[FIXED] How to read a static file on deployment on Spring Boot

Issue

I want to be able to deploy my spring boot application onlne on heroku. My app loads data from a static .json file which is located on my resources folder.

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So far I've tried this code but it doesn't work. For some reason I can't read the data from the json file.

    public List<Category> getAllCategories() throws FileNotFoundException
    {
       Gson gson = new Gson();
       ClassLoader classLoader = getClass().getClassLoader();
       File file = new File(classLoader.getResource("static/data/data.json").getFile());
       JsonReader reader = new JsonReader(new FileReader(file.getPath()));
       List<Category> allCategories = gson.fromJson(reader, new TypeToken<List<Category>>(){}.getType());

       return allCategories;
    }

Solution

Since data.json is moved inside JAR which is deployed on heroku, try using getResourceAsStream(path) instead getResource(). pseudocode could be,

Gson gson = new Gson();
ClassLoader classLoader = getClass().getClassLoader();
InputStream in = classLoader.getResourceAsStream("static/data/data.json");
JsonReader reader = new JsonReader(new InputStreamReader(in));
List<Category> allCategories = gson.fromJson(reader, new TypeToken<List<Category>>(){}.getType());

Answered By - benjamin c
Answer Checked By - Dawn Plyler (JavaFixing Volunteer)