Working with RAD - Common errors & fixes

I am documenting some of the common issues that we face while setting up your project workspace with an IDE like RSA/RAD. Basically all the Java development IDEs(like JBoss Developer Studio, Weblogic Workshop) are developed with Eclipse as their base. So most the problems and solutions are similar.


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1) Deployment descriptor cannot be loaded :
“The deployment descriptor of the module yourAppplication.war cannot be loaded”

Soln: You would have to refresh the workspace and do a clean build. If that doesnt work, you should remove the WAR entry thats causing problem in the application.xml(deployment descriptor of EAR project) and then try adding the web module back to the EAR. This should solve the issue.




2) While running the server, if you get an error saying some file not found exception or EAR not found error and if you are sure that you dont need any EAR of that name, you can remove the EAR from the WAS profile folder that you are working on.


Eg path: 
C:\IBMSDP70\runtimes\base_v61\profiles\ThisProfile\config\cells\<>\applications


If you still keep getting the errors on server startup , you can ignore them as they wont cause any issue. If you would like to get rid of them anyhow, remove the lines that reference it from the serverindex.xml. The tags to look for is .
This file can be found under
C:\IBMSDP70\runtimes\base_v61\profiles\ThisProfile\config\cells\<>\nodes\<>





3) Class not found exceptions java.lang.ClassNotFoundException
    Could not instantiate class XXX


Soln: 
a)Try to see if you are able to find that class in the workspace using "Open Resource" option(Ctrl+Shift+R). If it is expected to be within a jar, then try finding the class using "Open Resource" option(Ctrl+Shift+T), you will surely find it (if the source code ins SCM is integral/complete). Once you find the class, identify the jar that owns it and try to put it in the buildpath of the project.


b) If the above solution doesnt work, then place those jar files under C:\IBMSDP70\runtimes\base_v61\lib\ext. The path may vary depending on your RAD & app server version. This solution makes the jar files available for all the EARs, all the profiles that would be deployed to the application server(if put inside WAS6 , it will not be available for WAS6.1 version profiles) 

4) If you get any error like ,Error loading deployment.xml for URApplicationEAR: com.ibm.ws.exception.ConfigurationWarning , then chances are that the application, URApplicationEAR is missing in the deployment folder for RAD, but mentioned in serverindex.xml. Remove that entry from that file and re-run the server


File location: C:\IBMSDP70\runtimes\base_v61\profiles\ThisProfile\config\cells\UrPCNameNode01Cell\nodes\UrPCNameNode01


5) Some times you get an error, ERROR IWAE0053E "explaining" that an internal error occured. Sometimes you also get a pointer that an validation error occured with your EAR or WAR. 


---com.ibm.etools.validation.ValidationException: CHKJ3008E: Missing or invalid WAR file.


If you have taken the code fresh from SCM repository (SVN/CVS/VSS etc) and it is a valid code, then the problem just lies in our workspace. To fix this issue, just refresh the projects in your project explorer. If that doesnt work, do a clean & build. 


In one of my projects, the error went away when I manually removed all the WAR and EJB references in the EAR project application.xml and then adding them back. But in another project of mine, I couldnt find the EJB reference after removing it from EAR. So clean build worked here.