getClassLoader().getResource() returns null

Question

I have this test app:

import java.applet.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.net.URL;
public class Test extends Applet
{

    public void init()
    {
        URL some=Test.class.getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("/assets/pacman.png");
        System.out.println(some.toString());
        System.out.println(some.getFile());
        System.out.println(some.getPath());

    }
}

When I run it from Eclipse, I get the error:

java.lang.NullPointerException
    at Test.init(Test.java:9)
    at sun.applet.AppletPanel.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Classpath (from .CLASSPATH file)

<classpathentry kind="src" path="src"/>

In my c:\project\src folder, I have only the Test.java file and the 'assets' directory which contains pacman.png.

What am I doing wrong and how to resolve it?

Answer 1

You don't need the slash at the start when getting a resource from a ClassLoader, because there's no idea of a "relative" part to start with. You only need it when you're getting a resource from a Class where relative paths go from the class's package level.

In addition, you don't want Test.class.getClass() as that gets the class of Test.class, which will be Class<Class>.

In other words, try either of these lines:

URL viaClass=Test.class.getResource("/assets/pacman.png");
URL viaLoader=Test.class.getClassLoader().getResource("assets/pacman.png");