Spring application is unable to create DataSource bean using jndi and a running Tomcat 7 server

Question

I am getting a BeanCreationException when I am trying to use Spring and jndi in my application. I am using these files :

For Tomcat 7 :

server.xml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<!--
  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
  The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
  (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
  the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at

      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
  limitations under the License.
-->
<!-- Note:  A "Server" is not itself a "Container", so you may not
     define subcomponents such as "Valves" at this level.
     Documentation at /docs/config/server.html
 -->
<Server port="8005" shutdown="SHUTDOWN">
  <!-- Security listener. Documentation at /docs/config/listeners.html
  <Listener className="org.apache.catalina.security.SecurityListener" />
  -->
  <!--APR library loader. Documentation at /docs/apr.html -->
  <Listener className="org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener" SSLEngine="on" />
  <!--Initialize Jasper prior to webapps are loaded. Documentation at /docs/jasper-howto.html -->
  <Listener className="org.apache.catalina.core.JasperListener" />
  <!-- Prevent memory leaks due to use of particular java/javax APIs-->
  <Listener className="org.apache.catalina.core.JreMemoryLeakPreventionListener" />
  <Listener className="org.apache.catalina.mbeans.GlobalResourcesLifecycleListener" />
  <Listener className="org.apache.catalina.core.ThreadLocalLeakPreventionListener" />

  <!-- Global JNDI resources
       Documentation at /docs/jndi-resources-howto.html
  -->
  <GlobalNamingResources>
    <!-- Editable user database that can also be used by
         UserDatabaseRealm to authenticate users
    -->
    <Resource name="jdbc/SpringMvcDatabase" auth="Container"
              type="javax.sql.DataSource"
              description="User database that can be updated and saved"
              username="root" password="myPassword"
              url="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/SpringMvcDatabase"
              driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
              initialSize="5" maxWait="5000"
              maxActive="120" maxIdle="5"
              validationQuery="select 1"
              poolPreparedStatements="true"/>

    <Resource auth="Container" 
          description="User database that can be updated and saved" 
          factory="org.apache.catalina.users.MemoryUserDatabaseFactory" 
          name="UserDatabase" 
          pathname="conf/tomcat-users.xml" 
          type="org.apache.catalina.UserDatabase"/>
  </GlobalNamingResources>

  <!-- A "Service" is a collection of one or more "Connectors" that share
       a single "Container" Note:  A "Service" is not itself a "Container",
       so you may not define subcomponents such as "Valves" at this level.
       Documentation at /docs/config/service.html
   -->
  <Service name="Catalina">

    <!--The connectors can use a shared executor, you can define one or more named thread pools-->
    <!--
    <Executor name="tomcatThreadPool" namePrefix="catalina-exec-"
        maxThreads="150" minSpareThreads="4"/>
    -->


    <!-- A "Connector" represents an endpoint by which requests are received
         and responses are returned. Documentation at :
         Java HTTP Connector: /docs/config/http.html (blocking & non-blocking)
         Java AJP  Connector: /docs/config/ajp.html
         APR (HTTP/AJP) Connector: /docs/apr.html
         Define a non-SSL HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8080
    -->
    <Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1"
               connectionTimeout="20000"
               redirectPort="8443" />
    <!-- A "Connector" using the shared thread pool-->
    <!--
    <Connector executor="tomcatThreadPool"
               port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1"
               connectionTimeout="20000"
               redirectPort="8443" />
    -->
    <!-- Define a SSL HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8443
         This connector uses the JSSE configuration, when using APR, the
         connector should be using the OpenSSL style configuration
         described in the APR documentation -->
    <!--
    <Connector port="8443" protocol="HTTP/1.1" SSLEnabled="true"
               maxThreads="150" scheme="https" secure="true"
               clientAuth="false" sslProtocol="TLS" />
    -->

    <!-- Define an AJP 1.3 Connector on port 8009 -->
    <Connector port="8009" protocol="AJP/1.3" redirectPort="8443" />


    <!-- An Engine represents the entry point (within Catalina) that processes
         every request.  The Engine implementation for Tomcat stand alone
         analyzes the HTTP headers included with the request, and passes them
         on to the appropriate Host (virtual host).
         Documentation at /docs/config/engine.html -->

    <!-- You should set jvmRoute to support load-balancing via AJP ie :
    <Engine name="Catalina" defaultHost="localhost" jvmRoute="jvm1">
    -->
    <Engine name="Catalina" defaultHost="localhost">

      <!--For clustering, please take a look at documentation at:
          /docs/cluster-howto.html  (simple how to)
          /docs/config/cluster.html (reference documentation) -->
      <!--
      <Cluster className="org.apache.catalina.ha.tcp.SimpleTcpCluster"/>
      -->

      <!-- Use the LockOutRealm to prevent attempts to guess user passwords
           via a brute-force attack -->
      <Realm className="org.apache.catalina.realm.LockOutRealm">
        <!-- This Realm uses the UserDatabase configured in the global JNDI
             resources under the key "UserDatabase".  Any edits
             that are performed against this UserDatabase are immediately
             available for use by the Realm.  -->
        <Realm className="org.apache.catalina.realm.UserDatabaseRealm"
               resourceName="UserDatabase"/>
      </Realm>

      <Host name="localhost"  appBase="webapps"
            unpackWARs="true" autoDeploy="true">

        <!-- SingleSignOn valve, share authentication between web applications
             Documentation at: /docs/config/valve.html -->
        <!--
        <Valve className="org.apache.catalina.authenticator.SingleSignOn" />
        -->

