Reading file external to jar file

[nn12]

I have a jar file which needs to read a properties file in the same location as the jar file. I get a filenotfound exception when I run the following command
D:\emailer>java -jar test.jar

the test.jar and the .properties file are in the same folder i.e d:\emailer

however when i run this app from eclipse its able to find the prop file and no errors thrown. Do I need to do anything different when i run it as a jar file?

[KevinWorkman]

What code do you use to access the file? Post it in the form of an SSCCE, and don't forget the code tags.

[nn12]

Here is my code. Let me know if I need to do anything different

public class MailerProperties {

	private static Properties properties;
	
	public MailerProperties() {
		properties = new Properties();
		InputStream inStream;
		try {
			inStream = (new ClassPathResource("mailer.properties")).getInputStream();			
			properties.load(inStream);
		} catch (IOException e) {			
			e.printStackTrace();
		}	
	}
	
	public String getValue(String key) {
		return properties.getProperty(key);
	}

	
}

and I also tried the code given below. Both did not work

File f = new File("mailer.properties");
if(f.exists()){
    Properties pro = new Properties();
    FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream(f);
    pro.load(in);
    // rest of code that handle the values from file....
}

[KevinWorkman]

That's not an SSCCE because it's not runnable and it contains a bunch of classes not from the standard API.

But I'll just throw this out there as a hint:

InputStream fileNextToJarStream = this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("FileNextToJar.txt");

[nn12]

Thanks Kevin, I will try this tomorrow and let you know!

[nn12]

kevin: do i also need to mention this properties file in the manifest file?

[nn12]

Hi, I tried with

inStream = this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("/mailer.properties");

and also with

inStream = this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("mailer.properties");

but in both the cases I got
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.abc.gip.mailer.utils.MailerProperties.<init>(M ailerPropertie
s.java:31)