Automatic Failure.

[Mark Smyth]

After four weeks of waiting I have recieved the dreaded Automatic failure. I must admit that I am sickened beyond words .

The error I recieved in my results page was as follows:

Test: Sun Certified Developer for the Java 2 Platform (310-027)
Date Taken: 2007-01-27 11:44:52.187
Registration Number: o30lon50c6
Site: ir11
Grade: F
Score: 0

Comment: Automatic failure. When I started your app in non-networked mode, it crashed with this trace:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: Bad version number in .class file at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method) at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:620) at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:12 4) at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:260) at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:56) at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:195) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:188) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:306) at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:268) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:251) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:319)

What this basically means is that the application was compilled using 1.6 but he has used a 1.5 jre to run the aplication.

The question that I need to find the answer to is whether or not my version.txt file contained the JDK Version: 1.6.0 or JDK Version: 1.5.0_09.

My heart hopes that the examiner may not have read the version.txt file and assumed that it was compilled using java 5, hovever my head tells me that surely no examiner could be that incompetent (surely this is the first thing that they would check) and that I must have introduced this error myself despite checking the jar 1000 time to make sure everything was ok.

My worst case scenario is that I managed to somehow reintroduce an old version of the version.txt file into my build at the last moment (yes I did find one old version with this text in one of my directories, but I am 90% sure that there is no way it could have ended up in the build, unfortunately not 100% ). The version.txt in the directory I believe that I built the assignment in is correct.

To really compound the error I no longer have a copy of the jar file that I submitted as I have cleaned out the build directory, so I have absolutely no way of verifying where what has gone wrong.

As a first step I have contacted [e-mail] to try and obtain a copy of the submission jar (or at least for them to confirm the contents of the version.txt file). I am not sure if they will give me this information or not.

I think that until I get a reply from prometric one way or another there is not much point in contacting sun. Hopefully I will get some good news from prometric and will be able to start an appeal to sun. Wish me luck and I will keep you all posted.

Mark

[Martin Wittmann]

Hi Mark,
that is horrible. Are you sure you don't have a copy of your
submisson jar anywhere (maybe in your recycle bin).

You probably looked everywhere already, though.
Good luck!
Martin

[Brian Kelly]

Oooch...

Good luck! Though it might be quicker just to resubmit...

[Mark Smyth]

Hi,

Ok I'm feeling a little bit better now because I located a disk recovery utility and I managed to recover about 8 different version.txt(s) from on or around the week which I submitted. Two from the 11th and 12th of december are 1.5.0_9. However there are six deleted version.txts from the 14-15 of december which is the day I submitted the assignment and these are all reading version 1.6.0 . I tried to recover the submission jars from this date but these have been corrupted unfortunnately so I cannot be absolutely certain.

I think that as I did run a few builds on the two days this explains the large number of version.txt(s) on these dates, I would have been unjaring the built submission jar to verify that it was complete, Then I would have deleted these files the next time round before unjarring again. This gives me much more hope that my assignment jar was in fact correct and that the assesor did use the wrong version of java to run the application (it was released about a week before I submitted).

Still I need to wait for prometric to hopefully verify that my version.txt file was indeed correct.

Fingers crossed,
Mark.
[ January 29, 2007: Message edited by: Mark Smyth ]

[Jaro Simak]

You are not alone, Mark, the same for me. Only I did not wait so long ;-)

The silly testing people started the application with java 1.5,
though I stated java 1.6.0 have to be used in version.txt.
(I am sure that I did not have not 1.5 parts there - I have deinstalled java 1.5 before packing
all together. )


Be honest, I am very suspicious concerning the professional quality of the testers.

Further point is I do not believe that anybody read the mail to the who2contact address.

And I will also not resubmit the assignment. It seem they make good job playing silly people
and earning money twice because the poor folks pay for the resubmission. Not with me.

From this reason I do not definitely recommend this certification program.

[Mark Smyth]

Have checked the last known deleted versions of both the version.txt and the MAINIFEST.MF file (created by my ant script) with my recovery tool which is surely the version that I submitted.

Version.txt:

JDK Version: 1.6.0
Host Platform: Windows 2000 Service Pack 4.

MANIFEST.MF

Manifest-Version: 1.0
Ant-Version: Apache Ant 1.6.5
Created-By: 1.6.0-b105 (Sun Microsystems Inc.)

If prometric get back to me with positive news then I will be on to sun and I shall be expecting to have a positive appeal although I expect that I will have to wait for ages and also plague them with emails in the meantime for the next few weeks before I get any response. For an exam that costs the bones of 600 euros this is completely ridiculous and it does raise serious questions about the quality of the testers. I mean if they can't identify the the reason for such an obvious stack trace error then how the hell are they qualified to mark developer certification projects.

