Apache Camel stax2 NoSuchMethodError

Question

I'm getting very weird behavior from the Apache Camel application. I'm deploying the EAR on WebLogic 12.2.1.3 server on our test environment, and everything works fine. The EAR contains all the dependencies used by the application.

However, when I deploy the same EAR to production (it deploys fine), it gives the following runtime exception during message handling:

Exception occurred during execution on the exchange: Exchange[ID-napoli-34361-1518770862962-0-99], StackTrace: org.apache.camel.CamelExecutionException: Exception occurred during execution on the exchange: Exchange[ID-napoli-34361-1518770862962-0-99]
    at org.apache.camel.util.ObjectHelper.wrapCamelExecutionException(ObjectHelper.java:1790)
    at org.apache.camel.impl.DefaultExchange.setException(DefaultExchange.java:350)
    at org.apache.camel.component.cxf.CxfProducer.process(CxfProducer.java:141)
    at org.apache.camel.processor.SendProcessor.process(SendProcessor.java:145)
    at org.apache.camel.management.InstrumentationProcessor.process(InstrumentationProcessor.java:77)
    at org.apache.camel.processor.RedeliveryErrorHandler.process(RedeliveryErrorHandler.java:541)
    at org.apache.camel.processor.CamelInternalProcessor.process(CamelInternalProcessor.java:198)
    at org.apache.camel.processor.Pipeline.process(Pipeline.java:120)
    at org.apache.camel.processor.Pipeline.process(Pipeline.java:83)
    at org.apache.camel.processor.CamelInternalProcessor.process(CamelInternalProcessor.java:198)
    at org.apache.camel.processor.DelegateAsyncProcessor.process(DelegateAsyncProcessor.java:97)
    at org.apache.camel.component.cxf.CxfConsumer$CxfConsumerInvoker.syncInvoke(CxfConsumer.java:220)
    at org.apache.camel.component.cxf.CxfConsumer$CxfConsumerInvoker.invoke(CxfConsumer.java:147)
    at org.apache.cxf.interceptor.ServiceInvokerInterceptor$1.run(ServiceInvokerInterceptor.java:59)
    at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
    at org.apache.cxf.interceptor.ServiceInvokerInterceptor$2.run(ServiceInvokerInterceptor.java:126)
    at org.apache.cxf.workqueue.SynchronousExecutor.execute(SynchronousExecutor.java:37)
    at org.apache.cxf.interceptor.ServiceInvokerInterceptor.handleMessage(ServiceInvokerInterceptor.java:131)
    at org.apache.cxf.phase.PhaseInterceptorChain.doIntercept(PhaseInterceptorChain.java:308)
    at org.apache.cxf.transport.ChainInitiationObserver.onMessage(ChainInitiationObserver.java:121)
    at org.apache.cxf.transport.http.AbstractHTTPDestination.invoke(AbstractHTTPDestination.java:267)
    at org.apache.cxf.transport.servlet.ServletController.invokeDestination(ServletController.java:234)
    at org.apache.cxf.transport.servlet.ServletController.invoke(ServletController.java:208)
    at org.apache.cxf.transport.servlet.ServletController.invoke(ServletController.java:160)
    at org.apache.cxf.transport.servlet.CXFNonSpringServlet.invoke(CXFNonSpringServlet.java:191)
    at org.apache.cxf.transport.servlet.AbstractHTTPServlet.handleRequest(AbstractHTTPServlet.java:301)
    at org.apache.cxf.transport.servlet.AbstractHTTPServlet.doPost(AbstractHTTPServlet.java:220)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:707)
    at org.apache.cxf.transport.servlet.AbstractHTTPServlet.service(AbstractHTTPServlet.java:276)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper$ServletServiceAction.run(StubSecurityHelper.java:286)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper$ServletServiceAction.run(StubSecurityHelper.java:260)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper.invokeServlet(StubSecurityHelper.java:137)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.execute(ServletStubImpl.java:350)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.execute(ServletStubImpl.java:247)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext$ServletInvocationAction.wrapRun(WebAppServletContext.java:3697)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext$ServletInvocationAction.run(WebAppServletContext.java:3667)
