I have to deploy a war file 1.

Christopher Schultz

You should use the getResourceAsStream technique since the properties file may be inside a JAR or WAR file at some point. Standard FileInputStreams cannot read files out of JAR files, so you will be stuck.

It's always a good idea to use the getResourceAsStream technique since it can read files in a number of different ways: within JAR files, across networks, etc.