Jackson Object Mapper Versioned issue from Java 7 to Java 8

Question

I am trying to upgrade Java version from 1.7 to 1.8. Didn't change any code apart from upgrading target version to 1.8 in Maven plugin.

Error: cannot access Versioned.

Source:

private ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
return mapper.writeValueAsString(data);

Couldn't find any documentation anywhere in the internet. I thought 1.8 should be completely backward compatible.

Edit: Without even changing pom, if I set my local maven to Java 8, it's still breaking. So compiling with Java 8 is having issue :(

[INFO] |  +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-annotations:jar:2.2.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-core-asl:jar:1.1.0:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core:jar:2.2.2:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml:jackson-xml-databind:jar:0.6.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-mapper-asl:jar:1.9.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-xc:jar:1.9.2:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:jar:2.2.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-annotations:jar:2.2.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-core-asl:jar:1.1.0:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core:jar:2.2.2:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml:jackson-xml-databind:jar:0.6.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-mapper-asl:jar:1.9.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-xc:jar:1.9.2:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:jar:2.2.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-annotations:jar:2.2.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-core-asl:jar:1.1.0:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core:jar:2.2.2:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml:jackson-xml-databind:jar:0.6.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-mapper-asl:jar:1.9.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-xc:jar:1.9.2:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:jar:2.2.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-annotations:jar:2.2.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-core-asl:jar:1.1.0:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core:jar:2.2.2:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml:jackson-xml-databind:jar:0.6.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-mapper-asl:jar:1.9.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-xc:jar:1.9.2:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:jar:2.2.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-annotations:jar:2.2.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-core-asl:jar:1.1.0:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-jaxrs:jar:1.9.11:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-mapper-asl:jar:1.9.11:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core:jar:2.2.2:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml:jackson-xml-databind:jar:0.6.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-xc:jar:1.9.2:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:jar:2.2.2:compile
[INFO] +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-core-asl:jar:1.9.13:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-jaxrs:jar:1.9.11:compile
[INFO] |  +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-annotations:jar:2.6.0-rc2:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core:jar:2.2.2:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml:jackson-xml-databind:jar:0.6.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-mapper-asl:jar:1.9.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-xc:jar:1.9.2:compile
[INFO] +- com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:jar:2.2.2:compile

-X output:

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin:2.3.2:compile (default-compile) on project my-module: Compilation failure
[ERROR] /Users/xxxxxx/MyApp.java:[52,15] error: cannot access Versioned
[ERROR] -> [Help 1]
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin:2.3.2:compile (default-compile) on project myntra-orch-lms: Compilation failure
/Users/xxxxxx/MyApp.java:[52,15] error: cannot access Versioned

    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:212)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:153)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:145)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject(LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:116)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject(LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:80)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.builder.singlethreaded.SingleThreadedBuilder.build(SingleThreadedBuilder.java:51)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleStarter.execute(LifecycleStarter.java:128)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:307)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:193)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:106)
    at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.execute(MavenCli.java:862)
    at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.doMain(MavenCli.java:286)
    at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main(MavenCli.java:197)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497)
    at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:289)
    at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:229)
    at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:415)
    at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:356)
Caused by: org.apache.maven.plugin.CompilationFailureException: Compilation failure
/Users/xxxxxx/MyApp.java:[52,15] error: cannot access Versioned

    at org.apache.maven.plugin.AbstractCompilerMojo.execute(AbstractCompilerMojo.java:656)
    at org.apache.maven.plugin.CompilerMojo.execute(CompilerMojo.java:128)
    at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultBuildPluginManager.executeMojo(DefaultBuildPluginManager.java:134)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:208)
    ... 20 more
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
[ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/MojoFailureException

Answer 1

It looks like you are using a mix of very old Jackson versions. I suspect that in Java 8 the order of the .jar files used by the Maven compiler plugin can be different then in Java 7 so the Versioned interface may not be found. It can be an issue since in Java 8 the java compiler requires the interface to be present in the classpath when compiling the implementation (JDK-8055048).

The Versioned interface was introduced in 1.6.0 while you have the org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-core-asl version 1.1.0. That is probably the root cause of the the problem.

A low risk fix could be to bump the org.codehaus.jackson:jackson-core-asl version to 1.9.2 to correspond the other libraries by adding the following dependency in the .pom file:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId>
    <artifactId>jackson-core-asl</artifactId>
    <version>1.9.2</version>
</dependency>

As a long term solution I suggest to consider bumping the Jackson version to the latest 2.X (packaged in com.fastxml.jackson) in all your projects and stop using version 1.X (packaged in org.codehaus.jackson).