Troubleshooting Metacat | Back | Home | Next

Table of Contents
Build Issues
Ant BUILD FAILED : Multiple HttpSevlet Exceptions

During an Ant build of Metacat, you will see many HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse and other errors. The compiler will complain that it cannot find a symbol, for example:

[javac] /home/daigle/workspace/metacat/build/src/edu/ucsb/nceas/metacat/MetaCatServlet.java:506: cannot find symbol
[javac] symbol : class HttpServletResponse
[javac] location: class edu.ucsb.nceas.metacat.MetaCatServlet
[javac] HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
[javac] ^

This is usually caused by the build not being able to find native Tomcat libraries. edit your build.properties file in

Installation Issues
Startup Issues
Metacat doesn't start and Jdk14Logger exception

The symptoms are that the metacat service will not show up at all, even though Tomcat is serving, and the following error shows up in the tomcat log (catalina.log):

org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: User-specified log class 'org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Jdk14Logger' cannot be found or is not useable

This message typically occurs in the tomcat log (catalina.log) when Tomcat has been installed on an Ubuntu/Debian system using apt-get install. And the application is started using:

/etc/init.d/tomcat6 start

The problem is that the standard startup scripts reference the common java service, jsvc. Metacat will not run under jsvc. The solutions are:

- Download the Metacat binary install package and replace your /etc/init.d/tomcat6 startup script with the one provided in the package.
- Run Tomcat from the Tomcat binary directory: /bin/startup.sh and /bin/shutdown.sh

Configuration Issues
Database Update Fails (not a connectivity issue)

There are a number of reasons why the database update utility might fail during configuration. You will need to determine if the error returned indicates a connectivity issue or some issue with the database schema/data. If it is the latter, the first step in troubleshooting the issue is to run the db scripts manually and analyze the output.

The configuration utility will report which scripts it tried to run. To run these scripts, refer to how to run database scripts

If the answer is not obvious, further troubleshooting may require a database administrator.

General Application Issues
Maps will not display

There are two known reasons why maps might not display in a web browser.

- Sarfari Browser - the safari browser is not supported by the map libraries. You will need to switch to a different browser.
- Firefox Browser with the Firebug plugin - Firebug is a plugin that allows a developer to easily view and troubleshoot web page layouts. Unfortunately, this plugin can keep the maps from displaying. There is no plan by the third party map display developers to address this issue. You will need to disable Firebug in your browser.

Unit Testing Issues
Mutliple Tests Fail : 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

When running "ant test", multiple tests fail. The output files have the error:

503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

This typically means your Metacat server is not running.

Back | Home | Next