Spring Boot Error activating Bean Validation integration

Question

I'm trying to start my webapplication but I got those two errors:

2020-12-22 20:46:25.769  INFO 23060 --- [           main] org.hibernate.dialect.Dialect            : HHH000400: Using dialect: org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL5Dialect
2020-12-22 20:46:26.161 ERROR 23060 --- [           main] j.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean : Failed to initialize JPA EntityManagerFactory: [PersistenceUnit: default] Unable to build Hibernate SessionFactory; nested exception is org.hibernate.cfg.beanvalidation.IntegrationException: Error activating Bean Validation integration
2020-12-22 20:46:26.162  WARN 23060 --- [           main] ConfigServletWebServerApplicationContext : Exception encountered during context initialization - cancelling refresh attempt: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'entityManagerFactory' defined in class path resource [org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/orm/jpa/HibernateJpaConfiguration.class]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is javax.persistence.PersistenceException: [PersistenceUnit: default] Unable to build Hibernate SessionFactory; nested exception is org.hibernate.cfg.beanvalidation.IntegrationException: Error activating Bean Validation integration
2020-12-22 20:46:26.162  INFO 23060 --- [           main] com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource       : HikariPool-1 - Shutdown initiated...
2020-12-22 20:46:26.177  INFO 23060 --- [           main] com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource       : HikariPool-1 - Shutdown completed.
2020-12-22 20:46:26.179  INFO 23060 --- [           main] o.apache.catalina.core.StandardService   : Stopping service [Tomcat]
2020-12-22 20:46:26.191  INFO 23060 --- [           main] ConditionEvaluationReportLoggingListener : 

Error starting ApplicationContext. To display the conditions report re-run your application with 'debug' enabled.
2020-12-22 20:46:26.207 ERROR 23060 --- [           main] o.s.b.d.LoggingFailureAnalysisReporter   : 

***************************
APPLICATION FAILED TO START
***************************

Here the description of the final error output:

---

Description:

An attempt was made to call a method that does not exist. The attempt was made from the following location:

javax.el.ELManager.getExpressionFactory(ELManager.java:38)

The following method did not exist:

javax.el.ELUtil.getExpressionFactory()Ljavax/el/ExpressionFactory;

The method's class, javax.el.ELUtil, is available from the following locations:

jar:file:/C:/Users/chafy/Desktop/backend/lib/javax.servlet.jsp.jar!/javax/el/ELUtil.class
jar:file:/C:/Users/chafy/.m2/repository/org/glassfish/jakarta.el/3.0.3/jakarta.el-3.0.3.jar!/javax/el/ELUtil.class
jar:file:/C:/Users/chafy/.m2/repository/javax/el/javax.el-api/3.0.0/javax.el-api-3.0.0.jar!/javax/el/ELUtil.class
jar:file:/C:/Users/chafy/.m2/repository/org/glassfish/javax.el/3.0.0/javax.el-3.0.0.jar!/javax/el/ELUtil.class

The class hierarchy was loaded from the following locations:

javax.el.ELUtil: file:/C:/Users/chafy/Desktop/backend/lib/javax.servlet.jsp.jar

Action:

Correct the classpath of your application so that it contains a single, compatible version of javax.el.ELUtil

---

Here my dependecies:

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.google.code.findbugs</groupId>
            <artifactId>annotations</artifactId>
            <version>3.0.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-redis</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-mail</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-security</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-thymeleaf</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.thymeleaf.extras</groupId>
            <artifactId>thymeleaf-extras-springsecurity5</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.jsonwebtoken</groupId>
            <artifactId>jjwt-api</artifactId>
            <version>0.11.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-validation</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.jsonwebtoken</groupId>
            <artifactId>jjwt-impl</artifactId>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
            <version>0.11.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.jsonwebtoken</groupId>
            <artifactId>jjwt-jackson</artifactId>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
            <version>0.11.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- TimeAgo related dependencies-->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.github.marlonlom</groupId>
            <artifactId>timeago</artifactId>
            <version>4.0.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
            <artifactId>kotlin-stdlib-jdk8</artifactId>
            <version>${kotlin.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-validation</artifactId>
            <version>2.4.0</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
            <artifactId>kotlin-test</artifactId>
            <version>${kotlin.version}</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-c3p0</artifactId>
            <version>5.4.26.Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.module</groupId>
            <artifactId>jackson-module-kotlin</artifactId>
            <version>2.12.0</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>mysql</groupId>
            <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
            <artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
            <version>1.18.0</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-security-test</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.el</groupId>
            <artifactId>javax.el-api</artifactId>
            <version>3.0.0</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.glassfish</groupId>
            <artifactId>javax.el</artifactId>
            <version>3.0.0</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
            <version>5.4.3.Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.xml.bind</groupId>
            <artifactId>jaxb-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.0</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

And here my application.properties:

# ===============================
# = DATA SOURCE
# ===============================
spring.datasource.driver-class-name=com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver
spring.datasource.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/cuberil?useUnicode=true&useJDBCCompliantTimezoneShift=true&useLegacyDatetimeCode=false&serverTimezone=UTC
spring.datasource.username=root
spring.datasource.password=Charigan99./
# Keep the connection alive if idle for a long time (needed in production)
spring.datasource.testWhileIdle=true
spring.datasource.validationQuery=SELECT 1
spring.datasource.initialization-mode=always
# ===============================
# = JPA / HIBERNATE
# ===============================
# Use spring.jpa.properties.* for Hibernate native properties (the prefix is
# stripped before adding them to the entity manager).
# Show or not log for each sql query
spring.jpa.show-sql=true
# Hibernate ddl auto (create, create-drop, update): with "update" the database
# schema will be automatically updated accordingly to java entities found in
# the project
spring.jpa.hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto=update
spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.show_sql=true
spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.format_sql=true
# Allows Hibernate to generate SQL optimized for a particular DBMS
spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.dialect=org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL5Dialect
spring.jpa.generate-ddl=true
# Mail Properties
spring.mail.host=smtp.mailtrap.io
spring.mail.port=25
spring.mail.username=<your-smtp-username>
spring.mail.password=<your-smtp-password>
spring.mail.protocol=smtp

I tried to resolve it by adding manies depedencies but nothing. Some persons tells that it's a servlet version problem but it's not.

Answer 1

So, I do not know the exact problem, but perhaps I can give you a couple of things to look at and/or try.

In general, the servlet, jsp, and el libraries should be provided by your container. So, I would consider, adding the <scope>provided</scope> to your different servlet libraries:

<!-- Provided by Tomcat Container -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>javax.el</groupId>
    <artifactId>javax.el-api</artifactId>
    <version>3.0.0</version>
    <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>javax.xml.bind</groupId>
    <artifactId>jaxb-api</artifactId>
    <version>2.3.0</version>
    <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>

And since you are using Tomcat, I would remove the direct usage of the org.glassfish.javax.el library. I think each container provides their own implementation of the el library and having a second library could cause classpath issues.

(Most likely) Remove from pom.xml:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.glassfish</groupId>
    <artifactId>javax.el</artifactId>
    <version>3.0.0</version>
</dependency>

Hibernate Validator is a bit of a pain too. From this answer on a similar problem :

Hibernate Validator 6.x -> Bean Validation 2.0 (JSR 380) -> EL3.0

Hibernate Validator 5.x -> Bean Validation 1.1 (JSR 349) -> EL2.2

Bean Validation 1.0 (JSR 303) -> (I'm not sure)

So, in theory, you should be using the Hibernate Validator 6 instead of version 5 like you are now.