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Java class.getRessource().getPath() adds a weird '/' at the begining of the URL

I want to load a font in a SWT. My ttf file is in the resources/fonts directory of my Maven project. I try to load it like this:
URL fontURL = MyClass.class.getResource("/fonts/myfont.ttf");
boolean fontLoaded = display.loadFont(fontURL.getPath());
But the resulting boolean is always false. I tried to prompt the result of fontURL.getPath(), and it is something like /C:/Users/myuser/Documents/.... If I copy this result in a String, remove the first / and try to call display.loadFont() with it, it works.
Another weird thing is that this is not the only resource I load this way. For example, this is how I load the icon of the window:
URL iconURL = MyClass.class.getResource("/images/myicon.png");
Image icon = new Image(display, iconURL.getPath());
shell.setImage(icon);
And it works fine. The only file posing problem is the font file. Does anybody know why ?

The reason for / at the beginning is that getPath of the URL class returns the URL path defined by RFC 2396 (see javadocs).
As for why it's working for the Image constructor and not for loadFont() method, the answer can be found in the implementation.
The constructor uses FileInputStream which internally normalizes the path, whereas loadFont() has a native implementation for loading which does not support such path.
Since in both cases a file path is expected, what you want to do is normalize the path yourself using either File constructor or Paths.get(url.toURI()).toString() method.

Deploying images used in Java Application with the built jar file

After using images for example on a Button, when I build the application creating the .jar file and execute only the file, the images are not there but would only show if I copy the images folder in the same directory as the jar file. Why is that and how can I resolve this if possible?
I am currently using the following code to set the icon/image:
JButton btn = new JButton("Text", "img/icon.png");

The fact that you can use the images when they are stored outside the jar, suggests that you are doing something of the kind:
File image = new File("directory/image.jpg");
InputStream is = new FileInputStream(image);
This reads a file from a directory on the file system, not from the classpath. Now, if you have packaged your image in a "directory" inside your Jar, you must load the image from the classpath.
InputStream is = getClass().getResourceAsStream("/directory/image.jpg");
(note the slash in the path)
Or
InputStream is = getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("directory/image.jpg");
(note the absence of the slash in the path)
Your example, as it is now, should not compile. (The second argument of your JButton construtor is an Icon, not a String, java 8). So when you were getting the image from the file system, you were probably doing something else.
With your example, you need to read an image from the inputstream and convert it to an Icon:
try (InputStream is = getClass.getClassLoader().getResourcesAsStream("directory/image.jpg")) {
BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(is);
return new JButton("Text", new ImageIcon(image));
} catch (IOException exc) {
throw new RuntimeException(exc);
}
That should use the image that is located in "directory" inside your jar. Of course, you need to include the image within your jar, or you will get a NullPointerException on the inputstream is.

I think you need to understand the
ClassLoader:
A typical strategy is to transform the name into a file name and then
read a "class file" of that name from a file system.
So with this you will be able to lead Resources of your project with getResource
public URL getResource(String name)
Finds the resource with the given name. A resource is some data
(images, audio, text, etc) that can be accessed by class code in a way
that is independent of the location of the code.

java.lang.NullPointerException when using getClass().getResource() to load an image [duplicate]

I am trying to load an image to use as an icon in my application. The appropriate method according to this tutorial is:
protected ImageIcon createImageIcon(String path, String description)
{
java.net.URL imgURL = getClass().getResource(path);
if (imgURL != null) {
return new ImageIcon(imgURL, description);
} else {
System.err.println("Couldn't find file: " + path);
return null;
}
}
So, I placed the location of the file, and passed it as a parameter to this function. This didn't work, i.e. imgURL was null. When I tried creating the ImageIcon by passing in the path explicitly:
ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon(path,"My Icon Image");
It worked great! So the application can pick up the image from an explicitly defined path, but didn't pick up the image using getResources(). In both cases, the value of the path variable is the same. Why wouldn't it work? How are resources found by the class loader?
Thanks.

getClass().getResource(path) loads resources from the classpath, not from a filesystem path.

You can request a path in this format:
/package/path/to/the/resource.ext
Even the bytes for creating the classes in memory are found this way:
my.Class -> /my/Class.class
and getResource will give you a URL which can be used to retrieve an InputStream.
But... I'd recommend using directly getClass().getResourceAsStream(...) with the same argument, because it returns directly the InputStream and don't have to worry about creating a (probably complex) URL object that has to know how to create the InputStream.
In short: try using getResourceAsStream and some constructor of ImageIcon that uses an InputStream as an argument.
Classloaders
Be careful if your app has many classloaders. If you have a simple standalone application (no servers or complex things) you shouldn't worry. I don't think it's the case provided ImageIcon was capable of finding it.
Edit: classpath
getResource is—as mattb says—for loading resources from the classpath (from your .jar or classpath directory). If you are bundling an app it's nice to have altogether, so you could include the icon file inside the jar of your app and obtain it this way.

