java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class org.springframework.web.util.NestedServletException

Question

I met an issue but I cannot figure out the cause of this problem because the error quite general.

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class org.springframework.web.util.NestedServletException at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:980) at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:859) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:687) at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.service(FrameworkServlet.java:844) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:790) at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.handle(ServletHolder.java:845) at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.doHandle(ServletHandler.java:583) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler.doHandle(ContextHandler.java:1160) at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.doScope(ServletHandler.java:511) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler.doScope(ContextHandler.java:1092) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.handle(ScopedHandler.java:141) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(HandlerWrapper.java:134) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.Server.handle(Server.java:518) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.HttpChannel.handle(HttpChannel.java:308) at org.eclipse.jetty.server.HttpConnection.onFillable(HttpConnection.java:244) at org.eclipse.jetty.io.AbstractConnection$ReadCallback.succeeded(AbstractConnection.java:273) at org.eclipse.jetty.io.FillInterest.fillable(FillInterest.java:95) at org.eclipse.jetty.io.SelectChannelEndPoint$2.run(SelectChannelEndPoint.java:93) at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.strategy.ExecuteProduceConsume.produceAndRun(ExecuteProduceConsume.java:246) at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.strategy.ExecuteProduceConsume.run(ExecuteProduceConsume.java:156) at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.QueuedThreadPool.runJob(QueuedThreadPool.java:654) at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.QueuedThreadPool$3.run(QueuedThreadPool.java:572) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

This is my project structure:

Project Structure

It's just a very simple project that I use Embedded Jetty with SpringMVC.

This is the pom.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<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>com.biendltb</groupId>
<artifactId>com.biendltb.world_map</artifactId>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<packaging>jar</packaging>

<name>com.biendltb.world_map</name>

<properties>
    <endorsed.dir>${project.build.directory}/endorsed</endorsed.dir>
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    <jetty.version>9.3.8.v20160314</jetty.version>
    <spring.version>4.2.5.RELEASE</spring.version>
    <servlet.version>2.5</servlet.version>
</properties>

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax</groupId>
        <artifactId>javaee-web-api</artifactId>
        <version>7.0</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

    <!-- SPRING DEPENDENCY -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-aop</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-beans</artifactId>
        <version>4.2.5.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>


    <!-- JETTY DEPENDENCY -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.eclipse.jetty</groupId>
        <artifactId>jetty-server</artifactId>
        <version>${jetty.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.eclipse.jetty</groupId>
        <artifactId>jetty-servlet</artifactId>
        <version>${jetty.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.eclipse.jetty</groupId>
        <artifactId>jetty-webapp</artifactId>
        <version>${jetty.version}</version>
    </dependency>

    <!-- SERVLET DEPENDENCY -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
        <version>${servlet.version}</version>
    </dependency>

    <!-- COMMON LOGGING DEPENDENCY -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
        <version>1.1.3</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>3.1</version>
            <configuration>
                <source>1.7</source>
                <target>1.7</target>
                <compilerArguments>
                    <endorseddirs>${endorsed.dir}</endorseddirs>
                </compilerArguments>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.6</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <phase>validate</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>copy</goal>
                    </goals>
                    <configuration>
                        <outputDirectory>${endorsed.dir}</outputDirectory>
                        <silent>true</silent>
                        <artifactItems>
                            <artifactItem>
                                <groupId>javax</groupId>
                                <artifactId>javaee-endorsed-api</artifactId>
                                <version>7.0</version>
                                <type>jar</type>
                            </artifactItem>
                        </artifactItems>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.eclipse.jetty</groupId>
            <artifactId>jetty-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>9.3.7.v20160115</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.4</version>
            <configuration>
                <warSourceDirectory>WebContent</warSourceDirectory>
                <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.4.3</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <phase>package</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>shade</goal>
                    </goals>
                    <configuration>
                        <createDependencyReducedPom>false</createDependencyReducedPom>
                        <transformers>
                            <transformer
                                implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ManifestResourceTransformer">
                                <mainClass>com.biendltb.main_server.TripMapServer</mainClass>
                            </transformer>
                        </transformers>
                        <filters>
                            <filter>
                                <artifact>*:*</artifact>
                                <excludes>
                                    <exclude>META-INF/*.SF</exclude>
                                    <exclude>META-INF/*.DSA</exclude>
                                    <exclude>META-INF/*.RSA</exclude>
                                </excludes>
                            </filter>
                        </filters>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.7</version>
            <dependencies>
                <dependency>
                    <groupId>org.apache.maven.shared</groupId>
                    <artifactId>maven-filtering</artifactId>
                    <version>1.3</version>
                </dependency>
            </dependencies>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
    <resources>
        <resource>
            <targetPath>webapp</targetPath>
            <directory>src/main/webapp</directory>
        </resource>
        <resource>
            <directory>src/main/resources</directory>
        </resource>
    </resources>
</build>

