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Reputation: 651

Packaging an Eclipse Program With External Files

I'm not sure if this was answered previously, I tried searching for the kind of question I am asking, but I couldn't find something satisfactory. If someone could point me to a similar question, that would help.

What I am trying to do is to package an eclipse program that has external files, such as images, into a single file, rather than a jar file and the supporting files placed in the same directory.

I am not sure if that is even possible, but is there some way in eclipse that would allow you to somehow package the external files along with the jar file in a single, neat file that can be executed easily?

EDIT:

Thanks to ortis and Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen, I figured out how to do it. Here are the steps for working it out:

  1. Firstly, ensure that all of your external files are in your src folder, not in your bin or workspace or whatever else. If you have packages in your project, they will appear as folders and the external files must be placed into those folders for use within that package.

  2. As for calls to the external files, don't do something like this:

    Image img = new Image("fileName");

    Rather do this:

    Image img = new Image(getClass().getResourceAsStream("fileName"));

    while ensuring that "fileName" is in the src folder or package folder, if you have packages.

Some points:

-If you are initializing a global variable using a file name that is outside of your main constructor or function call, getClass(), won't work. Use:

yourClassName.class.getResourceAsStream("fileName");

-if your using JavaFX Scenebuilder and you need to package your external CSS file, here is a solution that will help you load the style sheet in your program instead of using the .fxml file to do it.

-An InputStream variable can be assigned the result of 

getClass().getResourceAsStream("fileName"));

and be used instead of the whole mess.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 61

Answers (1)

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen
Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

Reputation: 75376

Yes. You must reference all external files as inputstreams instead (because you want the classloader to get them from inside a jar file), and then wrap the resulting single jar file as an EXE file using http://launch4j.sourceforge.net/

Upvotes: 1

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