There is existing code that has a call
URL resource = ClassLoader.getSystemResource("hp.obo.gz");
From my understanding, this searches the classpath for the requested file. I printed out the classpath using the code from here: https://www.mkyong.com/java/how-to-print-out-the-current-project-classpath/ and got the following:
/C:/Program%20Files/JetBrains/IntelliJ%20IDEA%202017.1.3/lib/idea_rt.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/JetBrains/IntelliJ%20IDEA%202017.1.3/plugins/junit/lib/junit-rt.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/charsets.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/deploy.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/ext/access-bridge-64.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/ext/cldrdata.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/ext/dnsns.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/ext/jaccess.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/ext/jfxrt.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/ext/localedata.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/ext/nashorn.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/ext/sunec.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/ext/sunjce_provider.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/ext/sunmscapi.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/ext/sunpkcs11.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/ext/zipfs.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/javaws.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/jce.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/jfr.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/jfxswt.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/jsse.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/management-agent.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/plugin.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/resources.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_66/jre/lib/rt.jar
/C:/Users/johnp/Desktop/git_stuff/boqa/target/test-classes/
/C:/Users/johnp/Desktop/git_stuff/boqa/target/classes/
/C:/Users/johnp/.m2/repository/commons-cli/commons-cli/1.2/commons-cli-1.2.jar
/C:/Users/johnp/.m2/repository/de/charite/compbio/ontologizer-core/2.1-SNAPSHOT/ontologizer-core-2.1-20160115.222100-6.jar
/C:/Users/johnp/.m2/repository/com/att/research/grappa/1.2.1/grappa-1.2.1.jar
/C:/Users/johnp/.m2/repository/de/charite/compbio/ontologizer-benchmark/2.1-SNAPSHOT/ontologizer-benchmark-2.1-20160115.222106-6.jar
/C:/Users/johnp/.m2/repository/com/beust/jcommander/1.35/jcommander-1.35.jar
/C:/Users/johnp/.m2/repository/org/slf4j/slf4j-api/1.7.7/slf4j-api-1.7.7.jar
/C:/Users/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/logging/log4j/log4j-1.2-api/2.8.2/log4j-1.2-api-2.8.2.jar
/C:/Users/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/logging/log4j/log4j-api/2.8.2/log4j-api-2.8.2.jar
/C:/Users/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/logging/log4j/log4j-core/2.8.2/log4j-core-2.8.2.jar
/C:/Users/johnp/.m2/repository/junit/junit/4.12/junit-4.12.jar
/C:/Users/johnp/.m2/repository/org/hamcrest/hamcrest-core/1.3/hamcrest-core-1.3.jar
/C:/Program%20Files/JetBrains/IntelliJ%20IDEA%202017.1.3/lib/idea_rt.jar
However, where it actually is found is here (deleting hp.obo.gz causes a null pointer exception):
C:\Users\johnp\Desktop\git_stuff\boqa\src\main\resources
I don't see how it got this location given the above output (it seems similar to /C:/Users/johnp/Desktop/git_stuff/boqa/target/test-classes/ and /C:/Users/johnp/Desktop/git_stuff/boqa/target/classes/). Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Right click on a folder and "mark directory as" -> "Resources Root". This will configure everything behind the scenes in IntelliJ to work