Netbeans bug? Application Client projects can’t use library jars

[jportway]

Hi, I can’t seem to reference library jars properly from enterprise application client projects on Glassfish v3.

• My Application Client project will deploy and run fine (either running from the IDE, or launching the deployed app from the server) until I add a library jar.

• If the application client project is stand alone (ie. not part of an enterprise app ear) then when I run the client it doesn’t see the jar (I get classNotFound exceptions) and in the server log I get “error in annotation processing : java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError” and on the client I get an exception that looks like this :

[jportway]

Also if I try to debug the project rather than run it I get this error in the server :

[jportway]

It's pretty easy to reproduce this :

• I'm using a fresh install of Netbeans and a fresh install of glassfish.
• Just create a new Application client project using the j2ee wizard
• run it - it should work and print hello world to the console
• add a library jar to the project
• run it - it will fail with the zip problems I described above

surely someone else is having this problem, or am I the only person writing a J2EE Application client? Or have I misunderstood something fundamental?

[rogier.de.groot]

I'm getting this too, it's really annoying and I can't seem to figure out what's wrong exactly. Really frustrating...

[ayip]

I am having the same problem too and haven't found the solution. The app-client does run as you said. Did you find a solution?

[jportway]

no, I still haven't really found a solution, though I've sort of developed a way of working which somewhat works around the problem.

I can't believe everyone is having these issues, so I'm wondering whether it's a platform issue. I'm running OSX and glassfish 3 - what are you running ?

[ayip]

We're running XP and Glassfish V3. I've been ignoring the messages for now since the app seems to run ok. I'm guessing there will eventually be some deployment problems but haven't investigated.

[jportway]

OK - I’ve got somewhere.
All the "java.util.zip.ZipException: error in opening zip file” exceptions spewed by Glassfish are apparently completely bogus, and seem to be the inevitable side-effect of including library jars in an an ear with an application client. In my opinion this is a really, really stupid bug with Glasshfish, since it sent me off for several days in the wrong direction trying to sort out the problem. They really need to sort that out.

I’m not sure what was causing some of the other issues I was having before, but I’ve got something working by creating a second EAR project specifically for the application client projects, separate from the EAR containing the EJBs etc. The classpath issues I was having were because as far as I can tell you can’t use library jars in an application client unless you package the app client in a EAR. This rather fundamental bit of information doesn’t seem to exist anywhere on the net - and there are no warnings from netbeans if you try to do it (in fact netbeans packages the library jars into the jar file it deploys to the server - glassfish just ignores them).

So - with the app client packaged in an external EAR everything seems to be working properly. There’s an added advantage that editing the application client code doesn’t cause the the entire EAR to be redeployed all the time and testing is much faster and easier.

[Tim Quinn]

I tried to backtrack to the origin of this thread and could not find its
beginning in the forum archives, but based on the last few messages I
guess you are referring to messages like

Error attempting to process extensions from the manifest of JAR file ...



Sorry this situation has been so frustrating for you.

First, about library JARs in stand-alone app clients (that is, app
clients not in an EAR) - Except for web apps (which are treated
specially for, I think, historical reasons), no stand-alone Java EE
module supports library JARs. I am not sure how easy or hard it would
be for NetBeans to prohibit that, if in fact that's even the right thing
to do. (Perhaps allow it but warn about it??)


Now, about the exceptions themselves - A Google search for GlassFish
and the error message above leads to this

http://blogs.sun.com/quinn/entry/why_the_warnings_about_glassfish

as the first entry (at least for me, at least when I ran it a few
minutes ago) which discusses the error and why it appears and why it's
generally OK (although, admittedly, noisy). You might find that
somewhat helpful...although in your case a bit late.

In any event, glad to hear that you have things working now.

- Tim



On 2/22/10 10:13 AM, jportway wrote:

[jportway]

Hi Tim,

Thanks very much for your reply. I did actually find the blog post you mentioned in the end - and that’s what rescued me from continuing down the hopeless path that I’d been on. Thanks very much for posting it.

I do think that the “error processing zip file” warnings that glassfish emits are a lot worse than just “noise” - unless you already know that you can ignore them they look very much like something is wrong with your deployment. What else is one to think when several thousand lines of exception stack traces fly past when you deploy, all with red “warning” logs?

If (as in my case) you really do have some kind of classpath problem then these warnings look very much like the culprits. Even when you don’t actually have a problem the sheer volume of log messages generated is a real pain (especially if, like me, you have around 20 jars in your deployment).

In general application client support seems to be the poor relation in the javaee family, with much less robust support than web apps etc. Do you think the situation is likely to improve in the future, or is it the case that very few people actually use the technology and it’s stalled?

[asgteach]

[ken.ganfield]

There is a draft of an update to the enterprise application tutorial that is targeted at NetBeans IDE 6.9 and GlassFish 3:

http://wiki.netbeans.org/DocsEntAppClientGF3
Currently it is just the basic steps, but it may be helpful. Questions, comments and suggestions are welcome. [/url]

[Edux]

Hi,

I've followed the draft steps one by one and I always get the same error:
org.glassfish.appclient.client.acc.UserError: ACC007: The app client directory F:\Edu\Master Java\EJBCliente\EJBCliente-app-client does not contain a manifest; the app client container cannot process it. Embedded programs should pass URIs with scheme "jar:" for JAR files and scheme "file:" for directories.
Java Result: 1

If I try to include an App Client to my EE Project I get: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Sniffers with type [ejb] and type [appclient] should not claim the archive at the same time.

I'm stuck. I will appreciate any answer. Thanks in advance.

Note: I'm using Netbeans 6.9 and Glassfish V3.0.1

[emiddio]

see http://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=189732

i got similiar errors;

dont remember details -- but some issues were fixed with nb6.10dev, but then
found some
new issues with gfv3.1b16 vs gfv3.01; also some issues with gfv211 support
also.

gary


----- Original Message -----
From: "Edux" <address-removed>
To: <address-removed>
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 8:12 AM
Subject: [nbj2ee] Netbeans bug? Application Client projects can