I'm developing a program with NetBeans 8.0 and JavaFX Scene Builder 2.0 that need store some variables in a file, where admin users can modify it when needed, (like change server IP address, or a number value from a no editable textfield) and if they close and load again the program, the changes made in variables are kept. Like any settings section of a program.
I just try do it with the Properties file, but i have problems to store it in the same folder as .jar file. When the program execute the line new FileOutputStream("configuration.properties"); the file is created at root of the disk. As the folder of the file can be stored anywhere, i not know how indicate the right path.
Creating the properties file in the package of the main project and using getClass().getResourceAsStream("configuration.properties"); i can read it but then i can not write in for change values of variables.
Is there a better method to create a configuration file? Or properties file is the best option for this case?
My other question is whether it is possible to prevent access to the contents of the file or encrypt the content?
PD: I've been testing this part of the code in Linux operating system currently, but the program will be used in Windows 7 when ready.
If you use Maven, you can store your property files in your resources folder, say resources/properties/. When you need to load them, do this:
private Properties createProps(String name)
{
Properties prop = new Properties();
InputStream in = null;
try
{
in = getClass().getResourceAsStream(name);
prop.load(in);
}
catch (IOException ex)
{
System.err.println("failed to load \"" + name + "\": " + ex);
}
finally
{
try
{
if (in != null)
{
in.close();
}
}
catch (IOException ex)
{
System.err.println("failed to close InputStream for \"" + name + "\":\n" + FXUtils.extractStackTrace(ex));
}
}
return prop;
}
Where name is the full path to your properties file within your resources folder. For example, if you store props.properties in resources/properties/, then you would pass in properties/props.properties.
I am not 100% sure if you can carry over this exact procedure to a non-Maven project. You'd need to instruct whatever compiler tool you are using to also include your property files.
As far as your final question goes, in regards to encrypting your properties, I would consider posting that as a separate question (after having done thorough research to try to discover an existing solution that works for you).
At last i found how obtain the absolute path from folder where is .jar file to create properties file in, and read/write it. Here is the code:
File file = new File(System.getProperty("java.class.path"));
File filePath = file.getAbsoluteFile().getParentFile();
String strPath = filePath.toString();
File testFile = new File(strPath+"/configuration.properties");
Tested in Ubuntu 13.04 And Windows 7 and it works.
For encrypt the properties values i found this thread that answer how do it.
Related
tl;dr I'm more used to writing command-line scripts that can just output based on the current working directory, so I'm unsure what directory to use for output files in a program that will be launched from a JAR.
Program Description:
My program builds an HTML file from data given to it from the rest of the program, and then is supposed to write it to a file that we'll call "Output.html" for simplicity.
Relevant Code:
public void outputHTML()
{
String output = buildHTML();
// Expanded to explain my confusion better
String fileDirectory = ""; // ???
String fileName = "Output.html";
String fullPath = fileDirectory + "\\" + fileName;
try (BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(fullPath)))
{
writer.write(output);
writer.close();
} catch (IOException e)
{
System.out.println("File not found.");
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
Problem
I don't know what to put the file directory as. Usually I run my programs from the command line and use ".\\Output.txt" as my output path, but I don't know where to put it if it's being run from a JAR.
The desired file structure is as follows:
Encompassing Folder
Program.jar
output
Output.html
Or alternatively (not sure if this makes it easier to understand or harder):
main\
main\Program.jar
main\output\
main\output\Output.html
Everything I can find on SE only relates to reading files that are both immutable and internal, but I'm trying to output a non-static file to a location outside of my jar.
Can anyone help with this? Thanks!
Misc Details
I'm using Eclipse without Gradle currently, because I don't know what Gradle is and new things are scary. If this particular problem would be easier to solve with Gradle, let me know and I'll look up more about it.
EDIT:
Added syntax highlighting to code block.
