NoClassDefFoundError for compile dependencies brought in externally as files

[ascertrobw]

Several of our compile dependencies are brought in as file JARs from an external project -

dependencies {
...
compile files("${vtmp_home}/lib/vt/propsmgr.jar")
...
}

Definitely a little unorthodox I know!

These seem to not get picked up on the osgi-ds classpath scanning, as I see a NoClassDefFoundError when osgi-ds scans a source that references them as a service e.g.

Task :proj:db:jooqDAL:generateDeclarativeServicesDescriptors
NoClassDefFoundError: com/ascert/vt/modules/propsmgr/ExtendedPropertyService

My guess is that because these are compiled classes inside a pre-built JAR, they probably don't automatically get expanded into the classpath - although oddly, we hit no issues in the regular compileJava task with this approach.

Obviously not expecting a quick response given I haven't had time to create a cut-down example of this (mid code crunch time!). Just flagging for information as and when issues are being looked at.