OpenNLP: Class file has wrong version 55.0, should be 52.0

Question

I'm using Open NLP (Version apache-opennlp-2.2.0) library in IntelliJ IDEA version 17.0.6, but I get the following message:

java: cannot access opennlp.tools.namefind.NameFinderME
  bad class file: /C:/Users/HaMza/IdeaProjects/JournalOff/.idea/libraries/opennlp-tools-2.2.0/opennlp-tools-2.2.0.jar!/opennlp/tools/namefind/NameFinderME.class
    class file has wrong version 55.0, should be 52.0
    Please remove or make sure it appears in the correct subdirectory of the classpath.

I did try to download neweer versions of Open NLP but i keep getting the same message.

Answer 1

Class file format 52 corresponds to Java 8, 55 corresponds to Java 11.

Your application is failing to build because you are trying to use a library compiled for Java 11 with a project configured to use Java 8.

Make sure that you are using an up-to-date version of Java (e.g., the latest LTS version - JDK 17 as of 2023-05-28). Then configure your project and build tools accordingly.

In IntelliJ you will likely want to change the project's SDK and language level. For more information on how to do this, have a look at IDEA's documentation on SDKs.