Resource Utils provides straightforward access to Java resources in several formats so you don't have to write boilerplate conversions.
To get a resource as Properties:
Properties properties = ResourceUtils.getProperties("/com/github/davidcarboni/app.properties");
To get a resource as an XML Document:
Document document = ResourceUtils.getXml("/com/github/davidcarboni/app.xml");
To get a resource as a String:
String string = ResourceUtils.getString("/com/github/davidcarboni/string.resource");
To extract a resource to a temp File:
File temp = ResourceUtils.getFile("/com/github/davidcarboni/file.resource");
To get a resource as a Reader:
Reader reader = ResourceUtils.getReader("/com/github/davidcarboni/character.resource");
To get a resource as a good old InputStream:
InputStream input = ResourceUtils.getStream("/com/github/davidcarboni/resource.data");
To use resource-utils in your project:
<dependency>
<groupId>com.github.davidcarboni</groupId>
<artifactId>resource-utils</artifactId>
<version>1.1.0</version>
</dependency>