Read a properties file

Question

hi all,
i do have a java class, it's a WebService in fact, coded in java. I must add something, and as i learned by myself java there some things i don't know.
my class must access to a properties file to store data like server, dbs path etc... this file will also be changeable by an administrator on the machine
i'have seen that with java.util.Properties there is a method to save the properties into an outputstream (consequently into a file i guess), but i have never dealed with output and files, so i'm a bit lost, could someone give me some clues, or a link to some code ?
regards

Answer 1

Here is some code. These methods just override methods in java.util.Properties with a new instance of a Properties-like class called MyProperties. To make an instance of this class, just pass in the file name into the constructor. THIS CODE WON'T WORK BY ITSELF AND YOU WILL NEED TO MAKE MODIFICATIONS! It's just some old code i pulled down from an old app i wrote. A better way to do this would be just extending from java.util.Properties, but i don't have time to fix it.
public MyProperties (String name) throws FileNotFoundException,IOException {
          this.name = name;
//creates input stream of the file you passed in
          inFile = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(name));
//instance of java.util.properties
          prop = new Properties();
          prop.load(inFile);
     //containsKey wrapper
     public boolean containsKey(String key) {                                   //'key' is the key you search for in the 'name' file
          return prop.containsKey(key);
     //saves the passed value to the specified key (writes to the file). Define 'header' to add a header message at the beginning of the file.
     public void store(String header) throws IOException {
//your output file...in this case, it's also the input file     
BufferedOutputStream outFile = new BufferedOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(name));
          prop.store(outFile,header);
          return;
     // setProperty
     public void setProperty(String key, String attribute) {                    //sets the key 'key' to the value 'attribute'
//before writing to the file, YOU should check whether the user has admin privileges!     
prop.setProperty(key, attribute);
     // getProperty
     public String getProperty(String key) {                                        //gets the value of the key 'key'
     String theAttribute = prop.getProperty(key);
     return theAttribute;