Cannot Find "Properties" File

[JiaPei Jen]

I have a MessageResources.properties file that contains the text to be displayed on the labels and buttons in the form.
Nonetheless, I got HTTP Status 500 and the problem is that the text provided in that file cannot be picked up - I think it results from not finding the file.
I checked:
1. name of the file: it is a correct spelling
2. location of the file: it is in the correct directory
3. type of the file: the Windows Explorer shows the type of that file is a PROPERTIES file
I need your experience to tell what else could go wrong. Please help.

[Michael Morris]

Hi Jen,
Are you trying to load the properties file thru a servlet? If so the problem could be that the servlet can't see a file on the host's file system. All it is going to be able to see are files in its virtual path.
Michael Morris

[JiaPei Jen]

The properties file is kept in the same directory with all compiled servlet class files.
I am very frustrated by the problem.

[Garrett Smith]

[mods: plz move this thread to Servlets forum]
I was totally frustrated with this for a while. I got intermittent behavior and figured out that when I start Tomcat from the directory containing .properties file, it worked. I think it has to do with the classloader finding it in that case.
Fortunately, there's a much better solution than that.
You must use Class.getResourceAsStream() so that tomcat can find the file.
Here's an example:

    /** getFileContents accepts a filename (a String), 
     *  and returns a String with the text of that file. 
     *
     *  @param the filename to read
     *  @see java.io.InputStream
     *  @return java.lang.String
     *  @throw java.io.IOException
     */ 
    private static String getFileContents(final String filename) throws IOException{
        
        String ret = (String)UNFORMATTED_MESSAGES.get(filename);
        if(ret == null){
            
            if(filename == null)
                throw new NullPointerException("filename is null. filename: "+filename);
            
            String fileToFind = (filename.trim().indexOf("/") == 0) ? filename : "/" + filename;
                
            InputStream is = FileFormatter.class.getResourceAsStream(fileToFind);
            
            if(is == null)
                throw new NullPointerException("no input stream for file. file: " + fileToFind); 
            
            StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
    
            byte[] data = new byte[500];
            int len;
            for (len = is.read(data); len != -1; len = is.read(data))
                sb.append(new String(data)+"\r\n");
                
            is.close();
            ret = sb.toString();
            UNFORMATTED_MESSAGES.put(filename, ret);
        }
        return ret;
    }