Exception java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/aspectj/lang/annotation/Aspect

Question

I recently started working on AspectJ and wrote a simple Aspect for Logging.

I have defined below dependencies into my pom file:

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
            <artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
            <version>1.7.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
            <artifactId>aspectjweaver</artifactId>
            <version>1.7.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-aspects</artifactId>
        </dependency>

And Following artifacts are present in ear/lib folder:

• aspectjrt-1.7.1.jar
• aspectjweaver-1.7.1.jar
• spring-aspects-3.2.1.RELEASE.jar

I am getting below exception on service startup.:

05:59:18,325 ERROR [org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader] (MSC service thread 1-15) Context initialization failed: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'calNamingBean' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/helixservicebeans.xml]: BeanPostProcessor before instantiation of bean failed; nested exception is java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/aspectj/lang/annotation/Aspect
                    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:452) [spring-beans-3.1.1.RELEASE.jar:3.1.1.RELEASE]
                    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:294) [spring-beans-3.1.1.RELEASE.jar:3.1.1.RELEASE]
                    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:225) [spring-beans-3.1.1.RELEASE.jar:3.1.1.RELEASE]
                    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:291) [spring-beans-3.1.1.RELEASE.jar:3.1.1.RELEASE]
                    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:197) [spring-beans-3.1.1.RELEASE.jar:3.1.1.RELEASE]
                    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.registerBeanPostProcessors(AbstractApplicationContext.java:740) [spring-context-3.1.1.RELEASE.jar:3.1.1.RELEASE]
                    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:449) [spring-context-3.1.1.RELEASE.jar:3.1.1.RELEASE]
                    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:385) [spring-web-3.1.1.RELEASE.jar:3.1.1.RELEASE]
                    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:284) [spring-web-3.1.1.RELEASE.jar:3.1.1.RELEASE]
                    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:111) [spring-web-3.1.1.RELEASE.jar:3.1.1.RELEASE]
                    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.contextListenerStart(StandardContext.java:3392) [jbossweb-7.0.17.Final.jar:]
                    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:3850) [jbossweb-7.0.17.Final.jar:]
                    at org.jboss.as.web.deployment.WebDeploymentService.start(WebDeploymentService.java:89) [jboss-as-web-7.1.3.Final.jar:7.1.3.Final]
                    at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$StartTask.startService(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1811)
                    at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$StartTask.run(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1746)
                    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145) [rt.jar:1.7.0_45]
                    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615) [rt.jar:1.7.0_45]
                    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:744) [rt.jar:1.7.0_45]
            Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/aspectj/lang/annotation/Aspect
                    at org.springframework.aop.aspectj.annotation.AbstractAspectJAdvisorFactory.hasAspectAnnotation(AbstractAspectJAdvisorFactory.java:119) [spring-aop-3.1.1.RELEASE.jar:3.1.1.RELEASE]
                    at org.springframework.aop.aspectj.annotation.AbstractAspectJAdvisorFactory.isAspect(AbstractAspectJAdvisorFactory.java:115) [spring-aop-3.1.1.RELEASE.jar:3.1.1.RELEASE]
                    at org.springframework.aop.aspectj.annotation.AnnotationAwareAspectJAutoProxyCreator.isInfrastructureClass(AnnotationAwareAspectJAutoProxyCreator.java:100) [spring-aop-3.1.1.RELEASE.jar:3.1.1.RELEASE]
                    at org.springframework.aop.framework.autoproxy.AbstractAutoProxyCreator.postProcessBeforeInstantiation(AbstractAutoProxyCreator.java:278) [spring-aop-3.1.1.RELEASE.jar:3.1.1.RELEASE]
                    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.applyBeanPostProcessorsBeforeInstantiation(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:880) [spring-beans-3.1.1.RELEASE.jar:3.1.1.RELEASE]

Edit 1 - I am using JBOSS 7.1 and I think there are some issues with AspejctJ and JBOSS.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33164216/load-time-weaving-with-aspectj-in-jboss-as-7-1

Answer 1

A NoClassDefFoundError like this in a maven project is usually from a library conflict. There is insufficient information in the question, you only provide a snippet of your pom and don't show the version of spring aspects you are using. You need to run mvn dependency:tree and verify you are using consistent version numbers of all of the aspectj depenendecies.

Edit: There is definitely some kind of library conflict because you mention spring-aspects 3.2.1.RELEASE in the question, but the stack trace contains a lot of references to spring 3.1.1.RELEASE libraries.

Answer 2

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/aspectj/lang/annotation/Aspect

It seems jar containing class org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect is not loaded from classpath at runtime, can you try removing below dependency:

 <dependency>
     <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
     <artifactId>spring-aspects</artifactId>
 </dependency>

and add below in your classpath:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-aop</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.1.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>