java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/springframework/context/EnvironmentAware

Question

I'm creating a web application using spring mvc. I have started to incorporate the Spring Security libraries. I'm now getting the following error in the tomcat log when I try to deploy it to tomcat with eclipse.

I'm using the following jar versions in my library

• spring framework version 3.1.1.RELEASE
• spring framework security version 3.1.0.RELEASE

I'm also using STS version of eclipse, maven and vmware vfabric tc Server (bundled with sts).

Here's the tomcat log

    SEVERE: Exception starting filter springSecurityFilterChain
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/springframework/context/EnvironmentAware
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:631)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:615)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.findClassInternal(WebappClassLoader.java:2820)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.findClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1150)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1645)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1523)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:631)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:615)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.findClassInternal(WebappClassLoader.java:2820)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.findClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1150)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1645)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1523)
at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.loadClass(DefaultInstanceManager.java:415)
at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.loadClassMaybePrivileged(DefaultInstanceManager.java:397)
at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.newInstance(DefaultInstanceManager.java:118)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterConfig.getFilter(ApplicationFilterConfig.java:252)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterConfig.setFilterDef(ApplicationFilterConfig.java:372)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterConfig.<init>(ApplicationFilterConfig.java:98)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.filterStart(StandardContext.java:4584)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext$2.call(StandardContext.java:5262)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext$2.call(StandardContext.java:5257)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:680)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.context.EnvironmentAware
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1678)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1523)
... 30 more

and here's my web.xml file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5">
<!--
    Display Name is used vides a short name for the application, 
    which will be displayed in the Tomcat Manager application.
    When used in <security-constraint>, this tag provides a name 
    for the security constraint.  
-->
<display-name>ImaginateFramework</display-name>

<welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>
<servlet>
    <servlet-name>spring</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>
        org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet
    </servlet-class>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>spring</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>spring</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>*.html|*.htm|*.xhtm|*.jsp|*.jsf|*.php|*.pl|*.cf</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>


<!-- Security Config -->
<filter>
    <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class>
</filter>

<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>

and here's my spring-servlet.xml file

<?xml  version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:security="http://www.springframework.org/schema/security"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xmlns:jee="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee" xmlns:lang="http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang"
xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p" xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
xmlns:util="http://www.springframework.org/schema/util" xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.1.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee/spring-jee.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang http://www.springframework.org/schema/lang/spring-lang.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/util http://www.springframework.org/schema/util/spring-util.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.1.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/security
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/security/spring-security-3.1.xsd">

<security:ldap-server />
<security:http auto-config='true'>
    <security:intercept-url pattern="/**" access="ROLE_USER" />
</security:http>
<security:authentication-manager>
    <security:authentication-provider>
        <security:user-service>
            <security:user name="admin" password="password"
                authorities="ROLE_USER, ROLE_ADMIN" />
            <security:user name="bob" password="bob" authorities="ROLE_USER" />
        </security:user-service>
    </security:authentication-provider>
</security:authentication-manager>


<context:annotation-config />
<context:component-scan base-package="com.imaginatelabs.imaginate_framework.mvc" />
<mvc:annotation-driven />
<mvc:resources location="/images/" mapping="/images/**" />
<mvc:resources location="/scripts/" mapping="/scripts/**" />
<mvc:resources location="/themes/" mapping="/themes/**" />
<mvc:interceptors>
    <bean id="localeChangeInterceptor"
        class="org.springframework.web.servlet.i18n.LocaleChangeInterceptor">
        <property name="paramName" value="lang" />
    </bean>
    <bean id="themeChangeInterceptor"
        class="org.springframework.web.servlet.theme.ThemeChangeInterceptor">
        <property name="paramName" value="theme" />
    </bean>
</mvc:interceptors>

<bean id="jspViewResolver"
    class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
    <property name="viewClass"
        value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView" />
    <property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/" />
    <property name="suffix" value=".jsp" />
    <property name="order" value="1" />
</bean>

<bean id="propertyConfigurer"
    class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer"
    p:location="/WEB-INF/jdbc.properties" />

<bean id="dataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource"
    destroy-method="close" p:driverClassName="${jdbc.driverClassName}"
    p:url="${jdbc.databaseurl}" p:username="${jdbc.username}" p:password="${jdbc.password}" />

<!-- Hibernate Components -->
<bean id="sessionFactory"
    class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalSessionFactoryBean">
    <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource" />
    <property name="configLocation">
        <value>classpath:hibernate.cfg.xml</value>
    </property>
    <property name="configurationClass">
        <value>org.hibernate.cfg.AnnotationConfiguration</value>
    </property>
    <property name="hibernateProperties">
        <props>
            <prop key="hibernate.dialect">${jdbc.dialect}</prop>
            <prop key="hibernate.show_sql">true</prop>
        </props>
    </property>
</bean>

