[java] NoSuchMethodError in javax.persistence.Table.indexes()[Ljavax/persistence/Index

I have a Play Framework application and I was using Hibernate 4.2.5.Final (which is retrieved via the Maven dependency manager). I decided to upgrade to Hibernate 4.3.0.Final, recompile my application successfully, and ran it.

I got the exception below, and haven't been able to figure out why. I downgraded back to 4.2.5 and this issue did not occur. I then, tried upgrading Hibernate with each Final release after 4.2.5. That is, I went from 4.2.5.Final to 4.2.6.Final, to 4.2.7.Final, to 4.2.8.Final and then to 4.3.Final. The issue does not occur until I upgrade to 4.3.0.Final.

Java version information

java version "1.7.0_45"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_45-b18)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.45-b08, mixed mode)

And exception:

play.api.UnexpectedException: Unexpected exception[NoSuchMethodError: javax.persistence.Table.indexes()[Ljavax/persistence/Index;]
    at play.core.ReloadableApplication$$anonfun$get$1$$anonfun$apply$1$$anonfun$1.apply(ApplicationProvider.scala:152) ~[play_2.10.jar:2.2.1]
    at play.core.ReloadableApplication$$anonfun$get$1$$anonfun$apply$1$$anonfun$1.apply(ApplicationProvider.scala:112) ~[play_2.10.jar:2.2.1]
    at scala.Option.map(Option.scala:145) ~[scala-library.jar:na]
    at play.core.ReloadableApplication$$anonfun$get$1$$anonfun$apply$1.apply(ApplicationProvider.scala:112) ~[play_2.10.jar:2.2.1]
    at play.core.ReloadableApplication$$anonfun$get$1$$anonfun$apply$1.apply(ApplicationProvider.scala:110) ~[play_2.10.jar:2.2.1]
    at scala.util.Success.flatMap(Try.scala:200) ~[scala-library.jar:na]
Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: javax.persistence.Table.indexes()[Ljavax/persistence/Index;
    at org.hibernate.cfg.annotations.EntityBinder.processComplementaryTableDefinitions(EntityBinder.java:936) ~[hibernate-core-4.3.0.Final.jar:4.3.0.Final]
    at org.hibernate.cfg.AnnotationBinder.bindClass(AnnotationBinder.java:781) ~[hibernate-core-4.3.0.Final.jar:4.3.0.Final]
    at org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration$MetadataSourceQueue.processAnnotatedClassesQueue(Configuration.java:3762) ~[hibernate-core-4.3.0.Final.jar:4.3.0.Final]
    at org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration$MetadataSourceQueue.processMetadata(Configuration.java:3716) ~[hibernate-core-4.3.0.Final.jar:4.3.0.Final]
    at org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration.secondPassCompile(Configuration.java:1410) ~[hibernate-core-4.3.0.Final.jar:4.3.0.Final]
    at org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration.buildSessionFactory(Configuration.java:1844) ~[hibernate-core-4.3.0.Final.jar:4.3.0.Final]

This question is related to java playframework-2.0 hibernate-4.x

The answer is


Hibernate 4.3 is the first version to implement the JPA 2.1 spec (part of Java EE 7). And it's thus expecting the JPA 2.1 library in the classpath, not the JPA 2.0 library. That's why you get this exception: Table.indexes() is a new attribute of Table, introduced in JPA 2.1


I update my Hibernate JPA to 2.1 and It works.

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.hibernate.javax.persistence</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate-jpa-2.1-api</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.0.Final</version>
</dependency>

I could solve the issue simply by replacing the JPA api jar file which is located jboss7/modules/javax/persistence/api/main with 'hibernate-jpa-2.1-api'. also with updating module.xml in the directory.


I had the same issue, I fixed it by using org.hibernate.annotations.Table annotation instead of javax.persistence.Table in the Entity class.

import javax.persistence.Entity;
import org.hibernate.annotations.Table;

@Entity
@Table(appliesTo = "my_table")
public class MyTable{
//and rest of the code

i have experienced same issue in my spring boot application. after removing manually javax.persistance.jar file from lib folder. issue was fixed. in pom.xml file i have remained following dependency only

  <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
  </dependency>

You probablly have 2 different versions of hibernate-jpa-api on the classpath. To check that run:

mvn dependency:tree >dep.txt

Then search if there are hibernate-jpa-2.0-api and hibernate-jpa-2.1-api. And exclude the excess one.


Error: java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: javax.persistence.JoinTable.indexes()[Ljavax/persistence/Index;

The only thing that solved my problem was removing the following dependency in pom.xml: <dependency> <groupId>org.hibernate.javax.persistence</groupId> <artifactId>hibernate-jpa-2.1-api</artifactId> <version>1.0.0.Final</version> </dependency>

And replace it for:

<dependency>
  <groupId>javax.persistence</groupId>
  <artifactId>persistence-api</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.2</version>
</dependency>

Hope it helps someone.


There are multiple JPA providers in your classpath. Or atleast in your Application server lib folder.

If you are using Maven Check for dependencies using command mentioned here https://stackoverflow.com/a/47474708/3333878

Then fix by removing/excluding unwanted dependency.

If you just have one dependecy in your classpath, then the application server's class loader might be the issue.

As JavaEE application servers like Websphere, Wildfly, Tomee etc., have their own implementations of JPA and other EE Standards, The Class loader might load it's own implementation instead of picking from your classpath in WAR/EAR file.

To avoid this, you can try below steps.

  1. Removing the offending jar in Application Servers library path. Proceed with Caution, as it might break other hosted applications.

In Tomee 1.7.5 Plume/ Web it will have bundled eclipselink-2.4.2 in the lib folder using JPA 2.0, but I had to use JPA 2.1 from org.hibernate:hibernate-core:5.1.17, so removed the eclipselink jar and added all related/ transitive dependencies from hibernate core.

  1. Add a shared library. and manually add jars to the app server's path. Websphere has this option.

  2. In Websphere, execution of class loader can be changed. so making it the application server's classpath to load last i.e, parent last and having your path load first. Can solve this.

Check if your appserver has above features, before proceeding with first point.

Ibm websphere References :

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEQTP_9.0.5/com.ibm.websphere.base.doc/ae/trun_classload_server.html

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/how-create-shared-library-and-associate-it-application-server-or-enterprise-application-websphere-application-server