Android Studio java.lang.NoSuchMethodError with an imported library

Question

I imported the commons-codec-1.10.jar following the next steps:

1. Under de app directory created a libs directory
2. Copied manually the .jar inside the libs directory
3. Right click the .jar inside android-studio and clicked Add as library

Added this line in my build.grade

compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])

In my class I imported the library like this:

import org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64;

Then I tried to access the encodeBase64String static method inside Base64 like this:

public static class DoThisThing {
    public String DoThisOtherThing() {
        String hashed = "hello";
        String hash = Base64.encodeBase64String(hashed.getBytes());
        return hash;
    }
}

public class ActivityThing extends AppCompatActivity{
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_activity_thing);
        String hash = DoThisThing.DoThisOtherThing();
        System.out.println(hash);
    }
}

Nothing wrong there, even when I compile, except when I run the app, it throws the following error and the app shuts:

11-03 09:41:27.719 2390-2476/com.myproject E/AndroidRuntime:  Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: No static method encodeBase64String([B)Ljava/lang/String; in class Lorg/apache/commons/codec/binary/Base64; or its super classes (declaration of 'org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64' appears in /system/framework/org.apache.http.legacy.boot.jar)

My DoThisThing class is not inside the activity by the way, it's just to make it short. I checked the library an indeed the encodeBase64String is static. So I don't know exactly what to do, I'm new in the java and android environment . So any help would be much appreciated

Answer 1

Android framework includes ancient version (1.3) of commons-codec library on a classpath. In runtime, it will use its class instead of the one that packaged with your app. Base64#encodeBase64String method was introduced in 1.4 and therefore you're receiving the java.lang.NoSuchMethodError exception.

One possible solution will be to change the library's namespace by repackaging it using jarjar.

See my blogpost that explains the issue in more detail and shows how to repackage the library.