As a noobie I was confused by this until I realized that the so called "path" is the path relative to the MyClass.class file in the file system and not the MyClass.java file. My IDE copies the resources (like xx.jpg, xx.xml) to a directory local to the MyClass.class. For example, inside a pkg directory called "target/classes/pkg. The class-file location may be different for different IDE's and depending on how the build is structured for your application. You should first explore the file system and find the location of the MyClass.class file and the copied location of the associated resource you are seeking to extract. Then determine the path relative to the MyClass.class file and write that as a string value with "dots" and "slashes".
For example, here is how I make an app1.fxml file available to my javafx application where the relevant "MyClass.class" is implicitly "Main.class". The Main.java file is where this line of resource-calling code is contained. In my specific case the resources are copied to a location at the same level as the enclosing package folder. That is: /target/classes/pkg/Main.class and /target/classes/app1.fxml. So paraphrasing...the relative reference "../app1.fxml" is "start from Main.class, go up one directory level, now you can see the resource".
FXMLLoader loader = new FXMLLoader();
loader.setLocation(getClass().getResource("../app1.fxml"));
Note that in this relative-path string "../app1.fxml", the first two dots reference the directory enclosing Main.class and the single "." indicates a file extension to follow. After these details become second nature, you will forget why it was confusing.

getResource by example:
package szb.testGetResource;
public class TestGetResource {
private void testIt() {
System.out.println("test1: "+TestGetResource.class.getResource("test.css"));
System.out.println("test2: "+getClass().getResource("test.css"));
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new TestGetResource().testIt();
}
}
output:
test1: file:/home/szb/projects/test/bin/szb/testGetResource/test.css
test2: file:/home/szb/projects/test/bin/szb/testGetResource/test.css

getResourceAsStream() look inside of your resource folder. So the fil shold be placed inside of the defined resource-folder
i.e if the file reside in /src/main/resources/properties --> then the path should be /properties/yourFilename.
getClass.getResourceAsStream(/properties/yourFilename)

Invalid file reference, where am i going wrong?

Whenever i try to draw an image with paintComponent and ImageIcon i get a NullPointerException from an unknown source, then pointing to my image getter and the thread start.
Image getter
ImageIcon image = new ImageIcon(this.getClass().getResource("C:/Users/Rhys/Desktop/workspace/Mindcracker RPG/Res/Background.jpg"));
Thanks for any answers

Use the JavaDoc:
this.getClass().getResource() only for acquiring resources on the ClassPath where / represents the default package.
You are supplying a fully qualified path which won't work.
What you need to do is use this constructor:
public ImageIcon(String filename)
Creates an ImageIcon from the specified file.
The specified String can be a file name or a file path. When
specifying a path, use the Internet-standard forward-slash ("/") as a
separator. (The string is converted to an URL, so the forward-slash
works on all systems.)
For example, specify:
new ImageIcon("C:/Users/Rhys/Desktop/workspace/Mindcracker RPG/Res/Background.jpg");
note that there is a space in the path there and this path eventually gets converted into a file::// URL so you might want to take that into consideration

Loading an image from the Resource Folder

The code I am using to load the image is:
ImageIO.read(SpriteSheet.class.getResource(path));
The path being the path to the resource. But it would error with IllegalArgumentException. I wondered what might be causing and came to the conclusion that the resource should be added into the same path as the class.
Is it possible to load the image from another folder, like a res folder outside of the bin folder? (folder holding compiled classes)
EDIT:
So i messed around with a few things, and came to a solution. But now I have another problem. Here is my code
File sheet = new File(SpriteSheet.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().getPath());
URI uri = sheet.toURI();
BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(uri.toURL());
When I try to run it, it gives me an IIOException: Can't read Input File
This means that I can never actually get it work. I tried debugging by prining the URL to the console and this is the URL.
C:\Users\Amma\Abhijeet\Eclipse%20Workspace1\Test%20Game\bin
The %20 comes in the middle. Meaning that the file is and never can be acceesed. Is there anyway I can fix this?
Thanks.

Class.getResource will return null if the resource could not be found or the invoker doesn't have adequate privileges to get the resource.
All variants of ImageIO.read will throw an IllegalArgumentException if they receive a null input.
Take a look at the documentation of the getResource to understand how an absolute resource name is constructed from the given resource named and what are the rules for searching resources.
You can read images from any location as long as you have permissions to do so, the ImageIO.read method accepts a File, URL or InputStream so you have many option to do it.