How do I read a resource file from a Java jar file?

Question

I'm trying to access an XML file within a jar file, from a separate jar that's running as a desktop application. I can get the URL to the file I need, but when I pass that to a FileReader (as a String) I get a FileNotFoundException saying "The file name, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect."

As a point of reference, I have no trouble reading image resources from the same jar, passing the URL to an ImageIcon constructor. This seems to indicate that the method I'm using to get the URL is correct.

URL url = getClass().getResource("/xxx/xxx/xxx/services.xml"); ServicesLoader jsl = new ServicesLoader( url.toString() ); 

Inside the ServicesLoader class I have

XMLReader xr = XMLReaderFactory.createXMLReader(); xr.setContentHandler( this ); xr.setErrorHandler( this ); xr.parse( new InputSource( new FileReader( filename ))); 

What's wrong with using this technique to read the XML file?

Answer 1

Looks like you want to use java.lang.Class.getResourceAsStream(String), see

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/lang/Class.html#getResourceAsStream-java.lang.String-

Answer 2

You don't say if this is a desktop or web app. I would use the getResourceAsStream() method from an appropriate ClassLoader if it's a desktop or the Context if it's a web app.