Cannot load resource in jar - java

I am trying to load a resource in a jar, here is the exported jar:
'main' is the package with all my classes, and in one of those classes I am trying to load the background.png file. In my Eclipse project I put the resources under a "res/" folder, which I added to the build path to include it. When I try to use
new File("background.png");
It can't find the file.
When I use
MyClass.class.getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("background.png");
It still can't find the file.

Files packaged in a jar can't be accessed as File objects.
When you try
MyClass.class.getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("background.png");
you are actually using the ClassLoader of java.lang.Class and not of main.MyClass which may not be able to find the resource (in case it is the system classloader). Try
MyClass.class.getClassLoader().getResource("background.png");
instead.

Related

How to load a resource when folder of resources have the same name in the main app and in the library?

In the main app in the resource folder I have a folder named "sci". An app uses a library (as jar as dependency) which also has a folder with the same name in resources.
When I calling getClass().getResource() i got a location of resource located in the jar
/Documents/project/ru-s/app/libs/my-library.jar!/sci
How to load a resource from main app?
You can use ClassLoader.getResources() to find all resources of a given name, when they exist in multiple jar files.
So instead of Something.class.getResource("foo") you use Something.class.getClassLoader().getResources("foo") to get an Enumerator over all resources of that name on your classpath.

Getting resource file from inside jar

I need to get a resource from inside the root of the application when its packed into jar. My project is like this:
ProjectRoot
resource.txt //want to access from here
src
main
java
package1
package2
package3
Main.java
target
app.jar
classes
resource.txt //works when here
package1
package2
package3
Main.class
I use this code:
Path path = Paths.get("resource.txt");
When run before packaging into a jar, it finds the file just fine (inside ProjectRoot). When running the jar, it can't find it, and transforms this path to target/resource.txt.
This code:
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new Main().getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(
"resource.txt")));
when run before packaging looks for the resource inside target/classes. After packaging it claims to taking the resource from .../target/app.jar!/resource.txt.
This code:
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new Main().getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(
"/resource.txt")));
I can't understand where's looking for the resource, but it doesn't seem to be ProjectRoot.
All I want to do is to place the resource inside ProjectRoot and be able to access it from both outside jar (when running the class files from IDE) and inside (after having packaged the files into a jar file using Maven).
EDIT: I NEED THE CODE TO WORK BOTH FOR PRE- AND POST- packaging. MEANING: If I run a Main.java FROM INSIDE IDE IT WOULD GET THE RESOURCE; IF I PACKAGE EVERYTHING INTO JAR AND RUN JAR IT WOULD GET THE RESOURCE - ALL WITH THE SAME CODE.
Use: Main.class.getResource("/resource.txt").
Note that your attempt using any call to getClassLoader is strictly worse (it's more text, and will fail more often, because that class loader can in exotic cases be null (specifically, when you're part of the bootstrap loader), whereas calling getResource directly on the class always works.
The reason your snippet does not work is because when invoking getResource on the classloader, you must NOT start the resource with a slash. When invoking on a class directly, you can (if you don't, it'll be relative to the package of the class you're calling it on, if you do, it'll be relative to the root).
TL;DR: Of the forms SomeClass.class.getClassLoader().getResource, getClass().getResource and MyClass.class.getResource, only the last one is correct, the rest are strictly inferior and therefore should not be used at all.
Maven uses something called the Standard Directory Layout. If you don't follow this layout then the plugins can't do their job correctly. Technically, you can configure Maven to use different directories but 99.999% of the time this is not necessary.
One of the features of this layout is that production files go in:
<project-dir>/src/main/java
All *.java files
<project-dir>/src/main/resources
All non-*.java files (that are meant to be resources)
When you build your project the Java source files are compiled and the *.class files are put into the target/classes directory; this is done by the maven-compiler-plugin. Meanwhile, the resource files are copied from src/main/resources into target/classes as well; the maven-resources-plugin is responsible for this.
Note: See Introduction to the Build Lifecycle for more information about phases and which plugins are executed by which phase. This Stack Overflow question may also be useful.
When you launch your application from the IDE (possibly via the exec-maven-plugin) the target/classes directory is put on the classpath. This means all the compiled classes from src/main/java and all the copied resources from src/main/resources are available to use via the classpath.
Then, when you package your application in a JAR file, all the files in target/classes are added to the resulting JAR file (handled by the maven-jar-plugin). This includes the resources copied from src/main/resources. When you launch the application using this JAR file the resources are still available to use via the classpath, because they're embedded in the JAR file.
To make resource.txt available on the classpath, just move:
<project-dir>/resource.txt
To:
<project-dir>/src/main/resources/resource.txt.
Then you can use Class#getResource with /resource.txt as the path and everything should work out for you. The URL returned by getResource will be different depending on if you're executing against target/classes or against the JAR file.
When executing against target/classes you'll get something like:
file:///.../<project-dir>/target/classes/resource.txt
When executing against the JAR file you'll get something like:
jar:file:///.../<project-dir>/target/projectname-version.jar!/resource.txt
Note: This all assumes resource.txt is actually supposed to be a resource and not an external file. Resources are typically read-only once deployed in a JAR file; if you need a writable file then it's up to you to use a designated location for the file (e.g. a folder in the user's home directory). One typically accesses external files via either java.io.File or java.nio.file.*. Remember, resources are not the same thing as normal files.
Now, if you were to put resource.txt directly under <project-dir> that would mean nothing to Maven. It would not be copied to target/classes or end up in the JAR file which means the resource is never available on the classpath. So just to reiterate, all resources go under src/main/resources.
Check out the Javadoc of java.lang.Class#getResource(String) for more information about the path, such as when to use a leading / and when not to. The link points to the Javadoc for Java 12 which includes information about resources and modules (JPMS/Jigsaw modules, not Maven modules); if you aren't using modules you can ignore that part of the documentation.

