Question

I’m loading a prop and saving it

File propfile=new File(getClass().getResource("credentials.properties").toURI());
                prop.load(new FileInputStream(propfile));
            prop.setProperty("a", username);
            prop.setProperty("c", password);
            prop.setProperty("b", pbKey);
            prop.store(new FileOutputStream(propfile), null);

When i normally run this in netbeans its fine, when its bundled into .jar file it throws

Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: URI is not hierarchical
    at java.io.File.(Unknown Source)

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now when i use

 getClass().getResourceAsStream("credentials.properties");

i can read the file , but i can’t save the file unless i use the .toURI()
as in -> Storing changes in .properties file that has been read via getClass().getResourceAsStream

so when i use toURI() and when i run it (jar file) it would cry out saying the URI is not hierarchical

and when i use getResourceAsStream , i couldn’t save the file

what should i do?
the properties file is in same package as class is in.

Answer 1

If you only need to load the properties, you shouldn’t be using File at all – you should use getResourceAsStream.

If you need to save the properties back again, you can’t easily have them in a jar file. You’d need to rebuild the jar file each time you save – ick!

If you really need both, you might want to consider having a file which is created the first time you need to save changes: when loading, use the file if it’s present, but use the version in the jar file otherwise.

EDIT: If you’re building a desktop application and these are basically user preferences, you should look into the Preferences API. Also be very careful if you’re storing passwords… avoid doing so if you possibly can.