Can't access XML file in project directory

Question

Strange situation here and its driving me insane. I have a skeleton XML file in my project root directory and I want to read it into my program and modify it based on the users input. I'm getting a file not found exception and I can't understand why. My project is called customerCreator. The XML file is at:

C:\Users\user\Documents\NetBeansProjects\CustomerCreator\skeleton.xml

My Java source file is at:

C:\Users\user\Documents\NetBeansProjects\CustomerCreator\src\java\org\user\r6CustomerCreator\parsers\XMLParser.java

EDIT: Using the absolute filepath causes the follwing error: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: InputStream cannot be null

public class XMLParser {

    public XMLParser(Map paramMap) {
        parseXML(paramMap);
    }

    private void parseXML(Map<String, String> paramMap) {
        DocumentBuilderFactory builderFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
        DocumentBuilder builder = null;
        Document document = null;

            try {
                builder = builderFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
            } catch (ParserConfigurationException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();  
            }

            try {
                document = builder.parse(new FileInputStream("skeleton.xml"));
            } catch (SAXException | IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }

        System.out.print(document);
    }

}

vzamanillo · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-13T17:44:02.057

2

Try this

document = builder.parse(this.getClass().getResourceAsStream("/resources/skeleton.xml"));

It works for me

Netbeans

edited Dec 13 '13 at 17:44

answered Dec 13 '13 at 16:35

vzamanillo

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1
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Thanks but see my comment to Franck below. Same result! – adohertyd Dec 13 '13 at 16:39
Put your file in resources folder in netbeans and try again. – vzamanillo Dec 13 '13 at 16:44
So I put it in C:\Users\user\Documents\NetBeansProjects\r6CustomerCreator\src\resources\skeleton.xml but getting the same issue – adohertyd Dec 13 '13 at 16:50
It works. I don't know what I was doing wrong so I rewrote the class and it works now. Thanks – adohertyd Dec 16 '13 at 16:46

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 13 '13 at 16:24

1

you should try to use the fullpath. If it works it means that your active solution directory is not the one you think.

answered Dec 13 '13 at 16:24

Franck Ngako

163
6

Tried that and got the error: `java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: InputStream cannot be null` but I know for sure that the file is not empty – adohertyd Dec 13 '13 at 16:39

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

1

well, try to change your file extension and give it another try. If it works i will advice you to use dedicated xml classes in order to read from your file. try .txt extension

also have a look to this. Looks like you should use the following syntax FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream (new File(NAME_OF_FILE));

edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

Community

1
1

answered Dec 13 '13 at 16:55

Franck Ngako

163
6

Thanks Franck but still doesn't work with either suggestion :( – adohertyd Dec 13 '13 at 17:12

Can't access XML file in project directory

3 Answers3