JasperReports 6.14.0 fails at Maven stage: "Could not find artifact com.lowagie:itext:jar:2.1.7.js8"

[soc]

When including jasper-reports in Maven as a dependency, Maven fails to resolve as it can't find com.lowagie:itext:jar:2.1.7.js8.

It seems as if JasperReports depends on a version of iText that is not available through public repositories.

[teodord]

Actually, this modified version of iText 2.1.7 is available on this public repository:
http://jaspersoft.jfrog.io/jaspersoft/third-party-ce-artifacts/com/lowagie/itext/2.1.7.js8/

Please note that the pom.xml of the JasperReports library has a repository entry for that:

<repository>
	<id>jaspersoft-third-party</id>
	<url>http://jaspersoft.jfrog.io/jaspersoft/third-party-ce-artifacts/</url>
</repository>

See it here:
https://github.com/TIBCOSoftware/jasperreports/blob/master/jasperreports/pom.xml#L522

[soc]

We are using JasperReports from MavenCentral directly, so that's probably why the itext artifact is not available.

Is it really necessary to depend on an additional repositories for dependencies of dependencies?
Wouldn't it be possible to publish it on Maven Central, like the rest of JasperReports?

[teodord]

We use a modified version of iText. It is not our own software and we modified it only under the terms of the LGPL license under which that version was published. It is not up to us to publish such modified version of iText in Maven Central repositories.
We publish it in our own public repositories. The solution is to simply add the jaspersoft.jfrog.io repository to your build files. The very fact that Maven allows custom repositories is testimony to the fact that using only Maven Central is not mandatory in a Maven ecosystem.
Another solution would be to exclude our modified iText from the JasperReports dependency in your build system and bring the original iText 2.1.7 from the Maven Central.

[soc]

Thanks for the help!

We use a modified version of iText. It is not our own software and we modified it only under the terms of the LGPL license under which that version was published. It is not up to us to publish such modified version of iText in Maven Central repositories.

Would it be an option to use a current, maintained version of itext instead, or did the versions diverge too much?

The very fact that Maven allows custom repositories is testimony to the fact that using only Maven Central is not mandatory in a Maven ecosystem.

Granted, perhaps it's more of a fault of Maven Central that it accepts artefacts with missing dependencies.

Another solution would be to exclude our modified iText from the JasperReports dependency in your build system and bring the original iText 2.1.7 from the Maven Central.

I guess another possibility would be to put the itext dependency in my Nexus manually?

[teodord]

Not sure what you mean by "current, maintained version of iText", because iText 2.1.7 is no longer maintained. We had to stay with it because after 2.1.7, iText changed its license.
The current version of iText is 7+, but since it has different package names inside, it acts like a total different library compared to 2.1.7, so you cannot use it as a replacement.
Again, you can use the original iText 2.1.7 from Maven Central, without our modifications, which are marginal and you probably don't need them. In order to do that, you would have to use "exclude" in your pom.xml when you bring JasperReports.
You can also use a different fork of the iText 2.1.7, which is called OpenPDF:
https://github.com/LibrePDF/OpenPDF

[soc]

Understood, thanks!

[mwithi]

our modifications, which are marginal and you probably don't need them.

can you provide more information about those modification in jr8 version? Thanks!

[Master-Code-Programmer]

Actually, this modified version of iText 2.1.7 is available on this public repository:

<repository>
	<id>jaspersoft-third-party</id>
	<url>http://jaspersoft.jfrog.io/jaspersoft/third-party-ce-artifacts/</url>
</repository>

Depending on your setup and / or transitive dependencies this may be not enough, you may need this in <repositories> and also in <pluginRepositories> as:

<pluginRepository>
	<id>jaspersoft-third-party</id>
	<url>http://jaspersoft.jfrog.io/jaspersoft/third-party-ce-artifacts/</url>
</pluginRepository>

[mykytam]

Hi! I just found this ticket and it looks like a solution.
To use this library in Grails Framework I need to install Artifactory plugin also in the application, but it requires me to use username and password to download the jar file.
I have noticed, that there's "Allow Anonymous Access" in JFrog console.

