.ClassCastException: org.apache.xerces.jaxp.DocumentBuilderFactoryImpl cannot be cast to javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory

Question

I am upgrading Weblogic server from 9 to 10.3.6. when I am trying to deploy my ear application and got below exception.

Caused By: java.lang.ClassCastException: org.apache.xerces.jaxp.DocumentBuilderFactoryImpl cannot be cast to javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory
    at javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance(DocumentBuilderFactory.java:123)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultDocumentLoader.createDocumentBuilderFactory(DefaultDocumentLoader.java:89)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultDocumentLoader.loadDocument(DefaultDocumentLoader.java:70)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.doLoadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:396)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:342)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:310)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:143)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:178)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:149)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:212)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractXmlApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractXmlApplicationContext.java:113)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractXmlApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractXmlApplicationContext.java:80)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.refreshBeanFactory(AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.java:123)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.obtainFreshBeanFactory(AbstractApplicationContext.java:423)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:353)
    at org.springframework.context.access.ContextSingletonBeanFactoryLocator.initializeDefinition(ContextSingletonBeanFactoryLocator.java:141)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.access.SingletonBeanFactoryLocator.useBeanFactory(SingletonBeanFactoryLocator.java:384)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.loadParentContext(ContextLoader.java:341)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:195)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:45)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.EventsManager$FireContextListenerAction.run(EventsManager.java:481)
    at weblogic.security.acl.internal.AuthenticatedSubject.doAs(AuthenticatedSubject.java:321)
    at weblogic.security.service.SecurityManager.runAs(SecurityManager.java:120)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.EventsManager.notifyContextCreatedEvent(EventsManager.java:181)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.preloadResources(WebAppServletContext.java:1868)

I tried all sorts for things including adding a weblogic-application.xml but it still does not work.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <weblogic-application>
 <xml>
 <parser-factory>
    <saxparser-factory>
      org.apache.xerces.jaxp.SAXParserFactoryImpl
    </saxparser-factory>
    <document-builder-factory>
      org.apache.xerces.jaxp.DocumentBuilderFactoryImpl
    </document-builder-factory>
    <transformer-factory>
      org.apache.xalan.processor.TransformerFactoryImpl
    </transformer-factory>
  </parser-factory>
</xml>

<prefer-application-packages>
 <package-name>org.apache.xerces.parsers.*</package-name>
</prefer-application-packages>
</weblogic-application>

my weblogic.xml has

<prefer-web-inf-classes>true</prefer-web-inf-classes>

This is part of my pom.xml:

<dependency>
<groupId>xerces</groupId>
<artifactId>xercesImpl</artifactId>
<version>2.8.1</version>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>

Please help. Thanks!

Answer 1

I answer my own question:

Below link inspired me of fixing this issue:

Dealing with "Xerces hell" in Java/Maven?

Basiclly I have removed all the dependencies of xml-api and xmlParserAPIs in pom.xml. The problem is fixed. The root cause is my classpath should not include any javax libraries which cause the library conflict with Weblogic app server. Hope it helps.