Develop Reference

How to determine a file path in Maven project?

I am using Maven for a project. In one of my java class, I need to grab a property file. I cannot use absolute file location but relative path. I tried several ways but no luck.
The java is in
myProject/src/main/java/com/some/myConfiguration.java
The property file is in
myProject/src/main/com/some/resources/myProperties/myFeatures.properties
And in my java, I have some code like this
String filePath = "correct/path/to/myFeatures.properties";
File repositoryFile = new File(filePath);
So my problem is what I should give to filePath
Thank you for any advice.

put your myFeatures.properties property file inside src/main/resources as suggested by Maven's Standard Directory Layout
access it in your Java code using:
this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("myFeatures.properties");

You can try this.getClass.getResource("/myProperties/myFeatures.properties") because the compiled path of resources is under the class path.

Load a file outside of a Jar

I have a folder called lib that contains all my Jar files and in one of the Jar files class, I have a main method which is called by a batch file. In the same folder location as my lib, I have another folder structure path/to/a/resource/myresource.txt
How can I load this file from a class inside the Jar file? I tried the following and both resulted in null:
getClass().getResource("path/to/a/resource/myresource.txt")
getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("path/to/a/resource/myresource.txt")
Any ideas? Even with an absolute path, it failed! Any suggestions?

You can use:
getClass().getResourceAsStream("path/to/a/resource/myresource.txt")
However, for this to work, you need to add the path '.' to the Class-Path entry of the JAR's MANIFEST.MF file.
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/deployment/jar/downman.html

Two things you tried are used to read files from class-path since this folder is not on your classpath you can read it directly with any of the java File IO classes.

File file = new File("C:/folder/myFile.txt");
or if you know the relative path:
File file = new File("../../path/myFile.txt");

Your path seems not to be precise enough. Further, this question has been worked before.
Have a look here:
How to Load File Outside of, but Relative to, the JAR?
How to get the path of a running JAR file?

You can either load the file from file system
new FileReader(relativeOrAbsoluteFilesystemLocation)
or you can add the directory in question to your classpath:
java -cp "lib/*;lib" ...
and then use your original method.
(Unix uses : rather than ; as classpath separator)

How to specify relative file path in Java file so that it can still work after the file is put in jar file?

Suppose I have a Java class that needs to access a file with absolute path
/home/gem/projects/bar/resources/test.csv:
package com.example
class Foo {
String filePath = ????? // path to test.csv
String lines = FileInputStream(new File(filePath).readAllLines();
}
Where the path to Foo.java is /home/gem/projects/bar/src/com/example.
Of course I cannot specify absolute path to the resource file. This is because jar file will be distributed as library for any clients to use in their own environments.
Assume the resource file like test.csv is always in the same path relative to project root. When a jar is created containing Foo.class, this jar also contains test.csv in the same relative path ( relative to project root).
What is the way to specify relative path that would work no matter where the project bar is moved to? Also how can I create a jar file (which can be in any location) so that the path to the resource file test.csv would still be correct.
To keep things simple, I have used invalid Java API ( readAllLines() which reads all the lines and return a string containing entire file content. Also not using try/catch).
Assume csv file can be read as well as written to.
I hope this makes it clear now.

Put the test.csv file into the src folder and use this:
Foo.class.getResourceAsStream("/test.csv")
To get an InputStream for the file. This will work wherever the project is moved, including packaged as a JAR file.

Example:
ProjectX\src\Test.java
ProjectX\resources\config.properties
If you have the above structure and you want to use your config.properties file, this is how you do it:
InputStream input = new FileInputStream("./resources/config.projects");
In this example you don't have to worry about packaging your source into jar file. You can still modify your resources folder anytime.

Use getResource(), as shown here.

How to get a path to a resource/file out of a Java JAR file

I'm trying to get the path to a file that it is located out of the java jar and I don't want to use an absolute path. An exampel: lets say that the jar is located in ~/lib/myjar.jar and the file is located in the same folder. What I've trying is something like this, but it fails:
File myfile = new File(this.getClass().getResource("../../../").toURI());
Note: my package is com.contro.gui, that's why I have "../../../", in order to acces to the "root"
I'm not sure how I can access to the file. Any suggestion?? And what about if the file that I want to access is in other folder like ~/res/ ???

If the file is in the same directory as the jar, I think this will work (feels fairly hacky, but...):
URL url = getClass().getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation();
File myfile = new File(url.toURI());
File dir = myfile.getParentFile(); // strip off .jar file
(Haven't tested this, but it seems feasible. Will only work with file-based jars of course).
If the file is in some random location, I think you will need to either pass in parameters or check "known" locations like user.home. (Or, you could always put the file in the jar a use getResource().)

No just do
File FileName = new File(".");
String Directory = FileName.getCanonicalPath();
that will get you the parent directory of your class in a file or jar just remember to set the directory if it's in a jar like this "NameOfJar\NameOfFolder\etc"

open resource with relative path in Java

In my Java app I need to get some files and directories.
This is the program structure:
./main.java
./package1/guiclass.java
./package1/resources/resourcesloader.java
./package1/resources/repository/modules/ -> this is the dir I need to get
./package1/resources/repository/SSL-Key/cert.jks -> this is the file I need to get
guiclass loads the resourcesloader class which will load my resources (directory and file).
As to the file, I tried
resourcesloader.class.getClass().getResource("repository/SSL-Key/cert.jks").toString()
in order to get the real path, but this way does not work.
I have no idea which path to use for the directory.

