java.lang.NoSuchFieldError: org.apache.http.message.BasicLineFormatter.INSTANCE from Mashape Unirest in Java application

Question

I have a Maven Java project that uses Mashape Unirest for sending HTTP requests to other URLs. I am currently writing an integration test (using TestNG) that sends a normal HTTP request using Unirest. When I run the integration test through Maven (via the Failsafe plugin), the request is sent out successfully. However, when I try to run the integration test via Eclipse, I keep on getting the following error:

FAILED: getCurrentTimeTest
java.lang.NoSuchFieldError: INSTANCE
    at org.apache.http.impl.io.DefaultHttpRequestWriterFactory.<init>(DefaultHttpRequestWriterFactory.java:52)
    at org.apache.http.impl.io.DefaultHttpRequestWriterFactory.<init>(DefaultHttpRequestWriterFactory.java:56)
    at org.apache.http.impl.io.DefaultHttpRequestWriterFactory.<clinit>(DefaultHttpRequestWriterFactory.java:46)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.ManagedHttpClientConnectionFactory.<init>(ManagedHttpClientConnectionFactory.java:72)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.ManagedHttpClientConnectionFactory.<init>(ManagedHttpClientConnectionFactory.java:84)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.ManagedHttpClientConnectionFactory.<clinit>(ManagedHttpClientConnectionFactory.java:59)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager$InternalConnectionFactory.<init>(PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager.java:487)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager.<init>(PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager.java:147)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager.<init>(PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager.java:136)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager.<init>(PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager.java:112)
    at org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClientBuilder.build(HttpClientBuilder.java:726)
    at com.mashape.unirest.http.options.Options.refresh(Options.java:41)
    at com.mashape.unirest.http.options.Options.<clinit>(Options.java:27)
    at com.mashape.unirest.http.HttpClientHelper.prepareRequest(HttpClientHelper.java:141)
    at com.mashape.unirest.http.HttpClientHelper.requestAsync(HttpClientHelper.java:80)
    at com.mashape.unirest.request.BaseRequest.asStringAsync(BaseRequest.java:56)
    at ...

I am also able to reproduce this error using a basic Java application script.

I have made sure that the dependencies I am using in my pom.xml file are the latest and greatest, as seen below:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.mashape.unirest</groupId>
    <artifactId>unirest-java</artifactId>
    <version>1.3.5</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
    <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
    <version>4.3.2</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
    <artifactId>httpasyncclient</artifactId>
    <version>4.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
    <artifactId>httpmime</artifactId>
    <version>4.3.2</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.json</groupId>
    <artifactId>json</artifactId>
    <version>20140107</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
    <artifactId>httpcore</artifactId>
    <version>4.3.2</version>
</dependency>

I have also checked out the source code of BasicLineFormatter.java, both from the source file downloaded to Eclipse and from Apache's Httpcore Github repo. In the Github repo, notice how the INSTANCE field is defined for the 4.3.x branch and the trunk branch, but not in older branches like 4.2.x. However, I am indeed using version 4.3.2 in my project, so I should be using a JAR file for Httpcore that has the latest version of BasicLineFormatter. I know that, based on the Maven Dependencies JAR files that are in my project, that I am indeed using the latest versions of these Apache dependencies, not the older versions specified as downstream dependencies of my project.

I have checked other various SOF and blog posts about this issue, such as Mashape Unirest Java : java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError and this blog post too, but they all seem to be talking about solving the NoSuchFieldError problem for Android. However, I'm dealing with a standalone Java application, not an Android application.

I am at a loss in determining how to troubleshoot this issue. Anyone have any idea what I need to do?

UPDATE

Instead of showing my test case, I will reduce the illustration of a reproduction of this problem to just a simple one-liner Java application, because the problem exists with any Java application or test case run through Eclipse, not just one particular test:

System.out.println(Unirest.get("http://www.google.com").asStringAsync().get().getBody());

Normally, this should print the HTML of the Google home page, but I instead get the NoSuchFieldError stack trace.

---

FIXED!

The problem was that the AWS SDK (it's on my classpath because I'm developing for Elastic Beanstalk) had a conflicting JAR file. Using Oleg's solution (thanks BTW), I printed the following output in a unit test:

jar:file:/some/path/aws-java-sdk/1.7.1/third-party/httpcomponents-client-4.2.3/httpcore-4.2.jar!/org/apache/http/message/BasicLineFormatter.class

I'll have to rearrange my classpath so that AWS SDK is no longer conflicting.

Answer 1

The only plausible explanation to this problem is there is an older version of HttpCore on the classpath (unless you also want to consider a possibility of green men from Mars messing with your computer remotely from a flying saucer).

You can add this snippet to your code to find out what jar the class gets picked up from. This might help find out why that jar is on your classpath in the first place.

ClassLoader classLoader = MyClass.class.getClassLoader();
URL resource = classLoader.getResource("org/apache/http/message/BasicLineFormatter.class");
System.out.println(resource);

This basically tells me that in my case the jar resides in the local maven repository and likely to have been added to the classpath by Maven

jar:file:/home/oleg/.m2/repository/org/apache/httpcomponents/httpcore/4.3.1/httpcore-4.3.1.jar!/org/apache/http/message/BasicLineFormatter.class

Answer 2

As already mentioned by previous comments, It's mainly because of the conflicting versions of httpcore jar, the static field INSTANCE is been added to BasicLineFormatter class in versions > 4.3.1, Though you might have added the latest version of the httpcore jar in your dependencies, but its highly possible that other (lower) version of jar is getting picked up.

So, first to confirm that, wrong jar is getting picked up, Use the following line of code -

ClassLoader classLoader = <Your Class>.class.getClassLoader();
URL resource = classLoader.getResource("org/apache/http/message/BasicLineFormatter.class");
System.out.println(resource);

If this prints, the lower version of the jar, then it's confirmed that it's picking the lower version of the httpcore jar (May be from other dependencies of your project),

Solution -

Add following maven/gradle dependencies at the top of dependency list (Or above the other project dependency which caused the conflict) -

<dependency>
     <groupId>com.mashape.unirest</groupId>
     <artifactId>unirest-java</artifactId>
     <version>1.4.5</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
    <artifactId>httpcore</artifactId>
    <version>4.4.1</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
    <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
    <version>4.4.1</version>
</dependency>

Answer 3

I faced the same exception using unirest:

java.lang.NoSuchFieldError: INSTANCE
        at org.apache.http.impl.io.DefaultHttpRequestWriterFactory.<init>(DefaultHttpRequestWriterFactory.java:52)
at com.mashape.unirest.http.options.Options.refresh(Options.java:55)
at com.mashape.unirest.http.options.Options.<clinit>(Options.java:36)

And found it was due to DefaultConnectionKeepAliveStrategy.INSTANCE; and the conflicting jar was apache-httpcomponents-httpclient.jar in my classpath. Adding this post to help anyone who faces similar exception