Known issues

Systems

Tomcat

Trailing slash issue

When accessing the webapp without the trailing slash after the context http://localhost:8080/magnoliaAuthor after login the user is presented with a 404 page rather than admincentral.  This behavior is configurable via the mapperContextRootRedirectEnabled and mapperDirectoryRedirectEnabled attributes of the Context which may be used to restore the previous behavior.

Reloading a page causes a 404 error

When you open a page for editing and reload it in the browser, an extra semicolon is added to the URL fragment and the server returns a 404 error. Every subsequent reload adds another semicolon. This issue occurs with older versions of the Tomcat application server. To resolve this issue, upgrade to Tomcat 7.0.47+. See  MGNLUI-2426 - Getting issue details... STATUS

Tomcat 8 using BCEL may throw class format exception

On Tomcat 8.5 or lower, you may encounter a class format exception.

SEVERE [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsJar Unable to process Jar entry [module-info.class] from Jar [file:/home/magnolia/dev/magnolia-5.6.6/apache-tomcat-8.5.5/webapps/magnoliaPublic/WEB-INF/lib/javax.json-api-1.1.jar] for annotations
 org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassFormatException: Invalid byte tag in constant pool: 19

Reason:

Apache Commons BCEL is used by Tomcat to scan for annotations. Some Java EE 8 APIs were produced from JDK9 as Multi-Release JARs. This means they're compatible with Java 8, but may also contain some Java 9 classes, including the module-info.class. Older Commons BCEL versions did not know how to read such classes.

Tomcat 8.5.12 and 9.0.0 updated Commons BCEL to support this. See the extract below from the Tomcat changelog.

60688: Update the internal fork of Apache Commons BCEL to r1782855 to add early access Java 9 support to the annotation scanning code. (markt)

Solution:

Use Tomcat 8.5.12 or higher.

JBoss 7.2 with JDK 11

If you are using JBoss 7.2 with JDK 11 to deploy Magnolia, you may get an error during installation. To resolve the issue, add the following lines to WEB-INF/jboss-deployment-structure.xml:

<deployment>
 <dependencies>
  <module name="jdk.unsupported"/>
 </dependencies>
</deployment>

MySQL JDBC 8.0.x

If you are using the MySQL JDBC driver 8.0.x to install a new Magnolia instance, you may encounter the following error:

2020-02-14 14:35:07,538 ERROR org.apache.jackrabbit.core.RepositoryImpl: failed to start Repository: org.apache.jackrabbit.core.state.ItemStateException: failed to read bundle (stacktrace on DEBUG log level): deadbeef-face-babe-cafe-babecafebabe: java.sql.SQLSyntaxErrorException: Table '<DATABASE_NAME>.<TABLE_NAME>' doesn't exist

This happens only when you install a new instance from scratch or create database tables during installation. As a workaround, use JDBC 5.1.x or create the tables manually in your database.

Oracle WebLogic

Page editor and detail subapps are not working due to an NPE

The NPE may be due to an incorrect initialization of I18nAuthoringSupport. You may see an error like this in your logs:

2019-06-20 15:06:54,955 ERROR agnolia.ui.framework.app.AppInstanceControllerImpl: Sub-app [detail] of app [pages] failed to start java.lang.NullPointerException: null at info.magnolia.ui.framework.i18n.DefaultI18NAuthoringSupport.createI18NURI(DefaultI18NAuthoringSupport.java:154)

Workaround: Restart your instances.

OS X / macOS

Magnolia starts up very slowly

Your Magnolia instance starts up very slowly, noticeably more than before. You may encounter this after upgrading your macOS to Sierra 10.12 or later.

Workaround:

1. Open a terminal and figure out the hostname of your Mac. To get the hostname, use the command hostname.

   hostname
   joesLittleMacBookPro.local

   The command returns the hostname of your Mac. In the given example, the hostname is joesLittleMacBookPro.local.
   
   

2. Open the file /etc/hosts with an editor of your choice. You will edit the file in the next step.
   The file belongs to the system user root. Your user must belong to the group admin; otherwise, you cannot save the changes to the file. You will be asked for your password either when opening the file or when trying to save it.
   
