How to load properties file

Question

Hello Everyone,
We are experiencing difficulties when trying to load a properties file from a directory other then the one where the servlet is located. We are using the following code for this purpose:
private final String PROP_FILE_NAME = "my.properties";
Properties props = new Properties();
try {
props.load(getClass().getResourceAsStream(codeBase + PROP_FILE_NAME));
} catch(IOException e) {
//handle error ...
where codeBase is either physical directory path to the properties file or the URL. In either case we get a NullPointer exception which means that file is not found. But when we copy the properties file into the same directory where the servlet resides, everything works fine.
Does anybody have an idea as to how to resolve our problem?
Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
Y.M.

Answer 1

HI,
I always keep my properties in a sub-directory called resources. In this case it is called Aircraft.properties.
* Holds the ResourceBundle of this object.
     private static ResourceBundle resources;
     static
          try
               resources = ResourceBundle.getBundle("resources.Aircraft", Locale.getDefault());
          catch (MissingResourceException mre)
               System.err.println("resources/Aircraft.properties not found");
               System.exit(1);
// Here I pick up the data from the properties file
     protected String getResourceString(String nm)
          String str;
          try
               str = resources.getString(nm);
          catch (MissingResourceException mre)
               str = null;
          return str;
// In this case I use menubar as key to my properties
String[] menuKeys = tokenize(getResourceString("menubar"));
Hope this will help a bit.
Klint