Read from own jar file

Question

Using netBeans IDE 4.1 I wrote a stand-lone application contained in a single jar file. It transforms xml files into drawings. I'd like to distribute the application with some sample xml-files in that one jar-file. But how can I make the application read these embedded files?
I looked at the SplitPaneDemo that uses a list of images to display.
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorialJWS/uiswing/components/example-1dot4/SplitPaneDemo.jnlp
works.
I also downloaded
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorialNB/download/tut-examples.zip
extracted uiswing/components/example-swing
created a new project from existing sources
made SplitPaneDemo the main class
and run it after a clean build.
The images are in the jar-file, but no images appear.
Is the problem in the second attempt a missing classpath? In that case: how can I prevent my a-technical users having to set a classpath, or how can I find out and use the absulute path to the jar-file?
Jo

Answer 1

But my browser (FireFox 1.0.7 on Windows XP Home edition) isn't launched (and no error shown) with
String url = "" +getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("path/to/page.html");
try {
            Runtime.getRuntime().exec( "rundll32 url.dll,FileProtocolHandler " + url);
} catch (java.io.IOException e) {
            javax.swing.JOptionPane.showMessageDialog
                    ( this
                    , url
                    , "debug info"
                    , javax.swing.JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE
}