Add a properties file to IntelliJ's classpath

Question

I\'m running a simple Java program from the IntelliJ IDE using the Run->Run menu. It works fine. Now I want to add log4j logging.

I added a resources folder under my

Answer 1

I had a similar problem with a log4j.xml file for a unit test, did all of the above. But figured out it was because I was only re-running a failed test....if I re-run the entire test class the correct file is picked up. This is under Intelli-j 9.0.4

Answer 2

Try this:

• Go to Project Structure.
• Select your module.
• Find the folder in the tree on the right and select it.
• Click the Sources button above that tree (with the blue folder) to make that folder a sources folder.

Answer 3

For those of you who migrate from Eclipse to IntelliJ or the other way around here is a tip when working with property files or other resource files.

Its maddening (cost my a whole evening to find out) but both IDE's work quite different when it comes to looking for resource/propertty files when you want to run locally from your IDE or during debugging. (Packaging to a .jar is also quite different, but thats documented better.)

Suppose you have a relative path referral like this in your code:

new FileInputStream("xxxx.properties");

(which is convenient if you work with env specific .properties files which you don't want to package along with your JAR)

INTELLIJ

(I use 13.1 , but could be valid for more versions)

The file xxxx.properties needs to be at the PARENT dir of the project ROOT in order to be picked up at runtime like this in IntelliJ. (The project ROOT is where the /src folder resides in)

ECLIPSE

Eclipse is just happy when the xxxx.properties file is at the project ROOT itself.

So IntelliJ expects .properties file to be 1 level higher then Eclipse when it is referenced like this !!

This also affects the way you have to execute your code when you have this same line of code ( new FileInputStream("xxxx.properties"); ) in your exported .jar. When you want to be agile and don't want to package the .properties file with your jar you'll have to execute the jar like below in order to reference the .properties file correctly from the command line:

INTELLIJ EXPORTED JAR

java -cp "/path/to_properties_file/:/path/to_jar/some.jar" com.bla.blabla.ClassContainingMainMethod

ECLIPSE EXPORTED JAR

java -jar some.jar

where the Eclipse exported executable jar will just expect the referenced .properties file to be on the same location as where the .jar file is

Answer 4

Actually, you have at least 2 ways to do it, the first way is described by ColinD, you just configure the "resources" folder as Sources folder in IDEA. If the Resource Patterns contains the extension of your resource, then it will be copied to the output directory when you Make the project and output directory is automatically a classpath of your application.

Another common way is to add the "resources" folder to the classpath directly. Go to Project Structure | Modules | Your Module | Dependencies, click Add, Single-Entry Module Library, specify the path to the "resources" folder.

Yet another solution would be to put the log4j.properties file directly under the Source root of your project (in the default package directory). It's the same as the first way except you don't need to add another Source root in the Module Paths settings, the file will be copied to the output directory on Make.

If you want to test with different log4j configurations, it may be easier to specify a custom configuration file directly in the Run/Debug configuration, VM parameters filed like:

-Dlog4j.configuration=file:/c:/log4j.properties.

Answer 5

This is one of the dumb mistakes I've done. I spent a lot of time trying to debug this problem and tried all the responses posted above, but in the end, it was one of my many dumb mistakes.

I was using org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger (:fml:) whereas I should have used org.apache.log4j.Logger. Using this correct logger saved my evening.

Answer 6

Perhaps this is a bit off-topic, seeing as the question has already been answered, but I have experienced a similar problem. In my case only some of the unit test resources were copied to the output folder upon compilation. My persistence.xml in the META-INF folder got copied but nothing else.

In the end I "solved" the problem by renaming the problematic files, rebuiling the project and then changing the file names back to the original ones. Do not ask me why this worked but it did. My best guess is that, somehow, my IntelliJ project had gotten a bit out of sync with the file system and the renaming operation triggered some kind of internal "resource rescan".