I am working on a Java project that I want to deliver to my client as a .jar file. However, I want to allow the client to be able to change the parameters of the program without having to recompile or recreate the .jar. Basically, I want to be able to load .properties files from classes inside the .jar but locate those .properties files outside of the .jar and even outside the working directory.
I have been testing my attempts inside Eclipse, which might be causing some of the problem but I don’t see how at the moment. My setup is a follows. I have one project that contains a few classes that I build a .jar file from. I have a .properties file that is used to create a ResourceBundle whenever a class for the .jar is created. I specify that an additional directory, “conf/”, be included in the .jar classpath within the .jar manifest.
Once the .jar file is built, it is copied to the lib/ directory of another project which I am using for testing. This test project includes the .jar file as a library (“Add External Jars..”) in the Java Build Path. The .properties file is located the conf/ directory which is at the same level as lib/, src/, and bin/ but I am unable to accces it there. The only way I have been able to get it to work is to locate conf/ under src/ (and bin/) but I would like to be able to use it up one level. Is this possible?
Here’s the entry in the .jar manifest file…
Class-Path: ../conf/
Here’s the ResourceBundle call that I tried (didn’t work)…
rb = ResourceBundle.getBundle("..conf.BaseProject");
Here’s the directory structure that works now (names have been changed to protect the innocent)…
/Project /Project/bin /Project/bin/conf /Project/bin/conf/BaseProject.properties /Project/bin/TestClass.class /Project/lib /Project/lib/BaseProject.jar
Here’s the directory layout I want (again, file names not important)…
/Project /Project/bin /Project/bin/TestClass.class /Project/conf /Project/conf/BaseProject.properties /Project/lib /Project/lib/BaseProject.jar
You can get it using the Classloader.