        <!-- Access log processes all example.
             Documentation at: /docs/config/valve.html
             Note: The pattern used is equivalent to using pattern="common" -->
        <Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve" directory="logs"
               prefix="localhost_access_log." suffix=".txt"
               pattern="%h %l %u %t &quot;%r&quot; %s %b" />

      </Host>
    </Engine>
  </Service>
</Server>

context.xml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<!--
  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
  The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
  (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
  the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at

      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
  limitations under the License.
-->
<!-- The contents of this file will be loaded for each web application -->
<Context>

    <!-- Default set of monitored resources -->
    <WatchedResource>WEB-INF/web.xml</WatchedResource>

    <!-- Uncomment this to disable session persistence across Tomcat restarts -->
    <!--
    <Manager pathname="" />
    -->

    <!-- Uncomment this to enable Comet connection tacking (provides events
         on session expiration as well as webapp lifecycle) -->
    <!--
    <Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.CometConnectionManagerValve" />
    -->

    <ResourceLink name="jdbc/SpringMvcDatabase"
   global="jdbc/SpringMvcDatabase"
   type="javax.sql.DataSource"/>

</Context>

And for the spring application I am using :

spring-config.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
       xmlns:jee="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee/spring-jee.xsd">
    <context:annotation-config />
    <context:component-scan base-package="foo.bar"/>

    <jee:jndi-lookup id="dbDataSource"
                     jndi-name="java:comp/env/jdbc/SpringMvcDatabase"
                     expected-type="javax.sql.DataSource" />

    <bean id="contactDao" class="foo.bar.dao.jdbc.xml.JdbcContactDao">
        <property name="dataSource">
            <ref local="dbDataSource"/>
        </property>
    </bean>
</beans>

The error I am getting is the following:

Exception in thread "main" org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'dbDataSource': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is javax.naming.NoInitialContextException: Need to specify class name in environment or system property, or as an applet parameter, or in an application resource file:  java.naming.factory.initial
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1488)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:524)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:461)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:295)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:223)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:292)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:194)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:608)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:932)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:479)
    at org.springframework.context.support.GenericXmlApplicationContext.<init>(GenericXmlApplicationContext.java:71)
    at foo.bar.JdbcContactDaoSample.main(JdbcContactDaoSample.java:16)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601)
    at com.intellij.rt.execution.application.AppMain.main(AppMain.java:120)
Caused by: javax.naming.NoInitialContextException: Need to specify class name in environment or system property, or as an applet parameter, or in an application resource file:  java.naming.factory.initial
    at javax.naming.spi.NamingManager.getInitialContext(NamingManager.java:662)
    at javax.naming.InitialContext.getDefaultInitCtx(InitialContext.java:307)
    at javax.naming.InitialContext.getURLOrDefaultInitCtx(InitialContext.java:344)
    at javax.naming.InitialContext.lookup(InitialContext.java:411)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate$1.doInContext(JndiTemplate.java:154)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate.execute(JndiTemplate.java:87)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate.lookup(JndiTemplate.java:152)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate.lookup(JndiTemplate.java:178)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiLocatorSupport.lookup(JndiLocatorSupport.java:95)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectLocator.lookup(JndiObjectLocator.java:105)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectFactoryBean.lookupWithFallback(JndiObjectFactoryBean.java:201)
    at org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectFactoryBean.afterPropertiesSet(JndiObjectFactoryBean.java:187)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.invokeInitMethods(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1547)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1485)
    ... 16 more

Process finished with exit code 1

web.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
           xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
           xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee
          http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
           version="2.5">
    <description>MySQL Test App</description>
    <resource-ref>
        <description>DB Connection</description>
        <res-ref-name>jdbc/SpringMvcDatabase</res-ref-name>
        <res-type>javax.sql.DataSource</res-type>
        <res-auth>Container</res-auth>
    </resource-ref>
</web-app>

JdbcContactDaoSample.java

package foo.bar;

import foo.bar.dao.ContactDao;
import org.springframework.context.support.GenericXmlApplicationContext;


public class JdbcContactDaoSample {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        GenericXmlApplicationContext ctx = new GenericXmlApplicationContext("spring-config.xml");

        ContactDao contactDao = ctx.getBean("contactDao", ContactDao.class);

        //Find first name by id
        System.out.println("First name for contact id 1 is: " + contactDao.findFirstNameById(1L));
    }
}

Tomcat 7 is running with no errors. Any ideas? Thank you.

Update 1 : The IDE I am using is Intelli Idea 12 Ultimate(latest version).

Answer 1

It would appear that either:

1) The tomcat JNDI context is not able to initialize itself due to errors (this would be rare though), or

2) The spring application context is getting loaded before the Tomcat JNDI context is initialized.

First, are you sure there are not earlier errors being reported by Tomcat? You will need to review the {tomcat}/logs/localhost.yyy.mm.dd.log, because not all errors are written to the console.

Second, how are you starting Tomcat and initializing the Spring application context? One common technique is to use Spring's ContextLoaderListener, like this (in web.xml):

<listener>
  <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
</listener>

If you are using some custom technique to initialize spring, then perhaps are you are doing so before JNDI is initialized in Tomcat?

To troubleshoot your situation further, you should create a very simple web application without spring, using a single servlet. In that servlet, you can use code like this:

Context initContext = new InitialContext();
Context envContext  = (Context)initContext.lookup("java:/comp/env");
DataSource ds = (DataSource)envContext.lookup("jdbc/SpringMvcDatabase");
Connection conn = ds.getConnection();

If that works, then you know your Tomcat/JNDI/DataSource configuration is correct.