Formatted everything a bit better
Changed title to be more descriptive
You can use an absolute path: e.g. fileDirectory = "\\project\\test\\main\\output";
using normal slash should also work even on Windows ("/project/test/main/output")
Or use a relative path - this will start from the current working directory (user directory), the one where the JVM was started in - e.g. fileDirectory = "main\\output";
private void copyFile() throws IOException {
Path destination;
String currentWorkingDir = System.getProperty("user.dir");
File fileToCopy = component.getArchiveServerFile();
if (path.contains(File.separator)) {
destination = Paths.get(path);
} else {
destination = Paths.get(currentWorkingDir + File.separator + path);
}
if (!Files.exists(destination)) {
try {
Files.createDirectories(destination);
} catch (IOException ioe) {
ioe.printStackTrace();
}
}
FileUtils.copyFileToDirectory(fileToCopy, new File(destination.toString()));
}
}
Basically what I'm trying to do here is copying a file in some location using the path provided in the class's constructor. The logic is like this:
If the path has file separator, I consider it a full path and copy the file at the end.
If the path doesn't have file separator, I copy the file in the working directory from which the .exe file was launched.
So far, only the first option works (the full path). For some reason, the working directory option is not working and I can't figure out why.
UPDATE: If I just change the following line:
String currentWorkingDir = System.getProperty("user.dir");
to
String currentWorkingDir = System.getProperty("user.home");
It works. So I'm guessing the problem is coming from user.dir? Maybe at runtime, the folder is already being used and as a result, it can't copy the file into it?
The weird thing is, I don't have any exceptions or error, but nothing happens as well.
UPDATE 2: I think the problem here is that I'm trying to copy a file which is embedded in the application (.exe file) that I'm executing during runtime, and java can't copy it while the current working directory is being used by the application.
UPDATE 3:
Since this copy method is used in an external library, I had to come up with another way (other than logs) to see the content of system property user.dir. So I wrote I little program to create a file and write in it the value return by the property.
To my surprise, the path is not where my application was launched. It was in:
C:\Users\jj\AppData\Local\Temp\2\e4j1263.tmp_dir1602852411
Which is weird because I launched the program from :
C:\Users\jj\workspace\installer\product\target\
Any idea why I'm getting this unexpected value for user.dir?
I just did a little project in java, packed the .jar and application.properties to my VPS and wanted to test it there. The tool reads logfiles.
I specified the path to the logfile within the application.properties as follows:
LOGPATH=/folder1/folder2/logs/thelogIwant.log
The path is parsed as follows:
public String makePath(String path) {
Properties prop = new Properties();
InputStream input = null;
try {
input = new FileInputStream("application.properties");
prop.load(input);
} catch (IOException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
} finally {
if (input != null) {
try {
input.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
return prop.getProperty(path);
}
Path logFile = Paths.get(makePath("LOGPATH"));
It even seems to to this right, as the ErrorMessage states:
SEVERE: /folder1/folder2/logs/thelogIwant.log (No such file or directory)
The logfile is being created by another application and therefore in another directory than the .jar I am running.
The path exists on my VPS and I can navigate to and through it.
Can someone point me in the right direction? What's going wrong here?
Things I tried:
Specify path with "~/folder1/..."
Specify path with "folder1/..."
I can think of a few possible explanations:
The pathname in your config file is wrong; e.g. there is a typo or some other discrepancy that you didn't notice.
You are loading a different property file to the one that you think.
There is a mismatch between the property name in the file and the name that your tool uses.
The other application didn't create the log file
Permissions: your tool may be running as a user that isn't permitted to read one of the directories on the path.
SELinux in enforcing mode can prevent an application (e.g. running as a service) from accessing files.
Homoglyphs, either in the property file1, your source code or the name of the file in the file system.
The things that you tried are unlikely to work. A correct absolute pathname is more robust than a relative pathname, and Paths.get doesn't know how to deal with ~. (The expansion of ~ is a shell feature ....)
I would try this:
Modify your tool to output the value of the "LOGPATH" property ... enclosed in quote characters so that you can see any spurious whitespace characters at the beginning / end of the value.
