javax.transaction:javax.transaction-api-1.2 not compatible with Java 6

[thomseno]

Updating JPA spring boot project to 1.2.1-RELEASE will cause a java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError when running with Java 6:

Caused by: java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: javax/transaction/SystemException : Unsupported major.minor version 51.0
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:637)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:621)
    at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:283)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$000(URLClassLoader.java:58)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:197)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:306)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:247)
    at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:249)
    at org.jboss.logging.Logger$1.run(Logger.java:2252)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at org.jboss.logging.Logger.getMessageLogger(Logger.java:2227)
    at org.jboss.logging.Logger.getMessageLogger(Logger.java:2214)
    at org.hibernate.jpa.internal.HEMLogging.messageLogger(HEMLogging.java:45)
    at org.hibernate.jpa.internal.HEMLogging.messageLogger(HEMLogging.java:41)
    at org.hibernate.ejb.HibernatePersistence.<clinit>(HibernatePersistence.java:46)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:27)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:513)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:357)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:310)
    at javax.persistence.spi.PersistenceProviderResolverHolder$PersistenceProviderResolverPerClassLoader$CachingPersistenceProviderResolver.getPersistenceProviders(PersistenceProviderResolverHolder.java:177)
    at javax.persistence.spi.PersistenceProviderResolverHolder$PersistenceProviderResolverPerClassLoader.getPersistenceProviders(PersistenceProviderResolverHolder.java:84)
    at javax.persistence.Persistence.getProviders(Persistence.java:69)
    at javax.persistence.Persistence.access$000(Persistence.java:23)
    at javax.persistence.Persistence$1.isLoaded(Persistence.java:109)
    at org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.resolver.JPATraversableResolver.isReachable(JPATraversableResolver.java:56)
    at org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.resolver.DefaultTraversableResolver.isReachable(DefaultTraversableResolver.java:137)
    at org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.resolver.CachingTraversableResolverForSingleValidation.isReachable(CachingTraversableResolverForSingleValidation.java:46)
    at org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.ValidatorImpl.isReachable(ValidatorImpl.java:1396)
    at org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.ValidatorImpl.isValidationRequired(ValidatorImpl.java:1381)
    at org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.ValidatorImpl.validateConstraint(ValidatorImpl.java:542)
    at org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.ValidatorImpl.validateConstraintsForDefaultGroup(ValidatorImpl.java:487)
    at org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.ValidatorImpl.validateConstraintsForCurrentGroup(ValidatorImpl.java:451)
    at org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.ValidatorImpl.validateInContext(ValidatorImpl.java:403)
    at org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.ValidatorImpl.validate(ValidatorImpl.java:206)
    at org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.SpringValidatorAdapter.validate(SpringValidatorAdapter.java:92)
    at org.springframework.validation.DataBinder.validate(DataBinder.java:767)
    at org.springframework.boot.bind.PropertiesConfigurationFactory.validate(PropertiesConfigurationFactory.java:284)
    at org.springframework.boot.bind.PropertiesConfigurationFactory.doBindPropertiesToTarget(PropertiesConfigurationFactory.java:253)
    at org.springframework.boot.bind.PropertiesConfigurationFactory.bindPropertiesToTarget(PropertiesConfigurationFactory.java:225)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationPropertiesBindingPostProcessor.postProcessBeforeInitialization(ConfigurationPropertiesBindingPostProcessor.java:296)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationPropertiesBindingPostProcessor.postProcessBeforeInitialization(ConfigurationPropertiesBindingPostProcessor.java:250)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.applyBeanPostProcessorsBeforeInitialization(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:408)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1558)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:539)
    ... 47 common frames omitted

[snicoll]

wonderful 👎 - Thanks for the report!

[philwebb]

Can you downgrade to JTA 1.1? We aim to keep Spring Boot Java 6 compatible but we have a few third-party libraries like this where, if you want to use them, you will need to upgrade to a later JDK.

[snicoll]

Wait a minute here. Hibernate 4.3 claims to be compatible with Java6 and it uses internally JTA 1.2

Maybe your project had an exclude on org.jboss.spec.javax.transaction:jboss-transaction-api_1.2_spec and it does not apply it anymore?

It's not obvious looking at the JTA spec what JDK it requires but if that does work with the dependency above then something must be wrong in either of those two jars (we use javax.transactio:javax.transaction-api

[thomseno]

The exclude of org.jboss.spec.javax.transaction:jboss-transaction-api_1.2_spec was introduced in commit cdbc0c7 ... I've just changed the Spring Boot version to 1.2.1-RELEASE in my project. The Java Transaction API 1.2 (javax.transaction:javax.transaction-api) is part of JavaEE 7 and the release notes (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javaee/documentation/javaee7sdk-readme-1957703.html) say:

Java EE 7 SDK Update 1 distributions require JDK 7 Update 65 or above or JDK 8 Update 20 or above.

My project's pom looks like this:

...
    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>1.2.1.RELEASE</version>
    </parent>
    <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
        <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>

        <java.version>1.6</java.version>
        <tomcat.version>7.0.56</tomcat.version>
        <servlet-api.version>3.0.1</servlet-api.version>

        <maven.build.timestamp.format>yyyy-MM-dd_HH:mm:ss</maven.build.timestamp.format>
        <build.timestamp>${maven.build.timestamp}</build.timestamp>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-actuator</artifactId>
        </dependency>
...
    </dependencies>
...

[snicoll]

That's not my point. My point is that without the exclude, Hibernate brings the JTA 1.2 API anyway so I am not sure to understand what would be the difference with the "regular" JTA 1.2 API.

[thomseno]

Apparently the difference is that javax.transaction:javax.transaction-api requires at least Java 7 and org.jboss.spec.javax.transaction:jboss-transaction-api_1.2_spec does not 😄. So the "wrong" jar was chosen when "Harmonizing JTA dependencies" cdbc0c7, right? Using the JBoss JTA jar instead of the "regular" JTA jar would solve the problem, correct?

[philwebb]

What a pain. I prefer using the standard javax.transaction:javax.transaction-api co-ordinates.

[snicoll]

What a mess. I don't think we've chosen the wrong coordinates. The JBoss jar is really specific to hibernate.

Not sure how we could fix that though.

[thomseno]

I understand... the standard jar usually is the better choice... In my case the following workaround will do the trick:

...
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>javax.transaction</groupId>
                    <artifactId>javax.transaction-api</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-actuator</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.jboss.spec.javax.transaction</groupId>
            <artifactId>jboss-transaction-api_1.2_spec</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.0.Final</version>
        </dependency>
...

Not a pretty solution, but at least I'm able to use the latest version of Spring Boot.

[philwebb]

We'll at least add something to docs for this. Thanks for raising the issue.

[izeye]

Is it possible to request to use Java 6 for 'javax.transaction:javax.transaction-api:1.2' to its maintainer

if it doesn't use any Java 7 specific syntax?

[kiview]

If someone stumbles upon this problem by chance, this is how you can configure your JTA dependencies with Gradle:

dependencies {
  compile ("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-data-jpa") {
    exclude group: "javax.transaction", module: "javax.transaction-api"   
  }

  compile "org.jboss.spec.javax.transaction:jboss-transaction-api_1.2_spec:1.0.0.Final"
}