JasperReports: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class net.sf.jasperreports.engine.util.JRStyledTextParser

Question

I would like to share my experience with a more or less common error with JasperReports.

When executing JasperReports to make a PDF report, I have an exception :

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class net.sf.jasperreports.engine.util.JRStyledTextParser
net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRBaseFiller.<init>(JRBaseFiller.java:108)
net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRVerticalFiller.<init>(JRVerticalFiller.java:69)
net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRVerticalFiller.<init>(JRVerticalFiller.java:57)
net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRFiller.createBandReportFiller(JRFiller.java:200)
net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRFiller.createReportFiller(JRFiller.java:215)
net.sf.jasperreports.engine.fill.JRFiller.fill(JRFiller.java:115)
net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JasperFillManager.fill(JasperFillManager.java:667)
net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JasperFillManager.fillReport(JasperFillManager.java:983)

My environment :

• CentOs 6.6 - Kernel 2.6.32-504.el6.x86_64
• Java 1.7_79 (Sun)
• JasperReport 6.2.2
• Apache Tomcat 7.0.68

Same question that:

• java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class net.sf.jasperreports.engine.util.JRStyledTextParser
• http://community.jaspersoft.com/questions/536539/noclassdeffounderror-jrstyledtextparser-initialization-failure

I tried these solutions without success.

Answer 1

So here some checks to do :

• Red Hat KB : https://access.redhat.com/solutions/1311113.
  VMWare KB : https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2010240.
  Your environment should have X11 and/or graphic packages (fonts etc.) installed OR you have to run Java with -Djava.awt.headless=true option. With headless, your libraries needs to have fonts included (Default JasperReport font is Pictonic.ttf)
  
• Clean your Tomcat Cache and don't do hot deployment. Some JasperReport versions have memory leaks with ThreadLocal uses in some classes. See for example http://community.jaspersoft.com/jasperreports-library/issues/4403-0
  

• JRStyledTextParser have a static initializer which can mask some exceptions. It especially initializes the loading of fonts (on the OS or included in jar) in a cache by using Font implement in java.awt. But, see the source code of Font :
  

  private static boolean hasTempPermission() {
  
  if (System.getSecurityManager() == null) {
      return true;
  }
  File f = null;
  boolean hasPerm = false;
  try {
      f = Files.createTempFile("+~JT", ".tmp").toFile();
      f.delete();
      f = null;
      hasPerm = true;
  } catch (Throwable t) {
      /* inc. any kind of SecurityException */
  }
  return hasPerm;
  }
  

Java create temp file (using java.io.tmp option if you have specified it). So check that your temporary folder is not full and writable by the user/group of Java PID. If it is not the case, an exception will be thrown, but catched and invisible...