Java JAX-RPC NoClassDefFoundError

Question

I am new to JAX-RPC. I tried creating a simple Java bean in RAD 7.0, and went through the options to create a JAX-RPC webservice. My method is as below.

 public byte[] getData(byte[] argument) {

    <Customclass> proxy = new <Customclass>();
    List outputList = new ArrayList();
    try {
        // Call a method on proxy
    } catch (Exception e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    byte[] output = getBytesFromObject(outputList);
    return output;

}

1) This works fine when called from a client, if i do not import any dependent classes. 2) However, when i import a dependent class (Customclass shown above), i get to see the below exception.

 [9/12/09 9:59:00:182 IST] 00000026 UserException E   WSWS3228E: Error: Exception: WebServicesFault
 faultCode: {http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/}Server.generalException
 faultString: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: <Customclass>
 faultActor: null
 faultDetail: 
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError:

Packaging - the above method resides in an application(ear) which has all the necessary classes included as jar files within the ear. The above method is invoked from a client - JAX-RPC client.

Would appreciate if someone could guide me on this.

Answer 1

Are the jars in the /lib folder or the folder specified in the deployment descriptor? The following is from the JSR-000244 JavaTM Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 Specification section 8.2.1.

EE.8.2.1

Bundled Libraries Libraries bundled with an application may be referenced in the following ways:

1. A JAR format file (such as a .jar file, .war file, or .rar file) may reference a .jar file or directory by naming the referenced .jar file or directory in a Class-Path header in the referencing JAR file’s Manifest file. The referenced .jar file or directory is named using a URL relative to the URL of the referencing JAR file. The Manifest file is named META-INF/MANIFEST.MF in the JAR file. The Class-Path entry in the Manifest file is of the form Class-Path: list-of-jar-files-or-directories-separated-by-spaces

2. A .ear file may contain a directory that contains libraries packaged in JAR files. The library-directory element of the .ear file’s deployment descriptor contains the name of this directory. If a library-directory element isn’t specified, or if the .ear file does not contain a deployment descriptor, the directory named lib is used. An empty library-directory element may be used to specify that there is no library directory. All files in this directory (but not subdirectories) with a .jar extension must be made available to all components packaged in the EAR file, including application clients. These libraries may reference other libraries, either bundled with the application or installed separately, using any of the techniques described herein.

3. A web application may include libraries in the WEB-INF/lib directory. See the Servlet specification for details. These libraries may reference other libraries, either bundled with the application or installed separately, using any of the techniques described herein.

Also, put the CustomClass variable declaration inside a try/catch & see if you get more information about the exception.

Answer 2

I came across XStream - that allowed me to use my existing object as is and pass them to the server as a xml string, and re-create the object from xml string on the server side.

I guess this is one way to pass Map, List objects from client to server.

I plan to move the server module across to a remote box now.