Accessing files inside a project without hardcoded file path

Last week while working , I had to access some icon file which was present in my workspace. Whiel accessing it using hard coded path, I was able to access it perfectly. But, I was unable to find the relative path of that file.

I almost wasted 1 whole day!!

Well, after wasting 1 whole day, this is what I came up with... A simple one liner... A permanent solution for this kind of problems. And, I wanted to document it somewhere, so that I won't again waste hours.

Step 1.

Simply put all the image files or other files which you want to access using relative path in a single folder. In my case, there all icons. So, I collected them all in a single folder called icons.

Step 2.

If you directly, want to read the file as a InputStream, simply use :

getClass().getResourceAsStream("/icons/closed_folder_small.png");

Or, if you want to read file in a URL form, write it like this :

getClass().getResource("/icons/closed_folder_small.png");

Happy Learning!