Spring mvc 4 hello world example throws javax.servlet.ServletException: Failed to instantiate WebApplicationInitializer class

Question

I was trying to run spring web mvc application without using any xml configuration. I am trying replace all my configuration to annotation based configuration listed in spring 4

I faced some exception like

javax.servlet.ServletException: Failed to instantiate WebApplicationInitializer class
at org.springframework.web.SpringServletContainerInitializer.onStartup(SpringServletContainerInitializer.java:160)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5178)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1419)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1409)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)

Caused by: java.lang.Error: Unresolved compilation problem: 
The type org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigRegistry cannot be resolved. It is indirectly referenced from required .class files

at com.candidjava.spring.configuration.SpringWebIntializer.<init>(SpringWebIntializer.java:18)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:62)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:423)
at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:442)
at org.springframework.web.SpringServletContainerInitializer.onStartup(SpringServletContainerInitializer.java:157)
... 8 more
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoaderBase.loadClass(WebappClassLoaderBase.java:1285)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoaderBase.loadClass(WebappClassLoaderBase.java:1119)
at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.loadClass(DefaultInstanceManager.java:520)
at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.loadClassMaybePrivileged(DefaultInstanceManager.java:501)
at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.newInstance(DefaultInstanceManager.java:118)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4649)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5189)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1419)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1409)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)

The below dependency is added for spring 4 web mvc example

<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/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.candidjava.spring</groupId>
<artifactId>spring4helloworld</artifactId>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>spring4helloworld</name>
<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
<dependencies>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>jstl</groupId>
        <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
        <version>1.2</version>
        <scope>compile</scope>
    </dependency> <!-- Spring Core -->
    <!-- Servlet 3.1 -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
        <version>3.1.0</version>
    </dependency>

    <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.springframework/spring-context -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.2.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>


    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
        <version>4.2.2.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>



</dependencies>
<build>

    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-eclipse-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.9</version>
            <configuration>
                <downloadSources>true</downloadSources>
                <downloadJavadocs>false</downloadJavadocs>
                <wtpversion>2.0</wtpversion>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>3.1</version>
            <configuration>
                <source>1.8</source>
                <target>1.8</target>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <webResources>
                    <resource>
                        <directory>${project.build.sourceDirectory}</directory>
                        <targetPath>WEB-INF/classes</targetPath>
                    </resource>
                </webResources>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>

    <finalName>spring4helloworld</finalName>
</build>

Can any one tell me why i am facing such issue and how to fix it

Answer 1

Remove the below dependency from your pom.xml

<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.springframework/spring-context -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
    <version>3.0.2.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>

Spring web-mvc dependency itself enough to download spring-context and other related jars

Currently your spring-context dependency is getting conflict with other jars

Follow this tutorial to run a clean spring mvc hello world example using java based configuration.

You can find more spring guides on spring official site.