Why does getResource return null

Question

I'm trying to access a file in my project. But getResource method returns null.

This is how my project looks like:

Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResource("assets/xxx.png"); //returns null

And how project folder in eclipse workspace looks like:

Why? I want to access files in my assets folder?

Edit I created a jar file and this is content of the jar:

Solved

First of all, I've a lot of image files so I want to organize all them in a folder. I put the assets folder in src directory and finally I was able to access the files.

this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("assets/xxx.png");

Answer 1

There are lot of ways to add a resource to the jar file, you can put it in src, add as a resource if you use maven, ant etc... If you able to bundle whole directory then you should be able to use your original piece of code. With the current structure you can use following piece of code.

Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResource("/xxx.png"). 

Answer 2

Try using / prefixing.

Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("/xxx.png")

Answer 3

For someone struggling as me. For Maven just run mvn clean install. After that Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResource() should work.