<tx:annotation-driven />
<bean id="transactionManager"
    class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTransactionManager">
    <property name="sessionFactory" ref="sessionFactory" />
</bean>

<!-- Tiles Components -->
<bean id="tilesViewResolver"
    class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.UrlBasedViewResolver">
    <property name="viewClass"
        value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesView" />
    <property name="order" value="0" />
</bean>
<bean id="tilesConfigurer"
    class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesConfigurer">
    <property name="definitions">
        <list>
            <value>/WEB-INF/tiles.xml</value>
        </list>
    </property>
</bean>
<!-- Language Components -->

<bean id="messageSource"
    class="org.springframework.context.support.ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource">
    <property name="basename" value="classpath:messages" />
    <property name="defaultEncoding" value="UTF-8" />
</bean>

<bean id="localeResolver"
    class="org.springframework.web.servlet.i18n.CookieLocaleResolver">
    <property name="defaultLocale" value="en" />
</bean>

<!-- Theme Components -->
<bean id="themeSource"
    class="org.springframework.ui.context.support.ResourceBundleThemeSource">
    <property name="basenamePrefix" value="theme-" />
    <!-- Can I configure this to look in a directory on the server? -->
</bean>

<bean id="themeResolver"
    class="org.springframework.web.servlet.theme.CookieThemeResolver">
    <property name="defaultThemeName" value="default" />
</bean>

(edit) pom.xml

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>myapp</groupId>
<artifactId>MyApp</artifactId>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>App</name>
<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.1.1</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.2</version>
            <configuration>
                <source>1.6</source>
                <target>1.6</target>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>
<properties>
    <org.springframework.version>3.1.1.RELEASE</org.springframework.version>
    <org.springframework.security.version>3.1.0.RELEASE</org.springframework.security.version>
    <org.apache.tiles>3.0.0</org.apache.tiles>
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
</properties>
<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-beanutils</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-beanutils</artifactId>
        <version>1.8.0</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-digester</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-digester</artifactId>
        <version>2.0</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>log4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
        <version>1.2.16</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
        <version>1.5.8</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
        <version>1.4.2</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.tiles</groupId>
        <artifactId>tiles-api</artifactId>
        <version>${org.apache.tiles}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.tiles</groupId>
        <artifactId>tiles-core</artifactId>
        <version>${org.apache.tiles}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.tiles</groupId>
        <artifactId>tiles-jsp</artifactId>
        <version>${org.apache.tiles}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.tiles</groupId>
        <artifactId>tiles-servlet</artifactId>
        <version>${org.apache.tiles}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.tiles</groupId>
        <artifactId>tiles-template</artifactId>
        <version>${org.apache.tiles}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
        <version>2.5</version>
    </dependency>
    <!-- 
    <dependency> 
        <groupId>org.springframework.webflow</groupId> 
        <artifactId>spring-webflow</artifactId> 
        <version>2.3.1.RELEASE</version> 
    </dependency> 
    -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-security-web</artifactId>
        <version>${org.springframework.security.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-security-config</artifactId>
        <version>${org.springframework.security.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-beans</artifactId>
        <version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-jdbc</artifactId>
        <version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
        <version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
        <version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-orm</artifactId>
        <version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-entitymanager</artifactId>
        <version>3.4.0.GA</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>taglibs</groupId>
        <artifactId>standard</artifactId>
        <version>1.1.2</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
        <version>1.2</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>mysql</groupId>
        <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
        <version>5.1.10</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-dbcp</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-dbcp</artifactId>
        <version>20030825.184428</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-pool</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-pool</artifactId>
        <version>20030825.183949</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
        <version>3.1</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Solution

EnvironmentAware is located in the spring-context-3.1.1.RELEASE.jar, so you are missing that one.

Also recheck your Maven POM file so that you are not missing any other Spring library, like spring-web, spring-webmvc (you may have these since the DispatcherServlet class if found), spring-orm if you use an ORM like Hibernate, spring-jms if you use JMS, etc.

Comments

[ImaginateWayne]

That was it! I also had to add spring-core to my pom.xml also. I used jarvana.com to figure that out. What were you using?

[Luciano]

I've worked with Spring for so long that I know where is almost anything, but still here are a few tips: 1) If the missing class has a package org.springframework.XXX, then most likely it's in a JAR named spring-XXX-(versionnumber).jar. 2) You can have an empty project that contains all Spring JARs, and then using an IDE like Eclipse you find out where any class is when you open it.

[Ali]

@Luciano That was very valuable info. Thanks