Question

I would like to know what the JavaFX Image constructor’s relative path resolution algorithm is for:

1. Stand-alone apps.
2. Browser deployed apps.
3. Webstart deployed apps.

If the algorithm may look in multiple locations, I’d like to know what they are for each of the above deployment scenarios.

If the behaviour for stand-alone apps is different when the app is placed in a jar, I’d like to know that too.

Answer 1

Then user provides relative path to new Image(String url) it will be relative against workdir of the app aka System.getProperty("user.dir")

1. For stand-alone app it’s a folder you started an application from
2. For web-start app being run from command line (javaws myfxapp.jnlp) it works the same way as with standalone app
3. For plugin start or webstart app loaded from browser you can’t reliably be sure about workdir location. It depends on browser and even on installed plugins for that browser.

So general direction is: for standalone apps use url same way as you’ll use it in new File(String url). For jnlp/plugin use full url with protocol or Class.getResource() approach.

Update: Please, note, this behavior is going to be clarified and changed in 2.2. See http://javafx-jira.kenai.com/browse/RT-18291

The following comment is from RT-18291 and outlines the intended changes for 2.2:

Martin Sladecek added a comment – May, 15 2012 10:53 AM
After discussion with Richard Bair, we decided to change the current (undocumented) behavior for paths. Currently, they are treated as user.dir relative. All path, with or without leading slash will be now resolved as relative to classpath, which will be consistent with CSS and more corresponds to what might users expect.
For user.dir relative paths, “file:” URL can be still used.