nested exception is java.io.FileNotFoundException: Could not open ServletContext resource [/spring/servlet-context.xml]

Question

OK, thanks for helping out the last question. Here is my new error and that code that follows. The BOLD text in the error is all that I care about fixing since that is the only error.

[Thread-36] ContextLoader ERROR Context initialization failed org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: IOException parsing XML document from ServletContext resource [/spring/servlet-context.xml]; nested exception is java.io.FileNotFoundException: Could not open ServletContext resource [/spring/servlet-context.xml] at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:341) at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:302) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:143) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:178) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:149) at org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:124) at org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:93) at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.refreshBeanFactory(AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.java:130) at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.obtainFreshBeanFactory(AbstractApplicationContext.java:467) at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:397) at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.createWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:276) at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:197) at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:47) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4701) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext$1.call(StandardContext.java:5204) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext$1.call(StandardContext.java:5199) at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source) at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source) Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: Could not open ServletContext resource [/spring/servlet-context.xml] at org.springframework.web.context.support.ServletContextResource.getInputStream(ServletContextResource.java:117) at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:328) ... 19 more Oct 16, 2013 7:44:51 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext startInternal SEVERE: Error listenerStart Oct 16, 2013 7:44:51 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext startInternal SEVERE: Context [/mdimgmtsys-1.0-SNAPSHOT] startup failed due to previous errors

Now the code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
     xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" 
     xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
     xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
     version="2.5">


<context-param>
    <param-name>contextAppConfigLocation</param-name>
    <param-value>app-context.xml classpath*:app-context.xml</param-value>
</context-param>
<context-param>
    <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
    <param-value>/spring/servlet-context.xml classpath*:servlet-context.xml</param-value>
</context-param>

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

<!-- Enables Spring Security -->
<filter>
    <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>

<servlet>
    <servlet-name>appServlet</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>contextAppConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>app-context.xml</param-value>            
    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet>
    <servlet-name>contextServlet</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>/spring/servlet-context.xml</param-value>

    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>          
<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>appServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
    <servlet-name>contextServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>        
</servlet-mapping>    
<session-config>
    <session-timeout>
        30
    </session-timeout>
</session-config>        
</web-app>

Everything I do fails to start the app in Tomcat.

Answer 1

I have the same problem a few months ago. This solve my problem using Maven instead of a downloaded version of Spring and some changes in the web.xml.

pom.xml

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>SpringWEB1</groupId>
  <artifactId>SpringWEB1</artifactId>
  <version>1</version>
  <packaging>war</packaging>
  <build>
    <sourceDirectory>src</sourceDirectory>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.4</version>
        <configuration>
          <warSourceDirectory>WebContent</warSourceDirectory>
          <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
      <plugin>
        <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.1</version>
        <configuration>
          <source>1.7</source>
          <target>1.7</target>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
        <version>4.1.7.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
        <version>2.5</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
        <version>1.2</version>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</project>

Controller.java

package com.jmtm.controller;

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;

@org.springframework.stereotype.Controller
public class Controller {

    @RequestMapping("/hi")
    public ModelAndView hi(){
        return new ModelAndView("Hello", "msg", "Hello user.");
    }

}

spring-servlet.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:c="http://www.springframework.org/schema/c"
    xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
    xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
    xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
    xmlns:util="http://www.springframework.org/schema/util"
    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-4.1.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-4.1.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/util http://www.springframework.org/schema/util/spring-util-4.1.xsd">

    <context:component-scan base-package="com.jmtm.controller"></context:component-scan>

    <bean id="viewResolver" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
        <property name="prefix">
            <value>/</value>
        </property>
        <property name="suffix">
            <value>.jsp</value>
        </property>
    </bean>

</beans>

And the most important part of the solution, include the path of the servlet dispatcher (A.K.A. spring-servlet.xml) in the web.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_0.xsd" id="WebApp_ID" version="3.0">
  <display-name>SpringWEB1</display-name>
  <welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
  </welcome-file-list>

  <servlet>
        <servlet-name>spring</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
            <param-value>/WEB-INF/spring-servlet.xml</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

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

</web-app>

Something weird happen when I try to solve this. Any downloaded version of Spring from maven.springframework.org/release/org/springframework/spring gives me a lot of problems (Tomcat couldn't find servlet, Spring stops Tomcat, Eclipse couldn't start the server {weird}) so with many problems find many partial solutions. I hope this works for you.

As an extra help, in Eclipse, download from the Eclipse Marketplace the Spring STS Tool for Eclipse, this will help you to create configuration files (servlet.xml) and write code for the servlet in the web.xml file.

Answer 2

If you want to change the location and naming convention for your spring configuration file, you should add a contextConfigLocation to your DispatcherServlet definition, for example:

<servlet>
  <servlet-name>appServlet</servlet-name>
  <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
  <init-param>
    <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
    <param-value>classpath:app-context.xml</param-value>
  </init-param>
  <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

Note that your app-context.xml should be in the root of your src folder, else you have to specify the path in the classpath to it or the path in WEB-INF, without the classpath: prefix.

For further details refer to this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/14956773/120794.

Answer 3

I had resolved the same error by placing the servlet.xml at correct location i.e. under WEB-INF folder. You may try that as well.

Answer 4

There are difference between Application Context and Servlet Context in a spring web project. we use to config Application Context, the usage the same as your usage

<context-param>
    <param-name>contextAppConfigLocation</param-name>
    <param-value>classpath:app-context.xml</param-value>
</context-param>

For Servlet Context, defaultly web container will try to find a #servlet-name#-servlet.xml in the WEB-INF directory, So for your problem, you need to move your to WEB-INF directory and change their name to corresponding names (contextServlet-servlet.xml, appServlet-servlet.xml)

Answer 5

as error says, it's an issue with servlet-context.xml file location. Change the path and it shall work fine.