I had problems with using the getClass().getResource("filename.txt") method.
Upon reading the Java docs instructions, if your resource is not in the same package as the class you are trying to access the resource from, then you have to give it relative path starting with '/'. The recommended strategy is to put your resource files under a "resources" folder in the root directory. So for example if you have the structure:
src/main/com/mycompany/myapp
then you can add a resources folder as recommended by maven in:
src/main/resources
furthermore you can add subfolders in the resources folder
src/main/resources/textfiles
and say that your file is called myfile.txt so you have
src/main/resources/textfiles/myfile.txt
Now here is where the stupid path problem comes in. Say you have a class in your com.mycompany.myapp package, and you want to access the myfile.txt file from your resource folder. Some say you need to give the:
"/main/resources/textfiles/myfile.txt" path
or
"/resources/textfiles/myfile.txt"
both of these are wrong. After I ran mvn clean compile, the files and folders are copied in the:
myapp/target/classes
folder. But the resources folder is not there, just the folders in the resources folder. So you have:
myapp/target/classes/textfiles/myfile.txt
myapp/target/classes/com/mycompany/myapp/*
so the correct path to give to the getClass().getResource("") method is:
"/textfiles/myfile.txt"
here it is:
getClass().getResource("/textfiles/myfile.txt")
This will no longer return null, but will return your class.
It is strange to me, that the "resources" folder is not copied as well, but only the subfolders and files directly in the "resources" folder. It would seem logical to me that the "resources" folder would also be found under `"myapp/target/classes"

Supply the path relative to the classloader, not the class you're getting the loader from. For instance:
resourcesloader.class.getClassLoader().getResource("package1/resources/repository/SSL-Key/cert.jks").toString();

In the hopes of providing additional information for those who don't pick this up as quickly as others, I'd like to provide my scenario as it has a slightly different setup. My project was setup with the following directory structure (using Eclipse):
Project/
src/ // application source code
org/
myproject/
MyClass.java
test/ // unit tests
res/ // resources
images/ // PNG images for icons
my-image.png
xml/ // XSD files for validating XML files with JAXB
my-schema.xsd
conf/ // default .conf file for Log4j
log4j.conf
lib/ // libraries added to build-path via project settings
I was having issues loading my resources from the res directory. I wanted all my resources separate from my source code (simply for managment/organization purposes). So, what I had to do was add the res directory to the build-path and then access the resource via:
static final ClassLoader loader = MyClass.class.getClassLoader();
// in some function
loader.getResource("images/my-image.png");
loader.getResource("xml/my-schema.xsd");
loader.getResource("conf/log4j.conf");
NOTE: The / is omitted from the beginning of the resource string because I am using ClassLoader.getResource(String) instead of Class.getResource(String).

When you use 'getResource' on a Class, a relative path is resolved based on the package the Class is in. When you use 'getResource' on a ClassLoader, a relative path is resolved based on the root folder.
If you use an absolute path, both 'getResource' methods will start at the root folder.

#GianCarlo:
You can try calling System property user.dir that will give you root of your java project and then do append this path to your relative path for example:
String root = System.getProperty("user.dir");
String filepath = "/path/to/yourfile.txt"; // in case of Windows: "\\path \\to\\yourfile.txt
String abspath = root+filepath;
// using above path read your file into byte []
File file = new File(abspath);
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(file);
byte []filebytes = new byte[(int)file.length()];
fis.read(filebytes);

For those using eclipse + maven. Say you try to access the file images/pic.jpg in src/main/resources. Doing it this way :
ClassLoader loader = MyClass.class.getClassLoader();
File file = new File(loader.getResource("images/pic.jpg").getFile());
is perfectly correct, but may result in a null pointer exception. Seems like eclipse doesn't recognize the folders in the maven directory structure as source folders right away. By removing and the src/main/resources folder from the project's source folders list and putting it back (project>properties>java build path> source>remove/add Folder), I was able to solve this.

resourcesloader.class.getClass()
Can be broken down to:
Class<resourcesloader> clazz = resourceloader.class;
Class<Class> classClass = clazz.getClass();
Which means you're trying to load the resource using a bootstrap class.
Instead you probably want something like:
resourcesloader.class.getResource("repository/SSL-Key/cert.jks").toString()
If only javac warned about calling static methods on non-static contexts...

Doe the following work?
resourcesloader.class.getClass().getResource("/package1/resources/repository/SSL-Key/cert.jks")
Is there a reason you can't specify the full path including the package?

Going with the two answers as mentioned above. The first one
resourcesloader.class.getClassLoader().getResource("package1/resources/repository/SSL-Key/cert.jks").toString();
resourcesloader.class.getResource("repository/SSL-Key/cert.jks").toString()
Should be one and same thing?

In Order to obtain real path to the file you can try this:
URL fileUrl = Resourceloader.class.getResource("resources/repository/SSL-Key/cert.jks");
String pathToClass = fileUrl.getPath;
Resourceloader is classname here.
"resources/repository/SSL-Key/cert.jks" is relative path to the file. If you had your guiclass in ./package1/java with rest of folder structure remaining, you would take "../resources/repository/SSL-Key/cert.jks" as relative path because of rules defining relative path.
This way you can read your file with BufferedReader. DO NOT USE THE STRING to identify the path to the file, because if you have spaces or some characters from not english alphabet in your path, you will get problems and the file will not be found.
BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader(fileUrl.openStream()));

I made a small modification on #jonathan.cone's one liner ( by adding .getFile() ) to avoid null pointer exception, and setting the path to data directory. Here's what worked for me :
String realmID = new java.util.Scanner(new java.io.File(RandomDataGenerator.class.getClassLoader().getResource("data/aa-qa-id.csv").getFile().toString())).next();

Use this:
resourcesloader.class.getClassLoader().getResource("/path/to/file").**getPath();**

One of the stable way to work across all OS would be toget System.getProperty("user.dir")
String filePath = System.getProperty("user.dir") + "/path/to/file.extension";
Path path = Paths.get(filePath);
if (Files.exists(path)) {
return true;
}