java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: javax.servlet.ServletContext.getVirtualServerName()Ljava/lang/String;

Question

I am building a web service using Java, Apache Cxf and Spring Frame work Build: Maven Deployment: Tomcat 8.0.42 The servlet used in web.xml is of version 2.5. When I deployed the WAR into tomcat and start the server I am getting the following Error. I have tried many of the solutions presented in the stack but none seems to be working. I have checked for the servlet-api.jar in maven dependencies and it is not present either. Also gave the servlet version in web.xml as 3.0, but it also didn't seem to resolve the issue. Need good inputs. Thanks in advance

    Apr 12, 2017 5:24:58 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase startInternal
SEVERE: A child container failed during start
java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/SAMPLE-WS]]
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.report(FutureTask.java:122)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.get(FutureTask.java:192)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.startInternal(ContainerBase.java:943)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.startInternal(StandardHost.java:871)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:145)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1408)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1398)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/SAMPLE-WS]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:162)
    ... 6 more
Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: javax.servlet.ServletContext.getVirtualServerName()Ljava/lang/String;
    at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsServerContainer.<init>(WsServerContainer.java:150)
    at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsSci.init(WsSci.java:131)
    at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsSci.onStartup(WsSci.java:47)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5303)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:145)
    ... 6 more

web.xml

<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_2_5.xsd"
         id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5">

    <display-name>SAMPLE-WS</display-name>

   <!--
        - Location of the XML file that defines the root application context.
        - Applied by ContextLoaderListener.
    -->
    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>WEB-INF/sample-cxf-beans.xml</param-value>
    </context-param>

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

    <servlet>
        <description>Apache CXF Endpoint</description>
        <display-name>cxf</display-name>
        <servlet-name>cxf</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.apache.cxf.transport.servlet.CXFServlet</servlet-class>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>
    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>cxf</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/services/*</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <session-config>
        <session-timeout>60</session-timeout>
    </session-config>


</web-app>

POM.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
    <project xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd" xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
      <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

      <groupId>com.javaws.sample.ws</groupId>
      <artifactId>SAMPLE-WS</artifactId>
      <packaging>war</packaging>
      <name>SAMPLE-WS</name>


     <properties>
        <project.wsdl.path>src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/WSDLs/Sample_1.wsdl</project.wsdl.path>
        <target.wsdl.path>WEB-INF/WSDLs/Sample_1.wsdl</target.wsdl.path>

      </properties>
      <dependencies>
            <!-- Spring Web -->
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
            </dependency>
            <!--  Apache CXF -->
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
                <artifactId>cxf-rt-frontend-simple</artifactId>
            </dependency>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
                <artifactId>cxf-rt-frontend-jaxws</artifactId>
            </dependency>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
                <artifactId>cxf-rt-transports-http</artifactId>
            </dependency>  
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
                <artifactId>cxf-rt-bindings-soap</artifactId>
            </dependency>
            <dependency>
              <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
              <artifactId>cxf-rt-transports-http-jetty</artifactId>
           </dependency>


        </dependencies>


    </project>

Answer 1

the method getVirtualServerName has been added in ServletContext in Servlet 3.1. Find the java doc's method getVirtualServerName

this problem can have at least 2 causes:

1. your servlet version is older that 3.1.

2. other jar has the servlet older version than 3.1

to solve it, you can try the below way.

I. to check your pom.xml whether there are the below code.

  <dependency>
       <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
       <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
       <version>3.1.0</version>
    </dependency>

if your pom.xml has the above code, it would still has that problem. you can do the second way.

II. to check your other jar has refer to the javax.servlet-api jar. for example, the org.apache.santuario has refer to the javax.servlet-api jar. the pom.xml:

<dependency>  
    <groupId>org.apache.santuario</groupId>  
    <artifactId>xmlsec</artifactId>  
    <version>1.4.3</version>   
</dependency> 

but when you look at the maven dependencies, it refer to the javax.servlet-api jar whose version is 2.3 older than 3.1.

so you should exclude the 2.3 version. pom.xml:

<!-- exclude servlet-api 2.3 jar-->  
<dependency>  
    <groupId>org.apache.santuario</groupId>  
    <artifactId>xmlsec</artifactId>  
    <version>1.4.3</version>  
    <exclusions>  
        <exclusion>  
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>  
            <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>  
        </exclusion>  
    </exclusions>  
</dependency>  

<!-- servlet-api 3.1 version has getVirtualServerName() -->  
<dependency>  
    <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>  
    <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>  
    <version>3.1.0</version>  
</dependency>