Thread: JAR'ing & Files

Hey there, I've made a little program which reads program data from a .ser file. The program also gives the option to save back new data into the file.
The problem is, when I JAR the program through eclipse, and run the JAR... it creates the .ser files outside of the JAR.

Is there anyway I can have the file be stored inside the JAR so It gives the program better portability?
I'm aware of accessing a file through getClass().getResourceAsStream(FILENAME), but I don't know how to therefore make it save the file inside the JAR, if that makes sense .

Here's my read from file method:

	@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
	public ArrayList<HoursOfTheWeek> readTableModel() {
		ArrayList<HoursOfTheWeek> al = null;
		try {
			ObjectInputStream ois = new ObjectInputStream(new FileInputStream(FILENAME));
			al = (ArrayList<HoursOfTheWeek>) ois.readObject();
		}
 
		catch (Exception e) {
			System.out.println("Problem reading back table from file: "
					+ FILENAME);
 
		}
 
		if(al == null){
			storeTableModel(defaultData());
			readTableModel();
		}
		return al;
	}

And here's my store to file method:

	public void storeTableModel(ArrayList<HoursOfTheWeek> al) {
		ObjectOutputStream oos = null;
		try {
			oos = new ObjectOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(FILENAME));
			oos.writeObject(al);
		} catch (Exception e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
 
		try {
			oos.close();
		} catch (IOException e) {
		}
	}

Thanks in advance.

You can use a JarOutputStream to write a jar file.
JarOutputStream (Java Platform SE 6)
However I do not believe what you wish to do is possible.

Is there an alternative executable format which could let me do this then? Although it's not a critical issue, I don't like the feeling of needing to keep both the JAR and .ser file together where ever I move it to.

Sounds like quite the extra work for what I had expected to be a fairly simple ordeal
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll look into them before deciding if I might be happy with leaving the file outside.
Cheers!

I'm not sure of the requirements you need. For instance, MS Word files don't travel with the Word application. Templates do, but reside in an accompanying directory. If you want your app to be portable with accompanying files (such as templates), deploy it with an installer that writes the appropriate files. If your app requires a file to be shared between instances, then create a central repository (server/database)

I just made a timetable GUI so I could learn how to use a JTable.
The Serialized ArrayList only holds about 5 objects, so It's nothing big.

My program attempts to read the data from file, if a file doesn't exist, its automatically created and populated with default values.
User also can change JTable data and save it back in.

So the GUI will work without the file, but it will just have default values.
I just wanted it so that the file couldn't be separated from the GUI so the user always has the data he/she put in.