I need to read a properties files that's buried in my package structure in com.al.common.email.templates.
I've tried everything and I can't figure it out.
In the end, my code will be running in a servlet container, but I don't want to depend on the container for anything. I write JUnit test cases and it needs to work in both.
When loading the Properties from a Class in the package com.al.common.email.templates you can use
Properties prop = new Properties();
InputStream in = getClass().getResourceAsStream("foo.properties");
prop.load(in);
in.close();
(Add all the necessary exception handling).
If your class is not in that package, you need to aquire the InputStream slightly differently:
InputStream in =
getClass().getResourceAsStream("/com/al/common/email/templates/foo.properties");
Relative paths (those without a leading '/') in getResource()/getResourceAsStream() mean that the resource will be searched relative to the directory which represents the package the class is in.
Using java.lang.String.class.getResource("foo.txt") would search for the (inexistent) file /java/lang/String/foo.txt on the classpath.
Using an absolute path (one that starts with '/') means that the current package is ignored.
To add to Joachim Sauer's answer, if you ever need to do this in a static context, you can do something like the following:
static {
Properties prop = new Properties();
InputStream in = CurrentClassName.class.getResourceAsStream("foo.properties");
prop.load(in);
in.close()
}
(Exception handling elided, as before.)
Assuming your using the Properties class, via its load method, and I guess you are using the ClassLoader getResourceAsStream to get the input stream.
How are you passing in the name, it seems it should be in this form: /com/al/common/email/templates/foo.properties