java - Jersey exception only thrown when depencencies assembled into a single jar

Question

I'm writing a server that embeds Jetty w/ Jersey. When I execute from Eclipse, everything is great. However, if I assemble my server and all dependencies into a single jar using Maven's assembly:single goal, I get an exception:

Sep 26, 2012 5:35:59 PM com.sun.jersey.spi.container.ContainerResponse write
SEVERE: A message body writer for Java class com.acme.server.webservice.
exception.WebServiceFailure, and Java type class com.acme.server.webserv
ice.exception.WebServiceFailure, and MIME media type application/json was not fo
und
Sep 26, 2012 5:35:59 PM com.sun.jersey.spi.container.ContainerResponse write
SEVERE: The registered message body writers compatible with the MIME media type
are:
*/* ->
  com.sun.jersey.server.impl.template.ViewableMessageBodyWriter

17:35:59.372 [qtp184245201-22 - /] ERROR o.a.h.ReflectorServletProcessor - onReq
uest()
javax.ws.rs.WebApplicationException: com.sun.jersey.api.MessageException: A mess
age body writer for Java class com.acme.server.webservice.exception.WebS
erviceFailure, and Java type class com.acme.server.webservice.exception.
WebServiceFailure, and MIME media type application/json was not found
        at com.sun.jersey.spi.container.ContainerResponse.write(ContainerRespons
e.java:285) ~[vma-server-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar:na]
        at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl._handleRequ
est(WebApplicationImpl.java:1457) ~[server-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependenc
ies.jar:na]

...

The full trace is here, if it's useful: https://gist.github.com/3790817

Maven throws no errors while creating the jar-with-dependencies.

I'm a novice with Maven and deployment of Java, and I'm really not sure how to proceed with debugging.

Also, while I need to solve this issue I'd also appreciate any suggested work-arounds as I need to produce an executable demo of my server ASAP that a Pointy-Haired Boss (tm) can execute without Eclipse.

Solution:

Based on Pavel's answer, I dropped the maven-assemly-plugin in favor of maven-shade-plugin. Here's the shade configuration that worked for me:

        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.0</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <phase>package</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>shade</goal>
                    </goals>
                    <configuration>
                        <transformers>
                        <!--  use transformer to handle merge of META-INF/services - see http://java.net/jira/browse/JERSEY-440?focusedCommentId=14822&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels%3Acomment-tabpanel#action_14822 -->
                            <transformer
                                implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ServicesResourceTransformer" />
                        </transformers> 
                        <filters>
                            <!--  filter to address "Invalid signature file" issue - see http://stackoverflow.com/a/6743609/589215-->
                            <filter>
                                <artifact>*:*</artifact>
                                <excludes>
                                    <exclude>META-INF/*.SF</exclude>
                                    <exclude>META-INF/*.DSA</exclude>
                                    <exclude>META-INF/*.RSA</exclude>
                                </excludes>
                            </filter>
                        </filters>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>

Answer 1

You are not merging Jersey jars correctly.

Jersey 1.x uses META-INF/services mechanism to discover its components and assembly:single probably just copies everything into single jar, overriding already present files BUT META-INF/services file(s) needs to be CONCATENATED.

Try using jersey-bundle (com.sun.jersey:jersey-bundle:1.14) or fix your assembly settings (or find another plugin to do it better).