Read a file automatically

[lemontree45]

Hi,

I have a program where I need to open and read an excel file. I have finished developing this application but has a problem.

I need to open and read an xls file in this program. The same xls has to be read all the time when I run the application. but I have to distribute this application to many other people. So
I cannot give the file path as it varies with different users. like "C:\\sample.xls".

So how do I associate it with the .jar file so that it becomes a part of the program rather than being individual.

Any sort of help is appreciated.

Thanks

[KevinWorkman]

Can't you just pack it into the Jar?

[lemontree45]

Did you mean zipping it along with the jar file and distributing?

I can do that. but even then, I need to demand that this file has to be unzipped to a particular location,
say if I have mentioned the path as "C:\\sample.xls" in the program, they need to unzip the file to that location "C:\\". Otherwise the file cannot be found and accessed.

I am wondering whether there are some way to import this file and make it a part of the jar file like adding an image to a form. I am still new to Java and working in netbeans. If so please let me know.

I am trying to avoid using a JFileChooser here as I have already couple of JFilechooser implemented in this applicaiton. and since this file which has to be selected remains the same everytime I run the program, I would like to select it by default.

Any sort of help is really appreciated.
Thanks in advance

[KevinWorkman]

Did you mean zipping it along with the jar file and distributing?

No, that is not what I meant.

I am wondering whether there are some way to import this file and make it a part of the jar file like adding an image to a form. I am still new to Java and working in netbeans. If so please let me know.

That is what I meant. I would try to work it out without using netbeans if you're still new to how things are set up.

Go through this tutorial: Lesson: Packaging Programs in JAR Files (The Java™ Tutorials > Deployment)

[lemontree45]

Thanks for the idea. I could pack the xls file in the appropriate class folder.

But, could you please tell me, how could I represent its pathname in the program to access the file.

File ff=new File("what should be the path name here");


Thanks & Regards

[lemontree45]

Thanks. I figured it out.

Using .getResourceAsStream

Regards

[tnrh1]

I know that you solved your problem but I have a question regarded to this topic:

Go through this tutorial: Lesson: Packaging Programs in JAR Files (The Java™ Tutorials > Deployment)

I was just looking around the topic, and checked this link posted by KevinWorkman.
I started reading and it became interesting, so I keep on reading and I couldn't understand one thing:
There are alot of commands that I could not understand where to use them:

jar cf jar-file input-file(s)
jar tf jar-file
jar xf jar-file

and so on ..

This is definitely not Java, I tried using the cmd window and it won't work.
I'm missing somthing it's killing me!!

[KevinWorkman]

I know that you solved your problem but I have a question regarded to this topic:

I was just looking around the topic, and checked this link posted by KevinWorkman.
I started reading and it became interesting, so I keep on reading and I couldn't understand one thing:
There are alot of commands that I could not understand where to use them:

jar cf jar-file input-file(s)
jar tf jar-file
jar xf jar-file

and so on ..

This is definitely not Java, I tried using the cmd window and it won't work.
I'm missing somthing it's killing me!!

You should have posted this in your own thread.

But since we're here anyway, those are shell commands. You type them into the command prompt.

For more info: "Hello World!" for Microsoft Windows (The Java™ Tutorials > Getting Started > The "Hello World!" Application)