How to avoid java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.apache.poi.util.IOUtils.copy(Ljava/io/InputStream;Ljava/io/OutputStream;) in Apache POI

Question

I have a code for adding watermark to existing .doc file.

The following is the code I have tried so far

public static void main(String[] args)
{

    try
    {
        XWPFDocument xDoc = new XWPFDocument(new FileInputStream("test.doc"));
        XWPFHeaderFooterPolicy xFooter = new XWPFHeaderFooterPolicy(xDoc);
        xFooter.createWatermark("My Watermark");
    }
    catch(Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

The following is what I got

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.apache.poi.util.IOUtils.copy(Ljava/io/InputStream;Ljava/io/OutputStream;)V
at org.apache.poi.util.PackageHelper.open(PackageHelper.java:50)
at org.apache.poi.xwpf.usermodel.XWPFDocument.<init>(XWPFDocument.java:71)
at com.avi.Test.ReadDoc.main(Watermark.java:38)

Answer 1

I got this error today: "java.lang.NoSuchMethodError:org.apache.poi.util.POILogger.log(I[Ljava/lang/Object;)V]"

It looks different from your error, but quite similar. FYI, I'm using maven to manage jars. After some experiment, I found out the root case is the poi.jar and poi-ooxml.jar's version are not consistent.

This configuration will get an error:

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
        <artifactId>poi</artifactId>
        <version>3.12</version>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
        <artifactId>poi-ooxml</artifactId>
        <version>3.13</version>
    </dependency>

I changed the version of poi.jar from 3.12 to 3.13

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
        <artifactId>poi</artifactId>
        <version>3.13</version>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
        <artifactId>poi-ooxml</artifactId>
        <version>3.13</version>
    </dependency>

bingo, problem solved. I hope this will help someone who ran into this kind of Exception.

Answer 2

See the Apache POI FAQ entry on this very topic. What has almost certainly happened is that you have added a new copy of POI to your classpath, but an older version was already there (from an earlier need, your framework etc), and Java is now getting confused about which one to use.

Firstly, you'll want to use a snippet of code like this to work out where POI is coming from:

ClassLoader classloader =
   org.apache.poi.poifs.filesystem.POIFSFileSystem.class.getClassLoader();
URL res = classloader.getResource(
         "org/apache/poi/poifs/filesystem/POIFSFileSystem.class");
String path = res.getPath();
System.out.println("Core POI came from " + path);

Use that to identify the older jar(s) and remove them.

Then, use the POI Components Page to work out what Jars you need to use, and what their dependencies are. Finally, add the latest jars to your classpath, and you'll be good to go!