Problems creating file. Can't get resource path.

Question

Hey, I'm new to Java with an Actionscript background and I'm using NetBeans IDE.
Now this comes with my basic lack of understanding for how Java works but I'm getting confused a lot so if someone could just steer me in the right direction I'd be very grateful.
Essentially I'm checking for a config file and if it's not there, I want to create a default one but the paths are messing me up. class.getResource seems to use the src or the build/classes dir? What's the relationship of these? If I put assets in the src folder should they be moved to the build folder or something like that?
The actual problem in code is that if I create a file, (config.xml) and put it in my src folder I can grab it using Main.class.getResource("config.xml"); Which is great but if the file's not there it throws an exception..
Now In actionscript I'd use the File class, which seems very similar to Java's. I'd pass in a literal for the filename "config.xml" and prepend a constant that gives the path of the apps storage directory. If the file's not there then the File.exists property == false.
What I need is to get the same path that getReresource("config.xml") outputs, but in a File and I can't do that with the exception being thrown because the file's not there.
Any help appreciated.. I can't read another blog full of different setups or face another Google page of results pertaining to different problems.
- Chris W

Answer 1

RoninStretch wrote:
Essentially I'm checking for a config file and if it's not there, I want to create a default one but the paths are messing me up. class.getResource seems to use the src or the build/classes dir?It looks relative to the classpath, as I recall.
What's the relationship of these? If I put assets in the src folder should they be moved to the build folder or something like that?NetBeans might do that for you. It's a reasonable thing for a build system to do.
You might be better off working without an IDE until you're more familiar with Java.
The actual problem in code is that if I create a file, (config.xml) and put it in my src folder I can grab it using Main.class.getResource("config.xml"); Which is great but if the file's not there it throws an exception..Actually I think getResource will return null if the resource isn't there. Are you not checking for null?
Now In actionscript I'd use the File class, which seems very similar to Java's. I'd pass in a literal for the filename "config.xml" and prepend a constant that gives the path of the apps storage directory. If the file's not there then the File.exists property == false.The Java File object refers to a path on the filesystem, not a virtual one in the manner of Class.getResource. Check the result of getResource to see if it's null.
What I need is to get the same path that getReresource("config.xml") outputs, but in a File and I can't do that with the exception being thrown because the file's not there.Can you show us the actual exception and actual code?
Anyway, if you're packaging all this up in a jar, you wouldn't put the new config.xml that you create in the jar anyway.
More likely you'd do something like:
1) check user's home directory for config.xml
2) if it's not present, check to see if there's a config.xml packaged in your jar.
3) if the user has any config changes, put them in a config.xml in the user's home directory.
So you wouldn't be trying to get the path of the default config.xml anyway.
Or maybe you can use the Preferences framework.