Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: gherkin/formatter/Formatter

Question

I am learning how to write BDD test scripts in JAVA using Cucumber. However, I keep getting the above error and not sure why. I have the Cukes Gherkin as a dependency.

POM

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>Cucumber</groupId>
    <artifactId>Cucumber</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>info.cukes</groupId>
            <artifactId>gherkin</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.4</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>info.cukes</groupId>
            <artifactId>cucumber-junit</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.4</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>4.12</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>info.cukes</groupId>
            <artifactId>cucumber-jvm-deps</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.5</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>com.thoughtworks.xstream</groupId>
                    <artifactId>xstream</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>com.googlecode.java-diff-utils</groupId>
                    <artifactId>diffutils</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>info.cukes</groupId>
            <artifactId>cucumber-core</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.4</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>info.cukes</groupId>
            <artifactId>cucumber-java</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.4</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>info.cukes</groupId>
            <artifactId>cucumber-picocontainer</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.4</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.picocontainer</groupId>
            <artifactId>picocontainer</artifactId>
            <version>2.15</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <repositories>
        <repository>
            <id>codehaus</id>
            <url>http://repository.codehaus.org</url>
        </repository>
    </repositories>

    <profiles>
        <profile>
            <id>junit-4.12</id>
            <properties>
                <junit.version>4.12</junit.version>
            </properties>
        </profile>

    </profiles>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.3</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.7</source>
                    <target>1.7</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.5</version>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-clean-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.6.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <filesets>
                        <fileset>
                            <directory>.</directory>
                            <includes>
                                <include>**/*.ser</include>
                            </includes>
                        </fileset>
                    </filesets>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

</project>

Feature

Feature: Letter


    Scenario: Check Letter
    Given I have the letter "A"
      When Icheck the letter "A"
      Then I should see an output

Steps

package cucumber.steps;
import cucumber.api.CucumberOptions;
import cucumber.api.java.en.*;
import cucumber.api.junit.Cucumber;
import org.junit.Assert;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;

/**
 * Created by Dustin on 8/31/2015.
 */

@RunWith(Cucumber.class)
@CucumberOptions(
        plugin = {"json-pretty", "html:target/cucumber"},
        features = "src/main/java/cucumber/steps/LetterStepDefs"
)

public class LetterStepDefs {

    private String letter;
    private String message;

    @Given("^I have the letter \"([^\"]*)\"$")
    public void I_have_the_letter(String letter) throws Throwable {
        // Express the Regexp above with the code you wish you had
        this.letter = letter;
    }

    @When("^Icheck the letter \"([^\"]*)\"$")
    public void Icheck_the_letter(String letter) throws Throwable {
        // Express the Regexp above with the code you wish you had
        try
        {
            Assert.assertEquals(this.letter, letter);
        }
        catch (Exception exc)
        {
            message = exc.getMessage();
        }
    }

    @Then("^I should see an output$")
    public void I_should_see_an_output() throws Throwable {
        // Express the Regexp above with the code you wish you had
        System.out.println(message);
    }
}

Output

Testing started at 4:41 PM ...
Connected to the target VM, address: '127.0.0.1:58473', transport: 'socket'
JUnit version 4.12
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: gherkin/formatter/Formatter
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:800)
    at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:449)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:71)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:361)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:425)
    at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:358)
    at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:274)
    at org.junit.internal.Classes.getClass(Classes.java:16)
    at org.junit.runner.JUnitCommandLineParseResult.parseParameters(JUnitCommandLineParseResult.java:100)
    at org.junit.runner.JUnitCommandLineParseResult.parseArgs(JUnitCommandLineParseResult.java:50)
    at org.junit.runner.JUnitCommandLineParseResult.parse(JUnitCommandLineParseResult.java:44)
    at org.junit.runner.JUnitCore.runMain(JUnitCore.java:72)
    at org.junit.runner.JUnitCore.main(JUnitCore.java:36)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: gherkin.formatter.Formatter
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:366)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:425)
    at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:358)
    ... 20 more
Disconnected from the target VM, address: '127.0.0.1:58473', transport: 'socket'

Process finished with exit code 1

Any help is much appreciated!

Answer 1

I was working with cucumber with some selenium scripts today and came across a similar issue whenever I was using gherkin3 jar file.

Once I switch back to using gherkin 2.12.2, the issue went away.

You can download the jar from the following location:

http://search.maven.org/#search%7Cga%7C1%7Cgherkin

It is certainly worth trying this and checking if you get the same issue.

I would also try running your feature file without any methods to check if you get it to return the methods you need to create, similar to the what is detailed in the document here:

http://www.toolsqa.com/cucumber/first-cucumber-selenium-java-test/

You don't need the glue option though like detailed in the example when you just what to run the feature file.