld/web/WEB-INF/classes".
The structure of the project goes like this:
-helloWorld
---src
-----servlets
-------hello.java
-------world.java
---web
-----WEB-INF
-------jsp
---------hello.jsp
---------world.jsp
-------lib
-------web.xml
---helloWorld.xml
---record.txt
doPost() in hello.java generate a random number, and write it to a text file "record.txt".
doPost() in world.java open the text file "record.txt" and read a number.
The system is working, but what I originally put in the record.txt file in eclipse project never get changed, and I'm sure that what world.java read from the file is exactly what hello.java generated.
I checked "C:\Program Files\apache-tomcat-7.0.27\work\Catalina\localhost\helloWorld", and only jsp files are there.
I then tried restart tomcat and reload and even undelopy and deploy again, but the previous generated number is still there. I didn't try restart computer.
My question is where is the record.txt file? It is definitely not the one in the eclipse project.

If you use a relative file path in your Java code then it will not be relative to your webapp it will be relative to where the process running Tomcat was started. Therefore you might find your file in the Tomcat bin directory or somewhere similar.
If you want to create a file relative to your webapp then you need to obtain the path to your webapp, which you can do by calling getServletContext().getRealPath("") in your Servlet.

Eclipse deployed projects are run in temp folder. the path looks some thing like this... tmp0/conf/catalina/localhost/projectname.....context.xml of servers might help you in this..
i suggest u should go for an absolute path....i faced same problem while using eclipse...That time i had to even provide the link to the user...

Check your webapps folder for a folder with the same name as your project.
C:\Program Files\apache-tomcat-7.0.27\webapps
Here you will find the exact folder structure and your record.txt file as well.
Hope this helps!

Eclipse project can not reference a file using relative paths

My file is located under the src directory. However, when I try to call it using "src/readme.txt" the file is not found.
In fact, it states that java is looking for "C:\Documents and settings\john\My Documents\Downloads\eclipse-win32\eclipse\coolCarsProject\src\readme.txt".
How do I fix this? I do not want to put in the absolute path all the time.
Do I need to fix the classpath, buildpath, or change the project root, etc? It is not at all obvious from the roughly 1000 settings in Eclipse for a newbie.

First, you have to decide if you want to load the file from the file system, or if the file will in fact be bundled with your application code.
If the former, then you should really think about how your application will be launched when actually deployed, because using a relative file path means that the program should always be started from the same location: a relative path is relative to the location from where the program is started (the current directory). If this is really what you want, then edit your launch configuration in Eclipse, go to the Arguments tab, and set the working directory you want. But the src directory is not where you should put this file, since this will copy the file to the target directory, along with the classes, that will probably be put in a jar once you'll deploy the application.
If the latter, then you should not treat the file as a file, but as a resource that is loaded by the ClassLoader, using ClassLoader.getResourceAsStream() (or Class.getResourceAsStream()). Read the javadoc of those methods to understand the path to pass. If you put the file directly under src, it will be copied by Eclipse to the target directory, along with your classes, in the default package. And you should thus use SomeClass.class.getResourceAsStream("/readme.txt") to load it.

Using paths relative to the current working directory is not a good idea in general, as it's often quite hard to establish what your current working directory will be. In Eclipse, it will be your project folder (unless you set it to something different in your launch configuration), in webapps it will be the webapp's root directory, in a command line app it could be anything.

Try this one:
String filePath = ".\\userFiles\\data.json";
where «.\» is a root for the Eclipse project, «userFiles» is a folder with the user's files inside of Eclipse project. Since we are talking about Windows OS, we have to use «\» and not «/» like in Linux, but the «\» is the reserved symbol, so we have to type «\\» (double backslash) to get the desired result.

Application bundle on OS X does not work, file addressing problem

My application requires a XML file to work and it doesn't even start without the file. Why I bundle my app as a JAR file it works fine as long as the XML file is placed in the same directory as the JAR file.
When I'm exporting the project as an OS X application package, the application does not work. If I copy the XML file in the same directory where the application package is, it works.
So I'm pretty sure that it is a minor addressing problem to access the XML file from within my Java code. I'd like to put the XML file into the application package. Simply copying it in the same directory where the JAR file is does not work.
The file, or better the files are addressed like this: doc = sax.build("file.xml"); and are located directly in my project folder.
I'm working with Eclipse and I export my project directly from Eclipse as an application bundle.
I also tried it with the OS X Jar Bundler, which delivers the same result.
So, how do I address my files correctly, so that I can place them into the application bundle?
Any help is appreciated! Thank you very much!

You are most likely reading it in as a physical file, which needs to be located in the current working directory.
Have you considered reading it in as a resource instead which allows it to be found via the classpath?