Java - How to make .jar file use external .txt file?

Question

I have file "recipients.txt" that contains as you might have guessed list of recipients. I will need to update it from time to time, therefore I was planning on having it in the same directory as the .jar file I exported in order to do so.

At the moment i have it in the "bin" directory of my project in my eclipse workspace. I load the file into variable using FileReader.

When I tried exporting it as "runnable jar file" i could not access it. I've put an option there to show a JOptionPane with the path that the application was looking in, and it is weird.

The pane tells me that it was looking for file "\Desktop\JarFile.jarrecipients.txt".

Yes, that is correct, one "\" is missing.

So what am I doing wrong and how do I do this right? I am pretty sure I am doing it all wrong, in which case how would I do it right? How could I have a file that I can keep up to date on a regular basis? And how would I export it all to make it work?

The code:

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileReader;

public class DeliveryPackage {
public String recipientList="No Recipients";
public String recipientFileName = "recipients.txt";
public String recipientFilePath = DeliveryPackage.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().toString().replace("file:/","").replace("/", "\\") + recipientFileName;
public File recipientFile = new File(recipientFilePath);
public String fileNotFoundMessage = "File not found";
private String messageContents = "";
private String messageSubject = "";

public void setMessageSubject(String subject) {
    messageSubject = subject;
}

public String getMessageSubject() {
    return messageSubject;
}

public void setMessageContents(String message) {
    messageContents = message;
}

public String getMessageContents() {
    return messageContents;
}

public DeliveryPackage() {
    loadRecipients();
}

public String getRecipients(){
    return recipientList;
}

public String getRecipientFileName() {
    return recipientFileName;
}

public File getRecipientFile(String recipientFilePath) {
    File recipFile = new File(recipientFilePath);
    return recipFile;
}

public String getFileNotFoundMessage() {
    return "File not found";
}

public void loadRecipients() {

    if(recipientFile.exists() && !recipientFile.isDirectory()) { 
        String recipient;
        recipientList = "";
        try {
            FileReader fileReader = new FileReader(recipientFile);
            BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(fileReader);
            while((recipient = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {
                if (recipient.trim().length() > 0) {
                    if (recipientList == "") {
                        recipientList = recipient;
                    } else {
                        recipientList = recipientList + "," + recipient;
                    }
                }
            }   
            // Always close files.
            bufferedReader.close();
        } catch (Exception e) {

        }       
    } else {
        recipientList = getFileNotFoundMessage();
    }
}
}

Thanks

Please clarify your specific problem or add additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it’s hard to tell exactly what you're asking. See the How to Ask page for help clarifying this question. — Reporter, May 24 '18 at 14:06

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 24 '18 at 14:15

1

As you can read here: How to get the path of a running JAR file?

This line returns the path of your jar file. Including the jars name.

DeliveryPackage.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().toString()

You should remove that. The question I mentioned shows how to do it.

answered May 24 '18 at 14:15

NielsNet

818
8
11

he said that the pane gives him "\Desktop\JarFile.jarrecipients.txt". i think he only needs a slash – Elhoussine Zennati May 24 '18 at 14:21
You can see that there is JarFile.jar in the path. That is the name of his jar file. Adding a slash wouldn't help. – NielsNet May 24 '18 at 14:23
well here is a link for more information https://stackoverflow.com/questions/320542/how-to-get-the-path-of-a-running-jar-file – Elhoussine Zennati May 24 '18 at 14:24
@ElhoussineZennati that ia the link I used in my answer... – NielsNet May 24 '18 at 14:27
sorry man , i didn't check it , my bad – Elhoussine Zennati May 24 '18 at 14:38
Why does it work in Eclipse and not when exported? Using the link you gave me I am getting "/C:/Users/username/eclipse-workspace/project1/bin/", using what I already have gives me "C:\Users\username\eclipse-workspace\project1\bin\" so I have no idea whether it actually helps me – GohanCZ May 24 '18 at 14:38
Alright, in the end I ended up checking if the path had ".jar" in it, and then I used lasIndexOf to manipulate the path to work. – GohanCZ May 24 '18 at 15:52
@GohanCZ thw difference should be that it works both in eclipse and as jar. – NielsNet May 24 '18 at 16:18
@NielsNet I tried it, unfortunately it did not work. Therefore I had to do with a workaround. – GohanCZ May 25 '18 at 10:34

Java - How to make .jar file use external .txt file?

1 Answers1