Toplink JAXB - ClassCastException after redeploy in OC4J

Question

Hi,
I'm experiencing an issue casting an unmarshalled object after the application is being redeployed in the container.
I'm trying to unmarshall an xml that I retrieve as a resource from the classloader (the xml is also in the jar)
The ClassCastException is being thrown at the point where I try to cast the unmarshalled object. A sysout on the unmarshalled object prints a classtype that I expect, so my first impression is that the cast fails due the ClassLoader used by the JAXBContext (?) So I've tried to create the JAXBContext with the ClassLoader parameter using the class' classloader directly and the contextClassLoader, both unsuccessfull.
The problem solves after I restart the OC4J container, but for convenience, I would like to solve this without having to restart, if possible.
Has anyone experienced this problem, or know a solution?
Thx!
Bert
Below, some example code and the console output on the server.
Code:
/* create the jaxb context */
JAXBContext context = JAXBContext.newInstance(
          "be.cm.apps.tpb.common.helper",
     Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader());
if (LOGGER.isDebugEnabled()) {
     LOGGER.debug("JAXBContext=" + context);
/* create unmarshaller */
Unmarshaller unmarshaller = context.createUnmarshaller();
if (LOGGER.isDebugEnabled()) {
     LOGGER.debug("Unmarshaller=" + unmarshaller);
/* open refac-config.xml as inputstream */
URL url = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResource(CONFIGURATION);
if (LOGGER.isDebugEnabled()) {
     LOGGER.debug("url: " + url);
/* unmarshall the configuration */
Object unmarshalledObject = unmarshaller.unmarshal(url);
if (LOGGER.isDebugEnabled()) {
     LOGGER.debug("unmarshalled object: " + unmarshalledObject);
* THROWS CLASSCASTEXCEPTION AFTER REDEPLOY
configurationDefinition = (ConfigurationDefinition) unmarshalledObject;
if (LOGGER.isDebugEnabled()) {
     LOGGER.debug("<- initialize()");
Output:
|DEBUG|JAXBContext=oracle.toplink.ox.jaxb.JAXBContext@675f26|º@#
|DEBUG|Unmarshaller=oracle.toplink.ox.jaxb.JAXBUnmarshaller@97dadf|º@#
|DEBUG|url: code-source:/C:/java/101310/j2ee/home/applications/tpb/tpb-online-1.0.0.jar!/refac-config.xml|º@#
|DEBUG|unmarshalled object: be.cm.apps.tpb.common.helper.ConfigurationDefinition@8f310f|º@#
|ERROR|Unable to create BusinessFacade instance named be.cm.apps.tpb.business.facade.SendingManager|
Caused by: java.lang.ClassCastException: be.cm.apps.tpb.common.helper.ConfigurationDefinition
at be.cm.apps.tpb.common.helper.ConfigHelper.initialize(ConfigHelper.java:93)
... 83 more

Answer 1

Hello Bert,
This is a known issue and there is a patch that is available from Oracle Support. When you contact support please indicate whether you are using TopLink 10.1.3 or 10.1.3.1. Also you can refer Oracle Support to me and I can help them find the correct patch.
-Blaise