   

3. Add these two lines to /etc/hosts:

   /etc/hosts

   127.0.0.1   <hostname>
   ::1         <hostname>

   In place of <hostname>, use your real hostname.
   Most probably, your hosts file already contains entries starting with 127.0.0.1 and with ::1. Just add the real hostname at the end of one line that starts with ::1 and at the end of another line that starts with 127.0.0.1. Make sure to add a space character before the hostname.
   With the given hostname, the two lines would look like this:

   /etc/hosts

   127.0.0.1   localhost joesLittleMacBookPro.local
   ::1         localhost joesLittleMacBookPro.local

4. Save the file. The system may ask you for your password.

Further information:

• https://thoeni.io/post/macos-sierra-java/
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33289695/inetaddress-getlocalhost-slow-to-run-30-seconds/33289897#33289897

Windows

JVM issues

32-bit JVM does not work in Windows

( Tested on Windows 10.) When starting up Tomcat with the Magnolia CLI mgnl start command, you get a flickering window, the server hangs and nothing is written into the logs. To see the actual error, don't use Magnolia CLI to start Magnolia, start Tomcat directly with  <your-magnolia-install-folder>\apache tomcat\bin\catalina.bat run. This should start Magnolia in the same window and allow you to see the error message:

Error occurred during initialization of VM
Could not reserve enough space for 2097152KB object heap

The most likely cause is that you are trying to allocate too much heap space in the 32-bit JVM. 

Solution: Replace the JVM with a 64-bit version.

See also: Why can't I get a larger heap with the 32-bit JVM?

Neither JAVA_HOME nor JRE_HOME is defined

You get the following error message after a fresh Java installation:

Neither the JAVA_HOME nor the JRE_HOME environment variable is defined
At least one of these environment variables is needed to run this program

Solution: Set the variables through the "Edit the system environment variables" dialog.

JRE_HOME is undefined

If you get an error like this one:

The JRE_HOME environment variable is not defined correctly
The environment variable is needed to run this program

then you are most probably attempting to run Tomcat with the JAVA_HOME variable set but without the JRE_HOME variable defined.

Solution: Set the JRE_HOME variable.

JRE_HOME & JAVA_HOME both set

If you attempt to start Magnolia via 'mgnl start', and you see no startup executed, check if your JRE_HOME and your JAVA_HOME are set. If so, you may need to remove the environmental variable for JRE_HOME to get Magnolia to start properly.

Firewall is blocking Java

Allow an exception in Windows Firewall for Java.

1. Go to Control Panel > Windows Firewall.
2. Go to the Exceptions tab.
3. Click Add Program and browse to the java.exe file in the Java installation directory, for example C:\Sun\SDK\jdk\bin\java.exe.
4. Click OK.

If you get a security alert during startup, check the Private networks checkbox and click Allow access.

CATALINA_HOME environment variable is not defined

CATALINA_HOME environment variable identifies the Tomcat home directory, for example C:\Program Files\magnolia\apache-tomcat. Usually Magnolia finds this directory automatically. When you type magnolia_control.bat start in the bin directory to start the system, a second script named startup.bat tries to find Tomcat home. It assumes that Tomcat home is one level above the bin directory where you issued the command, and sets the value of CATALINA_HOME to that directory.

C:\Program Files
    magnolia
        apache-tomcat   <-- Tomcat home directory
            bin         <-- magnolia_control.bat is here

However, if you added the bin directory to your PATH environment variable you can execute magnolia_control.bat from anywhere. This means startup.bat does not find Tomcat home directory by simply moving up one level from where you are and displays the following error:

To correct this define CATALINA_HOME in environment variables. Follow the instructions in Set JAVA_HOME environment variable.

JAR file does not start

When installing DX Core on Windows, you can start the installer by double-clicking the JAR file. If this does not work there is a chance that some application on your system has registered the .jar extension.

