title: properties file for JDBC
body: <p>So my question is related to my previous post: <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8182880/sqlexception-no-value-specified-for-parameter-1">SQLException : No value specified for parameter 1</a></p>
  
  <p>I have no idea what a properties file is. Can I create a properties file from text editor, and have the path set in the catalina.properties file in the Tomcat/conf folder? or do I have the following </p>
  
  <pre><code>javabase.jdbc.url = jdbc:mysql://200.230.71.12:3306/social
  javabase.jdbc.driver = com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
  javabase.jdbc.username = cepein
  javabase.jdbc.password = 1234cinco
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>inserted within shared.loader= in the catalina.properties file?</p>
  
  <p>So anyway I did the following:</p>
  
  <pre><code># starting with file:
  shared.loader= /home/shaunkoo/NetBeansProjects/dao.properties
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and load the file in via </p>
  
  <pre><code>private static final String PROPERTIES_FILE = "/NetBeansProjects/dao.properties";
  private static final Properties PROPERTIES = new Properties();
  
  static {
      ClassLoader classLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
      InputStream propertiesFile = classLoader.getResourceAsStream(PROPERTIES_FILE);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, I am getting the error that states that /NetBeansProjects/dao.properties is missing in classpath. Any clue what I have done wrong?</p>