ActionScript Compiler Error – Flex Ant Tasks Bug

Apparently, there is a bug that involves the Flex 3 SDK and Ant using different versions of Xerxes.

Try Ant 1.6.5

If I run the ant script using Ant 1.7.0, I get the error described here. If I run with Ant 1.6.5, there’s no error.

Given the error message, my guess is that the different versions of Ant bring in different versions of Xerces. Either Xerces broke some backward compatability, or the mxmlc .jar files are using bits of Xerces that aren’t part of the published API.

But if that is the case, then my problem must be something else. Running this on the command line gave me the following result:

ant -version
Apache Ant version 1.6.5 compiled on July 2 2006

But I appear to be having similar problems when compiling on an Intel iMac at work.

flex/bin/mxmlc
Loading configuration file /Users/stephen/flex/frameworks/flex-config.xml
Error: class org.apache.xerces.util.XMLAttributesMMImpl$AttributeMMImpl cannot access its superclass org.apache.xerces.util.XMLAttributesImpl$Attribute

java.lang.IllegalAccessError: class org.apache.xerces.util.XMLAttributesMMImpl$AttributeMMImpl cannot access its superclass org.apache.xerces.util.XMLAttributesImpl$Attribute
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:620)
        at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:124)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:260)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:56)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:195)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:188)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:306)
        at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:268)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:251)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:319)
        at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerMMImpl.<init>(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerMMImpl.java:105)
        at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentScannerMMImpl.<init>(XMLDocumentScannerMMImpl.java:258)
        at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLNSDocumentScannerMMImpl.<init>(XMLNSDocumentScannerMMImpl.java:120)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.IntegratedParserConfigurationMMImpl.createDocumentScanner(IntegratedParserConfigurationMMImpl.java:282)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.DTDConfiguration.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.StandardParserConfiguration.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.IntegratedParserConfigurationMMImpl.<init>(IntegratedParserConfigurationMMImpl.java:193)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XML11ConfigurationMMImpl.<init>(XML11ConfigurationMMImpl.java:182)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XML11ConfigurationMMImpl.<init>(XML11ConfigurationMMImpl.java:139)
        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:494)
        at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:350)
        at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:303)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.ObjectFactory.newInstance(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.ObjectFactory.findJarServiceProvider(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.ObjectFactory.createObject(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.ObjectFactory.createObject(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.SAXParser.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.SAXParser.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.jaxp.SAXParserImpl$JAXPSAXParser.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.jaxp.SAXParserImpl.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.jaxp.SAXParserFactoryImpl.newSAXParser(Unknown Source)
        at flex2.compiler.config.FileConfigurator.load(FileConfigurator.java:113)
        at flex2.tools.Compiler.processConfiguration(Compiler.java:512)
        at flex2.tools.Compiler.processConfiguration(Compiler.java:428)
        at flex2.tools.Compiler.mxmlc(Compiler.java:82)
        at flex2.tools.Compiler.main(Compiler.java:53)

The solution was to disable the file that was causing the error by renaming it as a backup file. By running this on the command line, I can now compile using mxmlc.

mv ~/flex/lib/xercesPatch.jar ~/flex/lib/xercesPatch.jar.bak

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You’re currently reading “ActionScript Compiler Error – Flex Ant Tasks Bug,” an entry on Bauhouse

Published:: July 16, 2008 / 1:28 pm

Category:: ActionScript

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Varun Bhambri 10.28.08 / 3pm

Hi,

This tip was extremely helpful.

Thanks. :)

Bustanil 11.6.08 / 9pm

Thanks.. finally my mxmlc task works..

Michael Pelz-Sherman 11.24.08 / 4pm

Yes, thank you very much!

Although now I’m getting this warning:

Warning: Line number support for XML tag attributes is not available. It is possible that compile-time MXML error reporting and component debugging may not give correct line numbers. Please make sure that xercesPatch.jar is in the classpath.

Can I just ignore this?

bauhouse 11.25.08 / 8am

Sorry, Michael. I haven’t come across this warning, so I’m not sure what’s causing this or whether or not this can be ignored.

Mladen Maravic 12.11.08 / 1am

Michael,
you will have no problems! We’ve had the same issues that bauhouse is talking about and we have been building Flex applications for a while now without the xercesPatch.jar files. The only issue is that when you have an error in some XML file, the mxmlc compiler is not always going to give you a correct line number of the error, but this has not been a big issue for us.

Fabrizio Di Bitonto 12.20.08 / 3am

Michael, the trick does not work on Linux Redhat 5.
In fact, after renaming the file, the error is:
java.lang.StackOverflowError

I’m running mxmlc Version 3.2.0 build 3958 and IBM SDK 1.6.
Any ideas?

Sébastien Ballesté-Antich 3.6.09 / 8am

Thanks, worked for me with debian lenny / Ant 1.7.0 / mxmlc 3.3.0

David L Evans 3.13.09 / 6am

Thanks for the help tip, it worked for me with fedora 9/ Ant 1.7.0/ mxmlc 3.3.0

Anil 3.26.09 / 2pm

Hi,
Tahnks was very helpfull..
wasted 3 hours before coming here

Bogdan Nechyporenko 4.12.09 / 11am

Ye, this method is helpful for avoid this problem.
But when I did it, the code hasn’t been compiled fully.
If you want, that this code will compile and work correctly you should evidently consider xercerImpl in your Ant classpath.

Barry 4.21.09 / 5am

Thanks! Came across the same bug with different software, you saved me a lot of hassle!

Tariq 5.18.09 / 5am

Awesome! I am using the prefuse visualization library, and was getting the same error with flex. Good tip!

Flex on Linux | JaguarNac.com 7.11.09 / 1am

[...] Apparently, there is an issue with the Flex 3 SDK and Ant using different versions of Xerces. Adobe recommendeds use of Ant 1.6.5 to avoid this issue. an alternative fix for this issue involves renaming of Xerces Patch jar supplied by Adobe. [4] [...]

hima 8.12.09 / 1am

Thanks..
It of great help

Raji 10.2.09 / 3pm

worked form me .
Thanks a Million.

dclauzel 10.30.09 / 6am

Works perfectly on Ubuntu, Jaunty x86_64.

The Flare help forum links to your post : https://sourceforge.net/projects/prefuse/forums/forum/757572/topic/3445016/index/page/1

Bauhouse

ActionScript Compiler Error – Flex Ant Tasks Bug

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