Location of application-specific properties files

Question

I am using Tomcat 4.0.3 under WinXP Pro, and I am trying to get my
application to "find" an application-specific properties file. I am having problems trying to determine which directory to put this file in.
Here is the Java code I am using for this class:
import java.util.Properties;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
public class ForumProperties extends Properties {
   private static final String DEFAULT_FILENAME = "/WEB-INF/classes/mystuff.properties";
   private static ForumProperties globalProps;
   private ForumProperties() {
   private ForumProperties(String fileName) throws Exception {
      this();
      load(new FileInputStream(fileName));
   public static ForumProperties getInstance() throws Exception {
      try {
         if (globalProps == null)
            globalProps = new ForumProperties(DEFAULT_FILENAME);
      } catch (Exception ex) {
         ex.printStackTrace(System.out);
         throw new Exception("Error loading properties file");
      return globalProps;
}I have put the properties file in just about every directory I can think of to try and find out where it's supposed to be, but I can't get it to work. I can put the file into the "user.home" System property (which turns out to be C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator) and have it pick it up, but I would prefer to put the file into the path of the application.
I have tried four different methods to load this file:
1. load(new FileInputStream(fileName)); (same as above)
2. load(Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(fileName));
3. load(this.getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(fileName));
4. load(getServletContext().getResourceAsStream(fileName));
All of them fail for not finding the file except #4, but that's not the
optimal solution as it requires a servlet context, which for "genericness of code reasons", I DON'T want to do.
As an aside, I pulled the "java.class.path" from the System properties to see where it's pointing, and all it has in it is
"<CATALINA_HOME>\bin\bootstrap.jar" with no other paths included.
Is there an attribute or something in the server.xml or web.xml file I am forgetting to set, or another approach I should be taking?
Bob

Answer 1

See if this code fragment helps.
          String MAIN_FILE_PATH = "./BlueGnome/demos/Properties/DemoPropertiesFile.properties";
          java.net.URL url = ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader().getResource(MAIN_FILE_PATH);
          System.out.println("PATH: resolved name = " + url);
          // Get the file.
          // We could just use FileInputStream here.  Then we would have
          // to provide a path that was meaningful to the system like
          //     c:\java\BlueGnome\demos\Properties\DemoPropertiesFile.properties
          // Doing it this way allows us to use generic directory
          // seperators and allows for it to search for the file using
          // the CLASSPATH.  That also allows for it to be in a jar file.
          java.io.InputStream is;
          is = ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(MAIN_FILE_PATH);
          if (is == null)
               throw new Exception("Resource File "
                    + MAIN_FILE_PATH + " not found.");
          aProperties.load(is);