Exception org.springframework.beans.factory.CannotLoadBeanClassException: Cannot find class

Question

I have been struggling with this error for quite few days. I have a maven based project in eclipse. I am trying to deploy the application in Tomcat. My versions are : Java : JDK 1.7.0_55 Eclipse : Luna Maven : 3.2.1 Tomcat : 7.0.54

While maven creates the war file properly and gets deployed in standalone Tomcat successfully. The same does not work while I try to publish it within Eclipse.

I receive the following error.

SEVERE: Context initialization failed
org.springframework.beans.factory.CannotLoadBeanClassException: Cannot find class [com.test.testhr.dao.EmployeeDAO] for bean with name 'employeeDAO' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]; nested exception is java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.test.testhr.dao.EmployeeDAO
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.resolveBeanClass(AbstractBeanFactory.java:1327)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.predictBeanType(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:594)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.isFactoryBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:1396)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.isFactoryBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:959)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:683)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:760)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:482)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:403)
    at org.springframewor

My web.xml looks like below

<?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">

    <context-param>  
        <param-name>primefaces.THEME</param-name>  
        <param-value>aristo</param-value>  
    </context-param> 
    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>FacesServlet</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>FacesServlet</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/faces/*</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>
    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <filter>
        <filter-name>AuthenticationFilter</filter-name>
        <filter-class>com.test.testhr.core.ui.servlet.AuthenticationFilter</filter-class>
    </filter>

    <filter-mapping>
        <filter-name>AuthenticationFilter</filter-name>
        <url-pattern>/faces/*</url-pattern>
    </filter-mapping>

    <listener>
        <listener-class>
        org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
        </listener-class>
    </listener> 

</web-app>

My applicationContext.xml looks like below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
    xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
                        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
                        http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx                        
                        http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-3.0.xsd
                        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
                        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

    <bean id="entityManagerFactory"
        class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean">
        <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource" />
        <property name="loadTimeWeaver">
            <bean
                class="org.springframework.instrument.classloading.InstrumentationLoadTimeWeaver" />
        </property>
        <property name="persistenceXmlLocation" value="WEB-INF/persistence.xml" />
        <property name="persistenceUnitName" value="myUnit" />
        <property name="persistenceProviderClass" value="org.hibernate.ejb.HibernatePersistence" />
        <property name="jpaVendorAdapter">
            <bean class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.HibernateJpaVendorAdapter" />
        </property>
        <property name="jpaProperties">
            <props>
                <prop key="hibernate.dialect">org.hibernate.dialect.Oracle10gDialect</prop>
                <prop key="showSql">true</prop>
            </props>
        </property>
    </bean>

    <tx:annotation-driven transaction-manager="transactionManager"
        proxy-target-class="false" />

    <bean id="transactionManager" class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.JpaTransactionManager">
        <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource" />
        <property name="entityManagerFactory" ref="entityManagerFactory" />
    </bean>
    <bean id="dataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource"
        destroy-method="close">
        <property name="driverClassName" value="oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver" />
        <property name="url" value="jdbc:oracle:thin:@//localhost:1521/orclktlt" />
        <property name="username" value="testhr" />
        <property name="password" value="testhr" />
    </bean>

    <context:component-scan base-package="com" />

    <!-- Declare DAO -->
    <bean id="genericDAO" class="com.test.testhr.dao.GenericDAO"
        abstract="true" />
    <bean id="employeeDAO" class="com.test.testhr.dao.EmployeeDAO"
        parent="genericDAO" />
    <bean id="userDAO" class=" com.test.testhr.dao.UserDAO" parent="genericDAO" />
    <bean id="departmentDAO" class=" com.test.testhr.dao.DepartmentDAO"
        parent="genericDAO" />
    <bean id="streamDAO" class="com.test.testhr.dao.StreamDAO"
        parent="genericDAO" />
    <bean id="lookupCodeDAO" class="com.test.testhr.dao.LookupCodeDAO"
        parent="genericDAO" />



    <!-- Declare Services -->
    <bean id="employeeService" class="com.test.testhr.service.employee.EmployeeService">
        <!-- <property name="employeeDAO" ref="employeeDAO" /> -->
    </bean>
    <bean id="logInService" class="com.test.testhr.service.authentication.LogInService" />
    <bean id="departmentService" class="com.test.testhr.service.settings.DepartmentService">
        <!-- <property name="departmentDAO" ref="departmentDAO" /> -->
    </bean>
    <bean id="streamService" class="com.test.testhr.service.settings.StreamService">
        <!-- <property name="streamDAO" ref="streamDAO" /> -->
    </bean>
    <bean id="lookupCodeService" class="com.test.testhr.service.settings.LookupCodeService">
        <!-- <property name="lookupCodeDAO" ref="lookupCodeDAO" /> -->
    </bean>

    <bean id="userService" class="com.test.testhr.service.user.UserService">
        <!-- <property name="userDAO" ref="userDAO" /> -->
    </bean>

    <!-- Other utility classes -->

    <!-- <bean id="lookupCodeCacheUtil" class="com.test.testhr.cache.util.LookupCodeCacheUtil"/> -->
    <!-- <bean id="variableContext" class="com.test.testhr.system.VariableContext" 
        scope="prototype" /> -->

    <!-- Security configuration -->
    <!-- <bean id="abstractEncrypptor" class="com.test.testhr.security.encryption.AbstractEncrypptor" 
        abstract="true"> -->
    <!-- <property name="password" value="test" /> -->
    <!-- <property name="pswdIterations" value="65536" /> -->
    <!-- <property name="keySize" value="256" /> -->
    <!-- </bean> -->
</beans>    

Can someone help?

Answer 1

Because:

org.springframework.beans.factory.CannotLoadBeanClassException: Cannot find class [com.test.testhr.dao.EmployeeDAO]

means that the com.test.testhr.dao.EmployeeDAO.class can't be found, have you checked that such class doesn't exists inside the war generated by your IDE Maven plugin?