NoSuchMethodError when using spring-boot-starter-test due to transitive dependency on incomplete clean room implementation of org.json:json

[scottishWill]

Hi,

I recently upgraded a large application to "spring boot 1.5.3" and since the upgrade we had a runtime issue with the JSON Lib (org.json) pulled in by "spring-boot 1.5.3 RELEASE". There was no issue with compiling / building but at runtime certain calls to "com.json.JSONObject" threw a error like this:

_org.json.JSONObject.putOnce(Ljava/lang/String;Ljava/lang/Object;)Lorg/json/JSONObject;

After spending alot of time debugging the issue was found to be with spring-boot-starter-test pulling in "android-json" (com.vaadin.external.google). This also has a JSONObject with fully qualified name "com.json.JSONObject" but not the same methods. It was this JSON object that was getting used at runtime and was causing the method not found errors.

We got around the problem by exluding "android-json" from "spring-boot-starter-test" but I suggest it should not be included by default so as to avoid this kind of issue for others.

Thanks,
William

[philwebb]

Do you have a complete stacktrace? It looks like this is a similar issue to #8706 and I'm curious if you're also using JsonFluentAssert?

Unfortunately the org.json library has a very unhelpful "don't be evil" clause in its license (see #5929 for background) which causes legal issues for many users. The android-json project is a clean room implementation that has a standard open source license. Many projects are gradually migrating to the android version but unfortunately there are a few compatibility issues.

We can't just drop the dependency because some of our own JSON test utilities require it.

[philwebb]

Since this is the second time this issue has been raised we should look to see if we can add some more documentation at least.

[wilkinsona]

How about a TestExecutionListener that checks for multiple occurrences of JSONObject and warns you? Something like this:

  .   ____          _            __ _ _
 /\\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __  __ _ \ \ \ \
( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | \ \ \ \
 \\/  ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| |  ) ) ) )
  '  |____| .__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | / / / /
 =========|_|==============|___/=/_/_/_/
 :: Spring Boot ::                        

2017-06-06 15:44:27.595  INFO 21071 --- [           main] c.e.DuplicateJsonObjectApplicationTests  : Starting DuplicateJsonObjectApplicationTests on aw-rmbp.home with PID 21071 (started by awilkinson in /Users/awilkinson/dev/workspaces/spring/spring-boot/1.5.x/gh-9398)
2017-06-06 15:44:27.596  INFO 21071 --- [           main] c.e.DuplicateJsonObjectApplicationTests  : No active profile set, falling back to default profiles: default
2017-06-06 15:44:27.620  INFO 21071 --- [           main] s.c.a.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext : Refreshing org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext@13c10b87: startup date [Tue Jun 06 15:44:27 BST 2017]; root of context hierarchy
2017-06-06 15:44:27.975  INFO 21071 --- [           main] c.e.DuplicateJsonObjectApplicationTests  : Started DuplicateJsonObjectApplicationTests in 0.581 seconds (JVM running for 1.09)
2017-06-06 15:44:27.978  WARN 21071 --- [           main] DuplicateJsonObjectTestExecutionListener : 

Found multiple occurrences of org.json.JSONObject on the class path:

	jar:file:/Users/awilkinson/.m2/repository/org/json/json/20140107/json-20140107.jar!/org/json/JSONObject.class
	jar:file:/Users/awilkinson/.m2/repository/com/vaadin/external/google/android-json/0.0.20131108.vaadin1/android-json-0.0.20131108.vaadin1.jar!/org/json/JSONObject.class

You may wish to exclude one of them to ensure predictable runtime behaviour

2017-06-06 15:44:28.006  INFO 21071 --- [       Thread-2] s.c.a.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext : Closing org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext@13c10b87: startup date [Tue Jun 06 15:44:27 BST 2017]; root of context hierarchy