Loading a properties file from Java package

Question

When loading the Properties from a Class in the package com.al.common.email.templates you can use

Properties prop = new Properties();
InputStream in = getClass().getResourceAsStream("foo.properties");
prop.load(in);
in.close();

(Add all the necessary exception handling).

If your class is not in that package, you need to aquire the InputStream slightly differently:

InputStream in = 
 getClass().getResourceAsStream("/com/al/common/email/templates/foo.properties");

Relative paths (those without a leading '/') in getResource()/getResourceAsStream() mean that the resource will be searched relative to the directory which represents the package the class is in.

Using java.lang.String.class.getResource("foo.txt") would search for the (inexistent) file /java/lang/String/foo.txt on the classpath.

Using an absolute path (one that starts with '/') means that the current package is ignored.

To add to Joachim Sauer's answer, if you ever need to do this in a static context, you can do something like the following:

static {
  Properties prop = new Properties();
  InputStream in = CurrentClassName.class.getResourceAsStream("foo.properties");
  prop.load(in);
  in.close()
}

(Exception handling elided, as before.)

The following two cases relate to loading a properties file from an example class named TestLoadProperties.

Case 1: Loading the properties file using ClassLoader

InputStream inputStream = TestLoadProperties.class.getClassLoader()
                          .getResourceAsStream("A.config");
properties.load(inputStream);

In this case the properties file must be in the root/src directory for successful loading.

Case 2: Loading the properties file without using ClassLoader

InputStream inputStream = getClass().getResourceAsStream("A.config");
properties.load(inputStream);

In this case the properties file must be in the same directory as the TestLoadProperties.class file for successful loading.

Note: TestLoadProperties.java and TestLoadProperties.class are two different files. The former, .java file, is usually found in a project's src/ directory, while the latter, .class file, is usually found in its bin/ directory.

public class Test{  
  static {
    loadProperties();
}
   static Properties prop;
   private static void loadProperties() {
    prop = new Properties();
    InputStream in = Test.class
            .getResourceAsStream("test.properties");
    try {
        prop.load(in);
        in.close();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

}

public class ReadPropertyDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Properties properties = new Properties();

        try {
            properties.load(new FileInputStream(
                    "com/technicalkeeda/demo/application.properties"));
            System.out.println("Domain :- " + properties.getProperty("domain"));
            System.out.println("Website Age :- "
                    + properties.getProperty("website_age"));
            System.out.println("Founder :- " + properties.getProperty("founder"));

            // Display all the values in the form of key value
            for (String key : properties.stringPropertyNames()) {
                String value = properties.getProperty(key);
                System.out.println("Key:- " + key + "Value:- " + value);
            }

        } catch (IOException e) {
            System.out.println("Exception Occurred" + e.getMessage());
        }

    }
}

Assuming your using the Properties class, via its load method, and I guess you are using the ClassLoader getResourceAsStream to get the input stream.

How are you passing in the name, it seems it should be in this form: /com/al/common/email/templates/foo.properties