WebSphere Application Server/8.0 / Uncaught initialization exception created by servlet

Question

i am just trying to deploy a sample restful web service example on websphere 8.0 but i am getting the following:

Error

[12.02.2013 05:13:07:728 VET] 00000c74 E UOW= source=com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet class=com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper method=init org= prod= component= thread=[WebContainer : 370] Uncaught.init.exception.thrown.by.servlet [12.02.2013 05:13:07:728 VET] 00000c74 E UOW= source=com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp class=com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp method=logServletError org= prod= component= thread=[WebContainer : 370] SRVE0293E: [Servlet Error]-[jersey-serlvet]: java.lang.IncompatibleClassChangeError: org.objectweb.asm.ClassVisitor at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassImpl(Native Method) at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:262) at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:69) at com.ibm.ws.classloader.CompoundClassLoader._defineClass(CompoundClassLoader.java:852) at com.ibm.ws.classloader.CompoundClassLoader.localFindClass(CompoundClassLoader.java:762) at com.ibm.ws.classloader.CompoundClassLoader.loadClass(CompoundClassLoader.java:585) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:627) at java.lang.J9VMInternals.verifyImpl(Native Method) at java.lang.J9VMInternals.verify(J9VMInternals.java:85) at java.lang.J9VMInternals.verify(J9VMInternals.java:83) at java.lang.J9VMInternals.initialize(J9VMInternals.java:162) at com.sun.jersey.api.core.ScanningResourceConfig.init(ScanningResourceConfig.java:79) at com.sun.jersey.api.core.PackagesResourceConfig.init(PackagesResourceConfig.java:104) at com.sun.jersey.api.core.PackagesResourceConfig.(PackagesResourceConfig.java:78) at com.sun.jersey.api.core.PackagesResourceConfig.(PackagesResourceConfig.java:89) at com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.WebComponent.createResourceConfig(WebComponent.java:700) at com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.WebComponent.createResourceConfig(WebComponent.java:678) at com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.WebComponent.init(WebComponent.java:203) at com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer.init(ServletContainer.java:373) at com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer.init(ServletContainer.java:556) at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:161) at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.init(ServletWrapper.java:336) at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapperImpl.init(ServletWrapperImpl.java:168) at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.handleRequest(ServletWrapper.java:629) at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.handleRequest(ServletWrapper.java:456) at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapperImpl.handleRequest(ServletWrapperImpl.java:178) at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.invokeFilters(WebAppFilterManager.java:1027) at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.CacheServletWrapper.handleRequest(CacheServletWrapper.java:87) at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WebContainer.handleRequest(WebContainer.java:895) at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WSWebContainer.handleRequest(WSWebContainer.java:1662) at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.channel.WCChannelLink.ready(WCChannelLink.java:195) at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.handleDiscrimination(HttpInboundLink.java:458) at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.handleNewRequest(HttpInboundLink.java:522) at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.processRequest(HttpInboundLink.java:311) at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.ready(HttpInboundLink.java:282) at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.NewConnectionInitialReadCallback.sendToDiscriminators(NewConnectionInitialReadCallback.java:214) at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.NewConnectionInitialReadCallback.complete(NewConnectionInitialReadCallback.java:113) at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.AioReadCompletionListener.futureCompleted(AioReadCompletionListener.java:165) at com.ibm.io.async.AbstractAsyncFuture.invokeCallback(AbstractAsyncFuture.java:217) at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncChannelFuture.fireCompletionActions(AsyncChannelFuture.java:161) at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncFuture.completed(AsyncFuture.java:138) at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.complete(ResultHandler.java:204) at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.runEventProcessingLoop(ResultHandler.java:775) at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler$2.run(ResultHandler.java:905) at com.ibm.ws.util.ThreadPool$Worker.run(ThreadPool.java:1783)

web.xml

<web-app id="WebApp_ID" version="2.4"
    xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee" 
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee
    http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd">

    <display-name>Restful Web Application</display-name>

    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>jersey-serlvet</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>
            com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer
        </servlet-class>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>com.sun.jersey.config.property.packages</param-name>
            <param-value>com.mkyong.rest.JSONService</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>com.sun.jersey.api.json.POJOMappingFeature</param-name>
            <param-value>true</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>jersey-serlvet</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/rest/*</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

</web-app>

Answer 1

This seem to be a product defect discussed at IBM forums here, for which a fix was released consequently. Quoting linked references, problem was;

The internal ASM libraries used by WebSphere Application Server were accessible by applications. If the application also deploys ASM libraries, it is possible for conflicts to occur.

Some possible workarounds were listed at the forums, which helps to resolve the conflict through classpath modifications. Since you are not 8.5 but 8.0 at the moment, I suggest you raise PMR to verify yours is the same problem, and receive a fix for your version.