IntelliJ with spring-boot-jetty-jsp

Question

I'm trying to run the spring-boot-jetty-jsp sample. It works from the command line using mvn jetty:run but when I try it in IntelliJ I get this error:

2016-07-16 02:54:25.150  INFO 19012 --- [           main] s.jetty.jsp.SampleJettyJspApplication    : Starting SampleJettyJspApplication on dac-Latitude-E7450 with PID 19012 (/home/dac/proj/spring-boot-master/spring-boot-samples/spring-boot-sample-jetty-jsp/target/classes started by dac in /home/dac/proj/spring-boot-master/spring-boot-samples/spring-boot-sample-jetty-jsp)
2016-07-16 02:54:25.153  INFO 19012 --- [           main] s.jetty.jsp.SampleJettyJspApplication    : No active profile set, falling back to default profiles: default
2016-07-16 02:54:25.252  INFO 19012 --- [           main] s.c.a.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext : Refreshing org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext@3ad83a66: startup date [Sat Jul 16 02:54:25 CEST 2016]; root of context hierarchy
2016-07-16 02:54:25.402  WARN 19012 --- [           main] s.c.a.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext : Exception encountered during context initialization - cancelling refresh attempt: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Failed to parse configuration class [sample.jetty.jsp.SampleJettyJspApplication]; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to introspect annotated methods on class org.springframework.boot.web.support.SpringBootServletInitializer
2016-07-16 02:54:25.426 ERROR 19012 --- [           main] o.s.boot.SpringApplication               : Application startup failed

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Failed to parse configuration class [sample.jetty.jsp.SampleJettyJspApplication]; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to introspect annotated methods on class org.springframework.boot.web.support.SpringBootServletInitializer
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassParser.parse(ConfigurationClassParser.java:187) ~[spring-context-4.3.2.BUILD-20160715.204924-12.jar:4.3.2.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassPostProcessor.processConfigBeanDefinitions(ConfigurationClassPostProcessor.java:321) ~[spring-context-4.3.2.BUILD-20160715.204924-12.jar:4.3.2.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassPostProcessor.postProcessBeanDefinitionRegistry(ConfigurationClassPostProcessor.java:243) ~[spring-context-4.3.2.BUILD-20160715.204924-12.jar:4.3.2.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    at org.springframework.context.support.PostProcessorRegistrationDelegate.invokeBeanDefinitionRegistryPostProcessors(PostProcessorRegistrationDelegate.java:273) ~[spring-context-4.3.2.BUILD-20160715.204924-12.jar:4.3.2.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    at org.springframework.context.support.PostProcessorRegistrationDelegate.invokeBeanFactoryPostProcessors(PostProcessorRegistrationDelegate.java:98) ~[spring-context-4.3.2.BUILD-20160715.204924-12.jar:4.3.2.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.invokeBeanFactoryPostProcessors(AbstractApplicationContext.java:681) ~[spring-context-4.3.2.BUILD-20160715.204924-12.jar:4.3.2.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:523) ~[spring-context-4.3.2.BUILD-20160715.204924-12.jar:4.3.2.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refresh(SpringApplication.java:759) [spring-boot-1.4.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT.jar:1.4.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refreshContext(SpringApplication.java:369) [spring-boot-1.4.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT.jar:1.4.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:313) [spring-boot-1.4.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT.jar:1.4.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1185) [spring-boot-1.4.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT.jar:1.4.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1174) [spring-boot-1.4.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT.jar:1.4.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    at sample.jetty.jsp.SampleJettyJspApplication.main(SampleJettyJspApplication.java:33) [classes/:na]
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to introspect annotated methods on class org.springframework.boot.web.support.SpringBootServletInitializer
    at org.springframework.core.type.StandardAnnotationMetadata.getAnnotatedMethods(StandardAnnotationMetadata.java:163) ~[spring-core-4.3.2.BUILD-20160715.204924-12.jar:4.3.2.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassParser.doProcessConfigurationClass(ConfigurationClassParser.java:301) ~[spring-context-4.3.2.BUILD-20160715.204924-12.jar:4.3.2.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassParser.processConfigurationClass(ConfigurationClassParser.java:237) ~[spring-context-4.3.2.BUILD-20160715.204924-12.jar:4.3.2.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassParser.parse(ConfigurationClassParser.java:204) ~[spring-context-4.3.2.BUILD-20160715.204924-12.jar:4.3.2.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassParser.parse(ConfigurationClassParser.java:173) ~[spring-context-4.3.2.BUILD-20160715.204924-12.jar:4.3.2.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    ... 12 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/servlet/ServletContext
    at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods0(Native Method) ~[na:1.8.0_91]
    at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredMethods(Class.java:2701) ~[na:1.8.0_91]
    at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods(Class.java:1975) ~[na:1.8.0_91]
    at org.springframework.core.type.StandardAnnotationMetadata.getAnnotatedMethods(StandardAnnotationMetadata.java:152) ~[spring-core-4.3.2.BUILD-20160715.204924-12.jar:4.3.2.BUILD-SNAPSHOT]
    ... 16 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: javax.servlet.ServletContext
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:381) ~[na:1.8.0_91]
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424) ~[na:1.8.0_91]
    at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:331) ~[na:1.8.0_91]
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357) ~[na:1.8.0_91]
    ... 20 common frames omitted

Disconnected from the target VM, address: '127.0.0.1:36461', transport: 'socket'

Process finished with exit code 1

It is possible to create a maven configuration in IntelliJ and run the jetty:run argument with that configuration, then it works. But what does the above error mean?

Answer 1

It's because the example lists Jetty starter dependency as provided so IntelliJ does not include it in your module, making ServletContext class unavailable, thus causing the NoClassDefFound exception.

Change the definition of spring-boot-starter-jetty dependency in your pom.xml file:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-jetty</artifactId>
    <!--<scope>provided</scope>-->
</dependency>

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.eclipse.jetty</groupId>
    <artifactId>apache-jsp</artifactId>
    <!--<scope>provided</scope>-->
</dependency>

and refresh/reimport the maven project in IntelliJ.

Alternatively, if you do not wish to change the example code, you can manually edit the dependencies in your module's settings in IntelliJ - simply change all Provided dependencies to Compile and it should yield a similar result.