maven bad class javax.annotation.PostConstruct

Question

I am trying to build a war project. and on compile it gives me this error:

[compiler:compile] Compiling 432 source files to C:\Beta\ECORP5\ECORP5-web\target\classes ------------------------------------------------------------- COMPILATION ERROR : ------------------------------------------------------------- \Beta\fin\fin-web\src\main\java\com\comp\fin\utils\Formatter.java:[23,-1] cannot access javax.annotation.PostConstruct bad class file: C:\Beta\fin\fin-web\target\endorsed\javaee-endorsed-api-6.0.jar(javax/annotation/PostConstruct.class) class file has wrong version 50.0, should be 49.0 1 error

I am not able to get rid of this error. I am using java 6 and jdk 1.5 here is my POM.xml or part of it without unrelated stuff:

> <**?**xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?**> <**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>
>     <*parent>
>         <*artifactId>fin<*/artifactId>
>         <*groupId>com.comps<*/groupId>
>         <*version>1.0-SNAPSHOT<*/version>
>     <*/parent>
> 
>     <groupId>com.comps</groupId>
>     <artifactId>fin-web</artifactId>
>     <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
>     <packaging>war</packaging>
> 
>     <name>fin-web</name>
> 
>     <properties>
>         <endorsed.dir>${project.build.directory}/endorsed</endorsed.dir>
>         <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
>     </properties>
> 
>     <dependencies>
>        
>         <dependency>
>             <groupId>javax</groupId>
>             <artifactId>javaee-web-api</artifactId>
>             **<version>6.0</version>**            
>         </dependency>
> 
>     </dependencies>
> 
>     <build>
>         <plugins>
>             <plugin>
>                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
>                 <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
>                 <version>2.3.2</version>
>                 <configuration>
>                     <**source>1.5</source>
>                     <target>1.5</target>**
>                     <compilerArguments>
>                         <endorseddirs>${endorsed.dir}</endorseddirs>
>                     </compilerArguments>
>                 </configuration>
>             </plugin>
>             <plugin>
>                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
>                 <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
>                 <version>2.1.1</version>
>                 <configuration>
>                     <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
>                 </configuration>
>             </plugin>
>             <plugin>
>                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
>                 <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
>                 <version>2.1</version>
>                 <executions>
>                     <execution>
>                         <phase>validate</phase>
>                         <goals>
>                             <goal>copy</goal>
>                         </goals>
>                         <configuration>
>                             <outputDirectory>${endorsed.dir}</outputDirectory>
>                             <silent>true</silent>
>                             <artifactItems>
>                                 <artifactItem>
>                                     <groupId>javax</groupId>
>                                     <artifactId>javaee-endorsed-api</artifactId>
>                                     <version>6.0</version>
>                                     <type>jar</type>
>                                 </artifactItem>
>                             </artifactItems>
>                         </configuration>
>                     </execution>
>                 </executions>
>             </plugin>
>         </plugins>
>     </build>
> 
> </project>

I am using NetBeans IDE to create an ear project and this is the POM of the war module. I am building it separately. I dont think that should be a problem.

I will appreciate if some one can tell me what is wrong here that it gives this error.

On a side note: When I created the Maven Ear project it was using JavaEE 6 so the war module was also using Java EE 6 but when I added some files in the webApp directory of the war module the Java EE version changed in the war module properties to Java EE 1.4 I don't know how it is doing that and why or which file is making it change on module level.

Solution

For java < 1.6 you need to use this dependency to get the JSR-250 annotations such as PostConstruct

<dependency>
  <!--  Only bundled with java 1.6+ -->
  <groupId>javax.annotation</groupId>
  <artifactId>jsr250-api</artifactId>
  <version>1.0</version>
</dependency>

Comments

[AHungerArtist]

That right there is the problem. You need to get it back on using a higher Jave EE version. That's what that mismatch is telling you.

[dma_k]

It looks like your maven-compiler-plugin as at 1.5 level. Check it.