You can try to fix it yourself by restoring the association of the .jar extension with the javaw.exe executable. .Right-click the JAR file and select Open With. Typically the javaw.exe file is in C:\Program Files (x86)\java\jre6\bin). Alternatively, start the installer from a command prompt with the following command: java -jar magnolia-dx-core-installer-x.y.z.jar. Make sure the file extension is .jar. Internet Explorer has a tendency to append or change it to .zip.

Other issues

H2 database

H2 does not accept more than one connection

Our default configuration uses the server mode for H2. If you migrate from Magnolia below 5.5.9 in the 5.5 branch or below 5.6.2 in the 5.6 branch and try to initiate a backup call using CLI or REST, it fails because H2 does not allow more than one connection at a time. Configure H2 to run in server mode by adding AUTO_SERVER=TRUE in the URL parameters: 

<param name="url" value="jdbc:h2:${wsp.home}/db;AUTO_SERVER=TRUE" />

<param name="url" value="jdbc:h2:${rep.home}/version/db;AUTO_SERVER=TRUE" />

See  MGNLCE-114 - Getting issue details... STATUS

Log full of index rules warnings when upgrading from 5.4.x directly to 6.1.x

Jackrabbit 2.16 introduced existence checks for node-types when refreshing indexing configurations. Previously it would accept arbitrary node-type names as strings. If your project is not using Magnolia's SearchIndex implementation, you may find the following messages in your logs:

2018-07-25 17:48:33,691 WARN  rabbit.core.query.lucene.IndexingConfigurationImpl: Unable to refresh index rules
javax.jcr.nodetype.NoSuchNodeTypeException: {http://www.magnolia.info/jcr/mgnl}page
	at org.apache.jackrabbit.core.nodetype.NodeTypeRegistry.getNodeTypeDef(NodeTypeRegistry.java:552) ~[jackrabbit-core-2.16.1.jar:2.16.1]

2018-03-16 11:30:57,892 WARN  rg.apache.jackrabbit.core.query.lucene.SearchIndex: Exception initializing indexing configuration from: /info/magnolia/jackrabbit/indexing_configuration_website.xml
javax.jcr.nodetype.NoSuchNodeTypeException: {http://www.magnolia.info/jcr/mgnl}page
	at org.apache.jackrabbit.core.nodetype.NodeTypeRegistry.getNodeTypeDef(NodeTypeRegistry.java:552) ~[jackrabbit-core-2.16.1.jar:2.16.1]

To mitigate this problem, replace in your Jackrabbit search configuration files

<SearchIndex class="org.apache.jackrabbit.core.query.lucene.SearchIndex">

with

<SearchIndex class="info.magnolia.jackrabbit.lucene.SearchIndex">

The warnings should not appear in the logs if you follow our recommendation to update first to the latest minor release version before upgrading to the most recent major release, see How to update.

Too many open files

The embedded Derby database, an option that can be used instead of the H2 database, opens several file handles and may run over the maximum limit set by the system. This issue can occur on some Linux and OS X systems such as Macbook Air.

The solution is to increase the system-wide limit on the number of open files. The exact procedure varies from one OS to the next, see Too many open files.

Session de-serialization

When installing or updating to a new version, you may see this error message:

2009-11-24 13:02:14,970 ERROR org.apache.catalina.session.ManagerBase: IOException while loading persisted sessions

This can be due to changes in signatures of classes that are stored in user sessions, such as permissions, user, etc. The error happens when Tomcat attempts to de-serialize serialized sessions as the container starts. The de-serialization causes the loss of persisted sessions. Users will have to log in again. Otherwise it is a harmless error and can be ignored.

Port 8080 is already in use

Port 8080 is the default port for Tomcat. You can see it at the end of the default address  http://localhost:8080 . If another application on the computer is already using the same port, you may need to change it.

1. Open <CATALINA_HOME>/conf/server.xml in a text editor. This file is under your Magnolia installation directory.

2. Find the following section and set the value of port to something other than 8080, for example 8090:

   <!-- Define a non-SSL HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8080 -->
   <Connector port="8090" maxHttpHeaderSize="8192"
              maxThreads="150" minSpareThreads="25" maxSpareThreads="75"
              enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="100"
              connectionTimeout="20000" disableUploadTimeout="true" />
   

Change the defaultBaseUrl property, which is used to create absolute links in emails or other external systems. To do this, you need to now access Magnolia at the new port 8090.

