ADF from JDeveloper 10.1.2 not compatible with iAS 9.0.1

Question

Hi,
We developed an ADF Application with JDeveloper 10.1.2 and we use the ADF interMedia domains (e.g. oracle.ord.im.OrdDocDomain). The application runs fine in JDeveloper, but doesn't run on our iAS 9.0.4.1. We get the following exception:
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: oracle/sql/DatumWithConnection
at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:219)
at oracle.jbo.common.java2.JDK2ClassLoader.loadClassForName(JDK2ClassLoader.java:38)
at oracle.jbo.common.JBOClass.forName(JBOClass.java:161)
at oracle.jbo.common.JBOClass.findDataClass(JBOClass.java:203)
at oracle.jbo.server.AttributeDefImpl.initFromXML(AttributeDefImpl.java:2061)
at oracle.jbo.server.AttributeDefImpl.loadFromXML(AttributeDefImpl.java:2013)
at oracle.jbo.server.EntityDefImpl.loadAttribute(EntityDefImpl.java:2815)
at oracle.jbo.server.EntityDefImpl.loadAttributes(EntityDefImpl.java:2779)
at oracle.jbo.server.EntityDefImpl.loadFromXML(EntityDefImpl.java:2362)
at oracle.jbo.server.EntityDefImpl.loadFromXML(EntityDefImpl.java:2106)
at oracle.jbo.server.MetaObjectManager.loadFromXML(MetaObjectManager.java:514)
[...rest of stacktrace omitted ...]
The problem is that the JDBC version of the iAS 9.0.4.1 is missing the class DatumWithConnection that is indirectly referenced by the interMedia classes supplied with JDeveloper 10.1.2.
In detail, oracle.ord.im.OrdDoc uses oracle.sql.STRUCT. The inheritance hierarchy of STRUCT is different in the JDBC versions on iAS 9.0.4.1 (oracle.sql.Datum <- oracle.sql.STRUCT) and JDeveloper 10.1.2 (oracle.sql.Datum <- oracle.sql.DatumWithConnection <- oracle.sql.STRUCT). The class file of oracle.ord.im.OrdDoc (from 10.1.2. JDeveloper) was apparently compiled the new JDBC driver version since it contains a reference to oracle.sql.DatumWithConnection. And that class cannot be found if run on iAS 9.0.4.1 with its old JDBC version.
I think this is a very serious problem, since it means that ADF from JDeveloper 10.1.2 is not compatible with iAS 9.0.4.1, in contradiction to the support matrix (http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/jdev/collateral/papers/10g/as_supportmatrix.html).
Upgrading the JDBC Driver on the iAS seems to be the only clean solution for this problem (we also tried using old versions of the ordim.jar etc. but that always leads to other problems). But simply exchanging the JDBC jar-files on the server breaks the Enterprise Manager on our iAS installation.
I have two questions:
1) Is there a recommended workaround for the compatibility issue described above?
2) Is there a documented and supported way to upgrade the JDBC driver of iAS 9.0.4.1? I searched OTN and MetaLink and haven't found anything about this.
Kind Regards,
Kay
P.S. It is surprising that this problem is rarely mentioned in the OTN forums at all. The only relevant thread is on the JHeadstart Forum:
JHeadstart Deployment Issue
P.S.2
More info on what we tested:
We have thoroughly checked that the 10.1.2. ADF runtime was correctly deployed on our iAS 9.0.4.1. We installed a OC4J 9.0.4.0.0 standalone on the same linux machine as our iAS 9.0.4.1 and deployed our application on it, getting the same error (java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: oracle/sql/DatumWithConnection) as on the iAS. Replacing the JDBC drivers of the OC4J standalone with the version that came with JDeveloper 10.1.2 solved the problem.

Answer 1

I don't think that mixing classes from different jar file is a good idea. Nevertheless, we tested this approach already. Adding the DatumWithConnection.class from the 10.1.0.3.0 JDBC version to the jar file of the original JDBC version (of the iAS 9.0.4.1.0) caused a java.lang.VerifyError to appear.
The DatumWithConnection class is not simply added in the newer JDBC version. It is inserted into the inheritance hierarchy of oracle.sql.STRUCT and oracle.sql.Datum. Simply providing the new class next to the old JDBC driver will not work.
To give more information about what's wrong with updating the complete JDBC driver, I justed tested it again. To update the JDBC driver I stopped the server, changed the contents of jdbc/lib, started the server. I tried it with JDBC Version 9.2.0.5 as well as 10.1.0.3.0.
In both cases, our own application works, i.e. no more NoClassDefFoundError caused by oracle.sql.DatumWithConnection.
The Enterprise Manager shows strange behaviour, however. Some features work as usual but, for example, when I click on the "Applications" tab for our OC4J instance, we just get the following error shown in the browser:
An error was encountered while loading page. Failed to initialize configuration management user session.. See base exception for details.
Root Cause: TDU
Resolution: See base exception for details.. TDU
In one of the server logs I found the following stacktrace:
java.lang.NoSuchFieldError: TDU
     at oracle.net.resolver.NavDescription.navigate(Unknown Source)
     at oracle.net.resolver.NavServiceAlias.navigate(Unknown Source)
     at oracle.net.resolver.AddrResolution.resolveAddrTree(Unknown Source)
     at oracle.net.resolver.AddrResolution.resolveAndExecute(Unknown Source)
     at oracle.net.ns.NSProtocol.establishConnection(Unknown Source)
     at oracle.net.ns.NSProtocol.connect(Unknown Source)
     at oracle.jdbc.ttc7.TTC7Protocol.connect(TTC7Protocol.java:1777)
     at oracle.jdbc.ttc7.TTC7Protocol.logon(TTC7Protocol.java:215)
     at oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleConnection.<init>(OracleConnection.java:365)
     at oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver.getConnectionInstance(OracleDriver.java:547)
     at oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver.connect(OracleDriver.java:347)
     at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:512)
     at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:171)
     at oracle.context.isearch.admin.users.InstanceManager.getSchemaConnection(InstanceManager.java:688)
     at test.admin__status._jspService(_admin__status.java:112)
     at com.orionserver[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.1.0)].http.OrionHttpJspPage.service(OrionHttpJspPage.java:56)
     at oracle.jsp.runtimev2.JspPageTable.service(JspPageTable.java:349)
     at oracle.jsp.runtimev2.JspServlet.internalService(JspServlet.java:509)
     at oracle.jsp.runtimev2.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:413)
     at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853)
     at com.evermind[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.1.0)].server.http.ServletRequestDispatcher.invoke(ServletRequestDispatcher.java:765)
     at com.evermind[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.1.0)].server.http.ServletRequestDispatcher.forwardInternal(ServletRequestDispatcher.java:317)
     at com.evermind[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.1.0)].server.http.HttpRequestHandler.processRequest(HttpRequestHandler.java:793)
     at com.evermind[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.1.0)].server.http.AJPRequestHandler.run(AJPRequestHandler.java:208)
     at com.evermind[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.1.0)].server.http.AJPRequestHandler.run(AJPRequestHandler.java:125)
     at com.evermind[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.1.0)].util.ReleasableResourcePooledExecutor$MyWorker.run(ReleasableResourcePooledExecutor.java:192)
     at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:534)
Kind Regards,
Kay