Run the tool.
Using copy-and-paste, see if you can open the file using exactly the pathname that your tool uses.
In short, verify that the pathname you are actually using is what you expect it to be.
1 - In practice, classic format property files are encoded in LATIN-1, so this is impossible.
I was able to fix this, thanks #Steven for your help!
I used the pwd command when in the directory the files are in and recognized that the true absolute path starts with /home/myusername/folder1/...
Works fine now.
My project structure looks like below. I do not want to include the config file as a resource, but instead read it at runtime so that we can simply change settings without having to recompile and deploy. my problem are two things
reading the file just isn't working despite various ways i have tried (see current implementation below i am trying)
When using gradle, do i needto tell it how to build/or deploy the file and where? I think that may be part of the problem..that the config file is not getting deployed when doing a gradle build or trying to debug in Eclipse.
My project structure:
myproj\
\src
\main
\config
\com\my_app1\
config.dev.properties
config.qa.properties
\java
\com\myapp1\
\model\
\service\
\util\
Config.java
\test
Config.java:
public Config(){
try {
String configPath = "/config.dev.properties"; //TODO: pass env in as parameter
System.out.println(configPath);
final File configFile = new File(configPath);
FileInputStream input = new FileInputStream(configFile);
Properties prop = new Properties()
prop.load(input);
String prop1 = prop.getProperty("PROP1");
System.out.println(prop1);
} catch (IOException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
Ans 1.
reading the file just isn't working despite various ways i have tried
(see current implementation below i am trying)
With the location of your config file you have depicted,
Change
String configPath = "/config.dev.properties";
to
String configPath = "src\main\config\com\my_app1\config.dev.properties";
However read the second answer first.
Ans 2:
When using gradle, do i needto tell it how to build/or deploy the file
and where? I think that may be part of the problem..that the config
file is not getting deployed when doing a gradle build or trying to
debug in Eclipse.
You have two choices:
Rename your config directory to resources. Gradle automatically builds the resources under "src/main/resources" directory.
Let Gradle know the additional directory to be considered as resources.
sourceSets {
main {
resources {
srcDirs = ["src\main\config\com\my_app1"]
includes = ["**/*.properties"]
}
}
}
reading the file just isn't working despite various ways i have tried (see current implementation below i am trying)
You need to clarify this statement. Are you trying to load properties from an existing file? Because the code you posted that load the Properties object is correct. So probably the error is in the file path.
Anyway, I'm just guessing what you are trying to do. You need to clarify your question. Is your application an executable jar like the example below? Are trying to load an external file that is outside the jar (In this case gradle can't help you)?
If you build a simple application like this as an executable jar
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Properties;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[]args) {
File configFile = new File("test.properties");
System.out.println("Reading config from = " + configFile.getAbsolutePath());
FileInputStream fis = null;
Properties properties = new Properties();
try {
fis = new FileInputStream(configFile);
properties.load(fis);
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
return;
} finally {
if(fis != null) {
try {
fis.close();
} catch (IOException e) {}
}
}
System.out.println("user = " + properties.getProperty("user"));
}
}
When you run the jar, the application will try to load properties from a file called test.properties that is located in the application working directory.
So if you have test.properties that looks like this
user=Flood2d
The output will be
Reading config from = C:\test.properties
user = Flood2d
And that's because the jar file and test.properties file is located in C:\ and I'm running it from there.
Some java applications load configuration from locations like %appdata% on Windows or /Library/Application on MacOS. This solution is used when an application has a configuration that can change (it can be changed by manually editing the file or by the application itself) so there's no need to recompile the application with the new configs.
Let me know if I have misunderstood something, so we can figure out what you are trying to ask us.
Your question is slightly vague but I get the feeling that you want the config files(s) to live "outside" of the jars.
