Spring project deployment throws ClassNotFoundException for org.apache.commons.logging.Log

Question

I have Spring Web app built with maven. I excluded commons-logging from spring to use SLF4J and Logback. But for some reason, the deployment fails with the following error

Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Lorg/apache/commons/logging/Log;
    at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredFields0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredFields(Class.java:2436)
    at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredFields(Class.java:1806)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.Introspection.getDeclaredFields(Introspection.java:106)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.WebAnnotationSet.loadFieldsAnnotation(WebAnnotationSet.java:256)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.WebAnnotationSet.loadApplicationServletAnnotations(WebAnnotationSet.java:132)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.WebAnnotationSet.loadApplicationAnnotations(WebAnnotationSet.java:65)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.applicationAnnotationsConfig(ContextConfig.java:334)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.configureStart(ContextConfig.java:774)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.lifecycleEvent(ContextConfig.java:305)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:117)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleBase.java:90)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5095)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 40 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.commons.logging.Log
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoaderBase.loadClass(WebappClassLoaderBase.java:1295)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoaderBase.loadClass(WebappClassLoaderBase.java:1147)
    ... 54 more

I'm not sure what is triggering the Apps server to look for commons logging and then complain that it can't find it. I'm trying to find out the misconfiguration in my app that could be causing this (maven's dependency tree did not show commons logging at all). Here's my Maven configuration

<!-- Spring MVC -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
            <version>${spring-framework.version}</version>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
                    <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
            <version>${spring-framework.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-jdbc</artifactId>
            <version>${spring-framework.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.data</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-data-oracle</artifactId>
        <version>1.1.0.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>

        <!-- Jackson -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
            <artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
            <version>${jackson.databind-version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- AspectJ -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
            <artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
            <version>${org.aspectj-version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- Other Web dependencies -->
<!--        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
            <version>${jstl.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
            <version>${servlet.version}</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
            <version>${jsp.version}</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
 -->
        <!-- Spring and Transactions -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-tx</artifactId>
            <version>${spring-framework.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Logging with SLF4J & LogBack -->

        <dependency>
            <groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
            <artifactId>logback-classic</artifactId>
            <version>${logback.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
            <artifactId>logback-core</artifactId>
            <version>${logback.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Test Artifacts -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-test</artifactId>
            <version>${spring-framework.version}</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>${junit.version}</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>

Dependency Tree:

I also checked for any hidden references to apache commons. But I couldn't find any. Not sure what's causing the error. I need to remove apache commons and make Spring use SLF4J and logback. Any insights are appreciated.

Answer 1

You can try to add jcl-over-slf4j dependency, this is needed according to this documentation .

<dependency>                                    
    <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>                
    <artifactId>jcl-over-slf4j</artifactId>    
    <version>${jcloverslf4j.version}</version>  
</dependency>

I hope it helps.