How do I read a resource file from a Java jar file?

java jar resources
Bill the Lizard picture Bill the Lizard · Dec 31, 2008 · Viewed 141.5k times · Source

I'm trying to access an XML file within a jar file, from a separate jar that's running as a desktop application. I can get the URL to the file I need, but when I pass that to a FileReader (as a String) I get a FileNotFoundException saying "The file name, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect."

As a point of reference, I have no trouble reading image resources from the same jar, passing the URL to an ImageIcon constructor. This seems to indicate that the method I'm using to get the URL is correct.

URL url = getClass().getResource("/xxx/xxx/xxx/services.xml");
ServicesLoader jsl = new ServicesLoader( url.toString() );

Inside the ServicesLoader class I have 

XMLReader xr = XMLReaderFactory.createXMLReader();
xr.setContentHandler( this );
xr.setErrorHandler( this );
xr.parse( new InputSource( new FileReader( filename )));

What's wrong with using this technique to read the XML file?

Answer

iny picture iny · Dec 31, 2008

Looks like you want to use java.lang.Class.getResourceAsStream(String), see

http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/lang/Class.html#getResourceAsStream(java.lang.String)

Related questions

Reading a resource file from within jar

I would like to read a resource from within my jar like so: File file; file = new File(getClass().getResource("/file.txt").toURI()); BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file)); //Read the file and it works fine when running it …

Read More
Add image to JAR Java

I'm using some images in JFrame, I have given a path to load image into panel of the frame, but when i made jar of the application its not displaying images. Where should I place the image? How should I …

Read More
Reading a resource with BufferedReader

I am trying to read a resource that will be included into a .JAR, but I get a nullPointer for the following: bReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader( this.getClass().getResourceAsStream("resources/" + fileName))); Using a File however, works fine.. bReader = new …

Read More