java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: javax.persistence.spi.PersistenceProvider

Question

I m having an application using JPA with Hibernate trying to deploy it on a Tomcat 7. It seems that I dont include all the libraries correctly since I get the following stack error:

SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet [Faces Servlet] in context with path [/amazontestapplcation] threw exception [java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/persistence/spi/PersistenceProvider] with root cause
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: javax.persistence.spi.PersistenceProvider
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
    at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$000(Unknown Source)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.forName(Unknown Source)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1698)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1556)
    at javax.persistence.spi.PersistenceProviderResolverHolder$PersistenceProviderResolverPerClassLoader$CachingPersistenceProviderResolver.loadResolverClasses(PersistenceProviderResolverHolder.java:150)
    at javax.persistence.spi.PersistenceProviderResolverHolder$PersistenceProviderResolverPerClassLoader$CachingPersistenceProviderResolver.<init>(PersistenceProviderResolverHolder.java:130)
    at javax.persistence.spi.PersistenceProviderResolverHolder$PersistenceProviderResolverPerClassLoader.getPersistenceProviders(PersistenceProviderResolverHolder.java:88)
    at javax.persistence.Persistence.getProviders(Persistence.java:75)
    at javax.persistence.Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory(Persistence.java:61)
    at javax.persistence.Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory(Persistence.java:47)
    at com.example.service.EMFService.<clinit>(EMFService.java:8)
    at com.example.service.UserHandler.getAllUsers(UserHandler.java:30)
    at com.example.managedbeans.LoginBean.authenticate(LoginBean.java:51)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at org.apache.el.parser.AstValue.invoke(AstValue.java:264)
    at org.apache.el.MethodExpressionImpl.invoke(MethodExpressionImpl.java:278)
    at com.sun.faces.facelets.el.TagMethodExpression.invoke(TagMethodExpression.java:105)
    at javax.faces.component.MethodBindingMethodExpressionAdapter.invoke(MethodBindingMethodExpressionAdapter.java:88)
    at com.sun.faces.application.ActionListenerImpl.processAction(ActionListenerImpl.java:102)
    at javax.faces.component.UICommand.broadcast(UICommand.java:315)
    at javax.faces.component.UIViewRoot.broadcastEvents(UIViewRoot.java:794)
    at javax.faces.component.UIViewRoot.processApplication(UIViewRoot.java:1259)
    at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.InvokeApplicationPhase.execute(InvokeApplicationPhase.java:81)
    at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.Phase.doPhase(Phase.java:101)
    at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl.execute(LifecycleImpl.java:118)
    at javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet.service(FacesServlet.java:593)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:305)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:225)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:169)
    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:472)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:168)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:98)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:927)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:407)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:999)
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:565)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:309)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(Unknown Source)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

You can see my WEB-INF/lib folder:

I also include these jars in my build path. Could anyone gimme an idea why the javax.persistence.spi.PersistenceProvider is not loaded?

EDIT: i also inlucde my pom.xml file:

<dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate.javax.persistence</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-jpa-2.0-api</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.1.Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
            <version>4.1.0.Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-entitymanager</artifactId>
            <version>4.1.0.Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax</groupId>
            <artifactId>javaee-api</artifactId>
            <version>6.0</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>mysql</groupId>
            <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
            <version>5.1.18</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

I only managed to get it working when I inlcuded the required jars in the Tomcat lib folder. But this is not a neat solution for me. I prefer inlude the hibernate lib only in the current project.

UPDATE: I Also inlcude the whole structure of the project

UPDATE: Well I still get the same error. I removed all jars from the WEB-IN/lib and I added them as dependencies in the pom file. I post the updated pom.xml file:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate-entitymanager</artifactId>
    <version>4.1.4.Final</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.hibernate.javax.persistence</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate-jpa-2.0-api</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.1.Final</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
    <version>4.1.4.Final</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>mysql</groupId>
    <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
    <version>5.1.21</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
    <artifactId>slf4j-jdk14</artifactId>
    <version>1.5.8</version>
</dependency>

I Also upload a pic of the content of my classpath:

Anybody could tell me why my app still cannot load the persistence class?

Answer 1

I only managed to get it working when I inlcuded the required jars in the Tomcat lib folder. But this is not a neat solution for me. I prefer inlude the hibernate lib only in the current project.

Required jars have to be included in the lib folder, there is no way around (unless you want to change the Tomcat configuration, what you shouldn't do).

Regarding our comments to your question: You should think about setting up an automated build process (with a built war file) so you don't have to copy around files by hand (also this will surely make your question needless).