Creating an ImageIcon

Question

I'm trying to create an ImageIcon and display it in a label. However, for some reason, it can't find the image. It's called "bullet.gif" and it's under the images subdirectory which is in the same directory as my class files.
However, when I try to simply load it with a filename like this:
image = new ImageIcon("image/bullet.gif");it doesn't work. No image is displayed.
So I try to do it like this:
URL iconURL = ClassLoader.getSystemResource("images/bullet.gif");
if (iconURL != null)
  image = new ImageIcon(iconURL);       
else
  image = new BulletIcon();
}This time, it uses the BulletIcon class (which simply draws a small circle) instead of loading the image, since iconURL is null. So, I assume that it's not finding the image.
So, to get to the point, I think my problem has to do with how Java looks for files. If anyone could help me out that would be great.

Answer 1

That worked. However, I don't think that was actually my problem. I knew this already, but Java doesn't search the directory the class file is in when it compiles, so it couldn't find the image because it wasn't in the classpath.
Anyway, thank you.