ClassLoader in JAR file not loading config file properly

Question

Hi all,
I have an application that I am going to deploy using JavaWS, and everything works fine except for one little hitch. I have a configuration file, nvacconfig, located at NVAC.jar/config/nvacconfig. I'm trying to load this file into my application using a ClassLoader, but it does not seem to be working.
I have a method from a certain class that loads the configuration file. The class is not important, as it is part of an API that I cannot alter. This class has a load(String file) method, that loads the specified configuration file with a String argument. This works fine when I run my application from the command line and when the configuration file is not located in the JAR, but I need to include this configuration file in my JAR, so I can run my app in the JWS sandbox.
To load the file when it is NOT inside a JAR, and is simply located at config/nvacconfig, I just use:
id.properties.load("config/nvacconfig");and it loads the configuration file, nvacconfig.
When I include the file in my JAR and try to load it using a ClassLoader, it does not seem to work, and the load method cannot find the file. This is how I am trying to accomplish this:
ClassLoader cl = this.getClass().getClassLoader();
URL url = cl.getResource("config/nvacconfig");
String file = url.toString(); //I have also tried String file = url.getFile();
id.properties.load(file);This does not work, and I'm not sure why.
Is there something I am doing wrong? Is this the wrong way to go about this?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dan
Message was edited by:
Djaunl

Answer 1

try this:
import java.io.*;
import java.util.jar.*;
import java.util.zip.*;
public class ExtractFromJAR {
     public void extractFileFromJAR(String dest, String fileName) {
          try {
               String home = getClass().getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().getPath().replaceAll("%20",
               JarFile jar = new JarFile(home);
               ZipEntry entry = jar.getEntry(fileName);
               File efile = new File(dest, entry.getName());
               InputStream in = new BufferedInputStream(jar.getInputStream(entry));
               OutputStream out = new BufferedOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(efile));
               byte[] buffer = new byte[2048];
               for (;;) {
                    int nBytes = in.read(buffer);
                    if (nBytes <= 0)
                         break;
                    out.write(buffer, 0, nBytes);
               out.flush();
               out.close();
               in.close();
          } catch (Exception e) {
               e.printStackTrace();
     public static void main(String args[]) {
          new ExtractFromJAR().extractFileFromJAR(".", "file.txt");
}