Develop Reference

How to avoid hard code full path in Paths#get method

I want to save a copy of Primefaces UploadedFile to my project directory. I have been searching the internet for the solution, what I have found is using Paths#get method. The example given in this answer is Paths.get("/path/to/uploads");, the problem is, where is the exact path of /path/to/uploads? I can't find it. I mean where should I create the path /path/to/uploads? Under my project directory? but which folder? I solve this issue temporary by hard coding the full path like Paths.get("C:/uploads/");

FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getRealPath("/") will return you the current installation directory of your project.
And as #Kukeltje suggested, never ever save an uploaded file to your project directory, ... save it outside the webapps or even outside your container.
Therefore create a directory outsite your container (where you want to place your uploaded copies) and append ../ to the above path for each back step.
Say, if your application is deployed at D:/Tools/Tomcat7/webapps/your-application-name (e.g. on Windows using Tomcat) and you want to save copies to D:/Tools/uploads then following will give you required file path:
String uploadsFilePath = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext()
.getRealPath("../../../uploads");
Use it with the Paths.get(uploadsFilePath) and develop your download logic (I am not sure which library you are using for the Paths class).

How about getClassLoader().getResource(Path/to/file)
So like
MyClass.class.getResource(bla/bla)
Which are now nested in src/resources
Like this You are system independent
#profit

You have several options:
For very quick development, you can use a hardcoded path, but be sure that it exists in your SUT (system under test).
You can define it as a static final string in your module, but this means that each time you want to change that path, you will need to recompile...
You can read that value from a property/config file.
There are more options (like using the registry if you are on Windows, or using an environment variable).

Sharing a Java Object Stream

I've got a project to do with 2 other classmates.
We used Dropbox to share the project so we can write from our houses (Isn't a very good choice, but it worked and was easier than using GitHub)
My question is now about sharing the object stream.
I want to put the file of the stream in same dropbox shared directory of the code.
BUT, when i initialize the file
File f = new File(PATH);
i must use the path of my computer (C:\User**Alessandro**\Dropbox)
As you can see it is linked to Alessandro, and so to my computer.
This clearly won't work on another PC.
How can tell the compiler to just look in the same directory of the source code/.class files?

You can use Class#getResource(java.lang.String) to obtain a URL corresponding to the location of the file relative to the classpath of the Java program:
URL url = getClass().getResource("/path/to/the/file");
File file = new File(url.getPath());
Note here that / is the root of your classpath, which is the top of the directory containing your class files. So your resource should be placed inside the classpath somewhere in order for it to work on your friend's computer.

Don't use absolute paths. Use relative paths like ./myfile.txt. Start the program with the project directory as the current dir. (This is the default in Eclipse.) But then you have to ensure that this both works for development and for production use.
As an alternative you can create a properties file and define the path there. Your code then only refers to a property name and each developer can adjust the configuration file. See Properties documentation.

Absolute path of a file inside a project package

I've created a file inside a project package using this code:
File xmlFile = new File("src/com/company/project/xml/tags.xml");
I am able to read the file while running from eclipse. However, after creating .jar, I'm unable to read the file. So I want to put absolute path while reading the file from the project package. How it can be done? Help and suggestions are appreciated.

In most cases, IDE's will include no Java files in the resulting Jar. Most IDE's will also include the src directory in the classpath when you run/debug the program from within them.
As a general rule of thumb, never include src in any path, src will simply not exist once the program is built.
Instead you need to make use of Class#getResource or Class#getResourceAsStream, depending on your needs. You should remember, you should never treat an "embedded" resource as a File, as in most cases it won't be, it'll be a stream of bytes in a zip file.
Something like...
URL xmlFile = getClass().getResource("/com/company/project/xml/tags.xml");
will return a URL reference to the resource. Remember, if you need a InputStream, you'll have to Class#getResourceAsStream.
If you want the resource to be writable, then you will need to find a different location to store it, as embedded resources are read only

Try with getClass().getResource()
new File(getClass().getResource("src/com/company/project/xml/tags.xml").toURI());

how to define a file path in java to make it ready for production phase?

I am writing a program in java with netbeans IDE which receives a jasper report *.jrxml and then displays the report for the user. I wrote the following line of code for the file path
String reportSource = "src\\jasper-reports\\report.jrxml";
but when I move the dist folder in some other place and try to run the jar file inside it, my program can not find the report.
my problem is that were should I put the *.jrxml file and how to define it's path in my program so that when I want to give my software to someone else it runs without any errors (e.g. the program can find the file)

avoid using absolute paths. try to include the file as a resource in your netbeans project. then in your code you can search for and load the file as
new InputStreamReader((Main.class.getResourceAsStream("/report.jrxml")))
something like that depending on where the file resides in your project

it's more recommended using one of the two approaches:
pass the locations/paths as a -Dproperty=value in the Java application launcher command line http://www.tutorialspoint.com/unix_commands/java.htm
store it the locations/paths in a configurations file with a unique key and edit the file accordingly for different environments,
e.g.this files always stored in ${HOME}/config_files/ directory
absolute paths considered a bad practice

Netbeans Built .jar doesn't work with class file inside

I had problems while finding the path of file(s) in Netbeans..
Problem is already solved (checked answer).
Today I noticed another problem: When project is finished,
I have to execute the generated .jar to launch the program, but it doesn't work because an error occurs: NullPointer (where to load a file) when accessing/openning jar outside Netbeans.
Is it possible to open a file with the class file in Java/Netbeans which works in Netbeans and even in any directory?
I've found already some threads about my problem in site but none was helpful.
Code:
File file = new File(URLDecoder.decode(this.getClass().getResource("file.xml").getFile(), "UTF-8"));

The problem you have is that File only refer to files on the filesystem, not files in jars.
If you want a more generic locator, use a URL which is what getResource provides. However, usually you don't need to know the location of the file, you just need its contents, in which case you can use getResourceAsInputStream()
This all assumes your class path is configured correctly.

Yes, you should be able to load a file anywhere on your file system that the java process has access to. You just need to have the path explicitly set in your getResource call.
For example:
File file = new File(URLDecoder.decode(this.getClass().getResource("C:\\foo\\bar\\file.xml").getFile(), "UTF-8"));