Issue while loading images packaged in jar

[Bhakta Pradhan]

Hi,
I have used icons for buttons in my applications.Below code is able to load images when it is run from IDE(eclipse). But when I package everything in a jar file the images are not getting loaded.
Find the attachment to view the jar contents. Can you please let me know what should I do to load those images packaged inside jar file?
I'm using the below code.

JButton menuButton=null;
menuButton= PMUtil.createMenuButton(..,"monitor.png",..,..,..)

where createMenuButton is a static method

	public static JButton createMenuButton(String systemToolTip, String iconPath, String actionCommand, MouseListener highlight, ActionListener listener) 
         {
                // other codes
		String imageURL = loadFile(iconPath);
		button.setIcon(new ImageIcon(imageURL));
                //other codes
          }

where loadFile method is

public static String loadFile(String filePath) {
		String file = CommonConstants.Paths.IMAGE_PATH + filePath;
		return (file);
	}

where image path is defined as

public static final String IMAGE_PATH = "./resources/images/";

[Rob Spoor]

Use Class.getResource or ClassLoader.getResource. Both return a URL that you can use directly with ImageIcon.

[Bhakta Pradhan]

Hi Rob,
Thanks for your response. I changed the code as below.But My program is getting terminated without any error or warning message. Using println statement I found that it's getting terminated once it's trying to execute ClassLoader.getSyatemResource() Please let me know if I'm doing something wrong?

		URL imgURL = ClassLoader.getSystemResource(iconPath);
		button.setIcon(new ImageIcon(imgURL));

where iconPath is string(image file name eg. "Monitoring.png")

NB:- above code is present inside static method

[Paul Clapham]

What does getSystemResource do? And why did you choose that method instead of what Rob suggested in his post?

[Bhakta Pradhan]

Hi Paul,
Thanks for looking into my issue.Actually I couldn't find ClassLoader.getResource() but I found ClassLoader.getSystemResource(). Hence I used the later. Please suggest me what shall I do?

[Michael Dunn]

> Please suggest me what shall I do?

open the apidocs for Class

[Paul Clapham]

Bhakta Pradhan wrote:Please suggest me what shall I do?

I always use Class.getResource for this, and that was one of Rob's suggestions.

[Bhakta Pradhan]

Hi I modified my code still images are not getting loaded.

URL imgURL=this.getClass().getResource("resources/images/deploy.png");
if(imgURL !=null){
			System.out.println(imgURL.toString());
			}else{
				System.out.println("resources not found");
			}
menuButtons[i].setIcon(new ImageIcon(imgURL));

it's not able to find the image .I have also tried only image name getResource("deploy.png")

[Michael Dunn]

in mthe Swing FAQ you'll find an example of a background image in a panel,
which uses similar code.

add a button to the panel (remove the paintComponent bit - meaning you'll have to handle the 'catch')
use the image to set the button's icon
add the panel to a frame
compile/run, if image displays OK, .jar it
run the .jar, see how you go

[Rob Spoor]

When you use Class.getResource, the resource is taken relative to the current class. To use an absolute resource, it must start with a "/". Note that ClassLoader.getResource always uses absolute resource names that should not start with a "/".

[Rob Spoor]

As a follow-up from your other thread, to let Eclipse put the images / resources folder on your class path it should be a source path.

[Bhakta Pradhan]

Thans Rob I was able to load the images.

URL imgURL=getClass().getResource("/images/deploy.png");

[Rob Spoor]

You're welcome.