Reading/Writing to Properties Files inside the jar file

Question

So i am getting back into writing Java after 4 years so please forgive any "rookie" mistakes.

I need to have a properties file where i can store some simple data for my application. The app data itself won't reside here but i will be storing info such as the file path to the last used data store, other settings, etc.

I managed to connect to the properties file which exists inside the same package as the class file attempting to connect to it and i can read the file but i am having trouble writing back to the file. I am pretty sure that my code works (at least it's not throwing any errors) but the change isn't reflected in the file itself after the app is run in Netbeans.

In the above image you can see the mainProperties.properties file in question and the class attempting to call it (prefManagement.java). So with that in mind here is my code to load the file:

Properties mainFile = new Properties();
try {

    mainFile.load(prefManagement.class.getClass().getResourceAsStream("/numberAdditionUI/mainProperties.properties"));


} catch (IOException a) {

    System.out.println("Couldn't find/load file!");

}

This works and i can check and confirm the one existing key (defaultXMLPath).

My code to add to this file is:

String confirmKey = "defaultXMLPath2";

String propKey = mainFile.getProperty(confirmKey);

if (propKey == null) {

    // Key is not present so enter the key into the properties file
    mainFile.setProperty(confirmKey, "testtest");


    try{

        FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("mainProperties.properties");
        mainFile.store(fos, "testtest3");
        fos.flush();

    }catch(FileNotFoundException e ){
        System.out.println("Couldn't find/load file3!");
    }catch(IOException b){
        System.out.println("Couldn't find/load file4!");
    }



} else {

    // Throw error saying key already exists
    System.out.println("Key " + confirmKey + " already exists.");

}

As i mentioned above, everything runs without any errors and i can play around with trying to add the existing key and it throws the expected error. But when trying to add a new key/value pair it doesn't show up in the properties file afterwords. Why?

Answer 1

You should not be trying to write to "files" that exist inside of the jar file. Actually, technically, jar files don't hold files but rather they hold "resources", and for practical purposes, they are read-only. If you need to read and write to a properties file, it should be outside of the jar.

Answer 2

Your code writes to a local file mainProperties.properties the properties.

After you run your part of code, there you will find that a file mainProperties.properties has been created locally.

FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("mainProperties.properties");

Could order not to confuse the two files you specify the local file to another name. eg mainAppProp.properties .

• Read the complete contents of the resource mainProperties.properties .
• Write all the necessary properties to the local file mainAppProp.properties .

---

 FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("mainAppProp.properties");

switch if file exists to your local file , if not create the file mainAppProp.properties and write all properties to it.

• Test if file mainAppProp.properties exists locally.
• Read the properties into a new "probs" variable.
• Use only this file from now on.

Under no circumstances you can write the properties back into the .jar file.

Test it like

    [...]
    if (propKey == null) {
    // Key is not present so enter the key into the properties file
    mainFile.setProperty(confirmKey, "testtest");


    [...]
    Reader reader = null;
    try
    {
    reader = new FileReader( "mainAppProp.properties" );
    Properties prop2 = new Properties();
    prop2.load( reader );
    prop2.list( System.out );
    }
    catch ( IOException e )
    {
    e.printStackTrace();
    }
    finally
    {
    if (reader != null) {
    reader.close(); 
    }
    }
    }
    [...]
   }

output : with prop2.list( System.out );

-- listing properties --
defaultXMLPath2=testtest

content of the file mainAppProp.properties

#testtest3
#Mon Jul 14 14:33:20 BRT 2014
defaultXMLPath2=testtest

Answer 3

Challenge: Read the Property file location in jar file Read the Property file Write the variable as system variables

public static void loadJarCongFile(Class Utilclass )
    {
       try{         
             String path= Utilclass.getResource("").getPath();
             path=path.substring(6,path.length()-1);
             path=path.split("!")[0];
             System.out.println(path);
             JarFile jarFile = new JarFile(path);

               final Enumeration<JarEntry> entries = jarFile.entries();
               while (entries.hasMoreElements()) {
                   final JarEntry entry = entries.nextElement();
                   if (entry.getName().contains(".properties")) {
                       System.out.println("Jar File Property File: " + entry.getName());
                       JarEntry fileEntry = jarFile.getJarEntry(entry.getName());
                       InputStream input = jarFile.getInputStream(fileEntry);
                       setSystemvariable(input);      
                       InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(input); 
                       BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(isr);
                       String line;

                       while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
                           System.out.println("Jar file"+line);
                       }
                       reader.close();
                   }
               }
       }
       catch (Exception e)
       {
          System.out.println("Jar file reading Error");
       }
    }
    public static void setSystemvariable(InputStream input)
    {
    Properties tmp1 = new Properties();
       try {
             tmp1.load(input);

       for (Object element : tmp1.keySet()) {
             System.setProperty(element.toString().trim(),
                           tmp1.getProperty(element.toString().trim()).trim());
             }      
       } catch (IOException e) {
             System.out.println("setSystemvariable method failure");
       }
    }