JasperReports NoClassDefFoundError exception on net.sf.jasperreports.engine.util.JRStyledTextParser

Question

When trying to export on WebLogic 11g, it throws NoClassDefFound exception. I checked the application WAR and jasperreports-3.7.4.jar is included in WEB-INF/lib folder. What is the error?

StackTrace

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: net/sf/jasperreports/engine/util/JRStyledTextParser at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRBaseFiller.(JRBaseFiller.java:181) at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRVerticalFiller.(JRVerticalFiller.java:76) at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRVerticalFiller.(JRVerticalFiller.java:86) at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRVerticalFiller.(JRVerticalFiller.java:56) at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRFiller.createFiller(JRFiller.java:142) at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRFiller.fillReport(JRFiller.java:78) at net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JasperFillManager.fillReport(JasperFillManager.java:624) at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.jasperreports.AbstractJasperReportsView.fillReport(AbstractJasperReportsView.java:676) at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.jasperreports.AbstractJasperReportsView.renderMergedOutputModel(AbstractJasperReportsView.java:570) at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.AbstractView.render(AbstractView.java:257) at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.render(DispatcherServlet.java:1183) at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:902) at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:807) at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:571) at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doPost(FrameworkServlet.java:512) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:727) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:821) at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper$ServletServiceAction.run(StubSecurityHelper.java:227) at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper.invokeServlet(StubSecurityHelper.java:125) at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.execute(ServletStubImpl.java:292) at weblogic.servlet.internal.TailFilter.doFilter(TailFilter.java:27) at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:57) at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:265) at org.acegisecurity.intercept.web.FilterSecurityInterceptor.invoke(FilterSecurityInterceptor.java:107) at org.acegisecurity.intercept.web.FilterSecurityInterceptor.doFilter(FilterSecurityInterceptor.java:73) at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:275) at org.acegisecurity.ui.ExceptionTranslationFilter.doFilter(ExceptionTranslationFilter.java:126) at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:275) at org.acegisecurity.ui.AbstractProcessingFilter.doFilter(AbstractProcessingFilter.java:272) at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:275) at org.acegisecurity.ui.logout.LogoutFilter.doFilter(LogoutFilter.java:111) at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:275) at org.acegisecurity.context.HttpSessionContextIntegrationFilter.doFilter(HttpSessionContextIntegrationFilter.java:249) at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:275) at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:150) at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterToBeanProxy.doFilter(FilterToBeanProxy.java:99) at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:57) at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext$ServletInvocationAction.run(WebAppServletContext.java:3588) at weblogic.security.acl.internal.AuthenticatedSubject.doAs(AuthenticatedSubject.java:321) at weblogic.security.service.SecurityManager.runAs(SecurityManager.java:121) at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.securedExecute(WebAppServletContext.java:2200) at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.execute(WebAppServletContext.java:2106) at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletRequestImpl.run(ServletRequestImpl.java:1428) at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:201) at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:173)

Answer 1

Finally, I've got it working. I detected the root Exception, which was thrown before NoClassDefFoundError:net/sf/jasperreports/engine/util/JRStyledTextParser :

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: sun/awt/X11GraphicsEnvironment

The Sun AWT classes on Unix and Linux have a dependence on the X Window System. When you use these classes, they expect to load X client libraries and be able to talk to an X display server. This makes sense if your client has a GUI; unfortunately, it's required even if your client uses AWT but does not have a GUI (which is my case, generating a report from a web application)

The way to bypass this, is setting a system property java.awt.headless=true on system startup.