WinAppDriver ImmutableMap cannot be cast to org.openqa.selenium.Capabilities

Question

I am executing a test with both Selenium 9for the IE/Edge compatibility stuff) and WinAppDriver to handle a Windows file chooser dialog. Regular selenium can't handle Windows features.

I had things working fine a few years ago with an old version of our code. This old project still works. The git repositories have been updated by many users at the company so I cannot change them for my needs. So I made my own project to implement WinAppDriver by setting up and getting the driver (see below). The problem is now when I run the program I get that error message "com.google.common.collect.RegularImmutableMap cannot be cast to org.openqa.selenium.Capabilities". I got this originally in my original project but managed to fix it, I thought by using different versions of selenium-java and appium java-client. However, now not matter what versions I use I get this error. I even tried to make an immutable capabilities to start it, but I get the same error.

Here is some info. part of my pom file:

 <dependency>
        <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
        <artifactId>selenium-java</artifactId>
        <version>4.5.0</version>
        <exclusions>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>com.google.code.gson</groupId>
                <artifactId>gson</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
            <!-- <exclusion> <groupId>com.google.guava</groupId> <artifactId>guava</artifactId> 
                </exclusion> -->
        </exclusions>
</dependency>


<dependency>
        <groupId>io.appium</groupId>
        <artifactId>java-client</artifactId>
        <version>8.1.1</version>
        <exclusions>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
                <artifactId>selenium-remote-driver</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
                <artifactId>selenium-api</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
                <artifactId>selenium-support</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
        </exclusions>
</dependency>

I get the driver with the following code:

 exec = new HttpCommandExecutor(new URL("http://127.0.0.1:4723/"));
 DesiredCapabilities dcaps = new DesiredCapabilities();
 dcaps.setCapability("automationName", "Windows");
 dcaps.setCapability("app", "Root");
 dcaps.setCapability("platformName", "Windows");
 dcaps.setCapability("deviceName", "Windows PC");
 WindowsDriver app = new WindowsDriver(exec, dcaps);

I had to make my own CommandExecutor because the default one was appending something like appium: to the capabilities, but the WinAppDriver program was not looking for the "appium:". I verified this in the debug window of the WinAppDriver (that you start from Windows or via a java command: Runtime.getRuntime().exec(winAppDriver);

The exception always occurs at java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline$3$1accept (line 193):

   @Override
@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
public final <R> Stream<R> map(Function<? super P_OUT, ? extends R> mapper) {
    Objects.requireNonNull(mapper);
    return new StatelessOp<P_OUT, R>(this, StreamShape.REFERENCE,
                                 StreamOpFlag.NOT_SORTED | StreamOpFlag.NOT_DISTINCT) {
        @Override
        Sink<P_OUT> opWrapSink(int flags, Sink<R> sink) {
            return new Sink.ChainedReference<P_OUT, R>(sink) {
                @Override
                public void accept(P_OUT u) {
                    **downstream.accept(mapper.apply(u));**
                }
            };
        }
    };
}

And I have tried many different combinations of selenium-java and java-client, including ones that have worked before. I must have some sort of incompatible maven artifcats but i can't figure out what they are.

Does anyone have an idea or has encountered this?

The WinAppDriver windows application is 1.3 but I do not think that matters in this case because it does not get that far.