Getting even more pissed thinking about it
Mark.

[Ken Boyd]

you have right to get upset (nice word I am using considering the forum rules otherwise plenty of f words)

I am in process of submitting but have strong doubts that $400 is not worth for exam which has little weight on resume..

[Mark Smyth]

Mark,
I will have the grader look at this again. Thanks for your patience.

Sun Certification
[e-mail]

[Paul Anilprem]

Originally posted by Mark Smyth:
After four weeks of waiting I have recieved the dreaded Automatic failure. I must admit that I am sickened beyond words .
...
Mark

This is indeed very stressful. However, do not lose heart. This happened with a couple of our students and upon a request to recheck the version.txt that was given with the submission, they accepted their error and evaluted the assignment properly.

[Jaro Simak]

Hello Mark,
could you please insert text of your email to Sun here. I have the problem that the people do not reply to my emails.
Maybe it lies on the content of the mail.


Did you get the response by contacting Sun or Prometric?

Greetings
Jaro
[ January 31, 2007: Message edited by: Jaro Prospal ]

[Mark Smyth]

Text of the email is as follows: I sent it on to suns UK training office first of all. All they did was forward the message on to [e-mail] and [e-mail]. I did get a reply back fairly swiftly within 24 hours. Perhaps you ought to go through your local sun office as well,it may help to speed thing up

Mark

>Hi,
>My name is Mark Smyth and my prometric testing ID is srxxxxxxx. My contact email address
>is xxxxxxxxxxx
>
>I have recently taken the Sun Certified Java Developer exam, I uploaded the project on the 15th of december and I took the written exam on the 3rd of January this year in Dublin, Ireland.
>
>After four weeks of waiting I finally got my results however I was dismayed to learn that my result was recorded as an automatic failure. The message given in the details page as the reason for this failure was the following.
>
>
> ***************************************************************************************
> Customer: Mark Smyth
> Testing ID: xxxxxxx
> Test: Sun Certified Developer for the Java 2 Platform (310-027)
> Date Taken: 2007-01-27 11:44:52.187
>
> Comment: Automatic failure. When I started your app in non-networked mode,
> it crashed with this trace:
>
> Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError:
> Bad version number in .class file at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
> at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:620)
> at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:12 4)
> at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:260)
> at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:56)
> at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:195)
> at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
> at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:188)
> at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:306)
> at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:268)
> at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:251)
> at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:319)
> If you need to resubmit your assignment, return to the test history screen,
> press the 'Assignments' button, and follow the instructions.
>
> *****************************************************************************************
>
>It is clear to me that the cause of this error is that the assignment grader attempted to run the program using the Java 5 runtime environment, even though the version.txt file in
>the root of the submission jar clearly states that the assignment was compiled on and submitted for the Java 6 runtime environment which was released
>on the 11th of December 2006 which was a full 4 days before my submission was uploaded.
>
>I have managed to recreate this error the tester encountered by attempting to run my submitted application jar file using the jre 1.5.0_08. The text of the commands which I ran to replicate this error are detailed in the section below.
>
>
> *****************************************************************************************
> D:\temp>java -version
> java version "1.5.0_08"
> Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_08-b03)
> Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_08-b03, mixed mode)
>
> D:\temp>java -jar runme.jar alone
> Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError:
> Bad version number in .class file at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
> at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:620)
> at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:124)
> at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:260)
> at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:56)
> at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:195)
> at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
> at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:188)
> at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:306)
> at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:268)
> at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:251)
> at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:319)
>
> *****************************************************************************************
>
>The following excerpts are from the version.txt file in the submission jar root and the
>MANIFEST.MF file in the META-INF directory that I uploaded (scjda-sr1567740.jar).
>
>These excerpts clearly show that the target JRE was Java 6 not Java 5.
>
> Version.txt (that clearly shows version 6 of the JDK that I supplied the project for)
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> JDK Version: 1.6.0
> Host Platform: Windows 2000 Service Pack 4.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> META-INF/MANIFEST.MF (that clearly show that JDK 6 was used to compile the application)
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Manifest-Version: 1.0
> Ant-Version: Apache Ant 1.6.5
> Created-By: 1.6.0-b105 (Sun Microsystems Inc.)
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>My assignment instructions clearly state the following:
>
>
> "You may develop your code using any implementation of the Java 2 platform, but the submission that you return must have been tested and shown to work under a production (not development) version of the Sun Microsystems' Java 2 platform and that platform must not have been superseded by a new production version for more than 18 months by the time you make your submission."
>
>
>Going by this instruction and following the release of the production version of the Java 6 platform I believe I was entitled to submit the project for either the Java version 5 or Java version 6 platform.
>
>Needless to say having put so much time and effort in order to complete the SCJD assignment and having spent hundreds of euros on exam vouchers I am most disappointed that such a basic error has been made in the marking of my project. I would be most grateful if anyone could assist me in in correcting this error and getting the assignment regraded on the correct JDK.
>
>Regards,
>
>Mark Smyth.
>

