How to use the org.json Java library with Java 7

Question

I need some simple JSON parsing in my application and the Douglas Crockford library seems exactly what I need.

However, I seem to be running into a problem. I'm getting the following error:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: org/json/JSONObject : Unsupported major.minor version 52.0

I Googled around a bit and I get the impression that this is due to some version incompatibility. I've tried changing Java versions but it doesn't seem to help. I'm using Java 7 and Java 7 features in my program and ultimately I want to use Java 7.

How can I resolve this issue?

PS: I looked at Jackson and GSON and definitely don't want to use either so please don't suggest as an alternative.

Tadich

Unsupported major.minor version 52.0 indicates that that library was compiled with Java 8. Can you get the source and recompile the library for your version? – Hasp

that's do-able, but kinda' goes around the point of using a package manager... – Nevillenevin

Answer 1

Have you tried using an older version of the package?

Try: http://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.json/json/20140107

Staple

Just trying this and seems to work. It's a shame, even though I can't tell for sure, I don't think the library "needs" Java 8, so compiling it for Java 8 seems quite unnecessary. – Tadich

@Tadich Well as MichaelT said, if you really want to use the newest version you can compile the sources yourself – Staple

Yep. Understood, but I prefer to manage dependencies through a dependency manager (such as Maven). – Tadich

Verified that version 20140107 works using Maven 3.1.1 / Tycho 0.22.0 / JDK 7_17. Only question really is the MIT/DoNoEvil license - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Crockford#.22Good.2C_not_Evil.22 – Maidservant

still works with jdk1.7.0_76. i wish maven had a place for "last version compatible with java7", that's twice i've gotten burned with a newest version and searched around for usable versions. and, the github page now says douglas crockford is looking for a new maintainer as of 2015-02-06... – Nevillenevin

Answer 2

Since your are using JDK1.7, change to the older version will work!

<groupId>org.json</groupId>
    <artifactId>json</artifactId>
    <version>20140107</version>
</dependency>

Oilcloth

where do I add this? – Misshapen

Answer 3

You should use version 20230618 for Java 6 or 7. There were a few older versions where they accidentally broke Java 6, but Java 7 support should be ok until 20230618
org.json json 20230618

See their release notes: https://github.com/stleary/JSON-java/blob/master/docs/RELEASES.md

20231013 First release with minimum Java version 1.8. Recent commits, including fixes for CVE-2023-5072.

20230618 Final release with Java 1.6 compatibility. Future releases will require Java 1.8 or greater.

Manuscript