Remove hardcoded file path from java program

Question

I have created a simple java program in which I create a text file and read the data written in it. The problem is that I don't want to hardcode the path of the file because after developing the application I created a installer package for my program which allows users to install it on their systems. Now the problem is how the end users can install the file anywhere (i.e. in their C , D or E drive) and in those cases I get the FileNotFoundException exception.

My code - This is the code I use to create and write some text to the text file.

FileWriter file = new FileWriter("E:\\TextFile.txt",true);
BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(file);
writer.write(input);
write.newLine();
write.close();

This is the code which I use to read text from the text file.

FileReader read = new FileReader("E:\\TextFile.txt");
BufferedReader data = new BufferedReader(read);

I have another file for which I hardcoded the path of the file.

System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver","D:\\New Folder\\chromedriver.exe");

As you can see in all my code I hardcoded the paths ("E:\TextFile.txt", "E:\TextFile.txt" and "D:\New Folder\chromedriver.exe"). Is there any way in java to remove them? I went through the similar questions, but was not able to figure out how to detect the location of the file.

Youjust edit the source code files - what do you mean to remove them? — mmmmmm, Oct 17 '14 at 16:20
You're asking to remove them from the compiled code? Or asking how to edit the source to correct it? You cannot really remove the references from the compiled code... You'd need to fix it in the source code and recompile + package your app — user3062946, Oct 17 '14 at 16:20
@Mark For example the code contains the path as "E:\\TextFile.txt". As you can see The file is in E drive but when the user installs the file he may install it in D drive. In that case the program throws FileNotFoundException Exception. So i wanted to find a way by which the i can tell the application that user have installed the application in this location and you can read it from there. — Shantanu Nandan, Oct 17 '14 at 16:23

Shantanu Nandan · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-30T18:53:59.600

I made the changes as per the suggetions and it worked for me-

// This give me the path of the application where it is installed
String Path = new File("").getAbsolutePath();

Then i add the file name along with the path to get the file.

// Here i am adding the name of the file to the path to read it 
FileReader  read = new FileReader(Path+"\\TextFile.txt"); 

// Here i am adding the name of the file to the path to write it 
FileWriter file = new FileWriter(Path+"\\TextFile.txt",true);

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 17 '14 at 16:21

0

You can store the file location in a properties file and then read the file location from that into a variable at runtime. Your installer would have to store the file location in the properties file as part of its installation process.

You could also have the file stored in the applications classpath and use relative pathnames to get to it.

answered Oct 17 '14 at 16:21

Grice

1,345
11
24

Is there any documentation available so that i can go through it. – Shantanu Nandan Oct 17 '14 at 16:25
@Shantanu The reading from the properties file can be done with simple File IO readers as you are already using. I'm not sure how your installer package is working, but really all you need to be doing is allowing the end user to pick a install location and saving that location to a file. – Grice Oct 17 '14 at 16:29
I am using Launch4j to convert my jar to .exe format then i am using Inno Setup Compiler 5.5.5(a) to convert the .exe file into a installer package. Am i chosen the wrong application to do the job? – Shantanu Nandan Oct 17 '14 at 16:36
@Shantanu I looked into Inno Setup and it appears to support [Pascal Scripting](http://www.jrsoftware.org/ishelp/index.php?topic=isxfunc_createinputquerypage) allowing for user input and conditional file operations. Try reading through some of the documentation. – Grice Oct 17 '14 at 17:33

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 17 '14 at 16:25

I don't think this the answer to what you are asking, but It's a solution to your problem. What you are using there is an absolute path, meaning you specify the whole URL of the file, you can instead use relative paths, which are relative to the location of your application, just like you have .class files in your JAR, you can have a folder for your files and it will be always at the same location relative to the program location.

So instead of this:

FileReader read = new FileReader("E:\\TextFile.txt");

You can have this:

FileReader read = new FileReader("..\MyFiles\TextFile.txt");

Or something like this.

Remove hardcoded file path from java program

3 Answers3