ClassNotFoundException with Spring 3.1 and Tomcat 7

Question

I have found similar questions on StackOverflow, but not quite the same as mine:

I've configured a Spring bean 'ontologyClient' that is a POJO that I have imported from a library which is added to my Maven dependencies. I have checked and double checked that the produced WAR file contains the org.erasmusmc.ontology.OntologyClient class. However, when Spring wants to instantiate the bean, Tomcat's classloader throws a ClassNotFoundException. I am out of ideas, hopefully somebody can help me out!

applicationContext.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:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
   xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
   xmlns:jee="http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee"
   xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
   xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
   xmlns:task="http://www.springframework.org/schema/task"

   xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.1.xsd
      http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-3.1.xsd
      http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.1.xsd
      http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee http://www.springframework.org/schema/jee/spring-jee-3.1.xsd
      http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-3.1.xsd
      http://www.springframework.org/schema/task http://www.springframework.org/schema/task/spring-task-3.1.xsd">

<context:component-scan base-package="nl.lumc.conceptrecognizer" />
<context:component-scan base-package="org.nbic.interop.conceptlinker.service.impl" />

<bean class="org.springframework.remoting.jaxws.SimpleJaxWsServiceExporter">
  <property name="baseAddress" value="http://localhost:8080/" />
</bean>

<bean id="ontologyClient" class="org.erasmusmc.ontology.OntologyClient">      
  <constructor-arg index="0" value="localhost" />
  <constructor-arg index="1" value="abcde"/>
  <constructor-arg index="2" value="abcde" />
  <constructor-arg index="3" value="Anni2_1_june2009" />
</bean>  

<bean id="conceptRecognizerService"
  class="nl.lumc.conceptrecognizer.services.ConceptRecognizerService"
  p:ontologyClient-ref="ontologyClient" 
/>

</beans>

Tomcat log:

Using CATALINA_BASE:   /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.22
Using CATALINA_HOME:   /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.22
Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.22/temp
Using JRE_HOME:        /usr/java/jdk1.7.0
Using CLASSPATH:       /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.22/bin/bootstrap.jar:/usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.22/bin/tomcat-juli.jar
feb 20, 2012 7:56:13 PM org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener init
INFO: The APR based Apache Tomcat Native library which allows optimal performance in production environments was not found on the java.library.path: /usr/java/packages/lib/amd64:/usr/lib64:/lib64:/lib:/usr/lib
feb 20, 2012 7:56:13 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-7080"]
feb 20, 2012 7:56:13 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["ajp-bio-8009"]
feb 20, 2012 7:56:13 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina load
INFO: Initialization processed in 673 ms
feb 20, 2012 7:56:14 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService startInternal
INFO: Starting service Catalina
feb 20, 2012 7:56:14 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine startInternal
INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/7.0.22
feb 20, 2012 7:56:14 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig deployDescriptor
INFO: Deploying configuration descriptor ROOT.xml from /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.22/conf/Catalina/localhost
feb 20, 2012 7:56:14 PM org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader initWebApplicationContext
INFO: Root WebApplicationContext: initialization started
feb 20, 2012 7:56:14 PM org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext prepareRefresh
INFO: Refreshing Root WebApplicationContext: startup date [Mon Feb 20 19:56:14 CET 2012]; root of context hierarchy
feb 20, 2012 7:56:14 PM org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader loadBeanDefinitions
INFO: Loading XML bean definitions from ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]
feb 20, 2012 7:56:15 PM org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory preInstantiateSingletons
INFO: Pre-instantiating singletons in org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory@7b6d63d5: defining beans [org.springframework.context.annotation.internalConfigurationAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalAutowiredAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalRequiredAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalCommonAnnotationProcessor,ontologyClient,groundhogManager,conceptProfilesGroundhog,org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassPostProcessor$ImportAwareBeanPostProcessor#0]; root of factory hierarchy
feb 20, 2012 7:56:15 PM org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry destroySingletons
INFO: Destroying singletons in org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory@7b6d63d5: defining beans [org.springframework.context.annotation.internalConfigurationAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalAutowiredAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalRequiredAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalCommonAnnotationProcessor,ontologyClient,groundhogManager,conceptProfilesGroundhog,org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassPostProcessor$ImportAwareBeanPostProcessor#0]; root of factory hierarchy
feb 20, 2012 7:56:15 PM org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader initWebApplicationContext
SEVERE: Context initialization failed
org.springframework.beans.factory.CannotLoadBeanClassException: Cannot find class [org.erasmusmc.ontology.OntologyClient] for bean with name 'ontologyClient' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]; nested exception is java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.erasmusmc.ontology.OntologyClient
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.resolveBeanClass(AbstractBeanFactory.java:1262)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.predictBeanType(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:576)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.isFactoryBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:1331)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.isFactoryBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:897)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:566)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:913)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:464)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:384)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:283)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:111)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4723)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext$1.call(StandardContext.java:5226)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext$1.call(StandardContext.java:5221)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:334)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:166)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1110)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:603)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.erasmusmc.ontology.OntologyClient
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1678)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1523)
    at org.springframework.util.ClassUtils.forName(ClassUtils.java:257)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinition.resolveBeanClass(AbstractBeanDefinition.java:417)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doResolveBeanClass(AbstractBeanFactory.java:1283)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.resolveBeanClass(AbstractBeanFactory.java:1254)
    ... 17 more

One thing to note is that the ontology dependency is a locally installed Maven artifact. However I don't see how this could be the cause, because the required Jar file is copied to WEB-INF/lib like it should.

UPDATE: It turns out that Tomcat was launching the wrong codebase. I had renamed my webapp because I started a new branch, but context.xml still pointed to the old context.

Answer 1

I have checked and double checked that the produced WAR file contains the org.erasmusmc.ontology.OntologyClient class

Is the class inside a .jar file? if so, what is the location relative to the WAR. Are there any other .class or .jar files inside the same directory?

Answer 2

This is maybe a stupid answer, but did you remove the unzipped war before you copied the new one? Maybe the previous version of your was did not have the OntologyClient class.