How to load JAR files dynamically at Runtime?

Question

Why is it so hard to do this in Java? If you want to have any kind of module system you need to be able to load JAR files dynamically. I\'m told there\'s a way of doing it b

Answer 1

The following solution is hackish, as it uses reflection to bypass encapsulation, but it works flawlessly:

File file = ...
URL url = file.toURI().toURL();

URLClassLoader classLoader = (URLClassLoader)ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader();
Method method = URLClassLoader.class.getDeclaredMethod("addURL", URL.class);
method.setAccessible(true);
method.invoke(classLoader, url);