@teodord can you please say, is there a way to use this modified version of iText 2.1.7 and get it from the public repo without creating the JFrog account? I can download .jar by hands, but my app can't download it using repo, just getting 403 error.

I will be happy, if you will answer)

[fer-marino]

I'm getting this error:

     Required by:
         project :pfd > net.sf.jasperreports:jasperreports:6.17.0
      > Could not resolve com.lowagie:itext:2.1.7.js8.
         > Could not parse POM http://jaspersoft.jfrog.io/jaspersoft/third-party-ce-artifacts/com/lowagie/itext/2.1.7.js8/itext-2.1.7.js8.pom
            > The element type "hr" must be terminated by the matching end-tag "</hr>".

I'm using gradle 6.8 and the repository mentioned above is in already

[DannyJaramil]

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal on project ride: Could not resolve dependencies for project com.rolandopalermo.fa
cturacion.ec:ride:jar:1.0.0: Failed to collect dependencies at net.sf.jasperreports:jasperreports:jar:6.4.0 -> c
om.lowagie:itext:jar:2.1.7.js5:

Me podrian ayudar ya importe :

jaspersoft-third-party http://jaspersoft.jfrog.io/jaspersoft/third-party-ce-artifacts/

pero continua apareciendo el error.

[teodord]

I think you need to use HTTPS for the URL nowadays:
https://jaspersoft.jfrog.io/jaspersoft/third-party-ce-artifacts/

See we are using HTTPS in our pom.xml:
https://github.com/TIBCOSoftware/jasperreports/blob/master/jasperreports/pom.xml#L540

[kareemradwan]

I fix this issue by exclude the com.lowagie.text from jasperReport library and add it as other library

<dependency>
   <groupId>net.sf.jasperreports</groupId>
   <artifactId>jasperreports</artifactId>
   <version>6.16.0</version>

   <exclusions>
      <exclusion>
         <groupId>com.lowagie</groupId>
         <artifactId>itext</artifactId>
      </exclusion>
   </exclusions>
</dependency>


<dependency>
   <groupId>com.lowagie</groupId>
   <artifactId>itext</artifactId>
   <version>[1.02b,2.1.7]</version>
   <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>

[rmahadik-swi]

net.sf.jasperreports jasperreports 6.20.5

Added this dependency in project and after that getting below Exception:
com.webobjects.foundation.NSForwardException [java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError] net/sf/jasperreports/engine/export/JExcelApiExporter:java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: net/sf/jasperreports/engine/export/JExcelApiExporter
com.webobjects.foundation.NSForwardException: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: net/sf/jasperreports/engine/export/JExcelApiExporter

JExcelApiExporter this class is not even included in my project

[teodord]

Not sure what you mean by "JExcelApiExporter this class is not even included in my project".
You are probably upgrading from a JRL version older than 6.4.3, when the JExcel based exporter has been removed from our library.
The error indicates your application somehow references it, so you need to check that out.

I hope this helps.
Teodor

PS: Ideally, you should first post on the discussion forums at https://community.jaspersoft.com/project/jasperreports-library/answers, because this is not a bug and because it does not have anything to do with the current tracker you added your comment to.

[han4219]

I fix this issue by exclude the com.lowagie.text from jasperReport library and add it as other library

<dependency>
   <groupId>net.sf.jasperreports</groupId>
   <artifactId>jasperreports</artifactId>
   <version>6.16.0</version>

   <exclusions>
      <exclusion>
         <groupId>com.lowagie</groupId>
         <artifactId>itext</artifactId>
      </exclusion>
   </exclusions>
</dependency>


<dependency>
   <groupId>com.lowagie</groupId>
   <artifactId>itext</artifactId>
   <version>[1.02b,2.1.7]</version>
   <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>

it worked for me