BIRT Fatal error

I have been looking at this forum and the web for a day and I see similar errors with suggestions as to how to solve the problem. I have tried these suggestions and none of them work. They are listed after the traceback.

I am running Tomcat 6.0.20, Java 1.6.0.23 with BIRT 2_6_2 on Windows 7 64-bit. I downloaded the BIRT runtime zip and unzipped it. I placed the
contents of WebViewerExample in a directory under webapps called birt-viewer. When I start Tomcat from within Eclipse 3.6 I get the following error:

org.eclipse.birt.report.exception.ViewerException: Fatal error occurred when try to startup report engine.
at org.eclipse.birt.report.service.ReportEngineService.setEngineContext(ReportEngineService.java:326)
at org.eclipse.birt.report.service.BirtViewerReportService.setContext(BirtViewerReportService.java:1022)
at org.eclipse.birt.report.listener.ViewerServletContextListener.contextInitialized(ViewerServletContextListener.java:62)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:3934)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4429)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:791)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:771)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:526)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory(HostConfig.java:987)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectories(HostConfig.java:909)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployApps(HostConfig.java:495)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.start(HostConfig.java:1206)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.lifecycleEvent(HostConfig.java:314)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:119)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1053)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:722)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:443)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:516)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:710)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:583)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:288)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:413)

This worked a couple of months ago. I had to drop the project and go to something else. When I came back this no longer works. I have redownloaded the zip file and redeployed it. Also, since the last time I have had to do a couple of Windows Restore Point because my registry was damaged recently. The restore worked fine. I mention this because someone else claimed that doing a Windows Restore Points can cause this problem.

By the way, the sample report runs just fine from inside the Tomcat manager application whether I click on /birt, /birt-viewer, or /WebViewerExample.

Suggestions I read about and have tried include

Downloading and redeploying BIRT runtime 2_6_2 zip file

Removing the Tomcat work directory

Removing various directories and/or contents from within the redeployed birt.war

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Comments

mwilliams

So, you're copying the contents from the WebViewerExample into a directory called birt-viewer? Have you tried just copying the entire WebViewerExample into the webapps folder and renaming it instead of copying the contents? This shouldn't make a difference at all, but you never know. I'm a little confused when you say you get an error starting up the tomcat server but then you can run the sample report from tomcat. Am I missing something here?

JDH

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'mwilliams'" data-cid="77117" data-time="1305657901" data-date="17 May 2011 - 11:45 AM">
So, you're copying the contents from the WebViewerExample into a directory called birt-viewer? Have you tried just copying the entire WebViewerExample into the webapps folder and renaming it instead of copying the contents? This shouldn't make a difference at all, but you never know. I'm a little confused when you say you get an error starting up the tomcat server but then you can run the sample report from tomcat. Am I missing something here? </blockquote>

mwilliams

Not sure what happened with your last post, but I only see the "quote". Let me know.

JDH

Michael,
As far as how the birt_viewer directory is concerned I have created and placed files in it a number of ways including unzipping birt.war directly in webapps. They ALL generate the same response. So, I don't think this has anything to do with the problem.

Now, the real problem ... If I start Tomcat from within Eclipse 3.6.1 then run the tomcat manager from a web browser by going to http://localhost:8080/ then click on /WebViewerExample or /birt-viewer they both run the example showing that the BIRT viewer has been successfully installed. I can click on the ViewExample link in that page and it displays the sample report saying congratulations. This is taken straight from the web documentation regarding how to install BIRT and test that your installation is correct.

This seems to indicate that BIRT is installed correctly and can function correctly.

My concern is that even though things appear to be installed and functioning, I get the traceback from Eclipse 3.6.1 that I pasted into the first note. Does this make sense now? I want the keep the traceback from happening in Eclipse.

Thanks

John

mwilliams

And you had Tomcat 6 running before when it worked?

JDH

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'mwilliams'" data-cid="77268" data-time="1305840984" data-date="19 May 2011 - 02:36 PM">
And you had Tomcat 6 running before when it worked? </blockquote>
 
 
Yes. It is my understanding that you must have Tomcat running to get BIRT to run. Am I wrong in that thinking?

mwilliams

Sorry, I meant when you had BIRT working before, you were using Tomcat 6, or were you using 5 possibly? Where is the stack trace coming at? In your log file or actually in the report window?

JDH

Michael,
I was running Tomcat 6 before and now.

The stack trace is coming in Eclipse when I start up Tomcat. I have always run Tomcat from inside of Eclipse 3.6. I also run my reports through a .jsp from inside of Eclipse.

One thing that is different is that I am using Windows 7 64 bit and recently had to do a Windows Restore due to a problem with the registry. The restore was successful. However, from scanning the web regarding this fatal error I did find some references to people saying that they had a similar problem with BIRT after doing a restore. Does BIRT write anything to the registry? If so, maybe you could tell me what it is supposed to contain and I could verify the registry.

