title: access files and folders in executable jars
body: <p>I am facing the following problem: 
  I use Eclipse for my Java projects and there I have the following structure:</p>
  
  <pre><code>  --&gt; src
        --&gt; package1
            ....
        --&gt; package2
            ...
  
     --&gt;dataFolder
         --&gt; Folder1
              --&gt; file1.xml
         --&gt; Folder2
              file2.xml
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In my java project I parse all files in the dataFolder directory. This is no problem because I can just use the root directory of the eclipse project, like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>File dataStoreFolder = new File("dataFolder");
  Some parsing......
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But when I export my project as an executable jar file, I can not access these files anymore. Of course thats because they are not in the same folder where I put my exec.jar file. But I do not want to copy the whole folder with the data to my exec.jar file. Can I put it somehow inside my jar file? (I did it by adding the dataFolder to the Java Build Path but it still does not work as it does in Eclipse)</p>
  
  <p>Can someone help me please?</p>