Apache poi cant find method of log4j org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger.atDebug()

Question

When I tried to read an excel file this error shows:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger.atDebug()Lorg/apache/logging/log4j/LogBuilder;

pointing to this line:

try (FileInputStream inputStream = new FileInputStream(configFile.getPath());
                        XSSFWorkbook workbook = new XSSFWorkbook(inputStream)) {

I tried to exclude the log4j dependency from the apache poi but it's now working:

<dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
            <artifactId>poi</artifactId>
            <version>5.2.2</version>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>org.apache.logging.log4j</groupId>
                    <artifactId>log4j-core</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
            <artifactId>poi-ooxml</artifactId>
            <version>5.2.2</version>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>org.apache.logging.log4j</groupId>
                    <artifactId>log4j-core</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>

It seems apache poi version 5.2.2 uses or calls the log4j. Do I also need to included it to my dependency? or is there proper way to exclude log4j?

Answer 1

org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger is part of org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-api. If you are excluding org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core, it will also exclude org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-api

You need to have log4j-api in your classpath.

If you are using slf4j you can find the log4j-over-slf4j

More information on Apache POI's Logging Framework