From time to time, it is good to upgrade the application libraries to the latest stable version. Especially the frontend libraries as the browsers are constantly involving and new ones are coming on the market.

This is why I wanted to upgrade the RichFaces library on one of my web application which was still using the version 3.3.0.GA with JSF/MyFaces 1.2.5.
The RichFaces dependency was looking like the following in my pom.xml file:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.richfaces.ui</groupId>
    <artifactId>richfaces-ui</artifactId>
    <version>3.3.0.GA</version>
    <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>

The upgrade should be straightforward.
But when changing to the version 3.3.3.Final, I got the following error:

2010-10-13 15:56:14.959::WARN:  Error starting handlers
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/ajax4jsf/component/SequenceDataAdaptor
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:632)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:616)
	at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:283)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$000(URLClassLoader.java:58)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:197)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppClassLoader.loadClass(WebAppClassLoader.java:366)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppClassLoader.loadClass(WebAppClassLoader.java:337)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:632)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:616)
	at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:283)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$000(URLClassLoader.java:58)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:197)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppClassLoader.loadClass(WebAppClassLoader.java:366)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppClassLoader.loadClass(WebAppClassLoader.java:337)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:632)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:616)
	at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:283)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$000(URLClassLoader.java:58)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:197)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppClassLoader.loadClass(WebAppClassLoader.java:366)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppClassLoader.loadClass(WebAppClassLoader.java:337)
	at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
	at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:247)
	at org.apache.myfaces.shared_impl.util.ClassUtils.classForName(ClassUtils.java:132)
	at org.apache.myfaces.shared_impl.util.ClassUtils.simpleClassForName(ClassUtils.java:158)
	at org.apache.myfaces.application.ApplicationImpl.addComponent(ApplicationImpl.java:564)
	at org.apache.myfaces.config.FacesConfigurator.configureApplication(FacesConfigurator.java:650)
	at org.apache.myfaces.config.FacesConfigurator.configure(FacesConfigurator.java:277)
	at org.apache.myfaces.webapp.AbstractFacesInitializer.buildConfiguration(AbstractFacesInitializer.java:131)
	at org.apache.myfaces.webapp.Jsp21FacesInitializer.initContainerIntegration(Jsp21FacesInitializer.java:64)
	at org.apache.myfaces.webapp.AbstractFacesInitializer.initFaces(AbstractFacesInitializer.java:83)
	at org.apache.myfaces.webapp.StartupServletContextListener.contextInitialized(StartupServletContextListener.java:72)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandler.startContext(ContextHandler.java:540)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.Context.startContext(Context.java:135)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppContext.startContext(WebAppContext.java:1220)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandler.doStart(ContextHandler.java:510)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppContext.doStart(WebAppContext.java:448)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.plugin.Jetty6PluginWebAppContext.doStart(Jetty6PluginWebAppContext.java:110)
	at org.mortbay.component.AbstractLifeCycle.start(AbstractLifeCycle.java:40)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerCollection.doStart(HandlerCollection.java:152)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandlerCollection.doStart(ContextHandlerCollection.java:156)
	at org.mortbay.component.AbstractLifeCycle.start(AbstractLifeCycle.java:40)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerCollection.doStart(HandlerCollection.java:152)
	at org.mortbay.component.AbstractLifeCycle.start(AbstractLifeCycle.java:40)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerWrapper.doStart(HandlerWrapper.java:117)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.Server.doStart(Server.java:222)
	at org.mortbay.component.AbstractLifeCycle.start(AbstractLifeCycle.java:40)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.plugin.Jetty6PluginServer.start(Jetty6PluginServer.java:132)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.plugin.AbstractJettyMojo.startJetty(AbstractJettyMojo.java:357)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.plugin.AbstractJettyMojo.execute(AbstractJettyMojo.java:293)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.plugin.AbstractJettyRunMojo.execute(AbstractJettyRunMojo.java:203)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.plugin.Jetty6RunMojo.execute(Jetty6RunMojo.java:182)
	at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultPluginManager.executeMojo(DefaultPluginManager.java:451)
	at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoals(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:558)
	at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeStandaloneGoal(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:512)
	at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoal(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:482)
	at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoalAndHandleFailures(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:330)
	at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeTaskSegments(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:291)
	at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.execute(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:142)
	at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:336)
	at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:129)
	at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main(MavenCli.java:287)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
	at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
	at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:315)
	at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:255)
	at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:430)
	at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:375)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.ajax4jsf.component.SequenceDataAdaptor
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:202)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:307)
	at org.codehaus.classworlds.RealmClassLoader.loadClassDirect(RealmClassLoader.java:195)
	at org.codehaus.classworlds.DefaultClassRealm.loadClass(DefaultClassRealm.java:255)
	at org.codehaus.classworlds.DefaultClassRealm.loadClass(DefaultClassRealm.java:274)
	at org.codehaus.classworlds.RealmClassLoader.loadClass(RealmClassLoader.java:214)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:248)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppClassLoader.loadClass(WebAppClassLoader.java:375)
	at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppClassLoader.loadClass(WebAppClassLoader.java:337)
	... 82 more

What happened here? I simply changed the version number and it now does NOT work! 🙁
Looking at the exception, it seems that it cannot find the class org.ajax4jsf.component.SequenceDataAdaptor which is part of the richfaces-impl library. Why not?

Well, in fact, it is quite simple! It appears that from the version 3.3.3 of RichFaces, you now have to specifically add the richfaces-impl dependency to your pom.xml file such as:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.richfaces.ui</groupId>
    <artifactId>richfaces-ui</artifactId>
    <version>3.3.3.Final</version>
    <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>
		
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.richfaces.framework</groupId>
    <artifactId>richfaces-impl</artifactId>
    <version>3.3.3.Final</version>
    <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>

Why do we have to manually add this dependency? This is because the new version of RichFaces allows you to use JSF 2.0 instead of JSF 1.2. To do that, simply add the library richfaces-impl-jsf2 instead of richfaces-impl in your pom.xml file.

Please click on the following link for the JBoss manual about this configuration:
http://community.jboss.org/wiki/HowtoaddRichFaces33xtomavenbasedproject