Question

I’m using JFreeChart to generate some reporting in my web application, I use JFreechart to build the chart and save it as an image, but I have never found that image in my Tomcat directory.

I tried to print the working directory, and it gives me the Tomcat root, so I’m wondering why the image is never written in that directory.

Here is my Service method:

public DefaultPieDataset generateChartEquipementsByDepartementDataset(){
    DefaultPieDataset pieDataset ;
    pieDataset = convertMapToDataset(reportsDao.getEquipementsByDepartementDataset()) ;
    JFreeChart chart = ChartFactory.createPieChart(
            "% Equipements par departement",
            pieDataset,
            true,
            true,
            false
            ) ;
    try{
    ChartUtilities.saveChartAsJPEG(new File("/chart.jpeg"), chart, 400, 400) ;
    }catch(Exception ex){}

    return pieDataset ;
}

When I test it, it writes the image in the root of my application, but never in tomcat.
Here is the controller.

@RequestMapping(value="/reports")
public String reportsHandler( Model model ) {
    reportingService.generateChartEquipementsByDepartementDataset() ;
    String curSession = System.getProperty("user.dir") ;
    model.addAttribute("curSession", curSession) ;
    return "home" ;
}

Answer 1

Root ( / ) doesn’t point to the root path of the web app, you need to get a “translated path”, by using ServletContext.getRealPath(), like

... new File(request.getServletContext().getRealPath("/chart.jpeg")) ....