Java Community | Help. Code. Learn.•7mo ago

Loading Resources with absolute path from Classpath

I need to Load resources with absolute path from all modules that are present. Example: I have the following modules: * com.example.appmanager * com.example.demoapp * com.example.utilscreens And I want to load /com/example/appmanger/base.fxml as well as /com/example/demoapp/MainScreen.fxml from a class in com.example.appmanager. No matter What I try it does not find the resources. Here is my code for finding the resource:

for (Module mod : ModuleLayer.boot().modules())
    if(mod.getName().startsWith(prefix)) {
        log.debug(mod.getName());
        try {
            log.debug(String.valueOf(mod.getResourceAsStream(resource)));
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }
    }

for (Module mod : ModuleLayer.boot().modules())
    if(mod.getName().startsWith(prefix)) {
        log.debug(mod.getName());
        try {
            log.debug(String.valueOf(mod.getResourceAsStream(resource)));
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }
    }

For now it only prints the URL, but that would be sufficient for a demo. Any hints for a better way to do this, or hints what I am doing wrong or a solution would be greatly apreciated.

64 Replies

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NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I don't really want to write an annotation processor to calculate everything, or use a maven setup to copy the resources around. But if it makes that simpler or even feasable at all, im going to do that.

Unknown User•7mo ago

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NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I have this code in a abstract class in com.example.appmanager and my demo applcation is extending this class. So I don't know if i am loading from a jar.

Unknown User•7mo ago

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NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

My intention is to store everything inside the jar, but i might need to do some magic, so the resources from the appmanager library are included too.

Unknown User•7mo ago

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NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

would it be possible, if i knew a class inside the corresponding module that i use this Class object to get the resource from it? I am using org.reflections to do runtime reflections as a measure of discovering the loadable fmxl files by annotating the controllers.

Unknown User•7mo ago

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NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I meant somthing like controllerClass.getResource(resource); I just want to discover fxml files. the fxml knows its controller, but i cant annotate the fxml, so i am using reflections to discover all classes that are annotated with a special marker annotation

Unknown User•7mo ago

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NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I am writing my own Framework (I know you shouldn't necessarily do that) that handles boilerplate. My Intention was the following:

@Screen("./MainScreen.fxml", visible = true)
public class MainScreenController extends ScreenController {
  // Pure javafx controller code
}

@Screen("./MainScreen.fxml", visible = true)
public class MainScreenController extends ScreenController {
  // Pure javafx controller code
}

I discover the screen annotation and build the absolute path of the resource from the module of the controller and the value in the annotation. If it is a debug screen, it will be invisible unless there is a debug flag on the commandline if the visible property is set to false. visible should be called debug tho and should work opposite. But that is not an issue. The discovery works flawlessly.

Unknown User•7mo ago

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NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I am only discovering the controller classes to get the fxml files and just discard the Class objects for the controllers after that. I have a fixed RootScreen that has MenuBar, StatusBar and some other nice things. I want to inject the loaded Screens into the sceene graph of this root screen and extract Settings definitions, Menu Items from the Screen controllers. And i want to inject Services and a ScreenRegistry utility class to switch between screens and some other utilites that allow for a few pretty complex things without writing that boilerplate everywhere. I am only discovering the Class definitions, not creating any instances. When the fxml is loaded, i use getController to get an instance of the controller and do my extraction and injection on that.

Unknown User•7mo ago

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NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I know, that I could include that, but I think it would be complex to dynamically add includes to the fxml files. I am dynamically load the root screen as well, so that a user could exchange the root screen as well, if he wants an extra toolbar, or a ribbon. He is me using my framework later

Unknown User•7mo ago

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NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

Very ambitious indeed. Could I make my resources in appmanager visible to the demo app somehow? Like with manifest files?

Unknown User•7mo ago

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NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I'll try to implement opening jars as filesystems. Do you know from the top of your head if that still works with fat jars?

