CF2021 Patch to 19 - htmltopdf now failing constantly

[stephen_5711]

Just patched to CF2021 patch 19 and now htmltopdf does not work.

In the logs I am seeing 

Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: coldfusion.document.DocumentScope not found by htmltopdf [37]

I've tried downgrading back to patch 18.

Uninstalling and reinstalling htmltopdf package.

Uninstalling and reinstalling all the packages.

Upgrading back to patch 19.

and numerous reboots.

The patch notes include

• Sometimes, you are unable to create a PDF due to PDFg service authentication failure. As a workaround, update the service manager and retry creating the PDF.

What does this mean? What service manager and how do I update it?

[Jim.F]

There were changes in update 19. Check out the updates page at https://helpx.adobe.com/coldfusion/kb/coldfusion-2021-update-19.html  and there's some info on the PDF Service Manager at https://www.cfguide.io/coldfusion-administrator/data-services-pdf-service/  . Hope they help.

[stephen_5711]

In the PDF Service panel the service verifies ok, but still seeing errors.

Reading the new PDF2 updates it warns that I need to configure jetty-ipaccess.xml, I tried whitelisting 127.0.0.1 with no change.

Error occurred while generating PDF.
Reason: SERVER ERROR

Logs are not being helpful, they are just repeating the above error without giving me any information on what server error it is seeing.

[Charlie Arehart]

Stephen, I think you'll find this is covered in the update technote, where it says:

'If you encounter the error message, "java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: coldfusion/document/DocumentScope" while publishing a document to PDF using PDF Engine 1, then clear the Felix cache and restart ColdFusion.'

That said, you could be forgiven not readily connecting those dots: that's not exactly the same as what you got, "java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: coldfusion/document/DocumentScope", but they do refer to the same class ultimately. 

Further, they don't explain what that entails. It's discussed with a (slightly) longer sentence in the update 17 technote: "As a workaround, clear the Felix cache (<cf_home>/cfusion/bin/felix-cache).".   Even then, one could ask, "what does 'clear' mean?" It means DELETE that folder.

More specifically:

1.  Stop cf
2. Delete that felix-cache folder (no need to save or rename it)
3. Start cf

That last point (clearing the felix-cache) is something I'd recommend everyone should just do after any cf update that entails any package updates (including not just as listed in the technote of the update being done, but any you are skipping).

So even if somehow some other aspect of that original message I quoted doesn't seem to apply to you, do try the last step anyway. 

Let us know if that works. 

[stephen_5711]

Well, I removed that felix-cache folder. restarted, and used wsconfig to remove and re-add the connectors.

In the exception log I see: "coldfusion.document.webkit.PDFgServiceManagerSetupException: Error while registering/unregistering Service manager."

Nothing initially in the the colfusion-out.log. But when I hit my test PDF page it now says "PDFg service manager http://127.0.0.1:8993/PDFgServlet/ registered." which does seem like a mixed message but it is still giving me a server error on the PDF page.

Error occurred while generating PDF.
Reason: SERVER ERROR
 
The error occurred in PATH/testpdf.cfm: line 2

For good measure I went through the above again (delete things and restart service) with the same result.

For reference, my test PDF page is bare simple:

<cfhtmltopdf>
    This is a test of PDF <cfoutput>#now()#</cfoutput>
</cfhtmltopdf>

[Vikram_Kumar_M]

@stephen_5711  Please try this:

1. Uninstall the "htmltopdf" package from the CF admin console.

2. Stop the ColdFusion service and clear the Felix-cache folder.

3. Restart the ColdFusion service and install the "htmltopdf" package.

Thanks,

Vikram

[stephen_5711]

Unsinstalled htmltopdf

Stopped CF service.

Rremoved felix-cache.

Restarted CF service.

Re-added htmltopdf.

Still seeing the very unhelpful error:

Error occurred while generating PDF.
Reason: SERVER ERROR

Nothing in the logs gives any hint as to what the server error is.

[Charlie Arehart]

And if Vikram's suggestion doesn't solve things, the proceed to the step you originally saw, "As a workaround, update the service manager and retry creating the PDF."

To that you'd asked, "What does this mean? What service manager and how do I update it?". Again I lament that in the quest for brevity, the update technotes can leave such things unclear.

It means go to that pdf services page you now see, AND EDIT the current localhost service you see. No need to change anything: just hit the submit button. Now test your page.

