java - Images Won't Appear In A Jar

Question

So I am making a basic text adventure game using Java, and I have decided to include images. The code I use to load my images onto the program is this:

imagePanel = new JPanel();
imagePanel.setBounds(50, 50, 400, 260);
imagePanel.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
con.add(imagePanel);

imageLabel = new JLabel();

image = new ImageIcon(".//res//towngate.jpg");

imageLabel.setIcon(image);
imagePanel.add(imageLabel);

When I run the program in eclipse everything works perfectly fine, but when I export it as a jar none of the images appear. If anyone could help me fix this I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

Answer 1

Be sure that your icon is included to the jar file, and try to find in runtime with a classloader. (Example below) Don't use any relative or absolute path just use the file name:

public ImageIcon loadIcon(String iconName) throws IOException {
  ClassLoader loader = this.getClass().getClassLoader();
  BufferedImage icon = 
  ImageIO.read(loader.getResourceAsStream(iconName));
  return new ImageIcon(icon);
}