Why am I getting an error from JarAnalyzer on JAR files generated by Java 8 and newer versions?

If you are using the JarAnalyzer 1.2 to analyze JAR files generated by Java 8 and newer versions you will get the following error:

> java -version
java version "15" 2020-09-15
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 15+36-1562)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 15+36-1562, mixed mode, sharing)

> runxmlsummary.bat /Users/fyicenter/jars 
Exception in thread "main" org.apache.bcel.classfile.ClassFormatException: 
  Invalid byte tag in constant pool: 15
  at org.apache.bcel.classfile.Constant.readConstant(Constant.java:146)
  at org.apache.bcel.classfile.ConstantPool.<init>(ConstantPool.java:67)
  at org.apache.bcel.classfile.ClassParser.readConstantPool(ClassParser.java:222)
  at org.apache.bcel.classfile.ClassParser.parse(ClassParser.java:136)
  at com.kirkk.analyzer.framework.bcel.BCELClassFactory.getClass(Unknown Source)
  at com.kirkk.analyzer.framework.bcel.BCELPublicClass.<init>(Unknown Source)
  at com.kirkk.analyzer.framework.bcelbundle.JarBuilderImpl.buildJar(Unknown Source)
  at com.kirkk.analyzer.framework.bcelbundle.JarCollectionImpl.getJars(Unknown Source)
  at com.kirkk.analyzer.framework.bcelbundle.JarCollectionImpl.<init>(Unknown Source)
  at com.kirkk.analyzer.Analyzer.analyze(Unknown Source)
  at com.kirkk.analyzer.textui.XMLUISummary.createSummary(Unknown Source)
  at com.kirkk.analyzer.textui.XMLUISummary.instanceMain(Unknown Source)
  at com.kirkk.analyzer.textui.XMLUISummary.main(Unknown Source)

This is because the Apache BCEL library included in JarAnalyzer 1.2 is too old. It can not read class files generated by Java 8 and newer versions.

Solution -

1. Go to Apache Commons BCEL Website, and download bcel-6.5.0-bin.zip.

2. Unzip bcel-6.5.0-bin.zip and copy bcel-6.5.0.jar to JarAnalyzer "lib" sub-directory.

3. Update the runxmlsummary.bat script to replace bcel-5.2.jar with bcel-6.5.0.jar.

The ClassFormatException will go away.

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