Try to use hibernate 3.4 in JBoss 5.1 but gets javax.validation.ValidationException: Unable to find a default provider

Question

I've come across some problems using Hibernate 3.4 on JBoss 5.1. Hibernate 3.4 is a JPA 1.0 implementation so it should be fine to be used in JBoss 5.1. The thing is JBoss has its own version of Hibernate, which is located at /common/lib whereas I don't want to use the version provided by JBoss. What I did was that I removed the hibernate-annotations.jar, hibernate-commons-annotations.jar, hibernate-core.jar, hibernate-entitymanager.jar, hibernate-jmx.jar and hibernate-validator.jar from that folder and put my Hibernate 3.4 jars into server/default/lib directory. I also compiled hibernate-validator.jar 3.1.0 into my war file because it seems otherwise JBoss cannot recognize where the validator is. After I have done all the above, I packaged my war file and deployed it to the deploy folder.

The server started with no issue. But when I tried to access my web application it throws an error:

2010-10-27 10:55:13,416 ERROR [org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[jboss.web].[localhost]] (http-172.16.10.211-80-1) Exception Processing ErrorPage[exceptionType=java.lang.Exception, location=/app/uncaughtException] javax.servlet.ServletException: Servlet.init() for servlet roodummy threw exception at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1089) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.allocate(StandardWrapper.java:777) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.invoke(ApplicationDispatcher.java:607) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.processRequest(ApplicationDispatcher.java:446) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.doForward(ApplicationDispatcher.java:382) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.forward(ApplicationDispatcher.java:310) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.custom(StandardHostValve.java:416) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.throwable(StandardHostValve.java:270) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:141) at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102) at org.jboss.web.tomcat.service.jca.CachedConnectionValve.invoke(CachedConnectionValve.java:158) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109) at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:330) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:829) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:598) at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:447) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662) Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.LocalValidatorFactoryBean#0': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is javax.validation.ValidationException: Unable to find a default provider at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1412) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:519) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:456) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:291) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:222) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:288) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:190) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:563) at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:872) at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:423) at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:442) at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:458) at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:339) at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initServletBean(FrameworkServlet.java:306) at org.springframework.web.servlet.HttpServletBean.init(HttpServletBean.java:127) at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:212) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1048) ... 16 more Caused by: javax.validation.ValidationException: Unable to find a default provider at javax.validation.Validation$GenericBootstrapImpl.configure(Validation.java:264) at org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.LocalValidatorFactoryBean.afterPropertiesSet(LocalValidatorFactoryBean.java:161) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.invokeInitMethods(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1469) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1409) ... 32 more

It looks like it still cannot find the validator. But it is already in the war file. I have tested my web app in a jetty server and it worked fine. What have I done wrong in the JBoss configuration?

Answer 1

The thing is JBoss has its own version of Hibernate, which is located at /common/lib whereas I don't want to use the version provided by JBoss.

I think that the recommended approach would be to bundle the libs you want to use in your application and to configure JBoss to load jars from your application first, using a jboss-web.xml with the following content (see ClassLoadingConfiguration):

<jboss-web>
   <class-loading java2ClassLoadingCompliance="false">
    <loader-repository>
        unique.packege.name:archive=your_project.war
        <loader-repository-config>
            java2ParentDelegation=false
        </loader-repository-config>
    </loader-repository>
   </class-loading>
</jboss-web>

I've not tested this myself when using Bean Validation but a user reported in this thread (and also this one) he still had to replace the bundled validator from common/lib. This sounds strange and I can't confirm it's required. Try without first.