Spring Boot - java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: javax.servlet.ServletContext and Unable to start EmbeddedWebApplicationContext

Question

I have a Spring Boot application (Grails 3.1.8), but when I run the application in IntelliJ IDEA I get the following error:

Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to introspect annotated methods on class org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurationSupport
    at org.springframework.core.type.StandardAnnotationMetadata.getAnnotatedMethods(StandardAnnotationMetadata.java:163)
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassParser.doProcessConfigurationClass(ConfigurationClassParser.java:292)
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassParser.processConfigurationClass(ConfigurationClassParser.java:232)
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassParser.processImports(ConfigurationClassParser.java:510)
    ... 26 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/servlet/ServletContext
    at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredMethods(Class.java:2701)
    at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods(Class.java:1975)
    at org.springframework.core.type.StandardAnnotationMetadata.getAnnotatedMethods(StandardAnnotationMetadata.java:152)
    ... 29 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: javax.servlet.ServletContext
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:381)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
    at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:331)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
    ... 33 common frames omitted

I tried adding javax-servlet-api dependency as suggested in an answer to Constructor threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/servlet/ServletContext

But then I started getting:

ERROR org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication - Application startup failed
org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextException: Unable to start embedded container; nested exception is org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextException: Unable to start EmbeddedWebApplicationContext due to missing EmbeddedServletContainerFactory bean.
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.onRefresh(EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.java:133)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:532)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.refresh(EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.java:118)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refresh(SpringApplication.java:766)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.createAndRefreshContext(SpringApplication.java:361)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:307)
    at grails.boot.GrailsApp.run(GrailsApp.groovy:55)
    at grails.boot.GrailsApp.run(GrailsApp.groovy:374)
    at grails.boot.GrailsApp.run(GrailsApp.groovy:363)
    at grails.boot.GrailsApp$run.call(Unknown Source)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.CallSiteArray.defaultCall(CallSiteArray.java:48)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.call(AbstractCallSite.java:113)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.call(AbstractCallSite.java:133)
    at closemytab.Application.main(Application.groovy:13)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497)
    at com.intellij.rt.execution.application.AppMain.main(AppMain.java:144)
Caused by: org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextException: Unable to start EmbeddedWebApplicationContext due to missing EmbeddedServletContainerFactory bean.
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.getEmbeddedServletContainerFactory(EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.java:185)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.createEmbeddedServletContainer(EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.java:158)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.onRefresh(EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.java:130)
    ... 18 common frames omitted

This post then suggests to remove the javax-servlet-api: Spring boot -- Unable to start EmbeddedWebApplicationContext due to missing EmbeddedServletContainerFactory bean

But then I face the original issue.

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

I resolved the problem replace

implementation 'javax.servlet:jstl' --> implementation group: 'jakarta.servlet.jsp.jstl', name: 'jakarta.servlet.jsp.jstl-api', version: '3.0.0'

Answer 2

I had the same issue for the maven project and what I did was

1. Select Modify Options

2. Select the option Add dependencies with "provided" scope to classpath

3. Apply the changes

Answer 3

Adding the dependency below fixed my issue:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>

Remember to have a parent dependency as well!

Answer 4

Exception is java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/servlet/ServletContext only means you are not providing the Tomcat dependency to your application. In case you are using IntelliJ IDEA, it’s really simple to do that as shown below.

Select your project → open the Maven panel (it mostly resides on the top right side of the panel) → select embedded.

Answer 5

The issue was with the build.gradle file:

provided "org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-tomcat"

IntelliJ IDEA wasn't happy with the provided.

As soon as I switched to

compile "org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-tomcat"

the application worked.

Answer 6

Run with a Maven Spring Boot goal:

spring-boot:run

Steps to set up Maven configuration in IntelliJ IDEA:

Menu Debug/Run Configuration → Click on the + button visible at the top left → Select Maven → Set command line to spring-boot:run.

Answer 7

For me, it's because of the Tomcat version. I changed Tomcat version from 7.5 to 8.5, and the problem's solved.

Answer 8

If you are using IntelliJ IDEA, you need to enable ' Include dependencies with "Provider" scope in menu Run → Edit Configurations → Application → 'your main class' (by default it's disabled)