Grails lib directory doesn't work - grails

I use Grails 2.2.3. I have put jar file in lib directory, IDEA immediately resolved the dependency. But when I start app I get NullPointerException on class from this library. If I try it second time or more I get java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError. I found a lot of advice how to resolve this issue but none were useful in my case.
Library (mylib-1.jar) compiled in maven and added to lib dir. In BuildConfig.groovy, dependency is mentioned as:
dependencies {
compile 'com.mylib:mylib:1'
}
I tried
grails clean
grails compile --refresh-dependencies
grails refresh-dependencies
but nothing helps. In result war file I can see this library in WEB-INF/lib, but even if deploy this war I get the same error.
How can this be resolved?

You're confusing NoClassDefFoundError with ClassNotFoundException. ClassNotFoundException happens when a class you want isn't there, but you get a NoClassDefFoundError when the class is there, but a class it depends on isn't. So you're missing another jar file that this jar file depends on.
This is one of the many reasons why it's best to use dependency management instead of manually copying jar files to the lib directory. If you use a Maven repo where the jars have proper POM files, their dependencies are specified, and the resolver can download the entire tree of dependencies for you, rather than you having to find all of the jars yourself.

Related

Grails NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class

I have added a jar in to lib folder and refresh dependencies but there is always Caused by NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class. Maybe somebody have some ideas?
You'll get a ClassNotFoundException if you try to load a class that isn't in the classpath, but NoClassDefFoundError is quite different and often tricky to resolve. This is because they occur when the class exists, but another class (or a resource in some cases) that it depends on cannot be loaded.
Try to find out what other libraries are needed by this jar file. http://mvnrepository.com/ is a great site for displaying library dependencies. Of course, if this jar is in a public Maven repo, you should delete it from the lib dir and change to using a dependency in BuildConfig.groovy. That way it will be downloaded once and cached, and reused in multiple projects, and all of its dependencies and transitive dependencies will also be downloaded and added to the classpath.

Grails not automatically adding jar to classpath

Grails is able to configure dependencies when you specify them in the BuildConfig.groovy file. Usually when you add it there and call grails compile --refresh-dependencies it will resolve the dependency, and download to .grails/ivy-cache/..... (in my case). However, one time, after downloading the jar files, it failed to automatically add the jar to the classpath. Does anybody have any idea on how this will happen? It has worked for me before on many other Maven repository dependencies. The specific dependency I failed to add to my Grails project classpath is http://mvnrepository.com/artifact/javax.mail/mail/1.4.7
I can just manually add the lib to the classpath, but I'd rather have dependencies resolved automatically with the BuildConfig.groovy file. I also can't manually add jars into the "Grails Dependencies" library in the classpath; they can only be outside that library.

Referencing external dependencies in GGTS by convention

How do I reference a dependency by convention within my project build path? Allow me to elaborate...
I'm using the Groovy/Grails Tool Suite (GGTS 3.0). I'm referencing the dependency as such in my BuildConfig.groovy:
dependencies {
compile 'tgt:jaxb-utils:1.0'
}
The referenced jar file is successfully pulled down from the Artifactory repo - I can find the jar file on my local file system in the Ivy cache. When I run any grails targets (grails compile, grails run-app, grails run-tests), it works fine - meaning my code that imports the classes from the jar has no problems. When I run grails war, the referenced jar file is packed into the constructed war.
However, and here is the crux of this post - the project build path does not reference this jar file by default or convention, so my java or groovy code that imports the classes from the jar file reports a unable to resolve class ... error.
One solution is to simply add the jar file to the lib folder and update the build path accordingly, or modify the build path to reference the jar file in the Ivy cache folder. However, I'd have to do this for any/all dependencies pulled down in this way. Any jars in the lib folder will get saved to the team source code repository, and that seems like wasted space since the grails commands work fine with just the dependency reference in BuildConfig.groovy.
Am I just being too idealistic (ie - difficult) here, or is there a better way to clean up the unable to resolve class ... errors in my IDE without having to manually add the dependent jar files to my lib folder and update my build path? Ideas?
Eclipse / STS / GGTS : If you have Grails plugin installed, you can do the following :
Right click on your project -> Grails Tools -> Refresh dependencies (or shortcut "Alt+G, R")

Grails can't find classes in jars

I have an app in Grails that uses a .java to manage paypal MassPay feature. Like many .java, it needs some jars that enclose the classes that jar uses. Ok, i import that jars and the errors in the .java dissapears. But now, when I try to run the app, i receive 25 messages like this:
myapproute/grails-app/controllers/com/mycompany/widget/MassPay.java:3: package com.paypal.sdk.profiles does not exist
import com.paypal.sdk.profiles.APIProfile;
That file in the MassPay.java does not throw any error, since i imported the jar where that class is enclosed. But it doesn't allow me to run the project.
Any help? thanks.
Im using Eclipse, not NetBeans (i have read that there is a bug in Netbeans)
Adding JARs to the Eclipse project build path is not sufficient to make them visible to Grails. You need to either put them in the application's lib directory and run grails compile --refresh-dependencies or (better) if the JARs are available in a Maven-compatible repository simply declare your dependencies in BuildConfig.groovy and let Grails download the JARs itself.
Run this - it will work
grails clean

where are grails libs specified

I recently upgraded a project to Grails 1.3.5. This deleted everything in the /lib dir, though the project continues to work, so I guess the way dependencies are specified (and the location they're stored) has changed. I want to remove some libs that I'm no longer using, but can't do this until I find where the dependencies are specified.
Thanks,
Don
I'm surprised that anything was deleted from your lib directory - that shouldn't happen.
Dependencies are registered in BuildConfig.groovy in your app and in the plugins that work with Grails 1.2 and above. Older plugins will continue to have jars in their lib directories which will be added to the classpath, and you can still do the same. Obviously it's best to use the dependency management if possible so you have just the one copy of the jar in your Ivy cache instead of one for every project on your machine.
You can run grails dependency-report to generate Ivy reports to see what's managed by Ivy in each environment. These will end up in target/dependency-report and there's no index file, so just open any of the .html files and you can navigate to the others from there, e.g. target/dependency-report/org.grails.internal-{appname}-runtime.html.

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