File IO outside of JAR

[redZERO]

Hi everyone

I have a project that I have created in Netbeans.

I would like to deploy it as a JAR file, so i have "build"'ed it and I have a jar which runs nicely in the /dist folder.

Problem is, the program in question requires reading from and writing to, the same file.

Now I have read somewhere that it is not possible to write to files within a jar file, so I want to access a resource outside of the jar file.

The thing is, I have searched and searched and I still cannot find a way to access and write to files outside of the JAR file?

Any pointers?

[NormR1]

The normal way for a java program to access and write files has nothing to do with whether the code is in a jar. If you can write a program to read and write to a file using files vs resources, that class will work the same if it is in a jar or if the program classes are in a folder.

I want to access a resource outside of the jar file

Can you change the code to use files vs resources?

[redZERO]

I certainly can, that was how I had it before I started using URLs and .getResource()

However, the reason I used .getResource was so that I didn't have to specify absolute paths; I wanted the folder to be mobile (I can copy the folder to another PC and it will work fine.)

[NormR1]

Can you use relative paths?
Who decides where to put the files you want to be able to read/write?

[redZERO]

I'm using NetBeans, as far as I know it doesn't allow for relative paths. I decide where I want them to be. For example, all I want to do is put the text file in the /dist folder with the JAR and then put that folder anywhere and it will run and be able to find the file.

[NormR1]

Strange behavior for your IDE. You mean you can't code:
String path = "aFolder/Afile.txt"; // relative path to the file
File aFile = new File(path);

[redZERO]

EDIT:

It appears that that does work. I feel silly, and annoyed because I have never been able to get this to work and now it does.

Thank you!

[Ezzaral]

Where are you putting the jar? It should treat the jar file location as the root and paths relative to that location should resolve just fine.

[NormR1]

IDEs can be confusing. Lots of power, but lots to learn.