What if we did not find an XML/A Provider Error?

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Unfortunately, We did not find a suitable XML/A provider. Please supply one in URL using the XmlaUrl query string parameter. This error comes when we try to run xmondrian using the tomcat server.

I want to explain this problem in detail and try to provide the solution that worked for me. Let’s start the discussion:

What if we did not find an XML/A Provider Error?

We did not find XML/A provider error is encountered whenever we try to run Xavier using xmondrian.war on tomcat server. This dialogue box appears on the screen every time we try to access the Xavier on the tomcat server.

How was I introduced to this problem?

I could not trace this issue initially. But after many trials of installing and uninstalling the tomcat, this error still existed. I tried to consult my subject teacher about the issue. He provided a solution like providing ROOT permission to the xmondrian folder which is inside /webapps of tomcat. But the problem still existed.

Installing Tomcat Server and running Xmondrin.war

In my seventh semester course, I picked up Data Mining as my elective subject. During the course, I was instructed to install the Xavier to run xmondrian to perform data mining for some demo resources.

What is this alert related to?

I needed a Java Server to run Xavier using xmondrian. Since Xavier was developed on Jsp, I choose the tomcat server which was easy to install, run and test. I was already familiar with tomcat sever since my fourth semester.

I started downloading tomcat first. I did the following things on my PC to download and install tomcat.

Download and install the Tomcat Server

After successful installation of the tomcat server, I downloaded the xmondrian.war from Github repositories.

Download the xmondrian.war file from Github

Now it’s time to download the xmondrian from RP Boumans Github Repositories. The following method can help you.

After successful download of the xmondrian.war, place it in some folder safely. It will be used later.

Locate the tomcat webapps folder

You can locate the webapps folder of the tomcat server easily. It is generally on the C drive of Windows. It also depends on the installation folder path you set during installation.

After you find the webapps folder, copy the xmondrian.war file to it. Now, start the tomcat server.

Start the tomcat server

You must know how to start the tomcat server. If you don’t know starting a tomcat server follow the below steps:

  • Locate the tomcat server installation folder in the C drive.
  • Or you can also search for start tomcat on the start menu taskbar.
  • Run tomcat/ Stop tomcat.

After you start the tomcat server, the xmondrian.war file in web apps now explodes and converts to an xmondrian folder. this folder contains necessary Xavier and xml4js.

Start the Xavier

Now sit down in your seat because the task is completed. Go to browser and type https://localhost:8080 to check tomcat server is running or not.

Start Xavier from https://localhost:8080/xmondrian page’s bottom.

The reason behind this problem

If Xavier works fine, it’s good. Else, it may not run and show an error. This may be due to port reservations by another application. For example: If you have already installed Anaconda Navigator on your PC or Xampp Server or other programs that occupy the port number used by the tomcat server.

Then to solve this problem one of the best solutions is to assign a different port number to those different servers. If it seems difficult to you you can do an alternative solution.

How to solve it, Unfortunately, We did not find a suitable XML/A provider?

The best solution I found for resolving this problem is installing either xampp server or Jetty Server. But I recommend installing the Jetty server this time. It is because I have already tested this server which worked fine for me.

Following are the steps to download and install Jetty Server on your PC.

  1. Go to eclipse.org/jetty/ 
  2. Click on Download
  3. Click on 9.4.44.v20210927.zip from the list below.
  4. Extract the .zip file and place it somewhere on the desktop or the C, D, E drives.

After installing Jetty on your PC, perform the following steps

    1. Now go to the webapps folder of the Jetty.
    2. Copy the xmondrian.war file to it.
    3. Open a command prompt.
    4. Locate the Jetty folder from CMD using the cd command.
    5. After you reach the folder where you see start.jar, type the command Java -jar start.jar and press enter.

Now you have successfully started the Jetty server on your PC. After this do the following steps.

  1. Go to any web browser.
  2. Type localhost:8080 and press enter.
  3. You will see the Jetty Homepage with xmondrian listed.
  4. Click on start to run xmondrian. Now it will redirect you to Xavier’s page.
  5. Click on Xavier from the bottom of the page to navigate Xavier on xmondrian.

Congratulations!! you have successfully set up a new webserver named Jetty on which you are able to browse Xavier over xmondrian.

Conclusion Unfortunately, We did not find a suitable XML/A provider

We first understood what was the, unfortunately, we didn’t find a suitable XML/A provider problem. After that, we also found out how we installed the Tomcat web server for this purpose. But the problem was still existing.

So for this, we found an alternative for the tomcat server port number resolution. We used the Jetty webserver instead of the tomcat web server.

Please supply one in URL using the XmlaUrl querystring parameter.

We successfully set up the Jetty server and were able to run Xavier over xmondrian in the Jetty server.

Note: I recommend using xampp or Jetty server to run xmondrian on the webserver if the tomcat server is not able to run Xavier. If any other kind of problem occurs, please consider submitting your comment below his post.

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