This is the main class:

public class TripMapServer {

    private static final int DEFAULT_PORT = 8080;
    private static final String CONTEXT_PATH = "/";
    private static final String MAPPING_URL = "/*";
    private static final String CONFIG_LOCATION = "com.biendltb.config";
    private static final String DEFAULT_PROFILE = "dev";

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        new TripMapServer().startJetty(getPortFromArgs(args));
    }

    private static int getPortFromArgs(String[] args) {
        if (args.length > 0) {
            try {
                return Integer.valueOf(args[0]);
            } catch (NumberFormatException ignore) {
            }
        }
        return DEFAULT_PORT;
    }

    private void startJetty(int port) throws Exception {
        Server server = new Server(port);
        server.setHandler(getServletContextHandler(getContext()));
        server.start();
        server.join();
    }

    private static ServletContextHandler getServletContextHandler(WebApplicationContext context) throws IOException {
        ServletContextHandler contextHandler = new ServletContextHandler();
        contextHandler.setErrorHandler(null);
        contextHandler.setContextPath(CONTEXT_PATH);
        contextHandler.addServlet(new ServletHolder("default", new DispatcherServlet(context)), MAPPING_URL);
        contextHandler.addEventListener(new ContextLoaderListener(context));
        contextHandler.setResourceBase(new ClassPathResource("webapp").getURI().toString());
        return contextHandler;
    }

    private static WebApplicationContext getContext() {
        AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext context = new AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext();
        context.setConfigLocation(CONFIG_LOCATION);
        context.getEnvironment().setDefaultProfiles(DEFAULT_PROFILE);
        return context;
    }
}

And this is the class WebConfig.java instead .xml file:

@Configuration
@EnableWebMvc
@Import({DefaultConfig.class})
@ComponentScan(basePackages = {"com.biendltb.controller"})
public class WebConfig extends WebMvcConfigurerAdapter{
    private static final Charset UTF8 = Charset.forName("UTF-8");

    @Autowired
    public Environment env;

    @Override
    public void configureMessageConverters(List<HttpMessageConverter<?>> converters) {
        converters.add(stringConverter());
    }

    private StringHttpMessageConverter stringConverter() {
        StringHttpMessageConverter stringConverter = new StringHttpMessageConverter();
        stringConverter.setSupportedMediaTypes(Arrays.asList(new MediaType("text", "plain", UTF8)));
        return stringConverter;
    }

    @Override
    public void addResourceHandlers(ResourceHandlerRegistry registry) {
        registry.addResourceHandler("/assets/**").addResourceLocations("classpath:/src/main/resources/").setCachePeriod(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
        registry.addResourceHandler("/js/**").addResourceLocations("/js/").setCachePeriod(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
        registry.addResourceHandler("/css/**").addResourceLocations("/css/").setCachePeriod(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
        registry.addResourceHandler("/img/**").addResourceLocations("/img/").setCachePeriod(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
    }

    @Override
    public void configureDefaultServletHandling(DefaultServletHandlerConfigurer configurer) {
        configurer.enable();
    }

    @Bean
    public InternalResourceViewResolver getInternalResourceViewResolver() {
        InternalResourceViewResolver resolver = new InternalResourceViewResolver();
        resolver.setPrefix("/src/main/resources/pages/");
        resolver.setSuffix(".jsp");
        return resolver;
    }
}

Please help figure out the cause or how to trace that error.

Thank you very much!

Answer 1

You are missing a class at runtime. Debug the startup and set an exception breakpoint on NoClassDefFoundError. Than you will see which class cannot be found. Search for that class in your IDE or the web to find out which dependency you are missing.

Answer 2

NoClassDefFoundError usually means that you are missing a jar file at runtime, but not always, and not in your case. Other errors with the class loader can also cause it.

I was getting this same error on org.springframework.web.util.NestedServletException. I ran Jetty in the debugger and set a breakpoint in org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet at the place where it tries to construct the NestedServletException, so I could see what the exception it was trying to nest.

It turned out it was a StackOverflowError, and the class loader was failing to load the NestedServletException class because the JVM was out of stack frames. The Jetty ServletHolder was calling the Spring DispatcherServlet, which was forwarding it back to the ServletHolder, causing it to call the DispatcherServlet again.

Answer 3

I suggest you clear your .m2 folder, It may happen that some of jar files are corrupted during download.

Please comment if it did not helped you!