Accessing textures packaged into the jar file?

[Labrasones]

I've got a bunch of different image files being used, and I've packaged them all into a "data" folder inside my jar. I'm trying to create a desktop application.

However, I'm not sure how to point to the textures inside the jar with a filepath. Or if this is even possible to use the textures without extracting them first.

Is there a special method I have to call? Or is it just a matter of using the right filepath? I'd do a google search, but I'm not sure what I'd even have to look for.

[pjohnsen]

You can use getResourceAsStream: http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/lang/Class.html#getResourceAsStream(java.lang.String)