Selenium doesn't run with Java 1.6

Question

I have to run some tests with Selenium using Java 1.6, but I'm getting this error when I'm trying to do that:

java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: JVMCFRE003 bad major version; class=org/openqa/selenium/Capabilities, offset=6
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:275)
    at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:69)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:529)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:440)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$300(URLClassLoader.java:68)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$ClassFinder.run(URLClassLoader.java:1027)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(AccessController.java:284)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:418)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:660)
    at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:346)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:626)
    at java.lang.J9VMInternals.verifyImpl(Native Method)
    at java.lang.J9VMInternals.verify(J9VMInternals.java:72)
    at java.lang.J9VMInternals.verify(J9VMInternals.java:70)
    at java.lang.J9VMInternals.initialize(J9VMInternals.java:134)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:44)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:27)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:516)
    at junit.framework.TestSuite.createTest(TestSuite.java:61)
    at junit.framework.TestSuite.addTestMethod(TestSuite.java:294)
    at junit.framework.TestSuite.addTestsFromTestCase(TestSuite.java:150)
    at junit.framework.TestSuite.<init>(TestSuite.java:129)
    at org.junit.internal.runners.JUnit38ClassRunner.<init>(JUnit38ClassRunner.java:71)
    at org.junit.internal.builders.JUnit3Builder.runnerForClass(JUnit3Builder.java:14)
    at org.junit.runners.model.RunnerBuilder.safeRunnerForClass(RunnerBuilder.java:57)
    at org.junit.internal.builders.AllDefaultPossibilitiesBuilder.runnerForClass(AllDefaultPossibilitiesBuilder.java:29)
    at org.junit.runners.model.RunnerBuilder.safeRunnerForClass(RunnerBuilder.java:57)
    at org.junit.internal.requests.ClassRequest.getRunner(ClassRequest.java:24)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit4.runner.JUnit4TestReference.<init>(JUnit4TestReference.java:33)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit4.runner.JUnit4TestClassReference.<init>(JUnit4TestClassReference.java:25)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit4.runner.JUnit4TestLoader.createTest(JUnit4TestLoader.java:48)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit4.runner.JUnit4TestLoader.loadTests(JUnit4TestLoader.java:38)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:452)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:683)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.run(RemoteTestRunner.java:390)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.main(RemoteTestRunner.java:197)

I know that I see this error because of not compatible Java version, but is it possible to run my tests with Java 1.6? Or which Selenium version was compiled in Java 1.6? Now I'm using Selenium 2.53.1.

Answer 1

Looks like 2.47.0 requires java 7. Before that was 2.46.0.

v2.47.0

** Java 7 is now requried, but you really should be on 8, since 7 is EOL ** (sic) https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/blob/master/java/CHANGELOG