Unknown User•7mo ago

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NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I'll experiment a little an would report back if I stumble into problems later

stechy1•7mo ago

@NeoCortex97 Hello, have you figured out how to discover all resources? I did exactly same thing in my framework for JFX so if you need any help, you can ping me 🙂 It seems that we are creating similiar framework for better controller/screen management...

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

Here is your ping. 😅 I did not really achieve a lot by now. I just tried some things I've read on stack overflow. Nothing really worked. Did you publish your framework? Maybe I took a look for inspiration. I am creating one to match the style our backend code at work looks and we are using spring boot. But I didn't want to spin up a whole spring boot context, because it would be too tempting to bypass a proper backend. So I am building a "Magic and Annotations" style framework that feels a little like spring boot with better errors and auto detection on everything.

stechy1•7mo ago

@NeoCortex97 I have not publish it yet. I can give you an access if you want, but it is quite a big project now. But regarding the resources. I would advise you support loading resources from "normal folders" mainly for development purposes and also from "jars" for production. you have the project public?

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

Not yet, but I will as soon as I have a working prototype.... Or maybe before that.

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I am currently thinking of making a base application and just implementing every screen as a plugin, but I think that would be excessive. I might use a plugin framework behind the scenes tho. https://pf4j.org/ Pf4j manages the class loaders and loading shit from jars, zip files, folders.... I'll try at least, because plugin loading will be another feature of my framework, but rather high level and when everything else is working

PF4J

PF4J site repository

stechy1•7mo ago

Oh, that looks good. Maybe you can try advantage of the framework for loading resources...

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NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I am planning to try the following. Ill write it down here, so i dont forget half ways. Ill create a ScreenLoader Class that takes care of loading an fxml file within the context the controller sits in. that should work normal. I could even generate these Loaders automagically with a custom source code generator as a maven Plugin. Otherwise coding the loader classes would add boilerplate - which I am trying to remove. PF4J has "Extension Points" to mark different parts of your internal api as acessible by a plugin. Later you can tell PF4J to fetch you all implementetions of your extension point. So I would need to declare an interface that my Loader would implement, so i could get Loaders for all my Screens. I would need to repeat that thing for views and RootScreens too. I diferentiate Screens as something that should be displayed standalone and make sense, but without any global state or controls. RootScreens are Containers to put screens in, but just MenuBar, StatusBar, and a container for a screen. Views are UIs, that don't make sense if displayed Standalone, like Uis in a List, popups, or things subviews. I also want to manage Services, For background activities, like sending data to a Rest endpoint, performing operations in the background,... My current code for that works fine, but i think reimplementing them as extension points would be a good choice.

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I will likely add some components for some fancy components to my default RootScreen. DialogPane and DrawerStackPane from gemsfx (https://github.com/dlsc-software-consulting-gmbh/GemsFX) NotificationPane, Notification, TaskProgressView and PopOver from ControlsFX (https://controlsfx.github.io/) Ill use PopOver and TaskProgressView To show status of backgroundTasks in Progress and integrate that in my RootScreen. I will use these things anyways and having them and not using them at the Moment is not an issue for me, but needing to inject them later from a screen would be rather annoying, since most would require modifying the scenegraph and that is expensive.

GitHub

GitHub - dlsc-software-consulting-gmbh/GemsFX: A collection of Java...

A collection of JavaFX controls and utilities. Contribute to dlsc-software-consulting-gmbh/GemsFX development by creating an account on GitHub.

