Feedback - not a blocking issue. Clarifying the java version dependency

[tauCete]

Hi,

I think this tool, iTunes Backup Explorer, depends on the JDK and you might want to clarify that on the readme. I had the JRE installed on macOS and when I downloaded and tried to run the itunes-backup-explorer-1.5.jar file I get the following error.

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: 
me/maxih/itunes_backup_explorer/ITunesBackupExplorerLauncher has been compiled by
a more recent version of the Java Runtime (class file version 62.0), this version of
the Java Runtime only recognizes class file versions up to 52.0
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:756)
	at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:473)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:74)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:369)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:363)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:362)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:418)
	at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:359)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:351)
	at sun.launcher.LauncherHelper.checkAndLoadMain(LauncherHelper.java:641)

Background:
I ran this in terminal to check if my version was > 18 per the readme.

java -version                           
java version "1.8.0_431"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_431-b10)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.431-b10, mixed mode)

Since I got two values one below and one above 18, I continued with trying to run java -jar itunes-backup-explorer-1.5.jar. That's when I received the error above. I know you have the link to download a newer java version from azul.com, but I don't know that site and didn't want to download and run anything from it. I updated my JRE to the latest (1.8.0_431) and got the same error. I looked around in the GitHub project and in the GitHub dependency list I saw this.

org.bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk18on
1.78.1
Maven · pom.xml · Detected automatically on Aug 05, 2024 · MIT

That's when I realized when you said Java you meant JDK and since the Oracle JDK version number is 23 (> 18), I tied installing it and now I am able to run the iTunes Backup Explorer.

[MaxiHuHe04]

Hi!
The current situation with the Java environment is bad, I know. Especially if you are not really into Java, I understand the confusion. Just for your information, the relevant number in the version string 1.8.0_xxx is 8. The corresponding pruduct is called Java SE 8. For this application, you need at least Java SE 18 at the moment. Whether you download a JRE or JDK doesn't really matter. JREs are generally not distributed separately anymore, but JDKs include them.
For the future, I have been planning to change the install process so that there is just one installer and no pre-installed Java will be required. Unfortunately it's a bit complicated supporting many platforms and I don't have much time for this project so it will probably still take a while.