Does that get it going? 

[stephen_5711]

Errrrr... well that seems to have made things worse.

I clicked on the PDF service manager and it populated the vales on the top of the page and when I went to hit "Update" it gave me the error:

Error adding PDF Service Manager. Please ensure that you have entered a correct PDF Service hostname and port.
Check logs for more details.

and worse, now it shows "no PDF Service Managers are available!!!

When I try to re-add the service localhost - 127.0.0.1 - 8993 (or 8989, I've seen both in screenshots)

Error adding PDF Service Manager. Please ensure that you have entered a correct PDF Service hostname and port.
Check logs for more details.

[stephen_5711]

Had to remove the htmltopdf package and re-add it to get it to add back the PDF service. It still does not print to pdf, but at least the service is back.

[Vikram_Kumar_M]

@stephen_5711 Please check the logs in the \ColdFusionxxxx\cfusion\jetty\logs folder and check if there is any helpful information. 

Thanks,

Vikram

[stephen_5711]

All I can see in the jetty logs is the request "127.0.0.1 - - [14/Apr/2025:16:30:40 +0000] "POST /PDFgServlet/ HTTP/1.1" 500 486 "-" "Apache-HttpClient/4.5.13 (Java/11.0.11)""

in jetty stderrout.log I do see a reference to solr.log 

2025-04-14 08:53:48.712:INFO:oejs.session:main: DefaultSessionIdManager workerName=node0
2025-04-14 08:53:48.712:INFO:oejs.session:main: No SessionScavenger set, using defaults
2025-04-14 08:53:48.712:INFO:oejs.session:main: node0 Scavenging every 660000ms
08:53:50.181 [main] ERROR org.apache.solr.util.StartupLoggingUtils - Missing Java Option solr.log.dir. Logging may be missing or incomplete.
2025-04-14 08:53:52.852:INFO:oejsh.ContextHandler:main: Started o.e.j.w.WebAppContext@4808bc9b{solr,/solr,file:///C:/ColdFusion2021/cfusion/jetty/work/jetty-0_0_0_0-8993-solr_war-_solr-any-/webapp/,AVAILABLE}{C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\jetty\webapps\solr.war}
2025-04-14 08:53:53.368:INFO:oejsh.ContextHandler:main: Started o.e.j.w.WebAppContext@2ca923bb{PDFgServlet,/PDFgServlet,file:///C:/ColdFusion2021/cfusion/jetty/webapps/PDFgServlet/,AVAILABLE}{C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\jetty\webapps\PDFgServlet}
2025-04-14 08:53:53.602:INFO:oejsh.ContextHandler:main: Started o.e.j.w.WebAppContext@13df2a8c{AdminServlet,/AdminServlet,file:///C:/ColdFusion2021/cfusion/jetty/work/jetty-0_0_0_0-8993-AdminServlet_war-_AdminServlet-any-/webapp/,AVAILABLE}{C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\jetty\webapps\AdminServlet.war}
2025-04-14 08:53:53.602:INFO:oejs.RequestLogWriter:main: Opened C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\jetty\logs\2025_04_14.request.log
2025-04-14 08:53:53.649:INFO:oejs.AbstractConnector:main: Started ServerConnector@4993febc{HTTP/1.1, (http/1.1)}{0.0.0.0:8993}
2025-04-14 08:53:53.649:INFO:oejs.Server:main: Started @9596ms

[Vikram_Kumar_M]

@stephen_5711, please contact our support at cf.install@adobe.com. We may have to investigate further to see why the PDFg service is failing. 

Thanks,

Vikram

[stephen_5711]

Thank you for trying! I think I at least have managed to back out patch 19 and get things back to stable under 18. I will reach out to the install team and see if they can help.

[Sireex]

We have the same exact problem. We managed to get this running with patch 17 and 18, but no longer with patch 19.

[Vikram_Kumar_M]

@Sireex, please contact our support team at cf.install@adobe.com. We want to investigate further to isolate the issue.  

Thanks,

 Vikram

[Aaron Trice]

I'm seeing the same behavior. PDF Generation fails after the update is applied. In looking at the Jetty logs I did notice an error "10:14:32.013 [main] ERROR org.apache.solr.core.SolrCore - null:org.apache.solr.common.SolrException: solr.xml does not exist in C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\jetty\multicore cannot start Solr"
This file exisist in C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\jetty\solr, not mutlicore. I tried copying the file over and this error went away, but did not resolve our issue. Attempting to modify the service manager removes it completely and requires a removal/reinstall of the package. Similarly to the original post if I just test the PDF service in CFAdmin it returns an OK. 

