Making the app config persistent

[Michel Bertrand]

Hi !
I found an instruction in my assignment, URLyBird, to make the application configuration persistent among its executions. Probably to save the user preferences.
I did it using the java.util.Properties stored in a file on the user home directory, I mean by "user home directory" the

 System.getProperty("user.home") 

.
What about it ? Is it a good approuch ? Would I have any problem running this in any OS's ?
Thank you very much !
Michel.

[Flavio Nobili]

Hi Michel,
The specification says:

Such configuration information must be stored in a file called suncertify.properties which must be located in the current working directory.

By "current working directory" I understand that it's the directory where the "runme.jar" is. So, you don't need to get the user directory from the system. Just give a FileOutputStream("suncertify.properties") to the store method, and it'll be stored in the current working directory.
Regards,
Flavio.

[Michel Bertrand]

Hello !
It was my first approuch, but since I was unable to load the configuration when running the application from any directory, not the working directory, I could not get the suncertify.properties file. In the assignment I have instructions to start the application using "java -jar <path>/runme.jar <argument>". In this way, I intent that the user can start the application from any location.
So, how to get the absolute path to "suncertify.properties" starting the application out of the working directory ? Can anyone give me another tip ? As I told you before, I did not find any solution.
Thanks again !
Michel.

[Philippe Maquet]

Hi Michel,
Instead of using System.getProperty("user.home"), you should use System.getProperty("user.dir").
If you look at the javadoc for System.getProperties(), you'll see that "user.dir" is what SUN means by "current working directory".
Regards,
Phil.

[Michel Bertrand]

Ok, thanks guys ! It was a misunderstanding of my part. I have only to read the config file from the current application directory where the user starts it.
Regards,
Michel.