Loading Image in Java Applet

Question

When I try to run an applet in applet viewer it is not able to find resources (Image). I try to load resource like this:

String cb= this.getCodeBase().toString();
String imgPath = cb+"com/blah/Images/a.png";
System.out.println("imgPath:"+imgPath);
java.net.URL imgURL = Applet.class.getResource(path);

but when i run it in appet viewer path is like this: imgPath:file:D:/Work/app/build/classes/com/blah/Images/a.png

though image is there in this path, is prefix file: causing problem, how can i test this code?

Will this code work when deployed in server and codebase returns a server URL?

Answer 1

Just use /com/blah/Images/a.png as the path. getResource() is clever enough to find it.

Answer 2

Is your applet supposed to load images after it is loaded? Or would you be better served bundling necessary image resources in the jar with your applet?

I work daily on an applet-based application with plenty of graphics in the GUI. They are bundled in the jar-file. This si what we do:

// get the class of an object instance - any object.  
// We just defined an empty one, and did everything as static.
class EmptyClass{}
Class loadClass = new EmptyClass().getClass();
// load the image and put it directly into an ImageIcon if it suits you
ImageIcon ii = new ImageIcon(loadClass.getResource("/com/blah/Images/a.png"));
// and add the ImageIcon to your JComponent or JPanel in a JLabel
aComponent.add(new JLabel(ii));

Make sure your image is actuallly in the jar where you think it is. Use:

jar -tf <archive_file_name>

... to get a listing.

Answer 3

The context classloader should work with jars.

ClassLoader cl = Thread.getContextClassLoader();
ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon(cl.getResource("something.png"), "description");