Unable to apply Spotfire server hotfix. ERROR "Unsupported major.minor version XX.0" – Revvity Signals

Date Posted: 2018-08-20
Product: TIBCO Spotfire®

Problem:

Unable to apply Spotfire server hotfix. ERROR "Unsupported major.minor version XX.0"

Solution:

You may encounter this type of error while running the hotfix utility for Spotfire server.
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Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: com/spotfire/hotfix/Main : Unsupported major.minor version XX.0
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Note: Unsupported major.minor version XX.0 depends upon which Java version hotfix utility is compiled. So the Java major version may vary depending upon the Spotfire server version.

Symptoms:
The following error message appears while running the hotfix utility for applying the Spotfire server hotfix
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c:\tibco\tss\7.5.0\jdk\bin>java -jar hotfix.jar
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: com/spotfire/hotfix/Main : Unsupported major.minor version 52.0
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
        at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$000(Unknown Source)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
        at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
---------------------

Cause:
Unsupported major.minor version 52.0 comes when you are trying to run a class compiled using the Java 1.8 compiler into a lower JRE version e.g. JRE 1.7 or JRE 1.6.
There are two options to resolve this error:

Option 1). The hotfix utility requires Java 1.8. The simplest way to fix this error is to install the latest Java release and run the hotfix utility.

Option 2). Follow the steps related to running the hotfix utility as mentioned in the Installation_Instructions.htm document present in the downloaded hotfix folder. By running the hotfix utility as mentioned below, you will use the Java 1.8 installation that comes bundled with the TIBCO Spotfire Server.

For graphical mode, run the hotfix utility with the /gui argument:
[server_install_dir]\jdk\bin\java -jar hotfix.jar /gui

For command line mode, run the hotfix utility with the /console argument:
[server_install_dir]\jdk\bin\java -jar hotfix.jar /console [server_install_dir]

Refer to the Installation_Instructions.htm document present in the downloaded Spotfire server hotfix folder:
https://support.tibco.com/s/hotfixes