java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: gherkin/IGherkinDialectProvider while running Selenium-Cucumber test

Question

Before I start, I have asked a similar question here and the answer (Changing 'Gherkin' version) fixed it for me that time. But this time I'm using pom.xml instead of jars and with the newer versions I'm not able to rectify the error. Also, I'm asking this question to narrow down and understand the root cause and prevent similar errors in future.

JUnit Code:

package TestRunner;

import org.junit.runner.RunWith;

import cucumber.api.CucumberOptions;
import cucumber.api.junit.Cucumber;

@RunWith(Cucumber.class)                
@CucumberOptions(features="Features/S1Test.Feature",glue={"StepDefinition"})                        
public class Runner                 
{       

}

pom.xml

<project
 xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
 <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 <groupId>S1</groupId>
 <artifactId>S1</artifactId>
 <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
 <name>Load Testing</name>
 <description>Selenium Load Testing Example Using TestNG and Maven</description>

 <!-- Add Following Lines in Your POM File -->
 <properties>
  <selenium.version>2.53.1</selenium.version>
  <testng.version>6.9.10</testng.version>
 </properties>

 <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
            <artifactId>selenium-java</artifactId>
            <version>3.141.59</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.cucumber</groupId>
            <artifactId>cucumber-core</artifactId>
            <version>4.2.6</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.cucumber</groupId>
            <artifactId>cucumber-html</artifactId>
            <version>0.2.7</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>net.sourceforge.cobertura</groupId>
            <artifactId>cobertura</artifactId>
            <version>2.1.1</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.cucumber</groupId>
            <artifactId>cucumber-java</artifactId>
            <version>4.2.6</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.cucumber</groupId>
            <artifactId>cucumber-junit</artifactId>
            <version>4.2.6</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.cucumber</groupId>
            <artifactId>cucumber-jvm-deps</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.6</version>
            <!-- <scope>provided</scope> -->
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>net.masterthought</groupId>
            <artifactId>cucumber-reporting</artifactId>
            <version>4.5.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.mockito</groupId>
            <artifactId>mockito-core</artifactId>
            <version>2.21.0</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.cucumber</groupId>
            <artifactId>gherkin</artifactId>
            <version>6.0.17</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>4.12</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.sun</groupId>
            <artifactId>tools</artifactId>
            <version>1.6</version>
            <scope>system</scope>
            <systemPath>C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_111\lib\tools.jar</systemPath>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hamcrest</groupId>
            <artifactId>hamcrest-library</artifactId>
            <version>2.1</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit-jupiter-api</artifactId>
            <version>5.4.1</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</project>

Exception

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: gherkin/IGherkinDialectProvider
    at cucumber.runtime.RuntimeOptionsFactory.create(RuntimeOptionsFactory.java:23)
    at cucumber.api.junit.Cucumber.<init>(Cucumber.java:83)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:423)
    at org.junit.internal.builders.AnnotatedBuilder.buildRunner(AnnotatedBuilder.java:104)
    at org.junit.internal.builders.AnnotatedBuilder.runnerForClass(AnnotatedBuilder.java:86)
    at org.junit.runners.model.RunnerBuilder.safeRunnerForClass(RunnerBuilder.java:59)
    at org.junit.internal.builders.AllDefaultPossibilitiesBuilder.runnerForClass(AllDefaultPossibilitiesBuilder.java:26)
    at org.junit.runners.model.RunnerBuilder.safeRunnerForClass(RunnerBuilder.java:59)
    at org.junit.internal.requests.ClassRequest.getRunner(ClassRequest.java:33)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit4.runner.JUnit4TestLoader.createUnfilteredTest(JUnit4TestLoader.java:87)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit4.runner.JUnit4TestLoader.createTest(JUnit4TestLoader.java:73)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit4.runner.JUnit4TestLoader.loadTests(JUnit4TestLoader.java:46)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:523)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:761)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.run(RemoteTestRunner.java:461)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.main(RemoteTestRunner.java:207)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: gherkin.IGherkinDialectProvider
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:381)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
    at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:331)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
    ... 19 more

Please help me understand why I'm receiving this exception and how I can avoid such errors in the future with updated versions.

Answer 1

You've added transitive dependencies (dependencies of your dependencies) to your pom. These should be the same version as the ones required by your dependencies. Otherwise you'll see problems like the ones you see now.

So you should remove: cucumber-jvm-deps, cucumber-core and gherkin. Maven will ensure they're present and have the correct version.

You can inspect your dependency tree by using mvn dependency:tree -Dverbose. See Apache Maven Dependency Plugin - Resolving conflicts using the dependency tree .

Answer 2

Remove or comment-out

<dependency>
        <groupId>io.cucumber</groupId>
        <artifactId>gherkin</artifactId>
        <version>6.0.17</version>
    </dependency>

from your pom file. It will work.