When I want to load images, locally, I use use:

When I run the program through eclipse, everything works fine--all the images load like normal, but when I package the executable .jar and run it in a folder without images/*.gif's, none of the images load..... If it is in the folder with images/*.gif's it works again...

So my problem is, how do I get the images to load from ("myjar.jar/images/*.gif) instead of (root/images/*.gif) so they are all packaged on the go, say if someone wants to download my application on the internet?

I made sure to package "image/*.gif" into my jar file, but it just doesn't use it... It still looks in the root directory where the jar file exists.....

Any suggestions?

If you copy the folder where the images are to a directory the JAR can find it the images will work. HTH

Eg. Java class files and images in C:/my docs blah/blah/etc.... copy the images to a new folder and put the jar either in or outside the folder and it will find the pictures. You may need to alter your code a bit though, post it and I'll check that out..

Use getResource() to load the images instead of the simple path More info on this here if you want to understand the nuances: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutor...ml#getresource

Ezzaral you are awesome ! you know so much!

I did this:
ImageIcon flagIcon = new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("images/flag2.gif"));

and when I go to run my program in eclipse, I get java.lang.NullPointerException... I compiled the executable jar file anyway, and now it doesn't run...

I went back to check that I compiled the jar file correctly with all the image files and I'm sure I did.. It's root contains: images/*.gif META-INF/*.mf *.class

I also verified my MAIN-CLASS and it is is one of the the *.class files in the root...

What's going on here?



EDIT:
I tried exporting the .jar through Eclipse this time instead of using the afs system at my school and it gave me this error:

JAR creation failed. See details for additional information.
Exported with compile warnings: /minesweeper/src/MineSweeper.java
Resource is out of sync with the file system: '/minesweeper/images/flag2.GIF'.
Resource is out of sync with the file system: '/minesweeper/images/mine.GIF'.
Resource is out of sync with the file system: '/minesweeper/images/qmark.GIF'.

Yes, I'm still finishing up that minesweeper game

As I don't use Eclipse, I couldn't tell you exactly how to get that folder onto your build path correctly, but the getResource() method attempts to locate a resource based on your classpath. This means that the path you specify must be relative to one of those entries. If your images in the jar file are within a directory called "images", then the code you are using above should locate them just fine.

Try moving your images directory into your source('src') directory and see if that rectifies the build and resource location problem.

to load .gif files from a seperate package I used the below code.

That's how I did it actually...

When I use
ImageIcon flagIcon = new ImageIcon("images/flag2.gif");
My program runs without a hitch as long as I have the images/ folder next to the executable jar.. BUT when i move the jar file or the images folder away from each other, my program runs, but without images even though there's a copy of the images folder INSIDE the jar as well, next to the main class file..

From what I read and what you're telling me,
ImageIcon flagIcon = new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("images/flag2.gif"));
should look inside the jar file instead of outside, but my program gives me java.lang.NullPointerException instead....

I even tried MineSweeper.class.getResource(blah) in case the inner class was a problem.. No luck....