[Jaro Simak]

I have passed the exam on 02/02/2007 with (345/400). Finally. After I sent them a dozen of mails they reconsidered the exam pretty quickly.
I wish the same to you (and better score of course).

Greeting
Jaro

[Barry Gaunt]

Great news, Jaro! I hope that Mark soon gets his assignment regraded with a positive result.

[Ste Graham]

Sorry for hi-jacking the thread, but I have a question about passing etc.

When do you receive the detailed report about the exam? Since the 23rd Jan, the details at http://www.certmanager.net/sun for me have been updated (I took the exam in Dec last year), and there are several new entries in the "History" section which look like:

Testing Center Id: gb95
Exam Series #: 310-027
Exam Name: (310-027) Sun Certified Developer for the Java 2 Platform (310-027)
Exam Date: 12/12/06
Grade: Passed

Event Date/Time: Jan 23, 2007 8:04:32 PM
Event History:
Certified in Sun Certified Developer for the Java 2 Platform on Dec 12, 2006

etc etc.

The last entry says:

Posted Date/Time: Jan 24, 2007 11:05:08 AM
Description: Fulfillment request #1234567 for Developer for the Java 2 Platform Kit; status: Mailed

Does this means that the actual report is mailed to you? I can't spot anyting online. I *think* I have passed, but without a grade etc I'm a bit wary about celebrating etc, just in case!!

Ste
[ February 06, 2007: Message edited by: Ste Graham ]

[Mark Smyth]

There ought to be a details button there I think to give you a full breakdown of your score. None the less it does look like you have indeed passed so congratlations!

Mark.

[Jar Jaquiso]

You can find your score detailed in the assignment upload/download web at https://www.certmanager.net/~sun_s/assignment.html
[ February 07, 2007: Message edited by: Jar Jaquiso ]

[Maciej Miklas]

Hi,

Rhetoric question: What kinds of people are checking our assignments? They are even not able to read a simple stack trace! SUN: this is really silly�.

What do they think? That you will leave the whole thing? That you will give up? Or maybe, that you do not know what the exception means?


Really nice�

[Mark Smyth]

Originally posted by Maciej Miklas:
Hi,

What do they think? That you will leave the whole thing? That you will give up? Or maybe, that you do not know what the exception means?


Really nice�

That people will give them more money perhaps?

[Maciej Miklas]

right. I have to pay in germany over 700 Euro...

[Jaro Simak]

Have you got the assignment regraded, Mark?

[Mark Smyth]

Still no word a full six weeks later. Beginning to wonder if I will ever get a response from Sun one way or another, its getting farcical at this stage.

[Khaled Mahmoud]

I have been waiting for my Mark since 6/Feb/2007.And till this moment there is no mark at all.Sun is not willing to cooperate at all.

[Arno Reper]

I am starting SCJD...after reading these thread, its safer to use java5.0 instead of 6.0 ?

When is java5.0 no more allowed for the assignment?
thanks
Arno

[Khaled Mahmoud]

For me If was allowed to do the assignment in C++ I would have chosen
C++.

[Arno Reper]

Originally posted by Khaled Mahmoud:
For me If was allowed to do the assignment in C++ I would have chosen
C++.

How do you mean? You used 6.0...

[Jaro Simak]

You can use java 6.0. It is production version now.

[Jaro Simak]

For some unexpected miracle, the people in Sun answered very soon in my case. I have posted 3 or 4 mail to who2contact, to the local certification office and to prometric. The last two have nothing to do with it, but they were so kind and forwarded it further to who2contact. Somehow I helped.

I should say I have tried to contact the people some months ago, but without success.

The only thing I am puzzeling is the poor locking score 44/80. I simply do not believe that.
I would like to compare my code with someone who got 80 points. Maybe you guys, when you get your results.

Well, next time, I would better invest my time trying EJB certification.
[ March 19, 2007: Message edited by: Jaro Prospal ]

[Arno Reper]

Originally posted by Jaro Prospal:
You can use java 6.0. It is production version now.

