JAXP: code works with JDK1.3.1/Xerces but not JDK1.4.1

Question

Switching from JDK 1.3.1 with the Xerces XML parser to JDK 1.4.1 with its
bundled XML parser breaks my code. Here is the exception I am
seeing:
Exception in thread "main" com.post.bean.BeanException com.post.bean.Bea
nException: Relative URI "bean.dtd"; can not be resolved without a base URI.
at com.post.bean.BeanSerializer.deserialize(BeanSerializer.java:176)
at com.post.BeanSerializer1.deserialize(BeanSerializer1.java:38)
at com.post.BeanSerializer1.main(BeanSerializer1.java:17)
Here is a code fragment that worked fine with JDK1.3.1 and xerces but
not with JDK1.4.1:
public static Object deserialize(InputStream input, EntityResolver
resolver)
throws BeanException
Object bean = null;
try
DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
factory.setValidating(true);
factory.setNamespaceAware(false);
DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();
if (resolver != null)
builder.setEntityResolver(resolver);
Document doc = builder.parse(input); // exception thrown here
Element root = doc.getDocumentElement();
The entity resolver I'm using searches for dtds in
a certain directory. Again this works fine with JDK1.3.1
and Xerces but not with JDK1.4.1.
Any ideas on how to remedy this situation?
Thanks

Answer 1

this generally happens when two similar libs conflict with each other. Try any of theses quick fixes: (Remember, 90% of probs in java are Classpath, packages and directory structure issues)
1. remove completely your previous version of JDK and Xerces.
2. Remove your classpath variable from system path.
3. Have "only the required" jar files during compilation. For this use the -D option.
4. If everything fails, download ANT. Write a simple build.xml file. This is a good replacement to the -D option. But make sure, you are working in a clean JDK environment. Try to monitor your classpaths at run time, and get rid of all the unnecessary once.
5. MAke sure that Xerces libs bundled with 1.4 are in your classpath at runtime.
Finally All the best, and happy XMLing+Javing !!
Rakesh