Error when I declare controller in fxml file

Question

I have read and tried many related questions and at the end posting a question here. I'm trying to open main window of software from login window. Login class is the entry point having main method. Everything works fine untill I do not declare mainWindowController in the mainWindow.fxml file. It gives loadException

javafx.fxml.LoadException: 
file:/C:/Users/PIU-PDMA/Documents/GitHub/ExamSystem/dist/run1388756810/ExamSoft.jar!/view/mainWindow.fxml:10

Here is my loginControllers method (method when I click login button)

@FXML
    void makeLogin(ActionEvent event) {

        FXMLLoader fXMLLoader;
        Parent root;
        Scene scene;
        try {
            root = FXMLLoader.load(getClass().getResource("/view/mainWindow.fxml"));

            Stage stage = new Stage();
            stage.setTitle("Main Window");
            stage.setScene(new Scene(root));
            stage.setMaximized(true);
            stage.show();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(getClass().getName());
            logger.log(Level.SEVERE, "Failed to create new Window.", e);
            JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Error ");
        }


    }

According to my research, we should use leading slash if we use getResource method and if we use getClassLoader we will not use the leading slash in the path

getClass().getResource("/view/login.fxml")); // correct with slash (/)
getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("view/login.fxml")); // correct without slash (/)

When I press ctlr and click on controller link in fxml file it takes me to the correct controller file. So I did not get why I'm facing this issue. Any help would be appreciated. Here is my structure

Here is complete stack trace

Executing C:\Users\PIU-PDMA\Documents\GitHub\ExamSystem\dist\run905143961\ExamSoft.jar using platform C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_181\jre/bin/java
Oct 05, 2018 9:25:06 PM controller.LoginController makeLogin
SEVERE: Failed to create new Window.
javafx.fxml.LoadException: 
file:/C:/Users/PIU-PDMA/Documents/GitHub/ExamSystem/dist/run905143961/ExamSoft.jar!/view/mainWindow.fxml:10

    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.constructLoadException(FXMLLoader.java:2601)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.access$700(FXMLLoader.java:103)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader$ValueElement.processAttribute(FXMLLoader.java:934)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader$InstanceDeclarationElement.processAttribute(FXMLLoader.java:971)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader$Element.processStartElement(FXMLLoader.java:220)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader$ValueElement.processStartElement(FXMLLoader.java:744)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.processStartElement(FXMLLoader.java:2707)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.loadImpl(FXMLLoader.java:2527)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.loadImpl(FXMLLoader.java:2441)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.loadImpl(FXMLLoader.java:3214)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.loadImpl(FXMLLoader.java:3175)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.loadImpl(FXMLLoader.java:3148)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.loadImpl(FXMLLoader.java:3124)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.loadImpl(FXMLLoader.java:3104)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.load(FXMLLoader.java:3097)
    at controller.LoginController.makeLogin(LoginController.java:56)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
    at sun.reflect.misc.Trampoline.invoke(MethodUtil.java:71)
    at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor1.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
    at sun.reflect.misc.MethodUtil.invoke(MethodUtil.java:275)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader$MethodHandler.invoke(FXMLLoader.java:1769)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader$ControllerMethodEventHandler.handle(FXMLLoader.java:1657)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventHandler.dispatchBubblingEvent(CompositeEventHandler.java:86)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventHandlerManager.dispatchBubblingEvent(EventHandlerManager.java:238)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventHandlerManager.dispatchBubblingEvent(EventHandlerManager.java:191)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventDispatcher.dispatchBubblingEvent(CompositeEventDispatcher.java:59)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:58)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:56)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:56)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventUtil.fireEventImpl(EventUtil.java:74)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventUtil.fireEvent(EventUtil.java:49)
    at javafx.event.Event.fireEvent(Event.java:198)
    at javafx.scene.Node.fireEvent(Node.java:8411)
    at javafx.scene.control.Button.fire(Button.java:185)
    at com.sun.javafx.scene.control.behavior.ButtonBehavior.mouseReleased(ButtonBehavior.java:182)
    at com.sun.javafx.scene.control.skin.BehaviorSkinBase$1.handle(BehaviorSkinBase.java:96)
    at com.sun.javafx.scene.control.skin.BehaviorSkinBase$1.handle(BehaviorSkinBase.java:89)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventHandler$NormalEventHandlerRecord.handleBubblingEvent(CompositeEventHandler.java:218)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventHandler.dispatchBubblingEvent(CompositeEventHandler.java:80)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventHandlerManager.dispatchBubblingEvent(EventHandlerManager.java:238)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventHandlerManager.dispatchBubblingEvent(EventHandlerManager.java:191)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventDispatcher.dispatchBubblingEvent(CompositeEventDispatcher.java:59)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:58)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:56)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:56)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventUtil.fireEventImpl(EventUtil.java:74)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventUtil.fireEvent(EventUtil.java:54)
    at javafx.event.Event.fireEvent(Event.java:198)
    at javafx.scene.Scene$MouseHandler.process(Scene.java:3757)
    at javafx.scene.Scene$MouseHandler.access$1500(Scene.java:3485)
    at javafx.scene.Scene.impl_processMouseEvent(Scene.java:1762)
    at javafx.scene.Scene$ScenePeerListener.mouseEvent(Scene.java:2494)
    at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.GlassViewEventHandler$MouseEventNotification.run(GlassViewEventHandler.java:394)
    at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.GlassViewEventHandler$MouseEventNotification.run(GlassViewEventHandler.java:295)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.GlassViewEventHandler.lambda$handleMouseEvent$353(GlassViewEventHandler.java:432)
    at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.QuantumToolkit.runWithoutRenderLock(QuantumToolkit.java:389)
    at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.GlassViewEventHandler.handleMouseEvent(GlassViewEventHandler.java:431)
    at com.sun.glass.ui.View.handleMouseEvent(View.java:555)
    at com.sun.glass.ui.View.notifyMouse(View.java:937)
    at com.sun.glass.ui.win.WinApplication._runLoop(Native Method)
    at com.sun.glass.ui.win.WinApplication.lambda$null$147(WinApplication.java:177)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalAccessException: Class sun.reflect.misc.ReflectUtil can not access a member of class controller.MainWindowController with modifiers ""
    at sun.reflect.Reflection.ensureMemberAccess(Reflection.java:102)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:436)
    at sun.reflect.misc.ReflectUtil.newInstance(ReflectUtil.java:51)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader$ValueElement.processAttribute(FXMLLoader.java:927)
    ... 71 more

Controller class

class MainWindowController {
     @FXML
    private AnchorPane main_layout;

@FXML
    void pinWindow(ActionEvent event) {
        Stage s = (Stage) main_layout.getScene().getWindow();
        s.setAlwaysOnTop(true);
    }

}

Answer 1

Your MainWindowContoller class is package private (it does not have an access modifier). This means that your FXML files cannot find it because it is inaccessible outside of the controller package.

Change the class declaration to public class MainWindowController { instead.

---

On a side note: the top line of a stack trace rarely points to the actual cause of the error. That is generally just where the execution of the application halted.

You need to look for the lines within the StackTrace that start with "Caused By:" in order to find the actual error.