But some of you got an automatic failure?
Is it sure its ok now? I don't want to loose my money because of some automatic test.
Arno

[Beny Na]

Originally posted by Khaled Mahmoud:
For me If was allowed to do the assignment in C++ I would have chosen
C++.

So why you are taking SCJD when it is ABSOLUTELY not allowed you to use C++?
you are just wasting your money,time for taking this exam.
i bet you won't say this when you are not failed the exam

[Khaled Mahmoud]

Becuase I have been waiting for my result since 6/Feb/2007 and till now there is no result.

I want my money back from $un.

[Brian Kelly]

When is java5.0 no more allowed for the assignment?
thanks
Arno[/QB]

You can use any J2SE version.

I just passed it using 1.4.

What you "must" do is ensure that it runs (not compiles) on the latest released JVM...

[Jeff Mayer]

Originally posted by Brian Kelly:

You can use any J2SE version.

Instructions explicitly say:

"You may develop your code using any implementation of the Java 2 platform, but the submission that you return must have been tested and shown to work under a production (not development) version of the Sun Microsystems' Java 2 platform and that platform must not have been superseded by a new production version for more than 18 months by the time you make your submission."

So, this means that you can't use any Java version.
[ March 21, 2007: Message edited by: Jeff Mayer ]

[Romeo Son]

Hi all,

I think Brian is right.

"You may develop your code using any implementation of the Java 2 platform" means that you can develop for example with 1.4 platform (as Brian said) and before submitting you need to test that your application runs on 5.0 or 6.0 platform.

Brian, in this case I would mention 1.4 platform in version.txt, right?

[Brian Kelly]

Originally posted by Romeo Son:
Hi all,Brian, in this case I would mention 1.4 platform in version.txt, right?

Romeo is right.
I developed my code using 1.4, mentioning 1.4 in the version.txt.

What the rest of the instruction says is it must be have "been tested and shown to work" under the latest java version (java6 or whatever).
I just tested to make sure my 1.4 runme jar ran on a 1.6 machine...

Why did I do that? Because I read what happen to Mark here before I submitted and wasn't going to take any risks...(and I passed)

[Jeff Mayer]

I think Brian is right.
"You may develop your code using any implementation of the Java 2 platform" means that you can develop for example with 1.4 platform (as Brian said) and before submitting you need to test that your application runs on 5.0 or 6.0 platform.

Humm... it's true!
Moreover, this means you can use any JDK implementation, not only Sun's...

[Khaled Mahmoud]

Any new news about your grade??? Did $un reply to you lately??

[Mark Smyth]

Originally posted by Khaled Mahmoud:
Any new news about your grade??? Did $un reply to you lately??

No been well over two months now still my grade remains unchanged despite a promise to have it rechecked by the grader. To be honest I am totally fed up with the customer "service" that sun provides as they have only replied once to my emails which I posted above.

I am totally fed up at this stage and I am not sure I have the motivation to persue the matter any further. I am definately not paying a resubmission fee for what was a perfectly fine working project. I was hoping to go on to do further certifications but to be honest I don't ever see myself ever giving another cent to sun certification services.

[Khaled Mahmoud]

Hello Mark,
If your attitude remains like that Sun will never respond to you. I agree with you about the Sun Certification customer service but you should never give up and you should continue for all other Sun exams.It is definitly your right to get your assignment evaluated.

Look what happened in my case :
I have submitted the SCJD assignment for the first time and failed because of submitting the wrong version of the jar file.I did a resubmission again on 6/Feb/2007. At 27/Feb/2007 I received a wrong automatic failure for requirements that does not belong to my assignment. I kept sending emails to sun on all the support addresses I know. I used to send an average 2 emails per day. I used to call them and leave voice messages to the certification support employees. And finally I tried to contact the CEO of Sun Mr.Jonathan Schwartz. I called on his office administrator and left a voice message on the phone and I also sent an email to the office administrator of the CEO asking to forward my complaints to Sun's CEO.
And finally I got my mark and I passed (thanks GOD for that) and Sun gave a free exam voucher as a compensation.

Good luck and best wishes

[Maurizio Nagni]

Khaled! great skill! i am totally agreeding with you! Mark! pick up the email and write...write...write! Do pressure for an anwser!
..... i hope that my close-to-come submission will be not so problematic

[Mark Smyth]

Originally posted by Maurizio Nagni:
Khaled! great skill! i am totally agreeding with you! Mark! pick up the email and write...write...write! Do pressure for an anwser!
..... i hope that my close-to-come submission will be not so problematic

Success at last finally got good news from Sun