NoSuchMethodError on startup in Java Jersey app

Question

I've been getting a very strange error when trying to start a Jersey app on Tomcat. The same code works on other computers. I tried reinstalling tomcat, all my maven dependencies, even Eclipse and Java itself, no luck. It seems like a bad Jersey version is being loaded, I think?

Any pointers in the right direction will be appreciated.

Here's the effective pom: http://pastebin.com/NacsWTjz

And the actual pom: http://pastebin.com/H6sHe4ce

2015-02-13 13:43:40,870 [localhost-startStop-1] ERROR org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/middleware-server] - StandardWrapper.Throwable
java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: javax.ws.rs.core.Application.getProperties()Ljava/util/Map;
    at org.glassfish.jersey.server.ApplicationHandler.<init>(ApplicationHandler.java:304)
    at org.glassfish.jersey.server.ApplicationHandler.<init>(ApplicationHandler.java:285)
    at org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.WebComponent.<init>(WebComponent.java:311)
    at org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.ServletContainer.init(ServletContainer.java:170)
    at org.glassfish.jersey.servlet.ServletContainer.init(ServletContainer.java:358)
    at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:158)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.initServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1231)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1144)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:1031)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:4901)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5188)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1409)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1399)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

Solution

Note: Please see above comments for further discussion and tips.

This error usual means that you have a both a JAX-RS 1 and JAX-RS 2 jar on the classpath. Jersey 2 uses JAX-RS 2 (javax.ws.rs-api-2.0.1.jar), but if you have the jsr311-api.jar also, which is JAX-RS 1, there is a javax.ws.rs.core.Application in each jar. But the jsr311-api Application doesn't have the method getProperties() (hence NoSuchMethodError).

I've come to the conclusion that all you need to do is add the above exclusion to the swagger dependency. The Jackson 2.0 provider (which depends on JAX-RS 1) seems to be overridden by a 2.4.1 provider (which uses the new version). So we don't need to add it ourselves. When it's overridden, it seems to leave behind the jsr311-api.jar. So if we exclude it, no one can attempt to use it, which looks to be the current problem

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.wordnik</groupId>
    <artifactId>swagger-core_2.10</artifactId>
    <version>1.3.11</version>
    <exclusions>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>javax.ws.rs</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsr311-api</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
    </exclusions>
</dependency>