[Patrick33329465ay6d]

Had the same issue after updating to 19. This worked for me on 5 seperate servers.

1) uninstall CF add on services -- I ran the unistaller in the add on service dir. I htink you can also use the one in the jetty unistall dir.

2) Download the latest add on services here

https://cfdownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/coldfusion/2021/add-on/ColdFusion_2021_Addon_WWEJ_win64.exe

Install on your server.

3) REBOOT your server.

4) once the server boots, run your test pdf generator, (mine is below) should work now.

<cftry>

    <cfhtmltopdf marginTop='.25' marginbottom='.10' marginright='.25' marginleft='.25' unit='in'  >

PDF Generation works!

            Congratulations dude or sorry that happened.

</cfhtmltopdf>

<cfcatch type="any"><cfdump var="#cfcatch#"></cfcatch></cftry>

[Patrick33329465ay6d]

See my reply at the bottom --> uninstall and reinstall add on services.

[BKBK]

Hi @stephen_5711 ,

Do you still need help with this?

Or did you finally resolve the issue?

[stephen_5711 · Accepted solution]

I've been working with the Adobe install team to diagnose and fix it (slowed down a bit by the fact the problem was on our Production machine so I had to wait for off-hours to test fixes).

In the end the step that seems to have worked is to uninstall the Add-On services program, then reinstall from a fresh download of the Add-On services from the Adobe website.

After the reinstall everything seems to be working. I applied the patch Friday night so fingers crossed it holds up to actual users starting today.

[BKBK]

Hi @stephen_5711 , Thank you for the update.

I find it instructive that you, @Aaron Trice and @Patrick33329465ay6d identify the Add-On Services as the culprit.

[Byron Byron_756]

Not sure where to post this, so I put this post under the BKBK post since he is listed as a community expert.  Sorry if its misplaced. 

I am having exact same problems that this thread covers, except I am running CF23, HF13 (Windows 2019).

Initially, after installing HF13, my "Coldfusion 2023 add-on services"  service failed to start.

I then found the fix for that (had to create the jetty-ipaccess.xml file in jetty/etc), and now my "Coldfusion 2023 add-on services"  service starts.

In my CF Admin GUI, for PDF services, I see one PDF service manager (localhost/127.0.0.1). When I "verify", it connects "ok". 

However, now when I run htmltopdf (it worked fine until HF13) I now get "No service manager is available" error in the server.log and in the exception.log.  

On a staging instance,  I tried all the initial ideas posted here, with no luck.

I decided that I should try Patrick33329465ay6d 's solution of re-installing the CF add-on services.

I was able to uninstall the add-on services using the uninstall under jetty.

I could not find the CF2023 add-on installer anywhere on the adobe site, and so on a hunch, I changed the 2021 to 2023 in Patrick33329465ay6d 's  link.

I used

https://cfdownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/coldfusion/2023/add-on/ColdFusion_2023_Addon_WWEJ_win64.exe

It downloaded fine. 

However, when I run that "as administrator", I get this error:

"The JVM used for this installer seems to have been installed in a unsecured location (non-admin user folder). Installer would (sic) now exit. Please reach out to your vendor for more details."

I'm stuck.

Thanks in advance for any ideas you may have!

[BKBK]

Hi @Byron Byron_756 , did you try clearing Felix-cache, as suggested by Charlie and Vikram_Kumar_M? 

This cache is the directory {COLDFUSION_INSTANCE_HOME}\bin\felix-cache.

The idea is to delete everything from the directory, in the hope that ColdFusion will do a reset when you restart.

As for the  ColdFusion_2023_Addon_WWEJ_win64.exe installation, try running it with your usual user login, not "as administrator".

[Byron Byron_756]

In case this helps clarify for another person finding this thread:

BKBK, yes, as mentioned, for my CF23HF13 I tried all the initial ideas posted on this thread, with no luck. 

Clearing {COLDFUSION_INSTANCE_HOME}\bin\felix-cache did not fix it.

Updating the service manager, using Charlie's steps, did not fix it.

I will now reach out to Vikram_Kumar_M

as he suggested.

Thank you!