@WebServlet fails in Netbeans 11.0 with java.lang.RuntimeException: com.example.NewServlet.<init>(NewServlet.java:1)

Question

Some kind of nightmare - can not launch primitive servlet on Apache Tomcat 9.0.22 (or Glassfish 5.0.1) and Apache NetBeans IDE 11.0 (Build incubator-netbeans-release-404-on-20190319) by using servlet annotations.. Using JDK 1.8u221. Here is the code:

@WebServlet(name = "NewServlet", urlPatterns = {"/meow"})
public class NewServlet extends HttpServlet {

    protected void processRequest(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
        response.getWriter().println("test");
    }
}

And web.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<web-app 
    xmlns="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_1.xsd"
    version="3.1">

</web-app>

The root cause (note the line number, it's always 1!):

java.lang.RuntimeException: 
    com.example.NewServlet.<init>(NewServlet.java:1)
    java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:62)
    java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
    java.base/java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:490)
    java.base/java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:584)
    org.apache.openejb.core.WebContext.newWeakableInstance(WebContext.java:147)
    org.apache.openejb.core.WebContext.newInstance(WebContext.java:181)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.JavaeeInstanceManager.newInstance(JavaeeInstanceManager.java:78)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.JavaeeInstanceManager.newInstance(JavaeeInstanceManager.java:124)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.JavaeeInstanceManager.newInstance(JavaeeInstanceManager.java:119)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBValve.invoke(OpenEJBValve.java:45)
    org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:490)
    org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:92)
    org.apache.tomee.catalina.OpenEJBSecurityListener$RequestCapturer.invoke(OpenEJBSecurityListener.java:97)
    org.apache.catalina.valves.AbstractAccessLogValve.invoke(AbstractAccessLogValve.java:678)
    org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:343)
    org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.service(Http11Processor.java:408)
    org.apache.coyote.AbstractProcessorLight.process(AbstractProcessorLight.java:66)
    org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$ConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:836)
    org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1839)
    org.apache.tomcat.util.net.SocketProcessorBase.run(SocketProcessorBase.java:49)
    java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1128)
    java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:628)
    org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
    java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:834)

The goal is to declare servlets only by annotations, like @WebServlet(name = "NewServlet", urlPatterns = {"/meow"}).

Tested on NetBeans 8.2 with JDK1.8u221 - all works as expected. I suspect the problem is in Apache NetBeans 11, even if project JDK is set to 8 (also source/binary format).

Answer 1

I encountered this problem in Netbeans 12.0 today using OpenJDK 14. It turns out the problem was resolved by installing the nb-javac plugin.

Answer 2

The fault was in Apache NetBeans 11. In later version (still unofficial) 11.1 the Servlet annotations works as it should be, even without web.xml file. Tested with Apache Tomcat 9.0.22 and Glassfish 5.0.1 on Apache NetBeans IDE 11.1 (available for download from this web page).