Websphre + Flex ClassLoader issue: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory

[Ajay Kamble]

I am using Flex 4 (and BlazeDS) on WebSphere 6.1.0.17.

The setup needed for Flex/BlazeDS is that you put blazeds jars in WEB-INF/lib folder of the project. Below are the jars in WEB-INF/lib,

cfgatewayadapter.jar
commons-codec-1.3.jar
commons-httpclient-3.0.1.jar
commons-logging.jar
flex-messaging-common.jar
flex-messaging-core.jar
flex-messaging-opt.jar
flex-messaging-proxy.jar
flex-messaging-remoting.jar
flex-rds-server.jar
xalan.jar

You also load a Flex servlet in web.xml (just like Struts servlet or JSF sevlet), so that it can intercept Flex requests and delegate to proper components.

When I run application I get below error,

Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory
	at flex.messaging.services.http.httpclient.EasySSLProtocolSocketFactory.createSocket(EasySSLProtocolSocketFactory.java:144)
	at flex.messaging.services.http.httpclient.EasySSLProtocolSocketFactory.createSocket(EasySSLProtocolSocketFactory.java:182)
	at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpConnection.open(HttpConnection.java:706)
	at org.apache.commons.httpclient.MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager$HttpConnectionAdapter.open(MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager.java:1321)
	at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpMethodDirector.executeWithRetry(HttpMethodDirector.java:386)
	at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpMethodDirector.executeMethod(HttpMethodDirector.java:170)
	at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient.executeMethod(HttpClient.java:396)
	at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient.executeMethod(HttpClient.java:324)
	at flex.messaging.services.http.proxy.RequestFilter.sendRequest(RequestFilter.java:519)
	at flex.messaging.services.http.proxy.RequestFilter.invoke(RequestFilter.java:84)
	at flex.messaging.services.http.proxy.SecurityFilter.invoke(SecurityFilter.java:63)
	at flex.messaging.services.http.proxy.ResponseFilter.invoke(ResponseFilter.java:68)
	at flex.messaging.services.http.proxy.ProxyContextFilter.invoke(ProxyContextFilter.java:65)
	at flex.messaging.services.http.proxy.AccessFilter.invoke(AccessFilter.java:58)
	at flex.messaging.services.http.proxy.ErrorFilter.invoke(ErrorFilter.java:44)

I am not able to understand why Websphere says NoClassDefFoundError for javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory, which is part of Java API.

Below is my classloader hierarchy,

1] com.ibm.ws.classloader.CompoundClassLoader
2] sun.misc.Launcher$ExtClassLoader
3] sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader
4] org.eclipse.osgi.internal.baseadaptor.DefaultClassLoader
5] com.ibm.ws.bootstrap.ExtClassLoader
6] com.ibm.ws.classloader.ProtectionClassLoader
7] com.ibm.ws.classloader.CompoundClassLoader

The last ClassLoader [#7] is the one which loads BlazeDS jars from WEB-INF/lib folder. Then as shown in exception stack trace if calls other Flex classes and HttpClient classes (which are available to the same class loader), but when it needs javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory it fails.

I am not sure why this happens. If #7 cannot see this class, is it not true that it should go to its parent class loaders upto the Bootstrap class loader? And it is difficult to imagine why none of the classloaders are unable to load class from Java API.

Please help!