I suggest you take a look at the application plugin. This will create a zip of your application and will also generate a start script to start it. I think you'll need to:
Customise the distZip task to add an extra folder for the config files
Customise the startScripts task to add the extra folder to the classpath of the start script
The solution for me to be able to read an external (non-resource) file was to create my config folder at the root of the application.
myproj/
/configs
Doing this allowed me to read the configs by using 'config/config.dev.properies'
I am not familiar with gradle,so I can only give some advices about your question 1.I think you can give a full path of you property file as a parameter of FileInputStream,then load it using prop.load.
FileInputStream input = new FileInputStream("src/main/.../config.dev.properties");
Properties prop = new Properties()
prop.load(input);
// ....your code
I am trying to learn how to use the Simple XML Framework as detailed in this thread : Best practices for parsing XML.
I am using the following code :
public class SimpleXMLParserActivity extends Activity {
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
//setContentView(R.layout.main);
Serializer serializer = new Persister();
Example example = new Example("Example message", 123);
File result = new File("example.xml");
try {
Log.d("Start", "Starting Serializer");
serializer.write(example, result);
} catch (Exception e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
Log.d("Self", "Error");
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
I am having a problem understanding the line
File result = new File("example.xml");
1) Does this line create a new file in my app called example.xml ? If so where is this file located.
2) Or does this line look for an existing file called example.xml and then add to it ? If so where should the example.xml file be placed in my app bundle so that it can be found. I do notice at the moment I am getting an error message :
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /example.xml (Read-only file system)
Thank you.
File result = new File("example.xml")
This line will just store the filename "example.xml" in a new File object. There is no check if that file actually exists and it does not try to create it either.
A file without specifying an absolute path (starting with / like new File("/sdcard/example.xml")) is considered to be in the current working directory which I guess is / for Android apps (-> /example.xml (Read-only file system))
I guess serializer.write(example, result); tries to create the actual file for your but fails since you can't write to '/'.
You have to specify a path for that file. There are several places you can store files, e.g.
Context#getFilesDir() will give you a place in your app's home directory (/data/data/your.package/files/) where only you can read / write - without extra permission.
Environment#getExternalStorageDirectory() will give you the general primary storage thing (might be /sdcard/ - but that's very different for devices). To write here you'll need the WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission.
there are more places available in Environment that are more specialized. E.g. for media files, downloads, caching, etc.
there is also Context#getExternalFilesDir() for app private (big) files you want to store on the external storage (something like /sdcard/Android/data/your.package/)
to fix your code you could do
File result = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory(), "example.xml");
Edit: either use the provided mechanisms to get an existing directory (preferred but you are limited to the folders you are supposed to use):
// via File - /data/data/your.package/app_assets/example.xml
File outputFile = new File(getDir("assets", Context.MODE_PRIVATE), "example.xml");
serializer.write(outputFile, result);
// via FileOutputStream - /data/data/your.package/files/example.xml
FileOutputStream outputStream = openFileOutput("example.xml", Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
serializer.write(outputStream, result);
or you may need to create the directories yourself (hackish way to get your app dir but it should work):
File outputFile = new File(new File(getFilesDir().getParentFile(), "assets"), "example.xml");
outputFile.mkdirs();
serializer.write(outputFile, result);
Try to avoid specifying full paths like "/data/data/com.simpletest.test/assets/example.xml" since they might be different on other devices / Android versions. Even the / is not guaranteed to be /. It's safer to use File.separatorChar instead if you have to.
2 solutions to do it cleanly :
use openFileOutput to write a private file in the application private directory (which could be located in the internal memory or the external storage if the app was moved there). See here for a snippet
or use the File constructor to create the File anywhere your app has write access. This is if you want to store the file on the SDCard for example. Instantiating a file doesn't create it on the file system, unless you start writiung to it (with FileOutputStream for example)
I'd recommend approach 1, it's better for users because these files get erased when your app is uninstalled. If the file is large, then using the External Storage is probably better.
What I read on the Android pages, I see it creates a file with that name:
File constructor
I think it writes it to the /data/data/packagname directory
edit: the 'packagename' was not shown in the tekst above. I put it between brackets. :s
Try saving to /sdcard/example.xml.