Metacat Configuration
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Table of Contents
Build Issues
Ant BUILD FAILED : Multiple HttpServlet Exceptions
Installation Issues
Startup Issues
Metacat doesn't start and Jdk14Logger exception
Configuration Issues
Database Update Fails (not a connectivity issue)
General Application Issues
Maps will not display
Unit Testing Issues
Mutliple Tests Fail : 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable
Build Issues
Ant BUILD FAILED : Multiple HttpSevlet Exceptions

During an Ant build of Metacat, you will see many HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse and other errors. The compiler will complain that it cannot find a symbol, for example:

[javac] /home/daigle/workspace/metacat/build/src/edu/ucsb/nceas/metacat/MetaCatServlet.java:506: cannot find symbol
[javac] symbol : class HttpServletResponse
[javac] location: class edu.ucsb.nceas.metacat.MetaCatServlet
[javac]     HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
[javac]     ^

This is usually caused by the build not being able to find native Tomcat libraries. edit your build.properties file in

Installation Issues
Startup Issues
Metacat doesn't start and Jdk14Logger exception

The symptoms are that the metacat service will not show up at all, even though Tomcat is serving, and the following error shows up in the tomcat log (catalina.log):

org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: User-specified log class 'org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Jdk14Logger' cannot be found or is not useable

This message typically occurs in the tomcat log (catalina.log) when Tomcat has been installed on an Ubuntu/Debian system using apt-get install. And the application is started using:

/etc/init.d/tomcat5.5 start

The problem is that the standard startup scripts reference the common java service, jsvc. Metacat will not run under jsvc. The solutions are:

Configuration Issues
Database Update Fails (not a connectivity issue)

There are a number of reasons why the database update utility might fail during configuration. You will need to determine if the error returned indicates a connectivity issue or some issue with the database schema/data. If it is the latter, the first step in troubleshooting the issue is to run the db scripts manually and analyze the output.

The configuration utility will report which scripts it tried to run. To run these scripts, refer to how to run database scripts

If the answer is not obvious, further troubleshooting may require a database administrator.

General Application Issues
Maps will not display

There are two known reasons why maps might not display in a web browser.

Unit Testing Issues
Mutliple Tests Fail : 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

When running "ant test", multiple tests fail. The output files have the error:

503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

This typically means your Metacat server is not running.