Something works in debug mode but not in normal mode

Question

I have a web app running in websphere WAS 6.1 (under IBM RSA).

It consists of two EARs, each of them with one web module (WAR).

The app has a menu that is loaded as a result of a xsl+xsql parsing.

The case is that if we launch the server in normal mode, the menu is not loaded properly, but when we launch the server in debug mode, the menu is loaded properly.

Does somebody have any clues of what could be happening here?

Thanks

Answer 1

Problem solved,

In the classpath, there was a library called xmlparserv2.jar, with a "problematic" xslt processor (under javax.xml.transform basis).

Removing it from the project, do the thing.

Now, other library does the xslt transformation (under org.apache.xalan.xslt basis).

This post helped me a lot: What processor is javax.xml.transform Using?

Answer 2

WebSphere Application Server uses different XML engines for normal mode and debug mode, and it sounds like you've found a variance between them. You should double-check that your code is following the javadoc (i.e., you're not doing something with undefined behavior), and if that's not the case, considering opening a PMR with IBM to fix the problem in normal or debug mode (it could be that debug mode should also be failing...). Alternatively, consider moving up to a newer version; 6.1 is quite old, and your problem might be fixed in a later version of the product.