    at weblogic.security.acl.internal.AuthenticatedSubject.doAs(AuthenticatedSubject.java:326)
    at weblogic.security.service.SecurityManager.runAsForUserCode(SecurityManager.java:197)
    at weblogic.servlet.provider.WlsSecurityProvider.runAsForUserCode(WlsSecurityProvider.java:203)
    at weblogic.servlet.provider.WlsSubjectHandle.run(WlsSubjectHandle.java:71)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.doSecuredExecute(WebAppServletContext.java:2443)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.securedExecute(WebAppServletContext.java:2291)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.execute(WebAppServletContext.java:2269)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletRequestImpl.runInternal(ServletRequestImpl.java:1703)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletRequestImpl.run(ServletRequestImpl.java:1663)
    at weblogic.servlet.provider.ContainerSupportProviderImpl$WlsRequestExecutor.run(ContainerSupportProviderImpl.java:272)
    at weblogic.invocation.ComponentInvocationContextManager._runAs(ComponentInvocationContextManager.java:352)
    at weblogic.invocation.ComponentInvocationContextManager.runAs(ComponentInvocationContextManager.java:337)
    at weblogic.work.LivePartitionUtility.doRunWorkUnderContext(LivePartitionUtility.java:57)
    at weblogic.work.PartitionUtility.runWorkUnderContext(PartitionUtility.java:41)
    at weblogic.work.SelfTuningWorkManagerImpl.runWorkUnderContext(SelfTuningWorkManagerImpl.java:644)
    at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:415)
    at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:355)
Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.codehaus.stax2.ri.EmptyIterator.getInstance()Lorg/codehaus/stax2/ri/EmptyIterator;
    at com.ctc.wstx.sw.OutputElementBase.getPrefixes(OutputElementBase.java:358)
    at org.apache.cxf.staxutils.StaxUtils.writeStartElement(StaxUtils.java:811)
    at org.apache.cxf.staxutils.StaxUtils.copy(StaxUtils.java:758)
    at org.apache.cxf.staxutils.StaxUtils.copy(StaxUtils.java:722)
    at org.apache.cxf.binding.soap.saaj.SAAJOutInterceptor$SAAJOutEndingInterceptor.handleMessage(SAAJOutInterceptor.java:214)
    at org.apache.cxf.binding.soap.saaj.SAAJOutInterceptor$SAAJOutEndingInterceptor.handleMessage(SAAJOutInterceptor.java:174)
    at org.apache.cxf.phase.PhaseInterceptorChain.doIntercept(PhaseInterceptorChain.java:308)
    at org.apache.cxf.endpoint.ClientImpl.doInvoke(ClientImpl.java:516)
    at org.apache.cxf.endpoint.ClientImpl.invoke(ClientImpl.java:418)
    at org.apache.camel.component.cxf.CxfProducer.process(CxfProducer.java:133)
    ... 51 more
, Out: null: ]

The camel route success all the way to the cxf component, which tries to call external web service, failing for some reason and causing the exception.

It's the same package with same dependencies on both environments, and in the production environment weblogic I can not see any external libraries installed, which could conflict with the EAR package. So, how do I trace what is causing the problem?

Answer 1

This seems to be a compatibility issue between Stax and Woodstox.

See this issue and try to fix your dependencies: https://github.com/FasterXML/woodstox/issues/10

Answer 2

The problem was weblogic providing the following library

oracle_common/modules/org.codehaus.woodstox.stax2-api.jar

The different version of same library was also packaged within the EAR. The problem was solved by setting prefer-application-packages in the deployment descriptor.

It is still unknown, why the application worked in our environment without the prefer-application-packages attribute. Shouldn't it have loaded the weblogic-one in our environment too? What causes the seemingly random behavior in this case?