How do I use a classloader to get inputstream on a model.zip file where the zip file is wrapped in a .jar file in classpath

The issue:
We have a jetty web-app, and in the application-code, I am trying to access a zip within a jar in classpath. Here's the jar in the libs folder:
/path/to/app/x.x.0-SNAPSHOT/apps/libs/my-model.jar
where my-model.jar is really just an empty folder with model.zip file inside it. If I extract this jar, I get johnsnow/mymodel.zip
My application code tries to access this zip as:
getClass().getResourceAsStream("johnsnow/mymodel.zip")
but of course, I don't get a proper handle to this resource and wind up getting a nullpointer exception. What am I doing wrong? Shouldn't I be able to access a file within a jar file in classpath using the getClass().getResourceAsStream() method?
Footnote:
Because model.zip was too large, we decided against shipping it with the code base. Thus we pushed it into a nexus repository, and reference the jar via a gradle compile dependency as follows:
compile "com.company.group.nlp:my-model:1.0#jar"
The fact that building the distribution pulls this jar, and puts it in apps/libs tells me that gradle does its part (of downloading the dependency to a classpath). The issue remains that I can't seem to find a way to access mymodel.zip inside my-model.jar
Try adding a slash to the file path:
getClass().getResourceAsStream("/johnsnow/mymodel.zip");
It will tell java to start looking for the class from the root folder, not from the current class package.

Find resource in separate folder to class file

I'm trying to find a txt file in a separate folder to the class
Class file
C://workspace/project/src/pkg/Class.java
txt file
C://workspace/project/doc/pkg/myFile.txt
I'm trying to find the text file without having to hard code the C://workspace/project/ bit
Is this possible?
Currently I can use a classpath:/pkg/myFile.txt when the file is in the same package as Class.java using a resource loader
You could inclide the doc folder as a source folder. That way you can keep your resources separate from the code, but still have access to it using a classloader.
Of course that will only work for you when your resource can be part of the jar. If not, you may want to consider using a properties where you can configure the complete path to the resource.
Try getClass().getResource() or getClass().getClassLoader().getResource() if it is in the same jar-file

Directory list of JAR file within classpath

The typically method to reference a file contained with a JAR file is to use ClassLoader.getResource. Is there a way to get the contents of a directory within a JAR files (similar to java.io.File.listFiles())? Note that the JAR file is within the classpath and its filename might not be known during runtime.
Basically I have a bunch of non-.class resource files within a directory. At runtime I need to load each resource file contained within a known directory.
There is a system property called java.class.path, parse the path to your jar and then use JarURLConnection class to do what you want.

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