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WolfShade
WolfShade
Legend
July 24, 2025
Answered

Chapter IV: A New Error

  • July 24, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 1020 views

Good morning, all.

 

Been getting a flood of error emails generated from production.  Related to Apache POI, but something I have never heard of, before.

 

com/zaxxer/sparsebits/SparseBitSet
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError

 

I looked at the line number indicated in the error message.  Inside of a cfscript tag:

...

SpreadsheetMergeCells(variables.mySpreadsheet,1,1,1,6);

...

 

This is from a Cost Estimate form on our Public site.

 

I've done some digging around, but can't find anything on SparseBitSet.  Or, not much, anyway.  I think I read somewhere that it's not an actual module, so I am guessing there's no package install that can fix this.  Please advise.

 

WolfShade

 

UPDATE:  This isn't affecting only the Cost Estimate form, it appears to also be affecting a Rates Lookup page that uses Excel files to query rates from one port to another.

    Correct answer BKBK

    Such an error might arise when you install a recent update of ColdFusion 2021. That is what has been happening of recent. All ColdFusion versions suffer from a condition whereby some packages are not updated when an update is installed. 

     

    During the installation of an update existing libraries and packages are deleted or updated. However, for an as yet unknown reason, ColdFusion fails to replace or update some of the deleted libraries or packages. That is probably what happened in your case:

    com/zaxxer/sparsebits/SparseBitSet
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError

    The relevant package, C:/ColdFusion2021/bundles/repo/SparseBitSet-1.2.jar, is probably missing.

     

    A common solution to such update issues is as follows:

     

    1.  Stop ColdFusion;
    2.  Delete the directory /bin/felix-cache. (No worries here: ColdFusion will recreate and repopulate it upon restart, which is the main idea); 
    3.  Restart ColdFusion;
    4.  Verify whether the issue has been resolved.

      

    2 replies

    WolfShade
    WolfShadeAuthor
    Legend
    July 25, 2025

    I am not sure if it's related, or not.. but I've been combing through some of the error emails that have been generating due to the SparseBitSet issue, and ran across an email indicating that around the same time as this issue started, there was at least one error email generated from an issue with the SOLR server.

     

    IOException occured when talking to server at https://localhost:8993/solr/{collection name} : localhost:8993 failed to respond
There was a problem while attempting to perform a search.

     

    I can't find but the one error email for SOLR, there could be more.  Sadly, the inbox that it is sent to does not allow me to search for keywords in any of the emails in it.  There could be more.

     

    WolfShade

    BKBK
    Community Expert
    BKBKCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 25, 2025

    I think that neither error is due to the other. But my instinct tells me they have the same root-cause, hence the same solution: deleting felix-cache, then restarting Coldfusion.

    WolfShade
    WolfShadeAuthor
    Legend
    July 28, 2025

    I am hoping that's the case.  I haven't seen any more of those emails since the last cache delete and restart.

     

    WolfShade

    BKBK
    Community Expert
    BKBKCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 24, 2025

    What is the ColdFusion version and update level?

    WolfShade
    WolfShadeAuthor
    Legend
    July 24, 2025

    Hi, BKBK.

     

    Product Version is 2021,0,20,330407 (copied from my earlier post, so may not be accurate).  I believe we are on update 21.  Although our SA did state that there was a quarterly update that came out a few days ago.  (CORRECTION: two weeks ago?)  So, I can't swear to the update level.  I currently suspect that this might be the cause.

     

    WolfShade

     

    UPDATE:  Reached out to our SA.  We are on update 21-330-446, if that makes a difference.

     

    UPDATE2:  This is affecting only production, right now.  Our test environment does not appear to have this issue.

    BKBK
    Community Expert
    BKBKCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    July 24, 2025

    Such an error might arise when you install a recent update of ColdFusion 2021. That is what has been happening of recent. All ColdFusion versions suffer from a condition whereby some packages are not updated when an update is installed. 

     

    During the installation of an update existing libraries and packages are deleted or updated. However, for an as yet unknown reason, ColdFusion fails to replace or update some of the deleted libraries or packages. That is probably what happened in your case:

    com/zaxxer/sparsebits/SparseBitSet
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError

    The relevant package, C:/ColdFusion2021/bundles/repo/SparseBitSet-1.2.jar, is probably missing.

     

    A common solution to such update issues is as follows:

     

    1.  Stop ColdFusion;
    2.  Delete the directory /bin/felix-cache. (No worries here: ColdFusion will recreate and repopulate it upon restart, which is the main idea); 
    3.  Restart ColdFusion;
    4.  Verify whether the issue has been resolved.

      

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