1. Log into the author instance at  http://localhost:8090/magnoliaAuthor/.magnolia .
2. Go to Configuration.
3. Set the value of /server/defaultBaseUrl property to http://localhost:8090/magnolia/.
4. Log into the public instance at  http://localhost:8090/magnoliaPublic/.magnolia .
5. Go to Configuration.
6. Set the value of /server/defaultBaseUrl property to http://localhost:8090/magnolia/.

Now the Welcome page at  http://localhost:8090  has the correct URLs too.

The port also needs to be changed in publishing configuration, otherwise publishing (activating) changes from the author to public instance fails.

1. On the author instance, 
   1. If you are using the Publishing module, go to Configuration > modules > publishing-core > config > receivers .
   2. If you are using the Activation module, go to Configuration > modules > activation > subscribers .
2. Under the magnoliaPublic8080 receiver (subscriber), set the URL property to  http://localhost:8090/magnoliaPublic .
3. Rename the receiver (subscriber) to magnoliaPublic8090.
4. Activate the modified receiver (subscriber) including its subnodes.

Java out of memory

If the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) does not have enough memory you may see a  java.lang.OutOfMemoryError  in the startup log and Magnolia fails to start.

Exception in thread "Timer-1" java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
at org.apache.jackrabbit.core.query.lucene.IndexingQueue.getFinishedDocuments

Increase Java heap size to allocate more memory to JVM:

1. Stop the server. 
   ./magnolia_control.sh stop
2. Open file /apache-tomcat/bin/setenv.sh (/apache-tomcat/bin/setenv.bat on Windows) in a text editor.
3. Edit the Xmx parameter to set a new maximum heap size. Default size for Magnolia is 2048M, try a higher amount such as 4096M.
4. Save the file and start the server. 
   ./magnolia_control.sh start && tail -f ../logs/catalina.out

Publishing and activation errors

For issues related to publishing/activation keys and the handshaking process, see either the Publishing errors page or the Activation errors page, depending on the module you use.

New security filter

MAGNOLIA-6865 introduced a new security filter that checks each POST request. As this may affect the functionality of your existing forms, please contact us and we'll provide you with more information about this issue.

For security reasons, however, we cannot disclose further details on this page.

Virtual URI mappings not working if too many are configured

To mitigate an issue caused by having more than 500 configured virtual URI mappings in light modules, a WARN-level message is now logged when a DirectoryWatcher overflow occurs (MAGNOLIA-7762). We recommend to keep the number of files in a single folder below 100 and to use folder hierarchies whenever possible. For the upcoming fix, see MAGNOLIA-7798.

Natural order not respected in results of content searches

If you search for content using searchfn.searchPage(), searchfn.searchContent() or by executing search queries directly from a template, the search result order will not respect the natural order. This issue is caused by a bug in Apache Jackrabbit filed as JCR-3932: "Result of JCR-SQL2 query doesn't respect document order in JCR".

Until the JCR bug is fixed, do not use searchfn. To get the correct order, execute JCR XPath queries directly.

DL4J issues

There are limitations related to the deep learning and search features of the Find Bar, which are provided by the Periscope and Periscope Result Ranker modules.

Off-heap memory starvation

You should configure DL4J memory limits to avoid off-heap memory starvation. This is particularly the case with the -Dorg.bytedeco.javacpp.maxbytes JVM argument. For more details, see MGNLPER-121.

Periscope prevents deploying the public webapp as ROOT along with the author instance

When experiencing this issue, the following message can be found in the logs: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class org.nd4j.linalg.factory. The issue may appear even on more than just one Tomcat instance, running on the same VM and the same JDK.

The ndj4 library can only be initiated once. Therefore, result ranking on public instances should be disabled, which you can do either by changing the configuration of the Periscope Result Ranker module, or rather by completely removing the magnolia-periscope-result-ranker module from your WAR package. After this modification, the search function will be available but search results will not be ranked. For more details see MGNLPER-112.