java - Reading txt file from jar fails but reading image works

Question

I have an issue which has been bothering me for days... I checked similar questions but couldn't find a solution.

I use NetBeans IDE. I build the project jar file i.e "Clock.jar" which contains a "clock" named folder in which some images, a text file and all project classes are found. The following code for creating an image icon works

return new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("/clock/button_close.png"));

But the following code for reading the text file fails

InputStream name = getClass().getResourceAsStream("/clock/input.txt");
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(name));

As you may have guessed the NullPointer Exception is thrown meaning probably it couln't locate the file.

But how come the image icon is constructed successfully (by passing it the URL returned from getResource) but the txt file cannot be found (by passing it an input stream from getResourceAsStream).

Thanks in advance, for any answer ( I mean it :) )

jar -tvf Clock.jar
0 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 META-INF/
202 Wed May 15 14:44:34 EEST 2013 META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
0 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/
649 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/Clock$1$1.class
789 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/Clock$1.class
2026 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/Clock.class
709 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ClockDialog$1.class
830 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ClockDialog$2.class
750 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ClockDialog$3.class
713 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ClockDialog$4.class
741 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ClockDialog$5.class
708 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ClockDialog$6.class
1081 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ClockDialog$7.class
981 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ClockDialog$8.class
9640 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ClockDialog.class
702 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ClockFrame$1.class
708 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ClockFrame$2.class
734 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ClockFrame$3.class
743 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ClockFrame$4.class
531 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ClockFrame$5.class
1046 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ClockFrame$6.class
9464 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ClockFrame.class
782 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/ErrorReporter.class
1826 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/IconButton.class
2693 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/MessagePool.class
2824 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/SystemInfo.class
2212 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/button_close.png
6540 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/button_close_highlighted.png
5668 Wed May 15 14:44:36 EEST 2013 clock/input.txt

Answer 1

Looking at the source again closely, try..

URL url = getClass().getResource("/clock/input.txt"); 
InputStream name = url.openStream(); 

I recall that the Class::getResourceAsStream variant deals with paths slightly differently than simply Class::getResource - I am sure it should work for the latter one.