java - 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.