LiveCycle ES2: UnsupportedClassVersionError: (oracle/jdbc/OracleDriver) bad major version at offset=6

Issue

If you are attempting to configure Adobe LiveCycle server using the LiveCycle Configuration Manager (LCM) with an Oracle database, you may encounter the following exception during the DB configuration step:

Caused by: java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError:
(oracle/jdbc/OracleDriver) bad major version at offset=6
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassImpl(Native Method)
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:258)
 at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:151)
 at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:589)
 at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$400(URLClassLoader.java:123)
 at java.net.URLClassLoader$ClassFinder.run(URLClassLoader.java:1034)
 at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(AccessController.java:279)
 at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:491)
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:631)
 at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:349)
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:597)
 at java.lang.Class.forNameImpl(Native Method)
 at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:130)
 at com.adobe.livecycle.cdv.validator.DBValidator.validateDB(DBValidator.java:174)

Reason

This error can occur if you are not using the correct Oracle DB driver, or the correct Java JDK for your platform.

Solution

You should check the Oracle DB driver and JDK version required in the relevant platform matrix.  With LiveCycle ES2 for example the platform matrix is located here:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/LiveCycle/9.5/supported_platforms.html

So if you were to install LiveCycle ES2 on AIX 5.3 with WebSphere 7, you should be using the 64-bit JDK 1.6 SR7 provided by WebSphere (WAS_HOME/AppServer/java), and the ojdbc6.jar Oracle driver.

Be sure to set the JAVA_HOME and PATH environment variables as instructed in http://help.adobe.com/en_US/livecycle/9.0/prepareinstallsingle.pdf

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5 Responses to LiveCycle ES2: UnsupportedClassVersionError: (oracle/jdbc/OracleDriver) bad major version at offset=6

  1. Pingback: The LiveCycle Post | LiveCycle ES2: UnsupportedClassVersionError: (oracle/jdbc/OracleDriver) bad major version at offset=6

  2. Guest says:
    February 3, 2012 at 4:19 am

    Another way to resolve this error is using Conditional compilation so that you never new version of code running on old JVM. see How to avoid unsupportedClassVersionError in Java.

  4. Java Experience says:
    December 16, 2012 at 8:44 pm

    Under the hood, these drivers are loaded into memory by using reflection which boils down to Class.forName or newInstance method

  5. Java67 says:
    February 13, 2013 at 10:37 am

    This error comes when you compile in one Java version and run on another which is lower than compiled one. See this guide to solve java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError in Java

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