Tomcat, java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet

Question

I'm trying to use spring-mvc. Create maven project, add dependency. I am using tomcat 7, and eclipse luna. And I have this exception:

java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1720) at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1571) at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.loadClass(DefaultInstanceManager.java:506) at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.loadClassMaybePrivileged(DefaultInstanceManager.java:488) at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.newInstance(DefaultInstanceManager.java:115) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1148) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:1087) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:5262) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5550) at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1575) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1565) at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source) at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

I tried to find solution of this problem. But all solutions that I found are identical, something like this: https://stackoverflow.com/a/12910916/3601615 but this didn't help me. May be I did something wrong?

it's my pom file dependency:

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
        <version>4.1.4.RELEASE</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
        <version>4.1.4.RELEASE</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
        <version>4.1.4.RELEASE</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
        <version>4.1.4.RELEASE</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

and my web.xml :

<servlet>
    <servlet-name>HelloWeb</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>
        org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet
    </servlet-class>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>HelloWeb</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Answer 1

Remove <scope>provided</scope> from any dependency that isnt provided by tomcat. This tag keeps maven from exporting dependency. It is used for dependencies that are provided by target system and dont need to be exported (In your case any lib found in tomcat7dir/lib).

Answer 2

You should use 'provided' scope only when you are aware that your tomcat lib folder has already having that library. Otherwise you may end up issues by having the same jar twice in the classpath. In your case you should use 'compile' scope which is default.

From maven documenation - Provided : This is much like compile, but indicates you expect the JDK or a container to provide the dependency at runtime. For example, when building a web application for the Java Enterprise Edition, you would set the dependency on the Servlet API and related Java EE APIs to scope provided because the web container provides those classes. This scope is only available on the compilation and test classpath, and is not transitive.