public static final URL findAsResource(String path) 
{
		URL url = null;
		// First, try to locate this resource through the current
		// context classloader.
		ClassLoader contextClassLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
		if (contextClassLoader!=null) {
			url = contextClassLoader.getResource(path);
		}
		if (url != null)
			return url;
		// Next, try to locate this resource through this class's classloader
		url = ConfigHelper.class.getClassLoader().getResource(path);
		if (url != null)
			return url;
		// Next, try to locate this resource through the system classloader
		url = ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader().getResource(path);
		// Anywhere else we should look?
		return url;
}

Try to locate a local URL representing the incoming path. This method only attempts to locate this URL as a java system resource.

 public static final Properties getConfigProperties(String path) throws HibernateException 
{
		try {
			Properties properties = new Properties();
			properties.load( getConfigStream(path) );
			return properties;
		}
		catch(IOException e) {
			throw new HibernateException("Unable to load properties from specified config file: " + path, e);
		}
}

Loads a properties instance based on the data at the incoming config location.

 public static final InputStream getConfigStream(String path) throws HibernateException 
{
		final URL url = ConfigHelper.locateConfig(path);
		if (url == null) {
			String msg = "Unable to locate config file: " + path;
			log.error( msg );
			throw new HibernateException(msg);
		}
		try {
			return url.openStream();
        }
		catch(IOException e) {
	        throw new HibernateException("Unable to open config file: " + path, e);
        }
}

Open an InputStream to the URL represented by the incoming path. First makes a call to #locateConfig(java.lang.String) in order to find an appropriate URL. java.net.URL#openStream() is then called to obtain the stream.

 public static final Reader getConfigStreamReader(String path) throws HibernateException 
{
		return new InputStreamReader( getConfigStream(path) );
}

Open an Reader to the URL represented by the incoming path. First makes a call to #locateConfig(java.lang.String) in order to find an appropriate URL. java.net.URL#openStream() is then called to obtain a stream, which is then wrapped in a Reader.

 public static InputStream getResourceAsStream(String resource) 
{
		String stripped = resource.startsWith("/") ?
				resource.substring(1) : resource;
		InputStream stream = null;
		ClassLoader classLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
		if (classLoader!=null) {
			stream = classLoader.getResourceAsStream( stripped );
		}
		if ( stream == null ) {
			stream = Environment.class.getResourceAsStream( resource );
		}
		if ( stream == null ) {
			stream = Environment.class.getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream( stripped );
		}
		if ( stream == null ) {
			throw new HibernateException( resource + " not found" );
		}
		return stream;
}

 public static InputStream getUserResourceAsStream(String resource) 
{
		boolean hasLeadingSlash = resource.startsWith( "/" );
		String stripped = hasLeadingSlash ? resource.substring(1) : resource;
		InputStream stream = null;
		ClassLoader classLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
		if ( classLoader != null ) {
			stream = classLoader.getResourceAsStream( resource );
			if ( stream == null && hasLeadingSlash ) {
				stream = classLoader.getResourceAsStream( stripped );
			}
		}
		if ( stream == null ) {
			stream = Environment.class.getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream( resource );
		}
		if ( stream == null && hasLeadingSlash ) {
			stream = Environment.class.getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream( stripped );
		}
		if ( stream == null ) {
			throw new HibernateException( resource + " not found" );
		}
		return stream;
}

 public static final URL locateConfig(String path) 
{
	                                                            	 
		try {
			return new URL(path);
		}
		catch(MalformedURLException e) {
			return findAsResource(path);
		}
}

Try to locate a local URL representing the incoming path. The first attempt assumes that the incoming path is an actual URL string (file://, etc). If this does not work, then the next attempts try to locate this UURL as a java system resource.