Thanks.

John

mwilliams

I would assume that doing a reinstall after restoring your system, would be enough. The only issue comes when you try to start Tomcat from within Eclipse. If you start it outside of Eclipse, you have no issues with the web viewer. At least this is what I think I understand. Do you maybe have 64 bit Eclipse IDE and 32 bit Tomcat and they don't like talking to each other? Or vice versa? I haven't seen this issue before, so everything is just a guess at this point. What directory do you have Eclipse and Tomcat in on your machine? Directly on C: drive or in Program Files or Program Files (x86)? Let me know.

JDH

Michael,
You are correct in your understanding of the problem.

Tomcat is in C:\apache-tomcat-6.0.20. Eclipse is in C:\eclipse. Both are 32 bit while Windows 7 is 64 bit.

Essentially what happened is Tomcat, Eclipse and BIRT were all working just fine together. I stopped what I was doing with them and went off to write a Windows Installer using WIX and MSI api's During this effort I managed to install a program using an .msi file successfully but when I tried the uninstall part it failed. At that point, I could not install again or uninstall as the registry was messed up. So, the only choice was to restore an external backup (clone of the drive) which was a couple of weeks old or try a Windows Restore. I elected to do the Windows Restore because it was just a few hours old instead of using the clone that was a couple of weeks out of date. The Windows Restore seemed to work just fine. I finally got the Windows Installer completed. Since all seemed to be working a made a new clone of my drive (writing over the older one).

I went back to the BIRT project which had worked fine before I stopped working on it. When I tried to start Tomcat, from within Eclipse, I get the fatal error from BIRT. I am not sure what really caused this problem. I was hoping you could tell me the root cause. That is, what is it BIRT really complaining about. Then I could address that problem. I tried to find the source for the part of BIRT that is shown in the stack trace at the beginning of all of these posts. However, I could not find it.

I am a little afraid that we may be spending a lot of time and energy discussing how the system is organized and used. The source of the problem may have nothing to do with the Windows Restore, or the installation and use of the WIX and MSI tools. It may be caused by something else I did inadvertently.

The best answer might be for you to direct me to the location for downloading the source for BIRT 2.6.2 for the following classes:

org.eclipse.birt.report.service.BirtViewerReportService
org.eclipse.birt.report.service.ReportEngineService

With these two source files I can find out what the root cause of the problem might be and then maybe I can fix it.

Thanks.

John

mwilliams

Take a look at the Eclipse page for building BIRT from CVS, it'll give you the instructions on how to access the source and to rebuild it.

http://www.eclipse.org/birt/phoenix/build/buildInstructions.php

JDH

From what I can see the source for org.eclipse.birt.report.service is not available based on the CVS structure from the link you sent me. Do you KNOW where the source for this actually exists?

mwilliams

If it's not in the source repository, then I'm not sure where it is. If I find an exact location for you, I'll let you know.

I did think of something else that could be the problem. I just thought about it. Should have thought about it earlier, but I wasn't thinking this simple. You're using Eclipse 3.6.1 and trying to use BIRT 2.6.2 through Eclipse 3.6.1. You don't have a problem accessing the web viewer outside of Eclipse, but you do when going through Eclipse. The problem I see here is that BIRT 2.6.2 uses Eclipse 3.6.2, so you may be running into a wall there. The BIRT version you need is 2.6.1. Maybe give this a try before going to too much effort with the source code.

JDH

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'mwilliams'" data-cid="77871" data-time="1306961616" data-date="01 June 2011 - 01:53 PM">
If it's not in the source repository, then I'm not sure where it is. If I find an exact location for you, I'll let you know. 
 
I did think of something else that could be the problem. I just thought about it. Should have thought about it earlier, but I wasn't thinking this simple. You're using Eclipse 3.6.1 and trying to use BIRT 2.6.2 through Eclipse 3.6.1. You don't have a problem accessing the web viewer outside of Eclipse, but you do when going through Eclipse. The problem I see here is that BIRT 2.6.2 uses Eclipse 3.6.2, so you may be running into a wall there. The BIRT version you need is 2.6.1. Maybe give this a try before going to too much effort with the source code. </blockquote>

JDH

Michael,
You may have hit on something. The Eclipse I am using was downloaded with BIRT packaged with it from the BIRT site so originally they should have matched up. It is difficult to tell exactly what version of Eclipse I am running other than it says Helios Service Release 1. I assume this is equivalent to 3.6.1 but I am not sure.

Upon closer inspection the BIRT I am running with appears to be 2.6.1 based on what I see in the About Eclipse Features window. So, I have been mistaken about the version of BIRT from the start. Maybe the best thing to do is to download a new version of Eclipse and BIRT together and see if that works.

John

mwilliams

John,

I think that would be a good idea. Let me know how it works.