iText Class not found - JSF el.evaluationException

Question

I understand there is a similar question asked (Class found in a Java application but not in JSF? ). I tried to import itextpdf-5.5.0.jar as an archived file into /WEB-INF/lib and I can see the iText files have been loaded in the /WEB-INF/lib. However, the following errors persist after re-deployment:

javax.faces.el.EvaluationException: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/itextpdf/text/Document
    at javax.faces.component.MethodBindingMethodExpressionAdapter.invoke(MethodBindingMethodExpressionAdapter.java:101)
    at com.sun.faces.application.ActionListenerImpl.processAction(ActionListenerImpl.java:101)
    at javax.faces.component.UICommand.broadcast(UICommand.java:315)
    at javax.faces.component.UIViewRoot.broadcastEvents(UIViewRoot.java:786)
    at javax.faces.component.UIViewRoot.processApplication(UIViewRoot.java:1251)
    at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.InvokeApplicationPhase.execute(InvokeApplicationPhase.java:81)
    at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.Phase.doPhase(Phase.java:101)
    at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl.execute(LifecycleImpl.java:118)
    at javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet.service(FacesServlet.java:593)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper$ServletServiceAction.run(StubSecurityHelper.java:280)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper$ServletServiceAction.run(StubSecurityHelper.java:254)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper.invokeServlet(StubSecurityHelper.java:136)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.execute(ServletStubImpl.java:341)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.TailFilter.doFilter(TailFilter.java:25)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:79)
    at oracle.security.jps.ee.http.JpsAbsFilter$1.run(JpsAbsFilter.java:137)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at oracle.security.jps.util.JpsSubject.doAsPrivileged(JpsSubject.java:315)
    at oracle.security.jps.ee.util.JpsPlatformUtil.runJaasMode(JpsPlatformUtil.java:460)
    at oracle.security.jps.ee.http.JpsAbsFilter.runJaasMode(JpsAbsFilter.java:120)
    at oracle.security.jps.ee.http.JpsAbsFilter.doFilter(JpsAbsFilter.java:217)
    at oracle.security.jps.ee.http.JpsFilter.doFilter(JpsFilter.java:81)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:79)
    at oracle.dms.servlet.DMSServletFilter.doFilter(DMSServletFilter.java:225)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:79)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.RequestEventsFilter.doFilter(RequestEventsFilter.java:27)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:79)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext$ServletInvocationAction.wrapRun(WebAppServletContext.java:3367)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext$ServletInvocationAction.run(WebAppServletContext.java:3333)
    at weblogic.security.acl.internal.AuthenticatedSubject.doAs(AuthenticatedSubject.java:321)
    at weblogic.security.service.SecurityManager.runAs(SecurityManager.java:120)
    at weblogic.servlet.provider.WlsSubjectHandle.run(WlsSubjectHandle.java:57)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.doSecuredExecute(WebAppServletContext.java:2220)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.securedExecute(WebAppServletContext.java:2146)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.execute(WebAppServletContext.java:2124)
    at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletRequestImpl.run(ServletRequestImpl.java:1564)
    at weblogic.servlet.provider.ContainerSupportProviderImpl$WlsRequestExecutor.run(ContainerSupportProviderImpl.java:254)
    at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:295)
    at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:254)
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/itextpdf/text/Document
    at communication.HelloWorld.createPdf(HelloWorld.java:60)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601)
    at com.sun.el.parser.AstValue.invoke(AstValue.java:254)
    at com.sun.el.MethodExpressionImpl.invoke(MethodExpressionImpl.java:302)
    at com.sun.faces.facelets.el.TagMethodExpression.invoke(TagMethodExpression.java:105)
    at javax.faces.component.MethodBindingMethodExpressionAdapter.invoke(MethodBindingMethodExpressionAdapter.java:87)
    ... 38 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.itextpdf.text.Document
    at weblogic.utils.classloaders.GenericClassLoader.findLocalClass(GenericClassLoader.java:335)
    at weblogic.utils.classloaders.GenericClassLoader.findClass(GenericClassLoader.java:302)
    at weblogic.utils.classloaders.ChangeAwareClassLoader.findClass(ChangeAwareClassLoader.java:64)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:423)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:356)
    at weblogic.utils.classloaders.GenericClassLoader.loadClass(GenericClassLoader.java:180)
    at weblogic.utils.classloaders.ChangeAwareClassLoader.loadClass(ChangeAwareClassLoader.java:43)
    ... 47 more

I am using Eclipse, JSF 2.2 and JRE1.7

iText works fine when run it as a Java application. I suspect that JSF 2.2 may not support iText.

Your help is appreciated.

Answer 1

I have just worked out a solution:

Just physically copy itextpdf-5.5.0.jar from the folder containing this jar file and paste into /WEB-INF/lib folder under my project in eclipse. Make sure to see only one file called itextpdf-5.5.0.jar in /WEB-INF/lib folder