Trying to configure an active MQ broker with a plugin in Java, where should <bean class="..."> attribute be pointing to? - plugins

Question

I'm trying to configure an activemq broker with a plugin installed, but can't seem to get the qualified name of the plugin class right in the broker configuration file.
I have pasted the error message followed by the broker config below. Basicallly in the element I'm specifying
class="file:C:/Marcus/JavaProjects/Project/build/prod/classes/com/foo/jms/amqplugin/XmlValidationPlugin"
which is absolute path to the XmlValidationPlugin.class file(have tried appending .class to path above but I get the same error).
Initially I assumed that the class attribute should be pointing to the .class file but have tried pointing it to .java and still doesn't work.
I have read the active MQ faq on developing plugins, FAQs, spring documentation etc.
My class path is
.;JAVA_HOME\lib;C:\Marcus\JavaProjects\Project;C:\Marcus\JavaProjects\Project\build\prod\classes
and JAVA_HOME is:
C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_03
all the java source resides in
C:\Marcus\JavaProjects\Project\src
and the .class files are in
C:\Marcus\JavaProjects\Project\build\prod\classes
( file structure in classes mirrors that in src,so for example
com.foo.jms.amqplugin.XmlValidationPlugin
will have its .class file in
classes/com/foo/jms/amqplugin )
the plugin in question is XmlValidationPlugin.java, and is in folder src in package:
com.foo.jms.amqplugin
I have tried putting XmlValidationPlugin.class in a JAR and putting the JAR in activemqinstalldir/lib,( as was recommended to other people who had a similar problem) but this has not helped.
I have spent a day and a half on this already, and would really appreciate if anyone has any idea what the value of the plugins class attribute should be, as I have tried everything... Thanks in advance!
TOP OF ERROR OUTPUT:
C:\Program Files\apache-activemq-5.5.1>bin\activemq xbean:file:C:/Marcus/JavaProjects/Project/config/custom-broker.xml
Java Runtime: Oracle Corporation 1.7.0_03 C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_03\jre
Heap sizes: current=15872k free=14246k max=506816k
JVM args: -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote -Xmx512M -Dorg.apache.activemq.UseDedicatedTaskRunner=true -Djava.util.logging.config.file=logging.properties -Dactivemq.classpath=C:\Program Files\apache-
activemq-5.5.1\bin\../conf;C:\Program Files\apache-activemq-5.5.1\bin\../conf; -Dactivemq.home=C:\Program Files\apache-activemq-5.5.1\bin\.. -Dactivemq.base=C:\Program Files\apache-activemq-5.5.1\bin\
..
ACTIVEMQ_HOME: C:\Program Files\apache-activemq-5.5.1\bin\..
ACTIVEMQ_BASE: C:\Program Files\apache-activemq-5.5.1\bin\..
Loading message broker from: xbean:file:C:/Marcus/JavaProjects/Project/config/custom-broker.xml
INFO | Refreshing org.apache.activemq.xbean.XBeanBrokerFactory$1#7a8ba4: startup date [Thu Apr 12 10:38:26 CEST 2012]; root of context hierarchy
ERROR: java.lang.RuntimeException: Failed to execute start task. Reason: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Failed to load type: file:C:/Marcus/JavaProjects/Project/build/prod/classes/com/foo/jms/amqplugin/XmlValidationPlugin. Reason: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: file:C:/Marcus/JavaProjects/Project/build/prod/classes/com/foo/jms/amqplugin/XmlValidationPlugin; nested exception is java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: file:C:/Marcus/JavaProjects/Project/build/prod/classes/com/foo/jms/amqplugin/XmlValidationPlugin
java.lang.RuntimeException: Failed to execute start task. Reason: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Failed to load type: file:C:/Marcus/JavaProjects/Project/build/prod/classes/com/foo/jms/amqplugin/XmlValidationPlugin.
Reason: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: file:C:/Marcus/JavaProjects/Project/build/prod/classes/com/foo/jms/amqplugin/XmlValidationPlugin; nested exception is java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: file:C:/Marcus/JavaProjects/Project/build/prod/classes/com/foo/jms/amqplugin/XmlValidationPlugin
at org.apache.activemq.console.command.StartCommand.runTask(StartCommand.java:98)
at org.apache.activemq.console.command.AbstractCommand.execute(AbstractCommand.java:57)
at org.apache.activemq.console.command.ShellCommand.runTask(ShellCommand.java:143)
at org.apache.activemq.console.command.AbstractCommand.execute(AbstractCommand.java:57)
at org.apache.activemq.console.command.ShellCommand.main(ShellCommand.java:85)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
...
BROKER CONFIG FILE:
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" xmlns:amq="http://activemq.apache.org/schema/core"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.0.xsd
http://activemq.apache.org/schema/core http://activemq.apache.org/schema/core/activemq-core.xsd">
<!-- Allows us to use system properties as variables in this configuration file -->
<bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
<property name="locations">
<value>file:${activemq.base}/conf/credentials.properties</value>
</property>
</bean>
<!--The <broker> element is used to configure the ActiveMQ broker. -->
<broker xmlns="http://activemq.apache.org/schema/core" brokerName="localhost"
dataDirectory="${activemq.base}/data">
...
<!--plugin-->
<plugins>
<bean xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
id="xmlValidationPlugin"
class="com.foo.jms.amqplugin.XmlValidationPlugin"/>
</plugins>
</broker>
</beans>

Answer 1

Basicallly in the element I'm specifying class="file:C:/Marcus/JavaProjects/Project/build/prod/classes/com/foo/jms/amqplugin/XmlValidationPlugin" which is absolute path to the XmlValidationPlugin.class file(have tried appending .class to path above but I get the same error). Initially I assumed that the class attribute should be pointing to the .class file but have tried pointing it to .java and still doesn't work.
It seems that the error you are getting is from the classloader.
Reason: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: file:C:/Marcus/JavaProjects/Project/build/prod/classes/com/foo/jms/amqplugin/XmlValidationPlugin; nested exception is java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: file:C:/Marcus/JavaProjects/Project/build/prod/classes/com/foo/jms/amqplugin/XmlValidationPlugin
Classloader expects a fully qualified class-name instead of a path to the class file. Try to specify the fully qualified class name instead of the path to the class file .
Instead of:
file:C:/Marcus/JavaProjects/Project/build/prod/classes/com/foo/jms/amqplugin/XmlValidationPlugin
Use:
com.foo.jms.amqplugin.XmlValidationPlugin
and do make sure that CLASSPATH environment variable will contain: C:/Marcus/JavaProjects/Project/build/prod/classes
If ActiveMQ uses some custom classloader for loading plug-ins (I do not know the details), you might need to specify the classpath in some ActivemMQ-specific way.