IntelliJ inspection gives “Cannot resolve symbol”

Question

Platform: IntelliJ Community Edition 10.0.3
SDK: jdk1.6.0_21
OS: Windows 7

So I have a strange situation with IntelliJ that has me completely stumped. I setup a Maven project and add log4j as a dependency in the pom.xml file. The IDEA inspections run fine and my unit tests all compile and run.

I then added hunnysoft's jmime library to my local maven repository using the mvn install:install-file as follows.

mvn install:install-file -Dfile=jmime.jar -DgroupId=jmime \
-DartifactId=jmime -Dversion=3.1.1e -Dpackaging=jar

Maven installed the jar file just fine into my local repository.

I then went into IntelliJ's Settings => Maven => Repository Services and Updated my local repository (so that IntelliJ would reindex the repository contents).

Finally, I added the following dependency to my pom.xml file (just above the log4j dependency).

<dependency>
    <groupId>jmime</groupId>
    <artifactId>jmime</artifactId>
    <version>3.1.1e</version>
</dependency>

I now create a new class as follows:

package com.stackoverflow.question;

import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
import com.hunnysoft.jmime.ByteString;
import com.hunnysoft.jmime.Field;
import com.hunnysoft.jmime.FieldBody;

public class StackOverflowQuestion {
    public Field create(String name, String text) {
        Logger.getLogger(getClass()).debug("create entered");
        FieldBody body = new FieldBody();
        body.setText(new ByteString(text));
        Field field = new Field();
        field.setFieldName(name);
        field.setFieldBody(body);
        return field;
    }
}

Now for the weirdness. IntelliJ's intention mechanism picks up and recognizes the Logger import in the maven pom file just fine. However, for all of the hunnysoft imports it reports: "Cannot resolve symbol 'ByteString/Field/FieldBody'", BUT Build => Compile 'StackOverflowQuestion.java' compiles everything correctly and the unit test I created for this class runs fine (though the intentions mark the call to create() as a problem area too).

So somewhere, somehow IntelliJ is ignoring the jmime.jar file for the intention subsystem. I'm confused because the log4j dependency works fine and everything compiles and runs fine. F12 ("Go To Declaration") works on the Logger import, but breaks on all the jmime imports.

Oh, one other thing, if I go to the 'Packages' view in the "Projects" window the "com.hunnysoft.jmime" package appears and I can see ALL of the classes I imported in the code snippet above under "Libraries". Removing the above dependency from the pom.xml file causes this package to disappear and the compilation breaks.

It appears that the inspection's classpath is broken, but there does not seem to be a setting for this anywhere in the Settings => Intentions | Compiler areas (not that I expected any such settings, I believe the IDEA should already know the correct classpath based on the pom file and JDK).

As a final experiment I created a brand new standard J2SE application project (without using maven) and added the jmime.jar file directly to the project as one of its libraries. I run into exactly the same problems as described above in this new project.

Here is the MANIFEST.MF from the jmime jar file.

Manifest-Version: 1.0
Ant-Version: Apache Ant 1.5.4
Created-By: 10.0-b23 (Sun Microsystems Inc.)

Name: com/hunnysoft/jmime/
Sealed: true
Specification-Title: Hunny JMIME
Specification-Version: 3.1.1
Specification-Vendor: Hunny Software, Inc.
Implementation-Title: com.hunnysoft.jmime
Implementation-Version: 3.1.1E
Implementation-Vendor: Hunny Software, Inc.

I don't see anything unusual in this jar file.

My best guess is that perhaps the problem might be a missing dependency issue. But AFAIK jmime is supposed to be self contained (JarAnalyzer doesn't come up with anything, but I'm not sure it would if a dependency jar is missing).

So, anyone have any IDEAs?

Answer 1

My Project Structure:

src -> main -> scala -> mypackages

What worked:

Right click on the scala folder, and click "Mark Directory as Sources Root".

Answer 2

Has a fixed been published? Appears issue originally affected v11/12 due to a "Compiler overhaul" back in 2013. With discussion on related issues in Jira up to end of 2014. http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-98425

Also on Jira IDEA-98425 was marked fixed but unverified (on v12.0.3). None of the following work-around helped resolve this "Unable to Resolve Symbol" issue with Version 13.1.1 on Windows

a. Delete .IdealIC13 folder (Then, File \ Invalidate Caches / Restart)

b. From Maven Projects window,

b.1 mvn -U idea:idea –〉Executing this maven goal suppose to reload the dependencies. This works prev, but since last FRI, executing this maven goal failed as it tried to recompile the project (Of course it fails as "Unable to resolve Symbols", that's what I am trying to fix by running this command in the first place) mvn -version — shows maven version referenced 3.2.5 and that it's working

b.2 Simply right click project, and Reimport

b.3 File \ Invalidate Caches / Restart

c. Tried both Enable & Disable this setting: File -> Settings -> Maven -> Importing -> "Use maven3 to import project"

d. Settings \ Maven \ Multiproject build fail policy = Fail at end (instead of Default)

Nothing works. What's happenning to IntelliJ support on Maven.

https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-99302

From JetBeans release history, https://www.jetbrains.com/company/history.jsp

IntelliJ v14 NOV 2014

IntelliJ v13 DEC 2013

I'd assume v12 fixed (although unverified) would be incorporated in subsequent releases. Any one having similar problems with which IntelliJ version? Please share your experience. IntelliJ maven support seems broken.

Answer 3

For Intellij Idea users this commands before even importing project might help :

./gradlew build ./gradlew idea

Answer 4

1. Open "Settings"
2. Search for "Maven"
3. Click on "Ignored Files" under "Maven"
4. Uncheck the pom.xml files contains the missing dependencies
5. Click "OK"
6. Click File -> Invalidate Caches/Restart...
7. Click "Invalidate and Restart"

Answer 5

sometimes, when you create package like com.mydomain.something the directory structure does not get created and you are left with a single folder named "com.mydomain.something" in this case you should create directory structure, like

com
|_mydomain
  |_something 

Answer 6

Sometimes, I just open project structure, and click project, then choose a SDK version.