Thread: Exporting Runnable JAR File

Running JDK 1.6.0.29

Hello fellow JD's. I've bee programming in Java for quite some time now but have never created a Runnable JAR file (never had to). Anyways, I have created a simple GUI. It runs as expect in Eclipse, but when I Export to Runnable JAR file, my jpg file and wav file are not included within the JAR file and not sure why. They are both stored within my Java Project. Here's the code to my simple program, if needed :

[

package BSPackage;
 
import java.applet.Applet;
import java.applet.AudioClip;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.io.File;
 
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
 
 
public class BullshitButton extends JFrame implements ActionListener
{
	//Create AudioClip object to play bullshit remarks!
	private AudioClip myAudioPlayer;
	private JPanel bullshitPanel;
	private JFrame bullshitFrame;
	private JButton bullshitButton;
	private JLabel bullshitButtonPic;
	private String fileName;
 
	/**
	 * @param args
	 */
 
	public static void main(String[] args) 
	{		
		BullshitButton myBullshitButtonApp = new BullshitButton();
	}
 
	public BullshitButton()
 
	{
		//Create JPanel
		bullshitPanel = new JPanel();
 
		//Create JFrame
		bullshitFrame = new JFrame("Bullshit Button");
 
		//Create JButton
		bullshitButton = new JButton("Click for Bullshit!");
 
		//Create Image object
		bullshitButtonPic = new JLabel(new ImageIcon("bullshit button.jpg"));
 
		//add JPanel to Frame
		bullshitFrame.add(bullshitPanel);
 
		//add bullshit button pic to background
		bullshitPanel.add(bullshitButtonPic);
 
		//add ActionListener to button and then add to JPanel
		bullshitButton.addActionListener(this);
		bullshitPanel.add(bullshitButton);
 
		//Close running process by clicking the 'X' in the upper left corner
		bullshitFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
 
		//Set JFrame size
		bullshitFrame.setSize(265, 350);
 
		bullshitFrame.setVisible(true);
 
	}
 
	@Override
	public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) 
	{
		playSoundFile();
	}
 
 
	public void playSoundFile()
	{
		int determineSoundClip = 1;
		switch(determineSoundClip)
		{
			case 1:	fileName = "This is Absolute Bullshit.wav";
					break;
			case 2: fileName = "";
					break;
			case 3: fileName = "";
					break;
			case 4: fileName = "";
					break;
			case 5: fileName = "";
					break;
			default: determineSoundClip = 1;
				     break;
		}
		determineSoundClip++;
 
		try
		{
			File file = new File(fileName);
			if(file.exists())
			{
				myAudioPlayer = Applet.newAudioClip(new File(fileName).toURL());
 
			}
			else
				throw new RuntimeException("Sound: " + fileName + " not found");
		}
		catch(Exception e)
		{
			throw new RuntimeException("Sound: Bad Url: " + e);
		}
		myAudioPlayer.play();
	}
 
}

Here's what my GUI looks like when executed in Eclipse:
bullshitGUI.JPG

Then when executed with the exported Runnable Jar file, the bullshit button picture is gone and of course by clicking the button, no sound is being played.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

After a couple of hours, I fixed my problem. I didn't specify the exact filepath to my jpg and wav files on my HDD. It can't reference the file path to my Project Explorer.

In other words this should be changed:

//Create Image object
bullshitButtonPic = new JLabel(new ImageIcon("bullshit button.jpg"));

Changed to:
//Create Image object
bullshitButtonPic = new JLabel(new ImageIcon("C:/../bullshit button.jpg"));

If others wanted to run this, they'd need my wav/jpg file stored on their machine on their 'C' drive. I'm not sure how to specify the path for the JAR file. Maybe in the manifest file?

I didn't specify the exact filepath to my jpg and wav files on my HDD.

A better solution to the problem would be to include ALL the files in the jar file and use the classloader's getResource method to get to the "file" in the jar file. That makes the jar portable by itself with NO dependencies on external files.

If others wanted to run this, they'd need

This problem goes away by using resources instead of HDD files.

Very intuitive. Thanks Norm.