Accessing files from jar file when running application?

Question

I have an application that when run should read an xml file (test.xml) from a jar file located in a resource folder. I do this:
    File f = null;
    URL url = this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("test.xml");
    try {
      f = new File(url.getPath());
//      f = new File(url.toURI());
    } catch (Exception e) {
      throw new GeneratorException("Preload input not found!");
    }The file is found in the jar but when I want to use it I get problems:
when doing:
f = new File(url.getPath());
this file is not found and when doing:
f = new File(url.toURI());
I get and:
URI is not hierarchical exception
Is there now way to convert the xml file in the jar file to a File object?

Answer 1

fedevaps wrote:
But is there now otherway to create a File from the URL?Only if the URL refers to a file in the first place. Which it doesn't when the URL refers to an entry in a ZIP file because an entry in a ZIP file is not a file.
java.io.File refers to physical files in the sense that the operating system uses it. It can't refer to Files on remote machines, it can't refer to "files" stored in .ZIP files and it can't refer to some random String that you construct.
Usually when you think you need a File object in Java, you don't actually need it. There are only a handful of operations that you can do with a File object that can't be done with a URL as well (deleting, renaming are two that come to my mind). Reading from it and writing to it works with a File as well as with an URL.