diff -r 6fceb66e1ad7 -r ed84c8bdd87b src/org/sonews/util/io/Resource.java
--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/src/org/sonews/util/io/Resource.java	Sun Aug 29 17:28:58 2010 +0200
@@ -0,0 +1,132 @@
+/*
+ *   SONEWS News Server
+ *   see AUTHORS for the list of contributors
+ *
+ *   This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ *   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ *   the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ *   (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ *   This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ *   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ *   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ *   GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ *   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ *   along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ */
+
+package org.sonews.util.io;
+
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+import java.net.URL;
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
+
+/**
+ * Provides method for loading of resources.
+ * @author Christian Lins
+ * @since sonews/0.5.0
+ */
+public final class Resource
+{
+  
+  /**
+   * Loads a resource and returns it as URL reference.
+   * The Resource's classloader is used to load the resource, not
+   * the System's ClassLoader so it may be safe to use this method
+   * in a sandboxed environment.
+   * @return
+   */
+  public static URL getAsURL(final String name)
+  {
+    if(name == null)
+    {
+      return null;
+    }
+
+    return Resource.class.getClassLoader().getResource(name);
+  }
+  
+  /**
+   * Loads a resource and returns an InputStream to it.
+   * @param name
+   * @return
+   */
+  public static InputStream getAsStream(String name)
+  {
+    try
+    {
+      URL url = getAsURL(name);
+      if(url == null)
+      {
+        return null;
+      }
+      else
+      {
+        return url.openStream();
+      }
+    }
+    catch(IOException e)
+    {
+      e.printStackTrace();
+      return null;
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Loads a plain text resource.
+   * @param withNewline If false all newlines are removed from the 
+   * return String
+   */
+  public static String getAsString(String name, boolean withNewline)
+  {
+    if(name == null)
+      return null;
+
+    BufferedReader in = null;
+    try
+    {
+      InputStream ins = getAsStream(name);
+      if(ins == null)
+        return null;
+
+      in = new BufferedReader(
+        new InputStreamReader(ins, Charset.forName("UTF-8")));
+      StringBuffer buf = new StringBuffer();
+
+      for(;;)
+      {
+        String line = in.readLine();
+        if(line == null)
+          break;
+
+        buf.append(line);
+        if(withNewline)
+          buf.append('\n');
+      }
+
+      return buf.toString();
+    }
+    catch(Exception e)
+    {
+      e.printStackTrace();
+      return null;
+    }
+    finally
+    {
+      try
+      {
+        if(in != null)
+          in.close();
+      }
+      catch(IOException ex)
+      {
+        ex.printStackTrace();
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+}