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Where is the right way that should you put your resources (i.e Images and Sound files) when trying to create a JAR file?

I am using Intellij IDEA and whenever I build a JAR artifact it places itself on the productions folder. When I try to run the JAR file some custom defined functions (i.e. setting Icons on Components and adding sounds) are missing, while running it on the Intellij's IDEA is functioning correctly. I know that it involves using getResourceAsStream method but is there some sort of right way to place external resources?
Additional questions I may add, where is the correct destination for placing the META-INF folder? Should I make a resource folder for all my external files?

This is for Eclipse users, I believe the same thing can be accomplished in other IDE's relatively easily.
Create a resources folder
Put your non-code files in it
Use as "Source Folder"
After creating the JAR, the contents of "resources" will be packed in the JAR.

Eclipse referencing folders inside a Jar file

In my Java project I have a folder like the one below, where I put inside some icons that I'm going to use with JTree library.
When I run the Jar outside Eclipse, I cannot see my icons.
If I open my Jar with archive utility, I cannot see the folder inside it. I also tried to add different folders and they are never referenced inside the final Jar.
So, is there a way to reference the folders in the Jar file?

You need to ensure that Eclipse knows that while building the Jar it has to include the newFolder inside the Jar. You can do that in Eclipse by following the below step in :
click project -> properties -> Build Path -> Source -> Add Folder and select the new folder you just created.
Now create you Jar and you will see your folder in the Jar.

Either move the folder (myFolder) into src directory or mark it as a source folder.

Can't Access resource path, only the target path

I want to access the resource's form of my project "\src\main\resources" but for any reason I can only access the target classes.
Here is my code:
System.out.println(Main.class.getResourceAsStream("/123.txt")); // java.io.BufferedInputStream#66cd51c3
System.out.println(Main.class.getResource("/123.txt")); // file:/C:/Users/Raul/workspace/Serial/target/classes/123.txt
System.out.println(Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResource("123.txt").getPath()); // /C:/Users/Raul/workspace/Serial/target/classes/123.txt
and here my Project Dirs:
The thing is, even if I delete all the files in the target/classes and run the code, the compiler will copy the files from "src/main/ressources" into "target/classes" and read them from there.

I want to access the resource's form of my project "\src\main\resources" but for any reason i can only access the target classes.
I think the question is answered by user #VGR. Just to clarify it in another words:
You put your resources in the /src/main/resources folder, and these resouces will be copied as is into the /target/classes folder when you build your project.
Example
src/main/resouces/123.txt -> target/classes/123.txt
src/main/resources/myresources/145.txt -> target/classes/myresources/145.txt
...
Now if you run the program inside of your IDE you'll observe the following:
System.out.println(Main.class.getResource("/123.txt"));
output: file:/C:/Users/Raul/workspace/Serial/target/classes/123.txt
System.out.println(Main.class.getResource("/myresources/145.txt"));
output: file:/C:/Users/Raul/workspace/Serial/target/classes/myresources/145.txt
But if you open the generated jar file you'll not see the target folder because the file 123.txt will be on the root of the jar file and the file 145.txt will be under the folder myresources/145.txt.
The folder target is just an output directory for the build tool and will not be packaged within your jar file.
Now to the following question:
the problem is that i dont know how to export the target classes to my jar, or how can I get "src/main/ressources" as return value.
To answer this question you have to look into your pom.xml file on the root of your project. There should be a <packaging>jar</packaging> entry in it. If that is so you create the jar file as follows:
Option 1: from the command line
mvn clean install
the jar file will be created and copied into the folder target.
Option 2: from within Eclipse (for example)
right click on the pom.xml > Run AS > Maven install
the jar file should also be generated and copied into the folder target.
Note: on your screenshot there are two jar files: core-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar and Serial-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar; remove them (mvn clean or right click > Run AS > Maven clean) before generating the jar file. The reason is Maven can only generate one jar file per Maven module / project, afaik.

You are seeing the intended behavior. A Java program is compiled into an executable form—meaning, .class files and resources. When other users run your program, they will not have access to the source, so your code should not assume your source tree will be available.
Simply put, your code is correct as is. Do not attempt to read the source tree. If you want target/classes to contain up-to-date files, rebuild your project.
A word of caution: Never use the getPath() method of URL to convert a URL to a file name. There are many characters which are not permitted in URLs, and those characters will be “percent-escaped” in order to conform to the URL specification; as a result, the path portion of a URL is not a valid filename! The only correct way to convert a URL to a file is Paths.get(url.toURI()). However, you should not even try to convert a resource to a file at all, because once you move on to packaging your programs in .jar files, your resources will not exist as regular files at all, only as entries in .jar files (which are actually just zip files with some Java-specific entries added).

Exporting processing to a jar file

I've been working on a processing application using ControlP5 and Twitter4j. I want to have my project run from a single jar file from any operating system. Basically I want to package up my application. My application uses images. I've been browsing for more than an hour, but I cant find how to do this. Any suggestions?
using
processing 2
twitter4j3
Thanks in advance!

I dont know if you can directly do it from the Processing IDE however, if export your sketch to a Java applet then locate the .java the the sketch folder you can use this in conjunction with Eclipse to export to a jar file.

So, I know that this post is very old but if you are still looking for a solution, or to other people that see this thread, it's relatively simple.
Export the project
In the folder with the exported project (something like application.windows64), navigate to lib and find core.jar and project name.jar (you need to have file name extensions visible)
Rename the files to .zip files
Extract core.jar to whatever folder
Extract project name.jar into the same folder (make sure you don't do it into a subfolder)
Click yes if it asks if it wants you to replace a file (if it doesn't you extracted the files incorrectly)
Delete core.jar and project name.jar
If the project uses images, move them into the same folder as all the other files
Select all of the files in the folder, right click, hover over send to and select compressed (zipped) folder
Rename the .zip file to name of project.jar

This might be old, but i still find other posts about it on processing forums.
This is the best way to run processing project as a jar file.
When exporting application, you will always end up with a lib folder inside exported application(whether for Linux and Windows). For windows, open command prompt(or power shell), you can use right-click+shift and then click on open power shell here.
After that you can run the following command.
java -classpath lib\* DisplayDepthStream
Now DisplayDepthStream is the name of sketch file.
To explain the command, -classpath lib\* tells java to add everything under lib directory to the class path. And DisplayDepthStream is the name of my main class.
Hope this helps~!
Chears

Trouble making executable jar

When I try to make an executable jar in netbeans I get this error
C:\lwjgl\lwjgl-2.8.5\res is a directory or can't be read. Not copying the libraries. Not copying the libraries.The res folder holds files like jpgs and wavs that the program relies on to function. I'm using lwjgl, would that be part of the problem? What could be causing this?

try this
Right click on your project folder and click on >>>>clean and
build<<<<
right click on your project folder click on >>>Properties<<<< you
should see the location of your project folder normally this should
be in your documents folder under NetbeansProject folder. locate
your project name folder inside is a folder called >>>dist<<< in
there you should find your project name with a small java cafe
image which is your jar file.