FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
All

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
the XPathFactory.newInstance() silently swallows all RuntimeException(s) thrown by the constructor of the factory implementation, and silently defaults to the platform factory.


REPRODUCIBILITY :
This bug can be reproduced often.

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
Apply this partial patch to fix exception thrown by factories configured by META-INF/services/javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory

diff -U3 -r src/javax/xml/xpath/XPathFactoryFinder.java srcx/javax/xml/xpath/XPathFactoryFinder.java
--- src/javax/xml/xpath/XPathFactoryFinder.java Fri Mar 4 00:26:36 2005
+++ srcx/javax/xml/xpath/XPathFactoryFinder.java Tue Apr 12 22:55:51 2005
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@
                 if(sf!=null) return sf;
             } else
                 debugPrintln("The property is undefined.");
- } catch( Throwable t ) {
+ } catch( Exception t ) {
             if( debug ) {
                 debugPrintln("failed to look up system property '"+propertyName+"'" );
                 t.printStackTrace();
@@ -242,7 +242,9 @@
                 return (XPathFactory)o;
             
             debugPrintln(className+" is not assignable to "+SERVICE_CLASS.getName());
- } catch( Throwable t ) {
+ } catch( RuntimeException e) {
+ throw e;
+ } catch( Exception t ) {
             debugPrintln("failed to instanciate "+className);
             if(debug) t.printStackTrace();
         }
@@ -294,6 +296,7 @@
      */
     private Iterator createServiceFileIterator() {
         if (classLoader == null) {
+ debugPrintln("no classloader found to retrieve "+SERVICE_ID);
             return new SingleIterator() {
                 protected Object value() {
                     ClassLoader classLoader = XPathFactoryFinder.class.getClassLoader();
@@ -303,6 +306,7 @@
             };
         } else {
             try {
+ debugPrintln("using "+classLoader+" to retrieve "+SERVICE_ID);
                 //final Enumeration e = classLoader.getResources(SERVICE_ID);
                 final Enumeration e = ss.getResources(classLoader, SERVICE_ID);
                 if(!e.hasMoreElements()) {


Anyhow, this might happen in other cases even after the patch is applied.