Spring Web flow configuration error

Question

I am trying to setup spring web flow. I am using spring 2.5 jars and swf 2.0.8 jar Here is my configuration file:

<bean id="urlMapping" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping">
<property name="order" value="1" />
<property name="mappings">
<props>
<prop key="index.htm">indexController</prop>
</props>
</property>
</bean>


<bean id="viewResolver" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver" p:prefix="/WEB-INF/jsp/" p:suffix=".jsp" />
<bean name="indexController" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.ParameterizableViewController" p:viewName="index" />

<flow:flow-registry id="flowRegistry"><flow:flow-location path="/WEB-INF/flows/flow.xml"/></flow:flow-registry>

<flow:flow-executor id="flowExecutor" flow-registry="flowRegistry" />

<bean id="flowMappings" class="org.springframework.webflow.mvc.servlet.FlowHandlerMapping">
<property name="order" value="0" />
<property name="flowRegistry" ref="flowRegistry" />
</bean>

<bean class="org.springframework.webflow.mvc.servlet.FlowHandlerAdapter">
<property name="flowExecutor" ref="flowExecutor" />
</bean>
 

And when i start the server (tomcat 6.0) i get the following error:

javax.servlet.ServletException: Servlet.init() for servlet webapp threw exception
    org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
    org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)
    org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:849)
    org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:583)
    org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:454)
    java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
root cause

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Unexpected exception parsing XML document from ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/webapp-servlet.xml]; nested exception is java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionBuilder.genericBeanDefinition(Ljava/lang/String;)Lorg/springframework/beans/factory/support/BeanDefinitionBuilder;
    org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.doLoadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:385)
    org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:313)
    org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:290)
    org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:142)
    org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:158)
    org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:124)
    org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:92)
    org.springframework.context.support.AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.refreshBeanFactory(AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.java:97)
    org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.obtainFreshBeanFactory(AbstractApplicationContext.java:411)
    org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:338)
    org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:332)
    org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:266)
    org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initServletBean(FrameworkServlet.java:236)
    org.springframework.web.servlet.HttpServletBean.init(HttpServletBean.java:126)
    javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:212)
    org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
    org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)
    org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:849)
    org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:583)
    org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:454)
    java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)

Answer 1

Classic cause is the existence of an old uber spring-all-2.0.jar or some like that.

If using maven check the output of mvn dependency:list and dependency:tree for spring jars with different versions.

Answer 2

It can't find BeanDefinitionBuilder.genericBeanDefinition(String). This method was introduced in Spring 2.5

You say you're using Spring 2.5, but this error suggests you're actually using 2.0 (or earlier). Make sure you don't have multiple copies of Spring in your classpath.