Unable to load properties file from filesystem

Question

Hi,
I have a client swing-applicatiion packaged in a jar-file. The application uses some resource files, including a xxxx.properties file to set defaults for the application. All resource files are included in the jar file and everything works as expected. I load the xxxx.properties file as follows:
is_ = getClass().getResourceAsStream("/resources/xxxx.properties");
Because it is not possibl to change any property values inside the jar-file without recreating this jar-file, i want to exclude the xxxx.properties file from the jar-file and put it in the folder containing the jar-file.
So i have:
drive:/folder/app.jar
drive:/folder/xxxx.properties
Now i read the xxxx.properties file from disk in stead of the 'resouce'-folder within my application (jar):
is_ = getClass().getResourceAsStream("drive:/folder/xxxx.propoerties");
but it doesn't work, the file isn't found.
What am i missing here?
Any suggestions?

Answer 1

The best way to approach this is to include the properties file in the Jar as you originally did. If the user changes any property, save the entire set of properties to a sub-directory of user.home (perhaps based on the package name of the main class). Check for the copy in user.home before using the 'default' properties built into the Jar.
Other places/ways to store the changed information.
- java.util.prefs.Preferences
- Assuming the app. has a GUI and can be deployed over a network, the JNLP API PersistenceService. Here is a demo. of the PersistenceService (http://pscode.org/jws/api.html#ps).
Edit 1:
I did not at first notice that this post was in Java Applet Development.
<li> Applets can also (theoretically) use cookies to store information. This is prone to failure when users disable cookies.
<li> To store information on the local file system (e.g. in user.home) or to use Preferences (AFAIU) would require trusted code.
<li> If the user has the Next Generation Java Plug-In (Java 1.6.0_10+) it is possible to leverage the JNLP API services in an embedded & sand-boxed applet.
Edited by: Andrew Thompson on Feb 1, 2011 9:32 AM