Loading resources from a jar within Java Web Start

Question

I am trying to load a number of resources in a Java Web Start(JWS) application.

I have tried loading images using:

private Image fetchImage(String path, String refname) {
    // check to see if the reference already exists else load it.
    if (images.containsKey(refname)) {
        return images.get(refname);
    } else {
        try {
          //return ImageIO.read(ClassLoader.getSystemResourceAsStream(path));
            return ImageIO.read(ClassLoader.getSystemResource(path));
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
    return null;
}

But I get an IllegalArgumentException: input == null! at fetchImage

I've been reading this topic

And have tried the solution to add classpath in my maven-jar-plugin pom.xml

at this page I read the following:

Java doesn't currently support a method to list all resources in a jar. You can only retrieve one resource at a time.

Well I'm trying to load all my resources at a time. So have they solved this issue in JWS or do I have to remove each resource and reload it each time I need it?

my jar resources are at root so for example

my path would be:

this.fetchImage("images/image1.png", "image1");