including a file in a build

[Mario Bonassin]

I'm trying to include a file into a build that can then be read by the program. Here is my build.xml

<project name="WordCreator" default="dist" basedir=".">
    <description>
        simple example build file
    </description>
  <!-- set global properties for this build -->
  <property name="src" location="top"/>
  <property name="build" location="build"/>
  <property name="dist"  location="dist"/>
  <target name="init">
    <!-- Create the time stamp -->
    <tstamp/>
    <!-- Create the build directory structure used by compile -->
    <mkdir dir="${build}"/>
  </target>
  <target name="compile" depends="init"
        description="compile the source " >
    <!-- Compile the java code from ${src} into ${build} -->
    <javac srcdir="${src}" destdir="${build}"/>
  </target>
  <target name="dist" depends="compile"
        description="generate the distribution" >
    <!-- Create the distribution directory -->
    <mkdir dir="${dist}/lib"/>
    <!-- Put everything in ${build} into the MyProject-${DSTAMP}.jar file -->
    <jar jarfile="${dist}/lib/WordCreator-${DSTAMP}.jar" 
        basedir="${build}" 
        manifest="Manifest.mf"
    />
  </target>
  <target name="clean"
        description="clean up" >
    <!-- Delete the ${build} and ${dist} directory trees -->
    <delete dir="${build}"/>
    <delete dir="${dist}"/>
  </target>
</project>
  

and here is the code thay should be able to read a file called 'HELP'

InputStream help = ClassLoader.getSystemResourceAsStream("HELP");
        if (help != null) {
            try {
                jTextArea1.read(new InputStreamReader(help), "HELP");
            }
            catch (IOException ioe) {
                jTextArea1.setText("Unable to read help text from distribution.");
            }
        }
        else {
            jTextArea1.setText("Your distribution does not contain the help text.");
        }

When i compile normally it sees the file fine but how do I include it in the jar.
Thanks

[Nathaniel Stoddard]

Mario,
You can include nested filesets in the jar task to include your "HELP" file as part of your JAR.

[Mario Bonassin]

I've tried include, includes, and includesfile and none seemed to work. I assume that they are supposed to be withing the <jar> section right? I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
Mario

[Nathaniel Stoddard]

Mario,
It should show up in your JAR if you do it correctly. I don't know what happens when you specify the basedir and have nested filesets. I would try just nested filesets for you.

<jar jarfile="${dist}/lib/WordCreator-${DSTAMP}.jar manifest="Manifest.mf">
    <fileset dir="${build}>
        <include name="**/*"/>
    </fileset>
    <fileset dir="path/to/your/missing/file">
        <include name="HELP"/>
    </fileset>
</jar>

See how that goes.