java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/http/impl/conn/PoolingClientConnectionManager

Question

Getting an issue with this dependency although it isn't being referenced as a dependency explicitly in my pom.xml. The actual maven dependency is:

  <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
        <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
        <version>4.2.5</version>
    </dependency>

The stacktrace from my console is:

 java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/http/impl/conn/PoolingClientConnectionManager
at com.gbi.gsa.Bridge.createClient(Bridge.java:50)
at com.gbi.gsa.Bridge.<init>(Bridge.java:46)
at com.gbi.gsa.SimpleBridge.<init>(SimpleBridge.java:34)
at   com.gbi.quickstart.controller.NavigationController.handleRequestInternal(NavigationController.java:114)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.AbstractController.handleRequest(AbstractController.java:153)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.SimpleControllerHandlerAdapter.handle(SimpleControllerHandlerAdapter.java:48)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:875)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:807)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:571)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doPost(FrameworkServlet.java:511)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:755)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:848)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.handle(ServletHolder.java:669)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1336)
at org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter.doFilterInternal(CharacterEncodingFilter.java:96)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:76)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1307)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.doHandle(ServletHandler.java:453)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.handle(ScopedHandler.java:137)
at org.eclipse.jetty.security.SecurityHandler.handle(SecurityHandler.java:560)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.session.SessionHandler.doHandle(SessionHandler.java:231)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler.doHandle(ContextHandler.java:1072)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.doScope(ServletHandler.java:382)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.session.SessionHandler.doScope(SessionHandler.java:193)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler.doScope(ContextHandler.java:1006)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.handle(ScopedHandler.java:135)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandlerCollection.handle(ContextHandlerCollection.java:255)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.HandlerCollection.handle(HandlerCollection.java:154)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(HandlerWrapper.java:116)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.Server.handle(Server.java:365)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.AbstractHttpConnection.handleRequest(AbstractHttpConnection.java:485)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.AbstractHttpConnection.content(AbstractHttpConnection.java:937)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.AbstractHttpConnection$RequestHandler.content(AbstractHttpConnection.java:998)
at org.eclipse.jetty.http.HttpParser.parseNext(HttpParser.java:856)
at org.eclipse.jetty.http.HttpParser.parseAvailable(HttpParser.java:240)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.AsyncHttpConnection.handle(AsyncHttpConnection.java:82)
at org.eclipse.jetty.io.nio.SelectChannelEndPoint.handle(SelectChannelEndPoint.java:628)
at org.eclipse.jetty.io.nio.SelectChannelEndPoint$1.run(SelectChannelEndPoint.java:52)
at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.QueuedThreadPool.runJob(QueuedThreadPool.java:608)
at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.QueuedThreadPool$3.run(QueuedThreadPool.java:543)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException:   org.apache.http.impl.conn.PoolingClientConnectionManager
at   org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.strategy.SelfFirstStrategy.loadClass(SelfFirstStrategy.java:50)
at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.realm.ClassRealm.loadClass(ClassRealm.java:244)
at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.realm.ClassRealm.loadClass(ClassRealm.java:230)
at org.eclipse.jetty.webapp.WebAppClassLoader.loadClass(WebAppClassLoader.java:430)
at org.eclipse.jetty.webapp.WebAppClassLoader.loadClass(WebAppClassLoader.java:383)
... 41 more

I have tried deleting my .m2/repositories directory and downloading my dependencies (through maven) and it still doesn't work.

Solution 1

Your problem is probably nothing to do with dependencies. NoClassDefFoundError is different to ClassNotFoundException. It means that the class was available while compiling, but failed to initialise, usually due to an exception in a static block. This answer has the good oil. What causes and what are the differences between NoClassDefFoundError and ClassNotFoundException?

Solution 2

Try upgrading to 4.3

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
    <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
    <version>4.3.3</version>
</dependency>

I think the class was not present until 4.3

Solution 3

Try by changing the httpClient version from 4.2.5 to 4.3.4... It worked for me...

Comments

[kiwiron]

Look for exceptions in the log when the application starts. For some reason the class loader has located the class, but class cannot be initialized correctly. For a J2EE or web service, this may have happened days, weeks (or even longer) ago.