When we need to copy resources in our Java project to the build directory, we have to extend the project's build.xml file. Suppose we have a default Java project in NetBeans. We create a new directory resources in the project directory. Here we place properties files, images or anything else we think is a resource and doesn't need to be compiled. We open build.xml and add the following ANT targets:
<target name="-post-compile-single" depends="-post-compile"/>
<target name="-post-compile">
<copy todir="${build.classes.dir}">
<fileset dir="resources/">
<include name="**/**"/>
</fileset>
</copy>
</target>
Anytime we compile a single source file, or the complete project, the files from the resources directory are copied to the build/classes directory.
