Loading resource from a jar in a Web Application

I read all the questions with answers but still it doesn't work for me.

In my web application I have a jar which contains few images and xmls. These are required by the classes in that jar itself. So I modified the required lines as below:

I changed the classes inside my jar to refer the resources(which are present inside the jar itself) by using :

Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResource(path) // returns null

I had also tried before :

MyClassName.class.getResource(path) // null again

I read a lot about this and got to know that the later line of code will be able to pick up the resources, but unfortunately neither of it works for me...am I missing something?

Note: Running on Tomcat7 and since I am running on Vista, I get the 'path' value as '\myFolder\images\'

Thanks

Solution

There are few points one must take care when loading resources from within a jar, which is embedded in a web application

Loading a file is different than loading a resource. When we use File.seperator it is usually w.r.t Files and absolute paths. It is not recommended for loading resources.
When loading resources from within a jar, make sure you are not using the File.seperator and using the normal '/' as it is relative path w.r.t the jar.
If you are reading properties from an xml within the jar...and that property refers to another location, make sure you are reading it with the '/' slashes. Again, File.seperator will not work for loading resources because it will replace '/' with '\' (windows system)
Finally, when loading resources in your jar code, use the following lines

MyCurrentClass.class.getResource(path)

Hope it helps people dealing with xmls within jars in a web application