I found the solution for this. It is a generic problem and not specific to XMLBeans jars. The external jars used in any eclipse plugin project have to be added in the Bundle-Classpath entry in manifest.mf (this can be done using the runtime tab of plugin.xml)
_____ From: Murali Gunasekaran [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2006 2:05 AM To: user@xmlbeans.apache.org Subject: RE: Eclipse plugin Exception: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org /apache/xmlbeans/XmlException Thanks. Here is the complete stack trace. Most of it is related to the plugin code. The line where the exception occurs (getElements) is where the class containing the XMLBeans code is accessed (is not part of the trace). !ENTRY org.eclipse.ui 4 0 2006-12-22 18:37:13.377 !MESSAGE org/apache/xmlbeans/XmlException !STACK 0 java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/xmlbeans/XmlException at com.webmethods.sc.metadata.ui.library.searchfolder.actions.AddEditFolderDial og$1.getElements(AddEditFolderDialog.java:191) at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.StructuredViewer.getRawChildren(StructuredViewer.j ava:927) at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.StructuredViewer.getFilteredChildren(StructuredVie wer.java:868) at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.StructuredViewer.getSortedChildren(StructuredViewe r.java:984) at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.AbstractListViewer.inputChanged(AbstractListViewer .java:303) at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.ContentViewer.setInput(ContentViewer.java:250) at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.StructuredViewer.setInput(StructuredViewer.java:15 42) at com.webmethods.sc.metadata.ui.library.searchfolder.actions.AddEditFolderDial og.createAssetTypeControl(AddEditFolderDialog.java:206) at com.webmethods.sc.metadata.ui.library.searchfolder.actions.AddEditFolderDial og.createDialogArea(AddEditFolderDialog.java:155) at org.eclipse.jface.dialogs.TitleAreaDialog.createContents(TitleAreaDialog.jav a:165) at org.eclipse.jface.window.Window.create(Window.java:426) at org.eclipse.jface.dialogs.Dialog.create(Dialog.java:1124) at org.eclipse.jface.window.Window.open(Window.java:785) at com.webmethods.sc.metadata.ui.library.searchfolder.actions.AddEditFolderDial og.run(AddEditFolderDialog.java:148) at com.webmethods.sc.metadata.ui.library.searchfolder.actions.AddFolderAction.r un(AddFolderAction.java:55) at org.eclipse.jface.action.Action.runWithEvent(Action.java:499) at org.eclipse.jface.action.ActionContributionItem.handleWidgetSelection(Action ContributionItem.java:539) at org.eclipse.jface.action.ActionContributionItem.access$2(ActionContributionI tem.java:488) at org.eclipse.jface.action.ActionContributionItem$6.handleEvent(ActionContribu tionItem.java:441) at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.EventTable.sendEvent(EventTable.java:66) at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Widget.java:928) at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.runDeferredEvents(Display.java:3348) at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.readAndDispatch(Display.java:2968) at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.runEventLoop(Workbench.java:1914) at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.runUI(Workbench.java:1878) at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createAndRunWorkbench(Workbench.java:419) at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createAndRunWorkbench(PlatformUI.java:149) at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.IDEApplication.run(IDEApplication.java:95) at org.eclipse.core.internal.runtime.PlatformActivator$1.run(PlatformActivator. java:78) at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication( EclipseAppLauncher.java:92) at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(EclipseAp pLauncher.java:68) at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:400) at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:177) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source) at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:336) at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:280) at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:977) at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.main(Main.java:952) _____ From: Dhammika [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 22, 2006 10:56 PM To: user@xmlbeans.apache.org Subject: RE: Eclipse plugin Exception: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/xmlbeans/XmlException Can you please give the complete stack trace Dhammika ---------------------------------------------------------------- Hello, I'm using XMLBeans as part of an Eclipse plugin project. I have already created a schema and generated the XML types using scomp separately and am using that JAR in my plugin to write the code. There is no compilation error in the plugin and it builds fine, but when I launch the runtime workbench to test the plugin, I get the NoClassDefFoundError. I have tried the following: 1. Adding the xbean.jar and jsr173_1.0_api.jar to the build path 2. adding the extension org.eclipse.ant.core.extraClasspathEntries 3. setting the java CLASSPATH variable with xbean.jar But nothing seems to be working... Anyone know why this problem would occur? Am I missing any required JAR at runtime that is somehow present during development (compilation)? Anyone with Eclipse plugin development experience encounter this? Thanks a lot! Murali Murali Gunasekaran Software Engineer webMethods Inc. 703.460.6065