[basex-talk] Opening a database outside of the BaseX directory

OK, I've been working with BaseX for a little while with some great success. But I am now putting some 'glue' code together and I have a simple task that I am struggling with (believe it or not)

Having an issue opening up a database (using just the BaseX jar file).  I execute XQuery (inside Java program) and I try specifying the path to the database (e.g. /home/somedirectory/basex/data/MyDB).  However whenever I use the full path to get the database, it can't find it.  I execute the program locally (without the full path) and everything works just fine!

I've tried using db:open() and collection().  Any advice - and sorry for such a simple question.  I'm sure I am overlooking something both simple and silly.

Thanks again