Always getting exception "Wrong type at constant pool index" with Cucumber-Java8 - java-8

Question

I am trying to set-up an example project for the Java8 dialect of Cucumber. My problem is, that I don't get it running. I always get the following hierarchy of exceptions:
Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 1, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.068 sec <<< FAILURE! - in soy.wimmer.CucumberIT
Feature: Cucumber with Java8 Time elapsed: 0.051 sec <<< ERROR!
cucumber.runtime.CucumberException: Failed to instantiate class soy.wimmer.CucumberStepdefs
[…]
Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException: null
[…]
Caused by: cucumber.runtime.CucumberException: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Wrong type at constant pool index
[…]
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Wrong type at constant pool index
at sun.reflect.ConstantPool.getMemberRefInfoAt0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.ConstantPool.getMemberRefInfoAt(ConstantPool.java:47)
at cucumber.runtime.java8.ConstantPoolTypeIntrospector.getTypeString(ConstantPoolTypeIntrospector.java:37)
at cucumber.runtime.java8.ConstantPoolTypeIntrospector.getGenericTypes(ConstantPoolTypeIntrospector.java:27)
at cucumber.runtime.java.Java8StepDefinition.<init>(Java8StepDefinition.java:45)
at cucumber.runtime.java.JavaBackend.addStepDefinition(JavaBackend.java:162)
at cucumber.api.java8.En.Given(En.java:190)
at soy.wimmer.CucumberStepdefs.<init>(CucumberStepdefs.java:8)
[…]
Results :
Tests in error:
Failed to instantiate class soy.wimmer.CucumberStepdefs
Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 1, Skipped: 0
I have no clue why I get this error nor how to fix it.
I have packaged everything in a Maven project. The layout is like that:
./src/test/java/soy/wimmer/CucumberIT.java
./src/test/java/soy/wimmer/CucumberStepdefs.java
./src/test/resources/cucumber/cucumber-java8.feature
./pom.xml
The dependencies I include in the pom.xml are:
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>info.cukes</groupId>
<artifactId>cucumber-java8</artifactId>
<version>1.2.3</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>info.cukes</groupId>
<artifactId>cucumber-junit</artifactId>
<version>1.2.3</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>4.12</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
Additionally the pom.xml only loads the compiler and the failsafe plugin.
My definition of CucumberIT.java:
package soy.wimmer;
import cucumber.api.CucumberOptions;
import cucumber.api.junit.Cucumber;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
#RunWith(Cucumber.class)
#CucumberOptions(features = "classpath:cucumber")
public class CucumberIT {
}
My feature definition:
Feature: Cucumber with Java8
As a developer
I want to use Cucumber-java8
So that I have nicer step definitions
Scenario: Let's try it
Given I have some dummy code
When I try to test it
Then it should work with cucumber-java8
And this are my step definitions:
package soy.wimmer;
import cucumber.api.PendingException;
import cucumber.api.java8.En;
public class CucumberStepdefs implements En {
public CucumberStepdefs() {
Given("^I have some dummy code$", () -> {
// Write code here that turns the phrase above into concrete actions
throw new PendingException();
});
When("^I try to test it$", () -> {
// Write code here that turns the phrase above into concrete actions
throw new PendingException();
});
Then("^it should work with cucumber-java(\\d+)$", (Integer arg1) -> {
// Write code here that turns the phrase above into concrete actions
throw new PendingException();
});
}
}
Any idea what I'm doing wrong here?

Answer 1

The problem is caused because the Java8 dialect of Cucumber uses implementation details of Oracle's JDK8.
I was using OpenJDK8 as packaged by Debian which causes a different organisation of the constant pool. When I try the same with Oracle's JDK8 everything works as expected.
If you want to try it yourself, I published the complete example project on github: https://github.com/mawis/cucumber-java8-test
I also reported a bug at the issue tracker of cucumber-jvm here: https://github.com/cucumber/cucumber-jvm/issues/912
You might check the issue tracker to see if the problem will have been fixed in the future.
For now if you want to use cucumber-java8 it seems you have to use Oracle's implementation of the JDK.
(The fame for solving this problem belongs to Holger with his comments to the question. I just wanted to write this answer as a summary.)

Answer 2

Just use 1.2.5 version which has been recently released. It solved the bug referenced by accepted answer.