Android core library error

Question

When I am including the jaxp.jar, I get the following error-

trouble processing \"javax/xml/XMLConstants.class\":
[2009-05-08 16:53:18 - TestProject] 
Attemp         


        

Answer 1

If you are including a core class then this error is self explanatory. If you aren't (search your code, just to make sure) then I have seen this error from time to time only when using Eclipse when the Android "library" gets added to the Eclipse build path multiple times on accident.

I don't know how it gets in that state, but it has happened to me twice now. To resolve it, you need to fix the .classpath file as Nicolas noted. Another way to do that is to edit the "Java Build Path" (right click on the project and select properties) and remove your Android* libraries (if there are more than one remove them all).

This will cause the project to fail to compile and have many errors, but, once you are sure you have gotten rid of all the libraries you can then right click the project again and select "Android Tools"->"Fix Project Properties" and the correct (single copy) of Android.jar will be added back and things should work fine again from there.

Answer 2

the error you get from Dx is based only on the java package names of the libs you are importing and nothing else.

the message can by summarized as: if you import a library in the java.* or javax.* namespace, it's very likely that it depends on other "core" libraries that are only provided as part of the JDK, and therefore won't be available in the Android platform. it's essentially preventing you from doing something stupid, which is accurate 99% of the time when you see that message.

now, of course, just because a java package starts with java.* or javax.* does not necessarily mean that it depends on the JDK proper. it may work perfectly fine in android. to get around the stupidity check, add the --core-library option to dx. change the last line of $ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools/dx from,

exec java $javaOpts -jar "$jarpath" "$@"

to,

exec java $javaOpts -jar "$jarpath" --core-library "$@"

in my case, i was including a library that depended on Jackson, which depends on JAXB. for me, overriding the stupidity check was acceptable because the library's use of Jackson was only for JSON and not for XML serialization (i only include the JAXB API library, not the impl). of course i wish there was a cleaner way to go about this, but re-writing the top level library to avoid using Jackson was not an option.

Answer 3

I see two possibilities:

In your project's folder, the file .classpath could be wrong. Try to replace it with:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<classpath>
<classpathentry kind="src" path="src"/>
<classpathentry kind="src" path="gen"/>
<classpathentry kind="con" path="com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.ANDROID_FRAMEWORK"/>
<classpathentry kind="output" path="bin"/>
</classpath>

If it does not work, it means the library you are trying to include is not compatible with Android.

Answer 4

I got this after copy-pasting an Android project into the same workspace. Deleting it from disk afterwards wasn't enough, cause Eclipse still hade some reference to it hidden away. I also had to remove the following folder under the workspace folder:

.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.core.resources.projects[NameOfTheDuplicateProject]

Answer 5

I'm not including a core class or building a core library or any of that.

yes, you are:

trouble processing "javax/xml/XMLConstants.class"

java.* and javax.* both count. you can use the --core-library switch if you just want to ignore this in a test app, but heed the warning: "your application will still fail to build or run, at some point. Please be prepared for angry customers who find, for example, that your application ceases to function once they upgrade their operating system. You will be to blame for this problem."

the right fix, as it says, for a shipping app, is to repackage those classes (i.e. move them to a new directory, edit their "package" lines correspondingly, and update the "import" lines in their callers).