unable to load jar at mirth startup (for changing log4j layout)

[marpagno]

Hi all,
I'm trying to format Mirth logs to console in JSON format.
I've changed the log4j.properties file this way:

log4j.appender.stdout.layout = net.logstash.log4j.JSONEventLayout

and put the jsonevent-layout-1.7.jar (which contains the JSONEventLayout class) in several places
(ie in the /opt/mirthconnect and in every directory where I found a log4j*.jar, in the jdk lib/ext, in the conf folder...and in 3.8.1 in the server-launcher-lib )

wherever I put the jar, I get always a class not found exception which prevents mirth from starting. (mirth 3.5.1, but as said above I tried also a 3.8.1)

Any idea? Seems to me a classloader issue... but really I haven't any other idea where to put the jar (or how to change a classloader config)

---

Log4j:ERROR Could not instantiate class [net.logstash.log4j.JSONEventLayout].
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: net.logstash.log4j.JSONEventLayout
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:382)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:349)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:264)
at org.apache.log4j.helpers.Loader.loadClass(Loader.java:198)
at org.apache.log4j.helpers.OptionConverter.instantiateByClassName(OptionConverter.java:326)
at org.apache.log4j.helpers.OptionConverter.instantiateByKey(OptionConverter.java:123)
at org.apache.log4j.PropertyConfigurator.parseAppender(PropertyConfigurator.java:764)
at org.apache.log4j.PropertyConfigurator.parseCategory(PropertyConfigurator.java:735)
at org.apache.log4j.PropertyConfigurator.configureRootCategory(PropertyConfigurator.java:615)
at org.apache.log4j.PropertyConfigurator.doConfigure(PropertyConfigurator.java:502)
at org.apache.log4j.PropertyConfigurator.doConfigure(PropertyConfigurator.java:547)
at org.apache.log4j.helpers.OptionConverter.selectAndConfigure(OptionConverter.java:483)
at org.apache.log4j.LogManager.(LogManager.java:127)
at org.apache.log4j.Logger.getLogger(Logger.java:117)
at com.mirth.connect.server.launcher.MirthLauncher.(MirthLauncher.java:44)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
at com.exe4j.runtime.LauncherEngine.launch(LauncherEngine.java:65)
at com.exe4j.runtime.WinLauncher.main(WinLauncher.java:101)
at com.install4j.runtime.launcher.WinLauncher.main(WinLauncher.java:26)

[ab-20-m]

You'll need to add the JAR file to the appropriate .vmoptions file with an appropriate -classpath option. Manual for exe4j, around page 6 shows the options.

[marpagno]

It worked!

As you suggested, I added on top of mcserver.vmoptions

-classpath/a ./json-event-dedalus-layout-latest.jar:./jsonevent-layout-1.7.jar:./server-lib/commons/*:./json-smart-1.1.1.jar

(and of course put the jars under /opt/mirthconnect

thank you very much
Marco

[tonygermano]

You should be able to just drop your jar in the server-launcher-lib directory. This feature doesn't exist in 3.5, but you said it failed in 3.8, which could be a bug.

From the official User Guide:

server-launcher-lib: JARs in this directory will be loaded into the main server thread context classloader upon startup. This is required if you are using any custom log4j appender libraries.