ControlsFX

stechy1•7mo ago

For your first point. Do you know how ServiceLoader works in Java? With that you can achieve exactly the same result as PF4J - get every available implementation of some interface. The only difference is that PF4J can load it in runtime and ServiceLoader can load only classes on classpath/modulepath ping

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I did already read about it and I would just use pf4j, since im planning to support plugins anyways.

stechy1•7mo ago

And just one advice: use as few dependencies as possible. It could discourse others from using it

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I'm just using the dependencies I'm using anyways. I'm mainly planning to use it proivately and for work. But when everything works i might try to remove as many mandatory dependencies as possible.

stechy1•7mo ago

I'm pointing to dependencies for GemsFX and ControlsFX

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I know. Since it is mainly for me and for my work where we also use these anyways it doesn't matter. But when I'm publishing it, i will implement it in a way that only uses these libraries if you add them as dependencies.

stechy1•7mo ago

Yeah, that's cool. I just know from my practice that it is harder to remove integrated dependency than never count with it 😀

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

They are purely used in the RootScreen, so I think it won't be too hard. But I know how hard it is to get rid of dependencies. Id dod on several projects before 😄

stechy1•7mo ago

So, have you progressed with loading resources?

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

A bit. Using AppManager.class.getResource() I can load my default screens and my RootScreens.

stechy1•7mo ago

This can work only for resources within the same jar file. So AppManager will not be able to load screens from plugins

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

Sure, but it is a progress. I'm not finished implementing the plugin system into the AppManager. Okay, I officially admit, that I am dumb. I can load the RootScreen, but i cant show the window.

stechy1•7mo ago

Why you can't show it? 😃

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

It is unable to load the StatusBar... I think I either need to set up shading for my AppManager, or write my own status bar. Or just start over and implement the plugin system from the ground up. I actually could implement the root screen as a plugin as well. That would remove the dependency of gemsfx and controlsfx from my library and would make for simpler implementation of a custom RootScreen

stechy1•7mo ago

Yep, that could be a way to go I have done it more or less in the same way I'm loading everything with a service loader...

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

Did you subclass the javafx application class, or do you have a class that you pass your application class into to configure everything?

stechy1•7mo ago

My framework has its own abstract class which inherits javafx application

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

Mine does that too, so I'm not that far off.

stechy1•7mo ago

It also has support for a Preloader... Where I can do for example loading of all resources and inform the user about progress

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

Basically a splash screen?

stechy1•7mo ago

Yeah JavaFX has built in some basic support

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

Okay, that makes sense. I will eventually do that correctly, but until then I will use the updater I wrote for my last project

stechy1•7mo ago

I've been working on the framework for almost 5 years now. I made many mistakes, but now it looks quite good and usable... I'm writing a documentation for it now... But still see a lot of space for improvement

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I restarted and implemented a minimal RootScreen for now, so I have something to load and look at. I am going to implement the AppManager with the plugin System now. I think I will just implement a getter for the RootScreen, so it is accessible to the user. My content root is a Pane and I set my content as the child for the pane.

stechy1•7mo ago

I find out that StackPane is much better in this context. It allows you to use for example layers In a Pane, you have to set positions statically and static is not good 😉

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I have a StackPane with a VBox. The VBox contains MenuBar, Pane and StatusBar. That pane is my content root. It's only job is to contain my Screen content

stechy1•7mo ago

Then StackPane has no use if it only contains VBox or I miss something?

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

It also contains DrawerStackPane and DialogPane.

stechy1•7mo ago

Oh okay 👍 So this is somehow predefined for every application which will use your framework...

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

I will implement an extension for the RootScreen, so you can customize it if you want to. But it's supposed to be predefined if you use the default RootScreen. Normally you would be supposed to do this setup on every screen.

stechy1•7mo ago

I see. The idea is to have a base layout for all your windows including styles, fonts and others in one single place

NeoCortex97OP•7mo ago

Yes, exactly. It should manage menu Items, icons for the status bar, the drawer and the Dialog pane. I really like the Dialog pane from gemsfx. It is a transparent pane when it is not needed. It is supposed to sit on top of the content and is click through. Except when it is active. I that case it shows it's contents within the same window. In my case I am writing kiosk mode apps anyways and we experienced very skillful customers that managed to close our application when a dialog is open. Even with the customers we were not able to reproduce it later, but that can't happen with the gemsfx dialog pane.

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Loading Resources with absolute path from Classpath